It is seriously hard to find a contractor you can trust.

In today’s story, a couple hires a construction company who completely scams them with shoddy work, but years later, when their son is all grown up, he finds a way to get revenge on the company’s boss.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

I end up working for the scammer who conned my parents.

So, this tale starts twelve years ago in 2007.

Both my parents had retired at the same time and had received a large cash lump sum and would have a decent pension income for the rest of their lives.

Dad was ex-Army, doing his national service and staying for another 8 years before travelling the world. He served with the Royal Engineers and moved into an engineering/maintenance role when he returned to the civilian life.

Mum was a teacher, and with careful savings and multiple pensions they had more money coming in individually than I did in a salary.

OP’s parents did some home renovations.

The first thing they did was to renovate their house. They got several quotes for new windows, some minor building work, a new kitchen and a block-paved driveway.

I helped them with researching the companies involved and with all the information at hand, they settled on a local company that we’ll call Bad Company.

Bad Company had membership of all the relevant professional bodies, had some good feedback and importantly was not the cheapest but their sales guy explained to my parents why a cheaper quote wasn’t always better. They agreed on the £35k work and paid a 10% deposit.

Work started, and they weren’t asked for a single penny more until it had been completed. There were a couple of minor snags which were easily corrected, and it went £500 over budget due to the bad drainage of the house (something that had been mentioned before) but it looked satisfactory.

The renovations were FAR from satisfactory.

As it turned out, the windows had massive gaps in them that leaked water when it rained and you could actually hear the wind whistling through. Heating became expensive.

Within a month, weeds and grass started poking through the block paved driveway and the electrical work that was done in the new kitchen caused blown fuses if both ovens and the hob were turned on together. If you touched the plate around the light switch, you’d get an electric shock.

After three months, water burst through the newly laid kitchen floor and the “Secured By Design” doors could simply be lifted out of their frame even when locked. We also noticed that they keys to the new doors were not the originals, and they were extremely difficult to lock especially as both parents had arthritis.

The icing on the cake was that most of the windows were supposed to be argon filled, but the seals had already blown allowing air inside and condensation on the inside was apparent.

Bad Company failed to take responsibility.

Dad asked a friend, Bob, to estimate the extra cost of fixing it.

Bob said that to correct the now evident defects would cost nearly £20k as almost everything would have to be ripped out and re-done.

Dad immediately contacted Bad Company, and the guy they sent round was rude, arrogant and blamed everything on the builders who had originally constructed the house doing a bad job. He wrote a report stating that none of the defects were down to the work carried out as the work had been done according to current best practices.

That evening, one of the window frames fell out.

OP’s dad had to pay other companies to fix the problems.

Dad spent a month after that trying to get Bad Company back to fix the issues, then he called all the regulatory bodies to find that Bad Company wasn’t a member but just used the membership logos on their documentation.

Around a year after the work was originally completed, Bad Company simply vanished. Phone numbers were disconnected emails bounced back and their office was now a conservatory showroom.

Dad had already paid a well established window company £3k to fix the immediate window and door issues, and was left to pay another (much better) company £22k to fix the issues.

This time we checked everything and made sure they were registered. We even got a warranty.

OP got a job at Local Kitchens.

Cut to 2018, and I’m looking for a new job.

Dad passed away quite unexpectedly in 2015 and Mum wasn’t too good either (although she’s a lot better now) so I needed a job closer to her house than the 2 hour commute to the next city that I currently had.

As luck would have it, a local kitchen manufacturing company (lets call them Local Kitchens) was looking to expand and wanted an IT technician/developer. The pay was about £1k more a year than I was currently making, but I didn’t have to spend £500 a month travelling to and from work (busses and trains are expensive).

I interviewed, liked what I heard, and was accepted for the role. All the time, I thought that I somehow knew the boss of Local Kitchens.

The boss “cut corners.”

Having worked in factory environments before, I arrived in a hi-viz vest, toecapped boots and with my own ear defenders.

No-one else wore any P.P.E. – not even masks and goggles. When all the machinery ran, the factory floor hummed and buzzed along at a noise level of 105dB, well over the required minimum for wearing ear defenders or plugs.

The boss, who we’ll call John, also attempted to cut corners everywhere. My workstation was barely powerful enough to run the development software let alone the CAD/CAM software required.

When the CPU fan died, he said that he couldn’t afford to replace the fan. A new computer keyboard took 3 weeks to arrive and although we were paid on the 28th of each month, the pay was often not in the bank until 9pm, well after he had chased people who owed him money.

OP had to do a lot of things he wasn’t qualified to do and that weren’t in his job description.

There were more lies that I uncovered, and bad business practices. It was like John had read a book on running a business then did the exact opposite.

I spent the first six months between designing kitchens – something that I knew nothing about but suddenly fell under the remit of IT technician – maintaining the factory machines, driving the forklift (something that requires a specialist license that I don’t hold) and doing IT work on his personal home computer equipment and mobile phones of him, his trophy wife, his kids and his parents.

