A grandfather who paid £2,000 for a new brick wall claims he was horrified when a skip removal company knocked it over days later.
Nigel Barnes, from Stoke-on-Trent, had been renovating his bathroom but said he rushed outside to find the driver with his head in his hands trying to pick up scattered bricks last Monday.
The driver, who works for Brown Recycling, had been picking up the skip waiting on the drive which was full of bricks from the original wall.
He cleared the wall going into the drive only to ‘crash into it as he attempted to leave’.
Photos show the freshly finished brickwork which was finished on March 25 but moments after the accident other pictures show the wall crumbling and bricks strewn across the driveway and pavement
The driver had been to collect a skip full of bricks from the original wall when the new wall was damaged
Photos show the freshly finished brickwork and structural gatepost around Nigel’s front garden after it was finished on March 25.
Pictures taken moments after the accident show the brick pillar gatepost collapsed and half the connecting wall crumbling.
Bricks were strewn across the driveway and pavement.
Mr Barnes, 54, who is a maintenance engineer, claims Brown Recycling refused to pay for the damage saying their terms and conditions said there could be damage when collecting the skip.
This prompted him to leave an angry rant online. He said: ‘I was upstairs working on the house and the bathroom.
‘I had the music on and I didn’t even hear the guy pull up because if you’re not there, they’ll pull up, take the skip and away they go. I was totally unaware.
‘I had the music on loud, and I was working away in the bathroom with drills and hammers.
Mr Barnes (left) was upstairs working on house renovations and listening to music when the truck came to pick up the skip. He didn’t hear them arrive but a neighbour saw it knock the wall down
‘Next door saw him knock the wall down and rang my partner saying, “they’ve knocked your wall down”.
‘I go outside and the man is stood there with his head in his hands trying to pick all the bricks up.
‘The guy was really nice and I go, “fair enough, accidents happen, this was an accident, as long as it is put right I don’t care”.
‘The skip was for renovating the house and it was the third skip we’ve had from them in a row.
‘The wall that was there was within the skip. They drove the skip onto the property with the wall and gatepost that was there.
‘The wall was knocked down and put into the skip.
‘The wall was then rebuilt with new bricks. They come to remove the skip with all the old bricks and debris in, and knock the wall down, plain and simple. It’s shocking.’
Mr Barnes claimed when he complained to Brown Recycling he was told that the company were not liable as he had agreed to terms and conditions when booking the skip.
This waived their responsibility for any damage caused by depositing it or picking it up.
Mr Barnes’s online post received more than 500 likes, shares and comments.
He wrote: ‘Totally disgraceful customer service. They turn up. Pick up a skip.
‘Drive the truck into a newly built wall causing unbelievable amount of damage, admit the damage then refuse to put it right saying it’s my fault for having a skip on my drive?
Mr Barnes left a review on social media of his experience. After this he claimed Brown Recycling have since investigated the claim and offered to pay for a new wall
‘Hang your heads in shame Browns for your rude manner to a paying customer AVOID if you value your possessions and loved ones.’
Since the post, Mr Barnes claimed the company have since investigated the claim and offered to pay to replace the wall as soon as possible.
Mr Barnes said: ‘I can’t believe it. We’ve had enough problems.
‘There are obviously greater problems going on in the world at the moment but for us this property is all-consuming.
‘We’re trying to get as much done as we can while we can.
‘I’ve just paid £1,100 12 hours before the lockdown. I paid for a load of bricks to have this part of the project down, and the bricks are knocked down.
‘I’m still no further forward. I had this wall built from the bricks and someone has knocked it over.
‘The section of the wall that was knocked down was to the right of the drive as you go in.
‘The left-hand side hadn’t been built yet as I wanted to leave plenty of access for the skip removal.’
Mr Barnes added: ‘I would say there’s 150-200 bricks that have been knocked down, but the section of the wall is maybe four metres long and 1.2 metres high.
The post had more than 500 likes, shares and comments
‘The whole of that wall now, because he hit the gatepost and brick pillar which was a structural part of the wall, he pushed it against the rest of the wall.
‘The rest of the wall is now loose hence why it can’t be repaired and has to be taken down and started again.
‘I’m not prepared to use those bricks again because they have been structurally damaged.
‘Somebody can look at that and say they can use those bricks again, but then it won’t look like a new wall, it will look like a repaired wall. That’s what I had a week ago.
‘If I wanted a repaired wall I would have repaired the original wall, but I wanted a new wall.’
Nigel claims it was the ‘power of the keyboard’ in his 1* review going viral that encouraged Brown Recycling to agree to fix his wall after initially refusing and says the company has now promised to put the wall right.
Brown Recycling Ltd declined to comment.