builders

nickj_2

leveller2911 wrote: »

I suppose it also depends on tradesmans customer base. All of my work is word of mouth,live and die by the quality of my reputation but 95% of my work is within a 12 mile radius. I would guess that If I was based in a city there would be far more competition for the work and less reliance on reputation but belonging to a "federation of" would possibly give me a slight edge over the competition.

In general I think its all just a money making exercise and people more intelligent than me saw an opportunity and took it, set up a "federation of this and that" and make a decent living from it. I would see it differently if it was a "not for profit" organisation but even if it was there are some very clever ways to take a considerable renumeration package.

But I am a cynic by nature......

Just to add I know some complete cowboy companies that belong to the Federation of Master Builders etc and none of these schemes will stop cowboy builders and bodgers.

and if you are unlucky to have had work done by a cowboy and you try and get whatever federatio to sort it out youwill probably find yourself out of luck , one of my customers has an 8 year old house where all the paint is falling off the exterior walls and woodwork , this is because it hasn't been done properly , so they tried to claim on their nhbc insurance to rectify it , only to be told it wasn't covered, as the house is huge and all the paint needs to be stripped back and start again it's probably going to cost 10k to put right .
there is still no better way to find someone thru recommendtion rather than plucking a random name from yell, google etc who has a list of federation schemes that he belongs to that might mean they are great but can promise that they will be

Doozergirl

Regardless of membership of anything, if people are having incredibly expensive work done on their home then they should check references and speak directly to a previous customer who has had similar work carried out. Any decent builder will happily provide a few numbers. I normally provide three most recent and let them choose who they call, even when they've been referred.

osdset

keystone wrote: »

I'm waiting vainly for the day that someone finds the solution to the cowboy customer.

Cheers

I'll second that. Funny how there's no TV programmes about cowboy customers isn't it?