Warning about this company (GEO BUILD).

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
This company is also known as GEO BUILD STAFFORD.

We wanted an entertaining room built at the bottom of the garden

We gave the work to a Stafford based company, the man seemed genuine and had an idea of what I wanted. He also offered a fair price.

The work was meant to take 6 weeks starting on 24th July.

I won't bore you with the details but the project management has been abysmal.

It's been 3 months of broken promises, men not turning up, builders who can't read an architects plan, walls been built in the wrong place, shoddy workmanship and the list goes on.

I kept a diary from day 1 and there are over 30 days where no one turned up on site at all, even when he said "they'll be there first thing in the morning"

He constantly asked us for more money even though we'd already paid for materials in advance.
It's November, and eight weeks behind schedule and no one turning up to finish the work.


We've lost patience with them not turning up so last week husband told them to remove all their stuff from the site.
We're now trying to find other people to finish the job.
We've now found that the brickwork is shoddy, the roof hasn't been pointed properly, we've been left with a half finished job.

It's going to cost us a considerable amount of money to put right.
The stress has been dreadful and I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what we've been through.

The mans name is MARK JACKSON from GEO BUILD based in Baswich.


If you have been affected please contact

Geoactiongroup@gmail.com
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: D71

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
We wanted an entertaining room built at the bottom of our garden.

We contacted numerous builders to do the work, many don't return the calls, some come but don't bother quoting and others just don't want the work.

We finally gave the work to a Stafford based company, the man seemed genuine and had an idea of what I wanted. He also offered a fair price.

The work was meant to take 6 weeks starting on 24th July.

I won't bore you with the details but the project management has been abysmal.

It's been 3 months of broken promises, men not turning up, builders who can't read an architects plan, walls been built in the wrong place, shoddy workmanship and the list goes on.

I kept a diary from day 1 and there are over 30 days where no one turned up on site at all, even when he said "they'll be there first thing in the morning"

He constantly asked us for more money even though we'd already paid for materials in advance.
It's November, and eight weeks behind schedule and no one turning up to finish the work.


We've lost patience with them not turning up so last week husband told them to remove all their stuff from the site.
We're now trying to find other people to finish the job.
We've now found that the brickwork is shoddy, the roof hasn't been pointed properly, we've been left with a half finished job.

It's going to cost us thousands to put right.
The stress has been dreadful and I wouldn't want anyone else to go through what we've been through.

The mans name is MARK JACKSON from GEOBUILD based in Baswich.
Ah, he of the black private reg Merc 4x4.

I've heard similar about him before I'm afraid, though not personally had the pleasure of doing business with him.
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
My neighbours extension building works with GeoBuild took absolutely ages to complete, and as above no workmen on site for days and weeks at a time. They had no respect for my or other peoples property as they drove over gardens to get to the site and my border fence and garden bushes (that I'd proudly watch grow from tiny sprigs to a nice size for over 20 years :( ) got broken during the works. Even after the work was finally completed I noticed them coming back several times to do repairs to the roofing. They seemed to have loads of projects going on at the same time around the area and getting nowhere fast.

Observing another company extending a house on the estate, they had blokes on site every day. from early morning until the evening and their work was soon completed. That same company is now doing another property across the road from their finished one and again the work seems to be progressing well.

I know which company I would choose should I require any work done !
 

Feed The Goat

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks for the Heads Up Carole,

I have seen their signs up on loads of properties just recently so assumed they were a pro outfit.

Judging by your problems with them, looks can obviously be deceptive.
 

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
Apparently they've got quite a reputation in the trade for quoting for jobs & offering more or less immediate starts. They turn up, do a bit of work & then leave you while they go & do the same for another customer. It seems they get a lot of work but done seem to be able to actually finish any job. Steer well clear.
My neighbours are having some work done by a Stoke company. They're taking a long time to do it & I mentioned this in passing to a builder friend & his response was "it's not geobuild by any chance?"
 
Last edited:

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
Bit extreme but have you considered small claims court? It’s solicitor free up to £5,000 (neither party is allowed to send one)

In theory you should be able to cover the cost of putting it right and also if they’ve charged you for labour that has turned out useless too. If you can get more examples of others they’ve shafted it would help your case.

Of course, I’m not a lawyer and what I wrote above may be bollocks. But if this is something they consistently do without any recourse then they’re just going to keep doing it. You may even have a Cowboy Builders candidate here!

I would generally always advise asking other trades for recommendations. Good trades only recommend good trades as it looks bad on them if they do a bad job.
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
Friends of mine have had a very similar experience. It took them at least double the time for GeoBuild to finish the job.

Not a company I would ever consider dealing with.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
We accept that we've been a bit naive and probably didn't ask the right questions to start with.

We assumed that he and his workmen would start on the agreed date and just keep at it until the job was finished.

In fact Mark Jackson was project managing and using some of his own workmen but also sub contracting much of the work out.

As someone else on here said, he has several jobs on the go at once.
His men can only be in one place at one time hence days go by when no one turns up.

One of his workmen told me that Mark has cash flow problems so once he's got the down payment from one job he uses that money to finish off another job. Apparently quite a few of his customers are at the end of their tether with him.

At one point he just stopped taking our calls completely which was then that we knew he wasn't interested in finishing the work.

We will be reporting him to trade standards.

We don't do facebook otherwise I'd be telling everyone on there to avoid him like the plague.

