Wates Group Reviews 

435
TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.3

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Looking at 70 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Customers frequently complained about constantly missed appointments, poor communication, and rude staff members who were extremely difficult to reach by phone. Many individuals also experienced severe issues with incomplete maintenance work, ignored property problems, and damaged installations inside their living spaces. Some people were satisfied with polite and professional workers who successfully completed specific household repairs efficiently and without any major issues. These consumers genuinely appreciated the helpful customer service and friendly attitude demonstrated by certain individual technicians during their home visits. They felt pleased that these particular tradespeople took care of their homes with proper respect.

What people talk about most

Service

Reviewers highlight negative aspects of service, frequently describing the experience as unreliable and... See more

Staff

People report negative experiences with staff, highlighting widespread unprofessionalism, poor communication,... See more

Customer service

Clients share profound dissatisfaction with customer service, consistently highlighting poor service and poor... See more

Customer communications

Consumers express deep frustration and dissatisfaction regarding contact issues and poor communication.... See more

Facilities

Reviewers express deep frustration with facilities, highlighting severe maintenance issues such as prolonged... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely awful lied saying they attended property and couldn’t gain access. They have broke four dates for kitchen to be fitted and once again today and now they’re saying that someone would be here... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Reported a window stuck open to Lambeth - almost three months ago. Told them to put 'Crank Window' on the job. 1st Job - appointment 3 weeks later. On the day, Wates closed it as 'completed'. With... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

They have the worst company putting up scaffolding. Griffin I think it is, incompetent, vile man, also driver of the truck who doesn’t understand basic common sense. Blocking the road so I can’t get t... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I would not even give these 1 star but had to give 1 star to leave a review. They have no respect for elders they are cocky,liars they eitheir damage what electrical euiquipment they install and li... See more


Company details

  1. Events & Entertainment

Information provided by various external sources

The Wates Group is one of the largest privately-owned construction, development and property services companies in the UK.


Contact info

1.3

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

435 reviews

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No recent history of asking for reviews

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1.3

All reviews

(435)

68 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I do not recommend this company even to…

I do not recommend this company even to my worst enemies.
Not only do they schedule work days and never show up for appointments, but they also do a careless, sloppy job and have damaged everything they could inside and outside my house.
They cracked my flooring inside the house "by accident" and keep lying to me, saying they will fix it.
They drilled through my interior walls because they didn’t measure the thickness properly when making holes from the outside, so now the inside of my house looks like a war zone.
They broke decorative objects inside and outside the house, destroyed my flowers, and stained my carpet — several workers (4 or 5 at a time) would enter my home with muddy boots, without any respect.
They extended the outdoor sockets but didn’t seal them properly with silicone.
Because of that, over Easter I was left without power in the sockets for more than 24 hours.
I had to throw away hundreds of pounds’ worth of food that went bad — and I have children, I simply can’t afford something like this!
What if there had been a fire in the house?! Or if all my appliances had been ruined?!
Stay far away from this company!The contact person never answered my calls until I contacted the main office.
We were trying to agree on timings and days for the workers, but none of this was respected.
The workers would show up early and wait outside, spying on me the moment they saw any movement inside.
Once, I had told the contact person that I needed an extra 40 minutes because I wanted to take a shower first.
However, the worker stayed outside, watching the house, and as soon as he saw any movement, he immediately came to the door, saying he wanted to "finish quickly."
Obviously, I could no longer take a shower with him already inside the house.

April 28, 2025
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

0 star

This company takes incompetence, arrogance and laziness to a whole new level. Ignore my 1 star they aren't even remotely near getting that high a rating. They came to fix a sink waste pipe which has taken 4 visits so far and nobody has laid a finger on it, and all they succeeded in doing was taking the push button off the toilet and not put it back. This sort of firm gives builders a bad name and I urge anyone who has a choice to go to anyone else but this bunch of clowns

April 15, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Do not work for these people i worked…

Do not work for these people i worked for 2 weeks and they got rid of me because they weren't happy with me discussing my wage with others from different agencies for the stupid fact that they pay diffrent agency workers different pay some were on 12.80 and I was on 16 quid an hour if you had common sense you would use one agency and one wage but no they have no training and expect you to be a pro within your 2nd week absolutely pathetic company.

