[mci services]

I have just had the following complaint via my website

Complaint
Approx 2 month ago you came out to our house and cleaned out our guttering. I have since had my downstairs neighbour at the door very unhappy and angry that the items you cleaned from our gutter has been put down the drain and is now causing a blockage that is causing water to run down the street. This is causing a major problem, especially with recent weather conditions. I am very unhappy that i have now been put in the situation that I am now having problems with neighbours and now have the possibility of damp coming through our walls due to work carried out by your company. I would like a response to my complaint within the next 7 days.

the thing is I have never put anything down a drain and never would. How would you reply to this?

[darren clarke]

i never put any thing down the drain and never would,  they might be trying it on to get you to pay for it, as it cost a fortune to be fixed,  besides to block a drain u need loads, and there usually isnt enough in the gutters to do it

[mci services]

this a draft email I have not sent yet what do you think.


Hello,

I am sorry to hear that you have this complaint, can you clarify what address you are,

I can assure you I have never put any waste down a drain and I refute this entirely, any waste removed is always removed by bucket and transferred into a large yellow builders bucket that I remove from site and is disposed of in my recycle bin.

I agree the recent heavy rains may be causing problems but none that are to do with my company and it sounds it would be better to phone the water board. I don't wish to come across as being cheeky but it sound to me that your neighbour has put 2+2 and come up with 5.

Or maybe it is me getting this wrong are you saying a down pipe is blocked causing water to overflow from the gutter, if this is the case it could have happened at any time either before my arrival or after as a company we don't clear blockages from downpipes and care is taken whilst clearing gutters not to cause a blockage, but if it is a case of a overflowing gutter please let us know and I will see what can be done,

Just to clarify I have never and would never place waste from a gutter clean down a drain.



Does that look ok for a reply

[AuRavelling79]

Send this:-


Letter A

Dear custy,

I am in receipt of your communication accusing me of putting what I have removed from your gutters down the drain. I run a professional business and assure you I have done no such thing.

Yours sincerely


Or even this:-

Letter B

Dear custy

(Letter A plus)    ...  and if you or anyone else continue in making these libellous or slanderous statements then I shall not only defend my reputation robustly but will deal with it accordingly by any legal means at my disposal.

[darren clarke]

yes,

how old is the house,  as depending on the age, the drains are seperate  ie sewage and rain water over flow,  she needs to find out which one is blocked,  as normally drains are at least 8 inc wide and are hard to block,  

[Steven Shoreditch]

For god's sake, not letter B.  :

Letter A might be ok, but keep it short and simply.  Don't amplify.  Play the game slowly.

[deeege]

Deary me, letter b is terrible.

Fwiw stu, shouldn't you have a waste removal licence to remove gutter waste from site? I only mention it because a small firm close to me recently got fined £6k with £3k costs for carrying waste unlicenced.

Just a thought as it may effect the way you word your letter.

[clearlyclean]

I would go with your own dafted letter and speak to legal adviser you can get hour free if your worried about them slurring your rep It is very unlikely you could block a drain with waste from the gutters and more likely waste from toilet or sink baby wipes waste oil from chip pan or dead animal are the likely causes

[chopsie]

I think your letter looks good Stu. To the point yet  polite.

[mci services]

Hello,

I am sorry to hear that you have this complaint, can you clarify what address you are,

I can assure you I have never put any waste down a drain and I refute this entirely, As a small local company we would never be that unprofessional.

Can you just clarify that you mean the drain is overflowing and not simply a blocked down pipe causing water to overflow from the gutter. If this is the case we will be round to rectify immediately.

Just to clarify I have never and would never place waste from a gutter clean down a drain.

would the above be a better reply(edited)

[chopsie]

I read her letter as meaning the drain pipe is blocked, maybe i am wrong. i did a clean couple of weeks ago and every s bend in the tops of down pipes were blocked, I just eased them off as they were plastic gutters,there were 6 in total I think, a couple were caused by whoever erected them using a long screw which all the leaves got blocked on and slowly built up over the years

[p1w1]

Well you can send your letter and see what happens and if they continue, tell them to call out someone to exam the drain with yourself present and if it is proven its from you, you will pay for the work if not they pay for the inspection and your wasted time, however if they do mean a downpipe then as far as i would be concerned if you had carried that work out for me i would expect you to have done it when you had done the guttering, ive never heard of someone unblocking the guttering but leaving the downpipes and i'm pretty sure they would expect the same i know all my customers ive done that for do..

paul

[Alan McTernan]

Hi Stu,

I would go round and assess the situation in person, it may be easy to unblock and then everyone is happy

Regards
Alan

[chopsie]

I would not clear the down pipe on a job, (apart from the obvious S bend one that i mentioned) We are there to clear gutter of leaves, not unblock drains,

[Smudger]

Stu - from your proposed reply you are unsure of the actual customer who is complaining, if this
is so give absolutely no information until you know it is a genuine customer.

certianly dont go into where/how you remove waste - not sure if recycle bin is the proper place anyway.

we always pack the gutter 'waste' into a bag and leave with custy to dispose of.

i would be cautious as to why some one thinks you have put waste down a drain

Darran

[Jackal]

i normally just prise the s bend apart on normal guttering if there aint a screw holding it together to check its clear thats all,and like someone has said ask to go round check for yourself,if you no its not your fault tell them how it is.its easy to blame you but the problem was proberly already arising

[gordonswindows]

Its like the gutter power wash guys you may have accidentally  caused debris to be pushed or washed down the down pipe although if I had to choose I would prefer to scoop it out into a bucket rather than the John Wayne method of blasting debris everywhere.

Invest your hard earned in a gutter vac system, it removes all the debris up and away from the down pipes and even clears the downpipes beyond the "s" bend if need be and all thetas from the safety of thte ground

Have cleared the smallest bit of slate from a down pipe that acted like a dam, it doesn't have to be a large blockage to block up as was said earlier with thw too long screw

Clear any blockage foc and leave their blocked drains to them

Gordon

[LWC]

2 months ago...complaints within 48 hours please. Thanks

[mci services]

I think it was cast iron gutters, but to be honest I can't tell from that complaint what exactly the complaint is, I have sent a reply and I will await their reply as at the moment I can only guess on what address it is. I have removed the method etc and kept it simple. if it is a down pipe I will sort it, if not I will defend my self

[e newlands]

seems a bit fishy if no name / address supplied

maybe the competition trying to fist you ""

they have your details why not contact you by phone first---all a bit odd