Edited in January to say that we've now got an action group.
If you have been affected please contact

Geoactiongroup@gmail.com
 
Last edited:

Cue

Well-Known Forumite
One of his workmen told me that Mark has cash flow problems so once he's got the down payment from one job he uses that money to finish off another job.

Isn’t that almost the definition of a ponzi scheme?
 

Villager

A few posts under my belt
How I wish you'd posted this 3 months ago!!! We also employed these jokers for an extension and have had an identical experience to you Carole.We finally decided to issue them their marching orders this week after 14 weeks of scant appearances and frankly shoddy work. We're also left with a half finished job and are seriously out of pocket as a result. Like you we were constantly hassled for money and perhaps naively paid for too much up front. Now we'll have to try and get it finished at significant extra cost.

Also found out the very same Mark Jackson has registered a new company yesterday (GEO BUILD STAFFORD LTD). Absolutely disgusting. Avoid like the plague.
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
I am pretty sure I know where the guy lived on Baswich as I saw the Mercedes 4x4 with 'private' plate and numerous Geo Build vans parked outside on a daily basis. In recent weeks there has been absolutely no sign of Mercedes or any vans outside the house whereas they were there all the time previously. There is another car still outside the house which was there when the other vehicles were parked there. Make of that whatever you will.
 
Last edited:

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
Like you we were constantly hassled for money and perhaps naively paid for too much up front. Now we'll have to try and get it finished at significant extra cost.

Also found out the very same Mark Jackson has registered a new company yesterday (GEO BUILD STAFFORD LTD). Absolutely disgusting. Avoid like the plague.

Our contract had us paying in 5 stages which is acceptable for a project such as ours.
We paid every payment on time.

At one point Mark Jackson from GEO BUILD asked us to pay the roofer directly.

We pointed out that we'd paid for that on the third instalment.

His response was more or less as follows " well I can't pay him. If you want the job finished you'll have to pay him. Knock the money off the next instalment"

We did that, paid the roofer and it got knocked off the next instalment.

But then it got worse.

We ended up having to pay Jewsons, Cawarden, and various other suppliers direct because Mark Jackson from GEO BUILD at the time appeared to have cash flow problems and couldn't pay his bills.

Even after buying the materials direct, just to get the job finished, he still didn't turn up.


Can anyone who replies to this please use the words GEO BUILD and Mark Jackson.

The more people that use the words means than anyone else that might be thinking of using him and doing a search might bring up this thread.


Please contact

Geoactiongroup@gmail.com
 
Last edited:

Villager

A few posts under my belt
Once again Carole, that’s an exact replica of our experience. He basically said if we wanted the job to continue we’d have to pay more money so he could pay his sub contractors for work we had already paid for. Totally agree with your suggestion - we would hate anyone to go through the same experience as us, so share as this as much as possible. As a direct result of this post and some shares on Facebook we’ve already been contacted by two other customers of GEO BUILD who have had the same terrible experience.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
Once again Carole, that’s an exact replica of our experience. He basically said if we wanted the job to continue we’d have to pay more money so he could pay his sub contractors for work we had already paid for. Totally agree with your suggestion - we would hate anyone to go through the same experience as us, so share as this as much as possible. As a direct result of this post and some shares on Facebook we’ve already been contacted by two other customers of GEO BUILD who have had the same terrible experience.


Can you ask those others on Facebook to come on here and comment.

Another thing that Mark Jackson from GEO BUILD did was this

A phone call

"Can you help me out mate?
I need you to put £2000 in my account by Friday so that I can pay my men"

Our response
" We haven't seen your men on our site for two weeks. Why would we pay you £2000 so that you can pay them to finish another persons house.
If you want paying, finish the job"

If you've been affected by Mark Jackson from Geobuild please contact

Geoactiongroup@gmail.com
 
Last edited:

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
Our contract had us paying in 5 stages which is acceptable for a project such as ours.
That's the way to do it. And payments should be dependent upon certain deliverables having been delivered (and signed-off by you).

You should also have agreed a retention percentage, payable when you're happy with the finished job or when you've agreed a change in the quality of what's been delivered and a similar change in the cost.

There's probably a whole load of things that could have been agreed beforehand, which if you'd stipulated, he'd have run a mile.

(I should just say that I'm writing this from a position of absolutely no experience in this type of project.)
 

Villager

A few posts under my belt
Can you ask those others on Facebook to come on here and comment.

Another thing that Mark Jackson from did GEO BUILD was this

A phone call

"Can you help me out mate?
I need you to put £2000 in my account by Friday so that I can pay my men"

Our response
" We haven't seen your men on our site for two weeks. Why would we pay you £2000 so that you can pay them to finish another persons house.
If you want paying, finish the ****ing job.

That has almost made me laugh because word for word that’s the same line he’s used with us. Given the time line he’s been working on your job at the same time as ours. By our reckoning he’s got a maximum of 5 guys spread between at least 8 jobs.
 

Carole

Well-Known Forumite
You should also have agreed a retention percentage, payable when you're happy with the finished job.

There's probably a whole load of things that could have been agreed beforehand, which if you'd stipulated, he'd have run a mile..)

My husband made him. ... Mark Jackson from GEO BUILD sign a JCT building contact which he was very happy to sign...all 14 pages of it.

Please feel free to google "JCT building contract."

He won't have a leg to stand on when my husband has finished with him.

We just need others to come forward with their experiences.

Contact

Geoactiongroup@gmail.com
 
Last edited:
Top