“I have had a terrible experience with one of their member builders, who has turned out to be an undischarged bankrupt and convicted fraudster with a suspended prison sentence for a financial scam. He has left me living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions and is holding a lot of my money. They say they can't help because the builder has refused to cooperate with mediation, yet they are still promoting this builder on their website. They have never visited my site either, and the so called mediator constantly found reasons to shut me down. They now ignore all my emails.”
“I employed a builder, member of the FMB, to refurbish the kitchen and ground floor cloakroom. The work carried out was very much substandard and I was charged extortianote rates for materials provided e.g. £267.73 + VAT for 2 sheets of plywood 2440x1220x18mm.
I contacted FMB and was referred to QASSS. I provided all the information requested by QASSS, copies of documents, emails, photos, videos... After two and a half months my case was passed to TD. Aggressive, unpleasant and definitely not a mediator. All the information I had provided was opinion based and therefore irrelevant. (even the cost of the two sheets of plywood).
I since have received a copy of the certicicate issued by the FMB stating :' the works carried out are in progress and satisfactory. No pictures supplied' The works were'finished'. FMB did not visit nor has any photo/video evidence.”
“FMB is a scam. They are ALWAYS on the side of their paying members , that is your builder. That is what I was told by their mediation QRSSS staff TD.
I had a rouge builder a member of FMB who was supposed to do an extension for us. Unfortunately although we did not sign a contract with this builder , we were forced to pay money on account to book a start day for the build. This builder and as soon as he received our 10,000 GBP, produced extras bill for 23,000GBP.
Since he did not start the build , we argued these extras. He said half of these new extras were error on his system, and the other half added by the new subcontracted builder. This builder then accepted another more expensive build 1.5M in Mayfair and rescinded the NON signed contract and took our 10 thousand pound money on account.
FMB was given all evidence but they assigned our case to QRSSS who were very rude and apart from confirming our details on the first 30m phone call, would not take any details of our dispute. Their staff TD said that we can submit what we want through email. But then she sent very hostile email stating that she wants only specific information using the same tone of the builders.
I, under the freedom of information act, asked for a copy of the phone call and written emails, this reviled the soft friendly tone with the builders and the hostile aggressive tone towards us.
On discussing this with FMB, we agreed that another more transparent member of QRSSS handles our file. This was rejected by LH friend of TD who was very rude and aggressive.
FMB did not acknowledge my evidence and dismissed my case without investigation.
I have reported this to CAB and they have now reported FMB to Trading Standards.
I am also now taking my builder to small claim court with the help of CAB, as FMB are only money making machine, not for consumers organisation.”
“An absolute nightmare don't waste your money, I've paid around £173.00 to get accredited, filled out all the forms sent passport ID, etc arranged for an assessor to do a live site visit was told it would be 09/03/2022 AM that's it, I was expecting someone to forward me a more exact time AM as the site was my last project and not live my customer was awaiting further instructions and times from me, as such, the assessor apparently tries to contact me to say he's on the way-"on the same day" with no luck, my customer now won't help absolute nightmare haven't heard anything from them I had to do the contacting.
I've been a painter decorator for 30+ yrs if I had treated my client anywhere like that I would not be in business. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY.”
