What is wrong with tradespeople?

[katiec68]

We are looking for someone to build us a little "L" shaped wall to put a granite top on for a pizza oven etc in our garden (spending our non-holiday money!)

Why do people
a)never return your call
b) never call when they say they WILL return your call
c) actually turn up to look at the job then never quote for it
D) etc etc

My DH is in sales and if he behaved like this he'd never sell anything and he'd get the sack! If his customers ask for quotes they demand them back the same day - unless its a huge job - even then he works late in the evening or a few hours at the weekend to get it done to keep his customers happy!

[Juliemack]

Tell me about it ... I'm still waiting for my sons friend to come and sort out a plumbing issue. He came a while back and diagnosed the problem and said he was busy, which is fair enough, but he would come back and sort it as soon as his current job had finished. I wasn't expecting any special favours and insisted it was put through as a 'proper job' but I've still not heard back 3+ weeks later 🤷🏻

[SnowWhite]

Sorry you've found this, hopefully the right person will come along and you get exactly what you ask for at the right price
Maybe one of your neighbours can recommend someone

[colin39]

I rang people for weeks about pricing up a fence for around the front of the house in the end i did it myself.

[tspill]

Originally Posted by katiec68

We are looking for someone to build us a little "L" shaped wall to put a granite top on for a pizza oven etc in our garden (spending our non-holiday money!)

Why do people
a)never return your call
b) never call when they say they WILL return your call
c) actually turn up to look at the job then never quote for it
D) etc etc

My DH is in sales and if he behaved like this he'd never sell anything and he'd get the sack! If his customers ask for quotes they demand them back the same day - unless its a huge job - even then he works late in the evening or a few hours at the weekend to get it done to keep his customers happy!

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As far as I can tell, there is so much work around that people want bigger jobs.
I struggled to get quotes for a job of a few hundred thousands.
However, once we got a builder they were brilliant.

[Rac20]

Waiting for the roofer to come back that we booked before Christmas.

[katiec68]

Originally Posted by Juliemack

Tell me about it ... I'm still waiting for my sons friend to come and sort out a plumbing issue. He came a while back and diagnosed the problem and said he was busy, which is fair enough, but he would come back and sort it as soon as his current job had finished. I wasn't expecting any special favours and insisted it was put through as a 'proper job' but I've still not heard back 3+ weeks later 🤷🏻

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Madness isn't it!

Originally Posted by SnowWhite

Sorry you've found this, hopefully the right person will come along and you get exactly what you ask for at the right price
Maybe one of your neighbours can recommend someone

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They had the same issue - although they had a proper brick built oven put into theirs - we even called people from our village magazine - nothing!

Originally Posted by colin39

I rang people for weeks about pricing up a fence for around the front of the house in the end i did it myself.

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I fear it may come to that - I think we would have decided to already but none of us has any brikkie experience - FIL is an architect - but we want a granite top and I can see it collapsing

Originally Posted by tspill

As far as I can tell, there is so much work around that people want bigger jobs.
I struggled to get quotes for a job of a few hundred thousands.
However, once we got a builder they were brilliant.

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Thats good

Originally Posted by Rac20

Waiting for the roofer to come back that we booked before Christmas.

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Thats outrageous - I'm not sure id have him back after 6 months

[Smilesonfaces]

Not all tradespeople are the same. DH has been in business for almost 40 years. I’m not just saying this because he is my husband but he always quotes and always turns up. A lot of tradespeople won’t take on small jobs. Husband always finds larger jobs will come from the smaller ones so will usually take them on.
There aren’t so many tradespeople now, young ones don’t want to do the work so I guess they can be more picky with their jobs.
Best to go with recommendations. Hope you get your work done.

[mickey house]

Believe me customers can be a nightmare to work for. You can spend time/fuel going to quote for a job and giving them free advice, then provide them with a written quote and rarely even get an acknowledgement from those who don't want to use your service.

When you do people favours and rush around after them and in return politely request they leave you feedback which takes all of two minutes, most just can't be bothered so the traffic goes in one direction.

Some people will cancel you at the last minute for often stupid reasons when you have turned other people down and then sit at home and even left with the parts you have bought.

Some will expect you to do extra jobs for free and get the hump when you tell them what the additional cost is.

Some people want the best job and the best quality parts for peanuts and complain if a bulb goes 2 years after you fitted it.

I did small jobs but the amount of people who thought it was still 1976 when I told them my minimum charge was £60 including the first hour (qualified and NICEIC registered electrician). I never let people down and was always honest if I didn't want to do the job.

I recently retired early because I couldn't be bothered with the hassle, and I had so many overheads (and tradespeople get no holiday pay, sick pay, pension or guarantee of work).

I agree that some tradespeople are unreliable etc, but customers let me down far more often than I let them down. I am so grateful that I had a full time job (not as a tradesperson) without the hassle that tradespeople get and that gave me a good wage and good pension (hence why I have retired early).

I admit that I used to complain about tradespeople before I became one.

[katiec68]

Originally Posted by mickey house

Believe me customers can be a nightmare to work for. You can spend time/fuel going to quote for a job and giving them free advice, then provide them with a written quote and rarely even get an acknowledgement from those who don't want to use your service.

When you do people favours and rush around after them and in return politely request they leave you feedback which takes all of two minutes, most just can't be bothered so the traffic goes in one direction.

Some people will cancel you at the last minute for often stupid reasons when you have turned other people down and then sit at home and even left with the parts you have bought.

Some will expect you to do extra jobs for free and get the hump when you tell them what the additional cost is.

Some people want the best job and the best quality parts for peanuts and complain if a bulb goes 2 years after you fitted it.

I did small jobs but the amount of people who thought it was still 1976 when I told them my minimum charge was £60 including the first hour (qualified and NICEIC registered electrician). I never let people down and was always honest if I didn't want to do the job.

I recently retired early because I couldn't be bothered with the hassle, and I had so many overheads (and tradespeople get no holiday pay, sick pay, pension or guarantee of work).

I agree that some tradespeople are unreliable etc, but customers let me down far more often than I let them down. I am so grateful that I had a full time job (not as a tradesperson) without the hassle that tradespeople get and that gave me a good wage and good pension (hence why I have retired early).

I admit that I used to complain about tradespeople before I became one.

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Fair points!

If someone doesn't want to quote then id prefer they just said they were busy.

If we have booked someone we'd never cancel them - once booked that's it.

When I think of the service that DH provides to his customers they only ask him for quotes - because they know he'll do it. they even ring on a Sunday when they are preparing their quotes for the week.
He knows he will quote for more work than he sells but thats how it goes!