I paid a lot of money and to get my bathroom resurfaced by a “recommended” technician. He came late so must have hurried the job & only sprayed one coat in some places & made a mess of the siliconing and some of the buffing. Problem was that he finished at night and it looked OK when I paid him. Besides he was recommended by a reputable parent company and supposedly had a 7 year warranty on workmanship.
Next morning I could see some of the faults. He said he’d come back to fix up – but never did. When I tried to get the parent company to intervene, I found out he had “parted ways” with them and was no longer part of their franchise. Then the real problem of his workmanship showed up as after less than a month, the surface was peeling and cracking in places & he now doesn’t even pretend that he is coming back and won’t respond to messages.
Apart from taking him to QCAT for mediation (as if that would help with someone unethical/dishonest!) & possibly getting a court hearing, it is obvious that he’ll just ignore being party to any of it. Besides I'm not even sure I have his current address as it wasn't on his invoice.
He obviously works on the basis that he can offer a useless warranty, as the court system is expensive for the average joe who already spent too much to get him in to do the job. Anyone with any real money would have retiled the bathroom properly in the first place.
If I can offer advice to anyone else thinking of spraying their tiles & resurfacing their shower and/or bath, make sure that you see other work of the technician first– not just phone numbers or online reviews of “satisfied customers”. It is likely that the “satisfied customers” are just friends or people that never had to live with the work done (eg a landlord trying to tart up to sell his house/unit quickly).
Also be very wary of someone that does not give a proper address.
Was he acting as an individual or a representative of a company? If the latter, you would be covered as the warranty would be covered by the company. If the guy did shoddy work, that's the responsibility of the company as they hired him in the first place. If the company is giving you the runaround and trying to get out of it with the good old "he doesn't work here anymore" excuse, I'd suggest contacting your consumer affairs and get them to apply pressure, explain your rights and get the company to honour the statutory warranty that applies.