Sextonandson Bewertungen 3

great communication great craftsmanship great coffee table thank you

We commissioned Sexton & Son (Jay) for bespoke fitted bedroom joinery — wardrobes, cupboards, integrated drawers, lighting and fittings — at our home in Camden. We paid a deposit in August 2025, with an expectation of completion by October 2025. We are writing this review in late April 2026 with the job still unfinished.
The quality of the woodwork is genuinely good. The birch plywood, laminate finish, and craftsmanship in what has been installed are to a high standard. Jay clearly cares about the quality of what he makes, and we want that on record.
The process, however, has been unacceptable.
Over eight months we experienced:

Repeated weeks with no confirmed dates and, when dates were given, frequent last-minute cancellations or no-shows without advance notice (on one occasion a member of our household stayed home all day expecting Jay, with no communication that he wasn't coming)
Materials — drawer fronts, the mirror, push-close buffers — ordered reactively rather than ahead of scheduled install dates, causing avoidable knock-on delays
A design issue with the drawer boxes (walls out of square, and bases cut 3mm too narrow) requiring a full remake in January 2026, adding weeks to the timeline
The outstanding balance invoiced and requested before the job was complete, with Jay explicitly citing personal cashflow as the reason. We paid it in good faith on the same day
We also agreed in writing to pay for additional materials on completion — an agreement Jay acknowledged.

At no point did we refuse to pay what was owed or agreed. When we asked for a firm completion date on 28 April 2026 — over three months after paying the full balance — Jay's response was to suggest we "find someone else" and to imply he might revisit uncharged labour costs. Using the threat of retrospective charges as leverage in response to a legitimate complaint about an unfinished job is not acceptable.
There are legitimate mitigating factors. Jay was involved in a serious road accident in February 2026 (his assistant suffered concussion), and separately had tools stolen from his van. We gave leeway at every stage for these events. We also accept that some design evolution (upgrading trouser rails to bespoke drawers, refining layouts) added genuine complexity, and we were willing to pay for the additional materials.
What is not fair is Jay's claim — made in a lengthy message on 23 April — that the project delays were primarily caused by our original plans not working. That issue arose in October 2025 and was worked through collaboratively at the time, with no indication it would later be cited as the root cause of an 8.5-month overrun. Similarly, the suggestion that losing a full working day on 23 April was our fault for not confirming handle choices is difficult to accept: the handle decision was only raised with us at 6:36pm the previous evening.
The existing review on this page from another customer describes an almost identical pattern: no advance scheduling, delays blamed on the client's unavailability rather than the contractor's planning, and an increasingly defensive and inappropriate tone when firm dates were requested.
We genuinely hope Jay completes the job and that this review can be updated. But prospective customers should know: get start and completion dates in writing before any work begins, ensure every design decision is locked in before materials are ordered, and do not pay the balance until the work is done.

We booked Sexton & Sons for two bits: a kitchen cabinet install and alcove shelving in the living room. The craftsmanship of the kitchen units was generally good, but we ended the job without completing because the overall experience was horrific and our interactions with Jay were completely unacceptable.
Jay’s approach was marked by persistent unprofessionalism (blame and accusations), disorganised time management, poor communication, and a tone that became increasingly inappropriate whenever we asked for clarity or firm dates.

The central issue was that Jay never provided meaningful advance scheduling — the most notice we ever received was one week. Although we accommodated countless shifts and delays, on the rare occasions when we could not move things around — despite communicating our limitations well in advance (once due to pre-booked travel, once because our puppy had just arrived and needed a short settling-in period) — he treated our unavailability as the reason the project fell behind. This was despite both jobs having been booked and deposits paid well beforehand. Instead of holding a week for us and booking us in, he constantly claimed things needed adjusting as he worked on other jobs, which led to months of delay and no firm installation date in sight. Instead of taking responsibility, he framed the reasonable boundaries we set as obstacles. He expected us to adjust our lives to his schedule despite never offering a reliable, confirmed timeline and our many inquiries.
The kitchen job became a particular point of tension. Originally we gave a deadline in late August for installation as that was when we needed it, and booked the job on this agreement. This deadline came and went and we had no choice but to do an instal in September. Jay came to install in early Sept but did not ever reserved adequate time to finish the job. It was left incomplete (he said he didn’t even get to finish painting the interior) and then when seeking to reschedule he said it was our fault because he wanted to finish but we wouldn’t let him because of the new puppy needing to settle in, instead of accepting that he did not book enough time to finish before the deadline we gave.
The next issue that arose - after only installing the outer carcasses and after months of us following up, he claimed none of the interior labour was included and that he was never responsible for completing them. The interior components — access panels, shelves, pull-out mechanisms, bin system, and cleaning insert — were discussed continually, with him requesting dimensions, recommending products, and having items delivered directly to his workshop. This contradicted months of messages in which the interior layout was referenced as part of the final kitchen setup. We could not understand why he thought we would ever book an unfinished kitchen installation. Even if he believed this interpretation, it became the key deterioration point in the relationship. Responsibility was shifted back onto us (as though expecting the functional interior of a custom cabinet was unreasonable), and the tone of the messages became increasingly aggressive and blaming.
For nearly a month he cited personal issues, other client jobs, weather, travel, and vehicle problems, all of which we were sympathetic to but offered no contingency planning, and never secured a proper booking for the shelves. Eventually Jay came and spent a day on the kitchen interior (at our request) but did not complete the job and failed to return the next day as discussed. He blamed another client, and then blamed us — claiming we cancelled on him, which was categorically untrue and another example of twisted blame-shifting. He said he would do the shelves at the same time and of course, didn’t because he had not booked in ample time for either job but instead blamed our request for “Extras” in the kitchen. He later said he wasn’t free until May except for weekends, making it clear we were not a priority, so we ended the engagement.
Even being incredibly generous and assuming his version of events, the communication around the original scope was muddled at best, and when questioned he defaulted to defensiveness rather than accountability. The result was a process that operated entirely on his terms, with zero ownership of the consequences of his own delays and poor planning.