April 3, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

INCOMPETENT COMPANY…

Disgraceful company being allowed to contract for Ealing Council! Failed to attend on 10 occasions without any cancellation notices. Staff are rude and unhelpful at officrs. Workmen were witnessed drinking alcohol at a residents premises. Toxic chemicals were dumped daily on grassland. 25 paint cans illegally left behind on completing works. Shoddy workmanship and unprofessional manner of builders. Avoid/report to ombudsman as should not be allowed to work for government bodies using taxpayers money.

August 1, 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Useless company

Useless company. Keep giving appointment times for employees to come to the house, but the employees never turn up. Rescheduled the appointment again, on the day we called one of the employees to see if he was still coming, he said he is running late but still didn't turn up at all.
Sick and tired of Wates! Absolutely horrible.

March 21, 2025
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This service is completely unreliable

This service is completely unreliable. Was meant to turn up to fix a plumbing issue last week but there was no justifiable reason as to why they did not turn up. Then they were meant to turn up look at a "leak" yesterday- NO ONE TURNED UP.
I do not recommend this service AT ALL.
I would give zero stars if I could.

March 25, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Hear me out.. I understand the bad reviews but..

I will be Honest, I was pessimistic about Wates but they have not only fixed my issue but they have gone beyond. The Plumber was friendly, made me feel at ease and fixed a complex mess left by another contractor. I am very grateful to Wates for their great work, from the call Handlers to the plumber. They were understanding of my frustrations and were willing to listen to me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

March 3, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

A bunch of incompetent cowboys

A bunch of incompetent cowboys. I had a job sent by Peabody to them and not only did they reschedule twice, their plumber turned up, took some pictures and told me someone will call back to complete the job. After 2 weeks I chase it, only to be told the job is complete and now closed. What a joke!
I was then told by the operator there’s not much he can do and to arrange another call out - basically they’ll get paid twice for the same job and have another chance to mess me about. Then he hang up!!!
What a bunch of cowboys

March 3, 2025
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

NEAR MISS COLLISION WITH MY CAR…

NEAR MISS COLLISION WITH MY CAR CARRYING TWO YOUNG CHILDREN AND A BABY ON CRIYDIN DUAL CARRIAGEWAY. Car registration NA23 KFN. 17/2/25 at 10.15am.
Driver raced next to us at 40mph and cut into our lane. If I hadn’t had the space to move into the adjacent lane he would have smashed my car on the baby’s side. Horrifying. He was so unapologetic and simply said he “didn’t see us until I beeped”. Reckless and frankly should not be on the road. Disgusting man.

February 17, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Terrible

Called and heard someone pick up and then put me on hold for around 5 minutes, then the phone hung up. Called again someone picked up said hey only do north london and call my local council. I asked do they nor have the number for their own company in my area, they said no and hung up. This company is giving out backhanders to whomever gives them government contracts because this is by far the worst company to deal with at any stage of a repair.

February 19, 2025
Unprompted review
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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Credit given where it’s due

Wates control the repairs needed for my property due to them being in contract with Stonewater.
I had a very good experience yesterday with Kyle who came to do some extensive work inside of my property.
His work was completed to a high standard, he was on time and was efficient in his work.
I am very satisfied with the work completed which is why I am leaving my review
He went above and beyond to do alternative repairs while here which he knew he could facilitate

January 23, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Laurel and hardy would have done a better job

Plumber left a job half done said he would be back in 20 mins but never returned! Meanwhile there was water dripping down the boiler and left tools and mobile phone.
Different plumber returned the next day and assured me it was sorted without testing the hot water supply despite me asking him to check it! Unsurprisingly water was cold , If I could give 0 I would..... Atrocious company with no regard for customer service.

