why are tradesman bad?

missprice

victor2 wrote: »

It works both ways. Tradesmen deserve as much respect as they give their customers. We know the type of tea "our" builder drinks, he understands we want any inconvenience to be kept to a minimum. We put the kettle on for 8am because we know that's the time he starts. If the wife has been baking, he (and any colleagues) gets a slice of cake with his tea. When our house, along with most surrounding ones, was damaged by a freak hailstorm, he came to us the same day with tarpaulin to cover the roof damage, and subsequently quoted for repairs, which our insurers accepted without hesitation and he got the job. Not a big job by his standards, but he looked after his existing clients and we know he turned down similar requests from other people he didn't already know.

Have done the same myself, if I was in I would make him a bacon/egg/something sandwich, tea/coffee on tap and all the water he needed. He has sadly retired with a bad hip now, so the new builder is in his 50s and lives 30 houses away and appears to not want any sarnies/drinks etc. Possibly because he lives so close.

But what happens when he retires? Who will take his place, I know of one young brickie but there are only so many walls I require and he doesn't do roofing/windows/doors/fences et al.

Unless some young people are properly trained and soon,there will be a huge shortage of trades and consequently all the problems mentioned here will be exacerbated. No one answering phones, no one available to quote or do the work, the good ones busy til 2 Christmases time, costs will rise hugely as they will be so much in demand etc.

Mistral001

somethingcorporate wrote: »

I use family and family recommended now after too many awful experiences.

We were looking for a loft conversion and had 4 companies round to quote, 1 of which didn't turn up or return the calls. Despite telling them we have the money ready and waiting only 1 bothered to get back to us with a written quote for £50k+ worth of work. It's like they actually don't want to work....?

I honestly don't get it and hate having to look for people to do work.

Often if you are having difficulty getting people to quote, there is something about the job that the builder does not like. Perhaps the architect's drawings are a bit sketchy or the builder see something in the drawings which they know from experience will be problematic. It also could be access to the site, or any number of other things which they know will add expense to the job - probably expense which the client will not understand and come to the erroneous conclusion at the end of the job that the builder is ripping them off.

Doozergirl

bundly wrote: »

This is RUBBISH. As Ballet said, 90% of the time one cannot even get through to them on the phone.

Or are you saying they are now SO prejudiced against ALL customers that they won't even answer the phone?

What a way to do business!

Everyone that works with us right now is busy. I have guys with me all the time but some trades I can't keep employed constantly - eg. my plumber and electrician, although we're doing such a job at the moment. They cannot cope with the demand that we are placing on them.

All the tradesmen I work with have preferential clients. They all have smart phones and all will pick up the phone to the people they work with regularly. Picking up the phone to an unknown number when you are turning down work from regulars and working all hours just isn't on the list. Many of those calls may be potential customers kindly recommended by previous clients, but if you can't service the people that bring your bread and butter, there is no room or point, unfortunately, in picking up that phone.

We are having to spread wider to people we haven't used before to keep on track - and that means getting the person on my site making the recommendation to call them. Recommendations from other tradespeople are stronger than those from clients because they are essentially recommending a pre-vetted client!

Tradesmen do what they are good at - their trade. In the main, they don't like admin or paperwork. They don't have secretaries, accounts departments or a customer service team, so if the phone goes unanswered, it's for a reason - most likely that they don't need the work (or the distraction from what they're doing).

Not ideal, but true.

There are good points made previously about not doing domestic work, especially as a small trade. If you don't have to, it's better not to. The more customers you have, the harder it is. Many don't pay the trades the respect or money they deserve and so they'd rather subbie to someone else and let them manage the client relationships. And so, from the other side of the fence, it does boil down to the what you say is rubbish. If tradespeople can avoid people they don't know and also spend as little time as possible quoting for jobs they may not get, they absolutely will.