I also wrote several small computer programs, wired up the factory network, ensured that machinery could connect to the office computers and re-wrote most of the configuration for the industry specific software he used – which was not only unlicensed but also used on five separate machines despite the single (lapsed) license.

OP introduces us to his dad’s friend Bob.

Also working at the company was Dad’s friend Bob. Bob was a decade and a half older than me and had served his time “working the tools” making and fitting kitchens, bedrooms, and had spent a good fifteen years as a shopfitter on some very prestigious contracts.

Bob was hired originally to do my job but he moved back to the manufacturing side when the expansion started as it was easier to employ an IT tech than it was a shopfitter.

Bob had read an eulogy at Dad’s funeral and was often round helping mum with bits around the house, so I knew Bob well and he looked after me at work.

We got talking one day and I found out that Bob was earning less than me, even though he had a highly skilled and experienced role, and that despite being given more responsibility, John refused to pay Bob what Bob was worth.

OP thinks he should’ve known better at this point.

Honestly, if Bob wasn’t there, most of the knowledge was lost.

Bob and I had frequently told John better ways to do key tasks, but John refused simply because there would be a small cash outlay.

I should have seen the writing on the wall at that point, but no.

It’s almost Christmas…

Running up to Christmas, John tells us all that he’s giving us all a bonus, and will pay us early for the christmas to new year shutdown period. We soon discover though that the bonus was a £5 tub of sweets – which Bob can’t eat because he has type 1 diabeties, and I can’t eat because I have this really strange sugar allergy.

I was going to mention it to John, but Bob tells me not to as it’s Christmas and it will be something for my kids to enjoy. I actually ended up with three boxes of sweets because he over-ordered.

That day, despite being an IT technician, I had to chase an order with a company, order some materials from a supplier, and supervise a fitter as he attempted to install some new showroom units. John is nowhere to be found until just as we’re about to leave.

He asked Bob for a moment of his time and I go home.

Bob filled OP in on the conversation with John.

The next day, Bob tells me that he and John talked until 7pm (an extra 3 hours) about the business. Bob was asked to invest £10k for a quick capital injection as winter is always a bad time for people buying kitchens, so income is slow but there are a number of large orders in the pipeline.

Bob told him what he thought of the shady business practices and the poor management, and he said that he could walk out of this job today and be earning double before the year is out. He refused to invest.

Other things were said, and Bob dropped the first bombshell, explaining that every job they did for a new client was actually making a loss. The new client had been Local Kitchens only revenue stream since mid October.

Apparently John was genuinely shocked and didn’t realise that it cost him £200 per hour just to run his business, jumping to £300 if the machinery is running.

John told OP he couldn’t afford to keep him as an employee.

The day before we’re due to finish for Christmas, I get called into the nearly complete new showroom. I thought John was going to show me what needs finishing and which units need designing, but no.

He’s worked out the finances and states that there’s only enough money to keep me on for another couple of months. He even tries to turn it around by saying that he’s sorry and that I’m a good employee but the income isn’t there, and he wanted to give me enough time to find something else.

I felt my entire world crumble.

The rest of the day was a daze, but just before I left, I overhear him ordering some materials from a supplier.

OP finally realized who John was…

His exact words were:

Yes, it’s John from Local Kitchens. You might have us down as Bad Company.

That’s when all the pieces fell into place. It finally clicked why I knew his face. He was the one who scammed my parents.

OP did some snooping.

The last day of work before Christmas arrives, and John had taken his family away over the christmas / new year period. We had to ensure that the factory was powered down, locked off and secure.

No-one else wanted the responsibility so I volunteered. With only Bob and myself still left in the factory, I set about gathering evidence and investigating his finances. I already know about the losses, but digging deeper I find that the company actually has no cash flow. Everything is done on credit.

His house, his wife’s Range Rover, his Jaguar and several other assets are registered as company assets but they’re all on finance through Local Kitchens. He owed at least £750k in credit, loans and mortgages.

Bob gave OP some advice.

Bob advised me against doing anything rash as it would only come back to me and agreed that John needed to be taught a lesson not just for the way he treated his employees, but for conning my parents and several others out of their life savings.

Bob had found a set of files from 2005 to 2008 with customer complaints for shoddy work in the name of Bad Company. It was far too late to legally do anything about the complaints, but we could bring down John and his smug attitude.

Bob suggested I read up on health and safety over christmas, and perform some observations in the new year.

OP gathers evidence before leaving for a new job.

January and February I spent making notes, taking photographs and researching legislation. By the time the end of February rolled around, I had a thick folder full of breaches of health and safety, environmental issues, data protection (or lack thereof) and the lack of software licensing.

John was well aware of the software issue, but he said that “as long as the software keeps running, it’ll be ok”. I had emals from him to back this up, and requests for purchases of software and hardware that were turned down so he could dine out at fancy restaurants or stay in 4 star hotels.

