Cowdenbeath woman chases labourer for refund for months

Last year, on Wednesday, February 8, Gail Taylor paid £2,250 for the supply and installation of a wood burner to a man called Wayne Young. The log burner never appeared, and after six months of delays, Gail cancelled her order and was due a full refund.

However, after numerous excuses and the passing of a full year, Gail has never been refunded her money.

The burner was originally meant to be fitted in mid-April of 2023.

Gail commented: “It came to mid-April, he kept pushing it back. This went on for a wee while, because it was the summer I wasn’t really pushing it.

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“I paid him for the parts and the labour. I was getting the money, and then I wasn’t getting the money.”

Gail has pages upon pages of screenshots of messages between herself and Wayne, and in several of them he commits to giving her her money back. He has even ignored a formal claim from the court and provided his old address for the small claims court. He now lives in Kinross.

Gail added: “The next step is he’s got 28 days to pay it or I need to go to the Sheriff Officers, but I need to pay for that.”

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During the months that Gail has been trying to recover her money, she has since had to pay to get another log burner installed.

“I like to think people are genuine. He installed a log burner for me back at my old house in 2017 with no issues,” Gail said.

Gail and Wayne also had quite a lot of Facebook friends in common. However, now Gail really needs her money back. She’s self-employed and her van caught fire recently.

She added: “I need this money for my business.”

Since Gail made a Facebook post on the one-year anniversary of the day she paid for her log burner.

However, Fife Council's Trading Standards have not received any complaints about him.

We reached out to Wayne Young for comment but have yet to receive a response.