Another lesson learned...

helping_hubby

OH and I have booked off this entire week between us to be at home with the electrician, and today to be told that he won't be here tomorrow or Thursday and he'll be back Friday to Sunday.

I can't help but think he might be squeezing in another job as I can't understand why he didn't tell us this when we booked him.

So I've learned a new lesson that when I ask how long the job will take I will make sure I know what days they will actually be working. Hmmph. It was just running all too smoothly.

aliasojo

helping_hubby wrote: »

So I've learned a new lesson that when I ask how long the job will take I will make sure I know what days they will actually be working.

Makes no difference.

They could write it in blood for you and still not turn up, I'm afraid. The tradesmen who offer a 24 hour service seem to be particularly bad for that as some emergency or other will always crop up.

Don't get me wrong, I dont think they deliberately mess people about (and I'm sure some do arrive when promised)....but they do just seem to have a way of working that is more flexible than other professions shall we say.

18 months we've been renovating now. We've had plumbers, electricians, builders, joiners and roofers out. I think there has been only 1 occasion when one of them turned up on time. Some of them were apologetic, some couldn't give a toss.

So what goes around comes around and I make sure I give truthful comments when I'm asked who was good and who wasn't. Karma will prevail.

Mutton_Geoff

what goes around comes around

I see a few of them bleating on the Screwfix forums that there isn't any work at the moment. The current economy will filter out the one's that take the pee with their customers.

BB1984

Grrrr...that's so annoying!! Hope there's other things you can be getting on with so your time off isn't wasted.

I agree with Mutton Geoff - my step-dad's an electrician (lucky me!) and he's still busy - he doesn't mess people around, gives fair prices and does a good job. My dad is a steel fabricator, and he's still busy for the same reasons. At the end of the day, people will always need trades such as electricians, plumbers etc, so the best ones should be ok...

bb

windra

I had a similar thing happen to me this week, but my electrician was due to come on sunday...turned up and then could get the materials he needed as the shops were shut...so now i have to wait another week =/

helping_hubby

BB1984 wrote: »

Grrrr...that's so annoying!! Hope there's other things you can be getting on with so your time off isn't wasted.

I agree with Mutton Geoff - my step-dad's an electrician (lucky me!) and he's still busy - he doesn't mess people around, gives fair prices and does a good job. My dad is a steel fabricator, and he's still busy for the same reasons. At the end of the day, people will always need trades such as electricians, plumbers etc, so the best ones should be ok...

bb

I had thought about going to work but it's horrible to be at work when you've been looking forward to a day off so much. I'm going shopping with my mum instead! So no, not wasted at all

Peartree

Never mind even getting to the pitching to do the work stage. I've seen tradespeople on these boards suggesting they should charge for the time they waste giving quotes. I would dearly love a quid pro quo on this. Whenever someone arranges with me to come along and give a quote, it means either taking precious holiday or rearranging my entire working day to be at home (which includes other people's time) and then making up the time to get the work done. That's fine when they turn up but I've found that about 70% of the time they don't - without even telephoning. And it isn't as though you can do anything else with the time - you're just sitting there waiting like Piffy on a Rock Bun! And then, more annoyingly, if they do apppear, about half don't ever bother to get back to you with a quote. How long does it take to make a call to say you don't want the job?

Then, you see forums where they are !!!!!ing about their customers, bleating about lack of work, etc, etc. One guy reckoned that it was perfectly OK to pitch up to appointments half an hour late without even calling! In my workplace if you regularly rolled up half an hour late for meetings without explanation you'd be out on your ear - and deservedly so! The real world is that if I have to hang around half an hour extra at home waiting for you in the morning it is the difference between getting on the staff car park or having to pay for a full day on the town car park and taking a twenty minute walk to my office.

The problem is the mismatch between the world of the self-employed tradesman and the world of the company employee. But given that the company employee is generally doing the paying of the self-employed tradesman, one would imagine that there would be some effort to accommodate the latter but this isn't the case.

Tradesmen (and I do mean men) are like delivery people - they still live in a 1950s world (that actually never existed) where there is a housewife in every home with nothing better to do than wait for them to pitch up when they feel like it. I strongly suspect it is worse for us woman trying to get someone in to give a quote - every time I try to arrange an appointment there is always the immediate assumption that I will be at home during the normal working day and a sharp intake of breath when I suggest that I have working commitments that might need to be taken into account.

Tradespeople, this might come as a revelation, but my time costs money too! When you don't turn up, I'm losing holiday time or having to use my free time to make up the work I'm paid to do! That is worth an equivalent hourly rate to yours!

On the karma front, I have recommended the window company that were exemplary to all and sundry. I suspect I'm paying slightly over the odds to the guy coming to do some work in my kitchen but he has got the service down to a tee and I've recommended him already. But it isn't enough, frankly. I'd like to be able to warn all and sundry about the guys who don't behave like this.

If they don't turn up bang on time to give me a quote, it doesn't matter what the price is, they don't get the job. I know it might be 'cutting off my nose to spite my face' but if someone did what your electrician did to you I'd just sack them on the spot. Your time is money too and this guy is costing you and your partner a week's salary (times two) in real terms and that is not OK.

Tell you what tradesmen - I'll pay a small fee, redeemable against the job, for you to turn up and quote. However, if you don't turn up bang on time to quote (and then actually do me the courtesy of giving me that quote) you have to pay me that same fee!