My last day rolls around. I have a much better development job lined up thanks to some recruiter contacts I have, and as the current day was a Thursday and I didn’t start my new job until Monday, I planned on sleeping in on Friday.

John doesn’t even say “goodbye.”

John is strangely absent all day but arrives just as we’re all leaving for the day. HE SAYS NOTHING as he watches me leave.

I got the impression immediately that he wanted me to stay until Friday, but he said that my last day was “the end of the month” and not “Friday”.

Unsuprisingly, the pay is late. It’s 10pm before it appears in the account.

OP’s mom is on board with getting revenge on John.

I went to see my mum that evening and told her who my boss was, the way he simply cast me aside when he was done with me, and that I wanted to break him as revenge for the bad work and what we have always considered as a scam.

Now, my mum is the sweetest lady you could ever meet, and I was completely shocked when she actually said “bury the bastard”. She even let me use her garden incinerator to destroy the personal hand-written instructions that Bob and myself had created since I started.

The knowledge of how to fix issues with the specialist software now only existed in our memories.

The next day, there are already problems at Local Kitchens.

Friday rolls around, and I have no reason to get up early. My phone is ringing constantly because John is trying to get hold of me and it’s soon evident that things are going south, rapidly.

Bob sent me a text telling me that he gave John a final invoice at 8AM and walked out.

Now, had this been petty revenge then the tale would have ended here with him not being able to use his business-critical unlicensed software, and hiring new people, but this is Pro revenge and my mother did tell me to “bury the bastard” so despite feeling sorry for the one other genuine employee that I had a lot of respect for, I enacted my totally legal if not a little underhanded plan.

OP reported John and Local Kitchens for all of the breaches and lies.

I reported Local Kitchens and John to the Federation against Software Theft for illegal use of licensed software, giving them information regarding which software was illegally used and how. Just to be safe, I also reported them directly to those software companies too. I supplied the emails as evidence where I had explained to John that he was breaking the law by not having the correct and valid licenses.

I then called a friend at the local government Health and Safety team, reporting no fewer than thirty rule breaches, sending him the supporting images and video.

One of Local Kitchens professional memberships had lapsed, but John was still using the logo on paperwork, email signatures, website and the company van, in addition to the signage on the building. I reported that to the professional body in question.

I honesly considered reporting GDPR breaches, but I don’t think that he had done anything that could be considered a breach.

John offered OP a job at a lower pay rate.

A week later, John sent me a message stating that If I was still looking for work, he would pay me £50 per day to do “IT work” for him. It came across as if he was trying to do me a favour.

I told him that I was previously on £90 per day, but as I was now a freelance contractor, the going rate was closer to £200 per day.

He didn’t send me another message.

John declared bankruptcy.

Three weeks later, and the showroom saleswoman – who we’ll call Jane (the one remaining staff member I respected) called me to tell me that John had closed Local Kitchens and declared bankruptcy owing nearly a million pounds.

I asked about fines, and she said that Health and Safety were behind a building closure which stopped production causing the bankruptcy.

In the same week, he had legal notices for illegal software.

OP delivered a pizza to John.

As this unfolded, I kept Bob in the loop and Jane kept me informed. As of the start of July, the final figure for fines was levied. £932k debts to the business, £876k fines too.

On that same day, purely by chance I was helping a friend deliver pizza and John placed an order My friend was driving and doing the shop work, and I was going to the door to hand the food over, so I actually got to deliver his food.

He was nice enough to me when he opened the door, and stated that if I had done the extra “IT Work” for him then I wouldn’t have to deliver pizza.

I told him that it was what it was, and questioned the fact that there was only enough for 1 meal – didn’t his wife like pizza?

John’s wife left him, and OP let John realize what he had done.

He told me that she’d left him and taken the kids back to her parents, and that he wasn’t OK with that but he had no choice.

I agreed, and then decided to twist the knife even more.

I told him that it was a good job he got rid of me when he did, because I now had a fantastic well-paid job that I’m good at, and that if I had stayed, then I would have brought myself down as well as him.

That’s when he realised that I had called in all the agencies that had eventually shut him down.

OP reminded John about his parents.

He demanded to know why, as he had “given me everything” and “taught me how to work in the kitchen industry”.

I simply replied with my parents address and the year 2007. I saw the colour drain from his face as he realised that his past had caught up with him.

Then I told him how much he had to pay on his pizza, and he threw £40 at me and snatched the food out of my hands, slamming the door in my face.

His food was only £21.50, so I got a nice £18.50 tip from him that night.

That’s some great revenge! I love how it worked out that OP got to confront John about everything via pizza delivery.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader joked about the length of the story.

Another reader has a question about the sugar allergy.

This person doesn’t find the ending believable.

Another person commented on how many problems John caused.

This reader would’ve gotten even more revenge.

I wish John had gone to jail too for all of his bad business practices and lies.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.