January 24, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Bad disgusting liers

Bad disgusting liers
They said that ealing council cancel my mothers emergency repairs appointment but they did not.They have left an elderly vulnerable disabled lady with Dementia without use of a toilet for over 9 hours. However Ealing Council are so cheap they need to change my mother's toilet and the whole toilet system. That is why the same problem keeps arriving.

December 29, 2024
Unprompted review
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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Never kept there appointments.

I thought we lived in united kingdom but services we receive from wates are like we leaving in third world country, they need to get better, I don't understand how come the hierarchy don't look into this matter.

December 16, 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Atrocious company. Please avoid and choose a different construction company!

We are currently in the middle of having a new kitchen fitted and I feel the need to warn others about how atrocious Wates are. We have come across a number of issues with them.

The first being that we were given the option to keep our current lights (2x pendant lights) or have them replaced by TWO strip lights, of which we chose the latter. However we have been left with one pendant light and one strip light, which looks ridiculous. If we were told they would only do one, then we would have decided to keep our old lights. We have raised this issue several times, yet have been ignored by Wates. Both Pam and Lesley (Liaison officers between tenants and Wates) stood in our kitchen and told us we would get TWO lights, yet all the workers we have mentioned it to say "Oh, yeah, they only do one light." Who in their right mind would choose to only have one done?!

The second is that the paint and electrical work is just plain shoddy. The paint is cracking already, there are stains on the wall and paint drips on the door and it hasn't even been two weeks since it was painted. We haven't caused this as the kitchen is unusable so we haven't even been in there to cook. All the plug sockets have holes surrounding them.

The workmen have left a bag of floor leveler on the driveway and it has spilled out all over the neighbours driveway. I have asked Wates for someone to come and clean this and have again been ignored.

We have no itinerary of when people are coming, so have had to wait in all day Monday-Friday since the 20th of November, just in case anyone does show up, even though most days no one does. The work had an expected time of 12-15 working days, today is day 15 with no end in sight.

We've had a new fan fitted that says "Mansfield District Council" except we are in Sutton and this is not a Council property. We have raised this several times and have been assured it will be rectified, but as of yet nothing has been done. We were even advised to just cover up the logo or pop it out (which I tried, but it isn't actually possible).

The cooker does not fit because it hasn't all been measured properly. You can also see that where the cabinets meet the wall that things haven't been measured properly. There are parts that overhang and stick out. The workers never clean up after themselves and there is a complete lack of clarity around everything, you ask a question and get told it will be looked into and then no one gets back to you.

They have also scuffed the wall outside the kitchen and haven't painted it. We have a newborn baby (which I made them aware of) and have been left without a washing machine/cooker for days and even left 6 hours without any water or heating and no warning of this, despite being assured we would have constant access to water and would just need to make sure we had water for the first day, but this wasn't the case.

When you email Pam (the Liaison officer between tenants and Wates) you very rarely get any response. Some of the workers are standoffish when you ask what they are here to do (but again, we have no itinerary to know), yet surely we have a right to ask? They are entering our space after all!

Edit: A workman has come this morning to say that he cannot put the linoleum floor down, because the person before him who put the floor leveller down hasn't done it properly, leaving it uneven. The workman today is having to relevel the floor. Then that needs to dry.

I would advise you to employ a different construction company! Wates provide shoddy work, have poor communication and it just feels like they simply do not care. If you want to see pictures of all the issues mentioned above then see my review on Google reviews.

November 20, 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This company is one of the worst wishy…

This company is one of the worst wishy wishy companies ever.. we are having a kitchen renovation at the moment by these guys and they always turn up to the house without giving notice so when we decide to go out, we have missed them that day. They bought the wrong kitchen units round for our house.. they gave us somebody else’s units. Some of the staff are incredibly rude, the kitchen plan was wrong they had to come and re-evaluate the measurements. We had to chase them up to come and do the work because we have been left without appliances for a couple of months and we have children.. (struggling to cook and wash clothes) I definitely recommend that nobody ever goes with this company ever!

October 24, 2024
Unprompted review

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