The following website is created and supported by the former customers of Candy & Candy Co. who have first-hand knowledge about the problems of working with this company. Undoubtedly, for those, who are still going to contract with English design, finishing, and construction companies, it will be useful information.
To begin with, it is necessary to mention that England, as well as the whole Europe, generally has serious problems with qualified labor force and engineers at present. This deficiency is caused by high-budget social programmers that lowered the motivation of the population for study and work. It is extremely hard to find adequate labor force. All the intellectual resources of England have dispersed throughout large construction projects inside and outside England (America, the Emirates ...). That is why if the value of your contract is less than 10.000.000 GBP you will always have problems with quality in London. The matter is that the companies can not afford themselves to keep highly-paid personnel on such volumes — it swallows all the benefit. If the taxi-drivers in London earn over 5.000 GBP, just think how much a qualified project supervision costs. And additionally, one should find it... But none of English companies will cancel the contract. Do not forget that hypernormal greediness is a national feature of Englishmen. The construction company immediately deducts its benefit from the contract value; what follows is a toss-up. The number of the deceived customers is really astonishing. And that is the case in such a civilized country...
The next problem is the peculiarities of the local court system. As a rule if you are bunkoed by the contractor, it is in vain to apply to court. Firstly you will be palmed off with one-side contracts where logical changes defending the customer? s side will be put very unwillingly. If you attract local lawyers for it you should know the local lawyers earn generally on the problems, not on their elimination. But even if you have succeeded in making the necessary changes in the contract it is too early to feel yourself protected. The court system of England is ideologically formed in such a way that it makes no attempts to interfere with economic debates allowing the sides to come to an agreement by themselves.
Still, if you have followed this way the maximum you can count on is the loss reduction, but not compensation of all losses and moral damages. The court system itself is very slow and too expensive. A huge number of various cheaters and swindlers hang around it. They will strip you to the skin with great pleasure. By the way, the judicial department of Candy & Candy Co. is considered to be one of the most powerful among construction companies of London. Doesn? t it alert you? They are constantly having legal proceedings because they are constantly deceiving their customers. It is strange when the judicial service of a construction company comprises half of its qualified personnel. Doesn? t it ring your bell? If you need advice on this issue, please, contact us.
The next problem is also their national peculiarity. When you see nice, well-designed and constructed old London houses you have an impression that Englishmen are meticulous, careful people with good taste. They have good taste, indeed. The rest has no relation to Englishmen. So to say they were not Englishmen who constructed the houses. Earlier England was a huge colonial empire with an inexhaustible resource of free labor force. Architects and supervisors were certainly Englishmen. But they died long ago. As of accuracy and quality, the English are one of the most quality unpretentious European nations. For an Englishman it does not matter if the screw is twisted at the right angle to the surface or not, if it is twisted at all if the construction is fixed without any screws at all. Try to pay your attention on the details: the way, in which pipes and pipe couplings are mounted, sanitary ware is installed, glazed tile is set, low power electrical boards are fitted, is a real disaster. One needn? t measure the verticality of the walls and the angles of their coupling — they will never be straight elsewhere; we suppose the things are just the same in the Buckingham Palace as well. Even the Russians being a very careless nation have never seen such a kind of quality even after a «Moldavian» renovation! By the way, have you ever paid your attention to the workers sitting near the houses in London? They are eating and smoking. One can often see them. Such «breaks» are namely, smokes. For them not to overwork themselves.
They have such breaks practically every half an hour. And they last 15-20 minutes. So, to cut a long story short an Englishman can not be forced to work. Maybe it is good for the national pride and so on, but for your renovation it will be a total fucking fiasco.
Now a few words about Candy & Candy The Company office is situated in front of the central Herrods store. Sort of like ‘in front of the Kremlin? by analogy. I. e. you have already given 30 % for the location. Then a few words about the brand. As designers Candy & Candy try to participate in all the large construction projects of London. They are not admitted everywhere (the reputation is not that good, the pricing is inadequate), but now and then they manage to. They call themselves «developers». For your information: Candy & Candy never invests a pound of their money into anything — it is a well-known fact. That? s why they are not developers at all. They are just a design bureau, which there exist hundreds of. Undoubtedly, they have a competent marketing department. The brand pops up everywhere. But do you care for the fact with your tiny contract? Nowadays they position themselves as the developers of a high-budget project, Hide Park 1. They are actively selling apartments there as well as all realtors in London do. It is certainly known that neither the investor nor the project company has anything to do with Candy & Candy anyhow. Any doubts? Ask them for a copy of the investment contract. No way. They? ve got none.
Candy & Candy appeared at the market as one of a lot of design bureaus. Trying to expand their business they started to apartment design planning and renovation. As many other companies of the kind they distribute all the realization part among many subcontracted and logistics companies, thus acting as a logistician — coordinator.
In contracts they do not like to take the responsibility for the quality and the terms of the subcontract coverage; that? s why carefully read their responsibility area under the contract. Candy & Candy has very good «front» negotiators — the people you deal with while signing a contract. They are very competent and adequate. But you will never see them any more as far as the contract is signed and paid. Further you will deal with the people corresponding to the rate of your contract.
As we have mentioned above, if it is less than 10.000.000 GBP you will deal with trainees and some random people at all, or with those who are available at the moment. You will be reminded about the payments with an extraordinary persistence, but your claims will not be responded starting from a certain moment (receipt of all the money). Should you insist — you will be given the sluff in rather a rude manner.
The real ‘power? of the company lies in several contracts per year. They collect the contracts — no matter how many of them will be finally signed. All the qualified personnel of Candy & Candy are involved in the first two or three projects (concerning the money aspect, of course). The rest are 100% conflicts. It is for this that such an expensive judicial department works. That? s why you should not calculate, for instance, how much the apartment renovation costs you. You should analyze the rate of your contract with Candy & Candy If it doesn? t fall into the first three grades you will be certainly deceived. No, you won? t be rudely deceived; No, not in a rough way, of course, by their taking the money and doing nothing, but by their making a shit with a wide range of engineering errors and terrible quality. Such a «candy» is awaiting you. We would not advise engaging London ‘brand? companies, but the companies from developed cities where there are not so many tourists and foreigners.
London is a circus for undressing the dudes. You are cleaned out in 5* hotels! Needless to say about the subcontractors. If you are not a local resident you are taken as a possible object for cheating everywhere in London. One more piece of advice — do not save the money on an independent technical and engineering inspection. Spell out its authorities in the contract. Let success attend you in the Foggy Albion.
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