Simon Peter Brodie, South Penrith, NSW

WARNING: Scam. Easily the worst experience I've ever had with a business of any kind. The job was to remove two skylights, patch the holes, and restore the concrete tile roof. Day 1: Showed up 4 hours late to clean the roof, sent water streaming into the house (leaving me running around with buckets and towels) and berated his assistant when he couldn't finish the power washing before sunset. Tried to tack almost $500 onto the quote because the power washing damaged the tiles. Told me they'd be back at 8:30 the next day to continue. Day 2: No show. No reply to message or email until the afternoon. Apologised that he couldn't make it, and said he'd be there the next day "rain, hail or shine". Day 3: No show. No reply to message or email until the afternoon again. Said he checked the weather report, which seemed to indicate rain in Katoomba (we don't live anywhere near Katoomba), so he thought the day was "lost to the rain". A week or so passes before they show up again. Day 4: The skylights are removed and tiled over. When I look closer, I notice that they've used a piece of our chicken coop in place of a batten (and no, they did not ask if we were OK with this). It's now been more than two weeks, and Simon hasn't responded to any of my texts, emails, or phone calls asking when he'll be back. By all indications, he is attempting to disappear with my money, so I will be pursuing legal channels to get it back. UPDATE: After submitting this review, Simon promptly got in touch and demanded that I remove it if I wanted the job to be completed, strongly implying he'd simply disappear with my money if I did not cooperate. Wishing to avoid a long and drawn-out legal battle, I agreed and took the review down. The morning Simon was supposed to show up to continue work, he emailed me saying he can't bring himself to drive to my house. I requested a refund, and he offered a tiny fraction of the total amount despite completing maybe 20% of the work. He then attempted to justify this by valuing the power washing and repointing at $2500 and $1000 respectively (both about 5-10 times the national average). This matter will sadly now be going through the legal system. Oh, and he didn't provide ANY safety equipment for himself or his assistant, despite our roof being roughly a 6 metre drop to the ground. Needless to say, AVOID.

On time, or communicated otherwise, the free call back was handy.