tradesmen

MARTIMAN

Anyone else having a problem getting tradesmen to do some work for you? At the moment i feel as if im on a black list or something. For several mths now weve been trying to get central heating & some electric work done. been intouch with 5 central heating firms & only 2 bothered to turn up to give us a quote & 1 gave us a quote over the phone without checking our place out. We gave the one the go ahead & they never bothered turning up, so we turned to the other company & they never got back us.
Same with the electrians, got a few quotes, gave the one the go ahead, was suppose to have started 2 wks ago, but never turned up, we tried getting intouch, but all were getting is an engage tone or the answering machine, left a couple of meassages but they never bothered getting back intouch. rang another last wk & they said they would ring back later in the evening to disccuss starting date, but never got the call.
We have got another electrician to come & give us a quote on Monday morning, he came highly recommended, so fingers crossed. Have given up on central heating, shall try again in spring/summer, may have more luck then.

Debt_Free_Chick

Check with your local Trading Standards office to see if they have an "approved trader" scheme. We have one here in E Sussex and they vet traders before putting them on the list. We now only use traders on the list and, fingers crossed, but the scheme seems to be working!

misgrace

Its not just you Martiman, or Electricians, it seems lately that the people I have come across are having trouble actually pinning someone down to view the job , give a quote, and infact actually following through.

I had to go and see a new client the other day, it was a recomendation from a regular client of mine, and the woman nearly ripped my hand off lol, as she has been let down by a few decorators.
I think the problem was the job she wanted doing, it was a bathroom, just an average size bathroom, one decorator told her that he would do it if she stripped the paper off and did her own prep :rolleyes: , she only had about 3 half walls of paper which she did strip, but didnt strip well.

The guy still made excuses he didnt want to do it, another one came in with his mate, and told her it would take two of them 1 week to do the job.:eek:
So I was expecting something terrible by the impression I got, when I saw it, it was a piece of cake really, ok, there is some prep, and taking the paper off she left behind, but I told her I can do it all, ceiling, prep and paper wall, paint doors, cupboards skirtings etc, I told her it would be done in no more than 3 days.

She was so relieved, that she wanted to pay me half up front, the woman was nearly in tears, as she has had a terrible time of it lately.
So I really felt sorry for her, so am squeezing her in on a weekend, starting on the friday, and finish no later than the sunday.

It makes me wonder why some people are turning to the eastern europeans now to do thier jobs, as people dont seem to have much luck with some of thier british counterparts tradesmen.

handyman.

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Check with your local Trading Standards office to see if they have an "approved trader" scheme. We have one here in E Sussex and they vet traders before putting them on the list. We now only use traders on the list and, fingers crossed, but the scheme seems to be working!

they charge a fortune to be on those schemes, so the cost will be passed onto yourself..........typical council

Debt_Free_Chick

handyman. wrote:

they charge a fortune to be on those schemes, so the cost will be passed onto yourself..........typical council

Yes, because otherwise the scheme would have to be funded by Council Tax - and the Council doesn't have the power to spend money on that kind of scheme. And even if they could, I doubt many taxpayers would consider it "good use" of CT.

What you pay goes into advertising - in E Sussex a directory is available FREE to every householder. From an advertising point of view, it's possibly not a bad deal for the tradesman - and you are being marketed as an "approved" trader, which should be more valuable than an add in the classifieds of your local paper.

handyman.

a lot of good tradesmen (not all) dont advertise, or need to. So, i would think there would be a lot of good, but overpriced tradesmen in a scheme like that.

It was something stupid like £1000 to join and £400 per year here.

handyman.

I didnt think the council would be there to make a profit on this type of scheme, I would have thought a 'break even' would have been better, as its meant to help the people that they work for

BobProperty

First, to the OP, what sort of area do you live in and where are you looking for your tradespeople? I ask you to consider that if you live somewhere "up market" and affluent then the local tradespeople may have plenty of large profitable jobs already and aren't interested at present in more work. Alternatively, if you are in an "out of the way" rural type of location then you will have problems persuading people to travel to you. Now the one that will get me into trouble - do you live somewhere not so affluent, do you have a postcode or district which has negative connotations that my put people off from being interested in working there?

Now I'll turn to the Trade Associations and vetting schemes and the like. As a tradesperson, I am not a member of any of these schemes. I do not see any of them helping my business expand or get me customers. There is at least one business out there which purports to do this but is a scam. There have been government backed schemes one after another, none of which have worked. Can you remember the previous government scheme with the tick? The current scheme is the Trustmark one. If I go on the main site to find a plumber it goes like this:
Trustmark home page
Find a trader
plumbers - there is now a choice between HVCA and AJA Registers. HVCA is heating and ventilating, I am looking for a water plumber. So I go with AJA Registers which is an insurance / management / vetting company
Search takes me to AJA's Trustmark page
Select Plumbing from the drop down list
Enter postcode
and the nearest plumber to me in Stockport is a firm in Kings Heath Birmingham. In fact it's a list of one. I can't see him popping round to change a tap washer.

Debt_Free_Chick

handyman. wrote:

I didnt think the council would be there to make a profit on this type of scheme, I would have thought a 'break even' would have been better, as its meant to help the people that they work for

My understanding is that the fee is for advertising - and it covers the cost of maintenance, production and distribution of the directory. So, yes - not for profit, but designed to cover the operating costs of the scheme.

maryjane01

It is not just you OP. We are getting our bathroom done and it has been really difficult getting hold of tradesmen. All this talk about gettng at least three quotes, if only I could get 3 people in to give quotes! We got 2 people in for quotes, and 1 didn't made up excuses why he couldn't do the job. Basically we are hiring the only guy that came around that seemed happy enough to take the job. He is suppossed to start a week from Monday so we are just hoping he will turn up!

beanieandme

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Check with your local Trading Standards office to see if they have an "approved trader" scheme. We have one here in E Sussex and they vet traders before putting them on the list. We now only use traders on the list and, fingers crossed, but the scheme seems to be working!

I've had a few "Fair Traders" in to quote me for a new boiler. Some I wouldn't go near, others seem ok. All give conflicting info. They are also supposed to give you a broken down quote, a lot don't do this. Keep trying other sources such as the Corgi site, IPHE, and you could always ask a local plumbing supplier if they would recommend anyone. Just because traders are part of a scheme, doesn't always mean they're any good. I have been the phone for guidance from Corgi many times re malpractise, but they just say well it's up to you to decide who to get the job done, and if there's any comeback or complaints, then Corgi pretty much wash their hands of it.