Nosey Plumber

DUTR

C_Mababejive wrote: »

#7... But you had already asked him to visit and quote,you had let him into your home,you had let him upstairs and left him to it...at what point do you draw the line? The guy assumes that you want a quote,and are happy to leave him to it.

My approach is that If i am in the front door, I only have to ask /explain if i need to go upstairs. You either trust someone or you dont.

In my experience, most people who work in peoples homes are trustworthy and should be assumed to be so. Even more so if they work for a recognised brand.
We do sometimes come across unusual situations but we just deal with it. As i say,its a three wise monkeys situation.

Here are a few examples from my past.

a) Working in a house and had to pull carpets back in bedroom to get floorboards up.

Found a selection of polaroid snaps of the female occupier in a series of..err..compromising positions. I spared her embarrassment by just tucking them away somewhere where she could later find them and carried on with the job.


Another bedroom another house,another town.

Had to get carpet back and floorboards up in bedroom. Pushed double bed out of the way to find a huge collection of !!!!!! and some toys. Just stakced them in the corner and carried on. Female came up later and noted them as was a little embarrassed..no issues for me.


Another house,removed radiator in bedroom and discovered a selection of old knickers/period pants stuck to back of radiator ! Just skipped radiator complete with barnacles to spare her blushes.


Another house. Head in low level cupboard and noted that female sat on sofa had forgotten to put her knickers on and was displaying her Merkin.


Another house, head in cupbaord,found a selection of 35mm negatives showing fem occupier in compromising sexual positions ! Again,discretely repositioned.

I could go on. A good homecaller is both trustworthy and discrete

...Runs of the get my standard in plumbing :rotfl:

maintenanceman

C_Mababejive wrote: »

#7... But you had already asked him to visit and quote,you had let him into your home,you had let him upstairs and left him to it...at what point do you draw the line? The guy assumes that you want a quote,and are happy to leave him to it.

My approach is that If i am in the front door, I only have to ask /explain if i need to go upstairs. You either trust someone or you dont.

In my experience, most people who work in peoples homes are trustworthy and should be assumed to be so. Even more so if they work for a recognised brand.
We do sometimes come across unusual situations but we just deal with it. As i say,its a three wise monkeys situation.

Here are a few examples from my past.

a) Working in a house and had to pull carpets back in bedroom to get floorboards up.

Found a selection of polaroid snaps of the female occupier in a series of..err..compromising positions. I spared her embarrassment by just tucking them away somewhere where she could later find them and carried on with the job.


Another bedroom another house,another town.

Had to get carpet back and floorboards up in bedroom. Pushed double bed out of the way to find a huge collection of !!!!!! and some toys. Just stakced them in the corner and carried on. Female came up later and noted them as was a little embarrassed..no issues for me.


Another house,removed radiator in bedroom and discovered a selection of old knickers/period pants stuck to back of radiator ! Just skipped radiator complete with barnacles to spare her blushes.


Another house. Head in low level cupboard and noted that female sat on sofa had forgotten to put her knickers on and was displaying her Merkin.


Another house, head in cupbaord,found a selection of 35mm negatives showing fem occupier in compromising sexual positions ! Again,discretely repositioned.

I could go on. A good homecaller is both trustworthy and discrete

Can I ask why you are "discretely" repositioning these thing where they can find them. That's like saying that you found them and you are going to let them know you found them. If it were me I wouldn't even touch them, out of invading their privacy, unless there were in the actual way of doing the work, and even so I would ignore them. It's not my business what other peoples business is.

Mr_Ted

maintenanceman wrote: »

Can I ask why you are "discretely" repositioning these thing where they can find them. That's like saying that you found them and you are going to let them know you found them. If it were me I wouldn't even touch them, out of invading their privacy, unless there were in the actual way of doing the work, and even so I would ignore them. It's not my business what other peoples business is.

:eek:Are we getting to a point that a customer should clear their house b4 work is carried out, and a tradesman should have a security guard:rotfl:

Discretion is whats needed on both parts, there are equally dodgy customers as there are tradesmen;)

maintenanceman

Mr_Ted wrote: »

:eek:Are we getting to a point that a customer should clear their house b4 work is carried out, and a tradesman should have a security guard:rotfl:

Discretion is whats needed on both parts, there are equally dodgy customers as there are tradesmen;)

No we are getting to the point that there is no point. As a professional you should act so. Being a professional means behaving like a professional as in your opinions personal views or any judgements have no place. In a few words you don't go about being a voyeur, you just do your job.

keystone

Mr_Ted wrote: »

Discretion is whats needed on both parts, there are equally dodgy customers as there are tradesmen;)

Quite. Although I would say more the former than the latter.

maintenanceman wrote: »

In a few words you don't go about being a voyeur, you just do your job.

100%. Equally there is nothing worse than having a pair of eyes constantly boring into the back of your neck whilst you are trying to do your job. Actually there is - its two pairs. Had it once - they were trying to see exactly what I was doing and making notes for heavens sake - the grounds being that next time something like it needed doing they wouldn't need to call come someone out. I have no oibjection to telloing the client what I am going to do and why I'm doing it but that was just too much. I gently invited them to go and put the kettle on.

Cheers

Mr_Ted

maintenanceman wrote: »

No we are getting to the point that there is no point. As a professional you should act so. Being a professional means behaving like a professional as in your opinions personal views or any judgements have no place. In a few words you don't go about being a voyeur, you just do your job.

:mad:There is a point, and that is that IF anyone invites an unknown tradesman into their property then it is THEIR duty to ensure the security of their property:mad:

I totally agree that tradesmen should act professionally, and just do their job, BUT the simple fact is that there are unscupulous people out there and THEREFORE the customer has a duty to THEMSELVES to ensure things are carried out in a professional manner:wall:

It is no good complaining AFTER the horse has bolted:doh:

olly300

maintenanceman wrote: »

Can I ask why you are "discretely" repositioning these thing where they can find them. That's like saying that you found them and you are going to let them know you found them. If it were me I wouldn't even touch them, out of invading their privacy, unless there were in the actual way of doing the work, and even so I would ignore them. It's not my business what other peoples business is.

If something is in the way of a workman's work area then you would expect them to move them so they could do the work.

keystone

olly300 wrote: »

If something is in the way of a workman's work area then you would expect them to move them so they could do the work.

You might but you'd probably be very surprised just how many people don't actually give a s**t!

Cheers

Mojisola

SadieL wrote: »

Should you complain to the company concerned if you find their plumber snooping around your house when he should be in the bathroom? I can't find anything missing at the moment but it's really worrying me that he may have taken something or been casing the joint! He was caught coming out of a room which is nowhere near the bathroom.

SadieL wrote: »

What made me even more suspicious is that he said he had filled the bath up and drained it but couldn't find the leak. When I looked the bath was bone dry so he hadn't even turned the tap on. As soon as I turned the tap on the waste pipe started leaking... :mad:

The combination of him being in rooms he didn't need to be in and lying about what he'd done would set alarm bells ringing for me.

I would be talking to the company about him.

richyg

Sorry peeps but I have been a bit low the last few days and this has really given me a lift.

Noisy ooh err missus plumbers - saucy photos, even polaroids and negatives no less and offers of sexual favours all in a days work - blimey - its a far cry from my office environment which could be described as dull bordering on terminally dull.

I am today handing in my notice at the council and signing up for a city and guilds at Southport technical college . I may consider either window cleaning or plumbing.

Yours

Robin Askwith aged 19 (well in 1970)