I suggest, if you have a recommendation from a friend for a tradesperson, to get them to make the introduction. Their number won't come up as unknown.

dearlouise

It's quite concerning the amount of tradesmen you can find. I've been looking for an electrician for weeks on recommendation & can't find one. I'm really too scared to just start calling random numbers... you just never know what they'll be like!

Furts

dearlouise wrote: »

It's quite concerning the amount of tradesmen you can find. I've been looking for an electrician for weeks on recommendation & can't find one. I'm really too scared to just start calling random numbers... you just never know what they'll be like!

I have kept my head down and waited for others to chime in. My life story in construction has been one of avoiding private, or domestic, work unless on recommendation, or for a family member of a construction contact.

This policy was a simple commercial decision when I set up in business. It has stood me in good stead and I do not regret doing so.

I am currently in need of an electrician to work on my home. My wife made a call last week and the excellent sparky came around after work for a coffee and chat about requirements. We batted around the best ways of doing the jobs and I left it with him. He has guaranteed work for the day or so, and I know on the appointed day he will be at my door at 8.00 and do a good days work. He will be paid daywork - he does not have to work out prices or spend time preparing a quote. This daywork rate set at a rate he is happy with. He will not have to rush, or scimp, the work will be correct.

He has explained that the work may exceed a day. My response was fine - work until you are weary, or work into the evening, or come back another time to complete. He knows he will be paid for whatever he does before leaving my home - with no quibbles. If he needs more than a days money he will be paid it. If I need to get some bits I will pop down to the merchants to get them, if he wishes - saves his time and diesel fuel.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for some consumers?

balletshoes

Furts wrote: »

I have kept my head down and waited for others to chime in. My life story in construction has been one of avoiding private, or domestic, work unless on recommendation, or for a family member of a construction contact.

This policy was a simple commercial decision when I set up in business. It has stood me in good stead and I do not regret doing so.

I am currently in need of an electrician to work on my home. My wife made a call last week and the excellent sparky came around after work for a coffee and chat about requirements. We batted around the best ways of doing the jobs and I left it with him. He has guaranteed work for the day or so, and I know on the appointed day he will be at my door at 8.00 and do a good days work. He will be paid daywork - he does not have to work out prices or spend time preparing a quote. This daywork rate set at a rate he is happy with. He will not have to rush, or scimp, the work will be correct.

He has explained that the work may exceed a day. My response was fine - work until you are weary, or work into the evening, or come back another time to complete. He knows he will be paid for whatever he does before leaving my home - with no quibbles. If he needs more than a days money he will be paid it. If I need to get some bits I will pop down to the merchants to get them, if he wishes - saves his time and diesel fuel.

Perhaps there is a lesson here for some consumers?

how did your wife get the call answered/sparky arrange to come round and actually turn up in the first place? Thats where I have the trouble, not when one does actually appear and quote for the work.

Furts

balletshoes wrote: »

how did your wife get the call answered/sparky arrange to come round and actually turn up in the first place? Thats where I have the trouble, not when one does actually appear and quote for the work.

Please look on this with lateral thinking. You have posted that you contact ten tradesmen/women for one job. The converse is these folks know that 90% of your calls will be time wasters. Then if they respond, visit, price up, produce a quote, win the work, do the work, produce an invoice, chase up payment...it is not worth it. The job might only be worth £50-£100 and this adds insult to this process.

"My" electrician did not answer the phone. Contrary to what most mse forum users believe (excluding, I suspect, brightontraveller, doozergirl, leveller 2911 and others) it would be unprofessional to respond. My electrician earns money by working and not spending every five minutes on the phone. Besides, being on the phone looks like shirking, and further, those like me paying on daywork do not want to be paying for time wasting consumers to receive answers to their concerns. Hence answerphone or text is the option. These messages are then checked when appropriate - such as lunch break - and sifted to give appropriate leads.

Now you might think my views are harsh. To add to this we are known to have high standards and do not tolerate anything sub standard. We know almost as much about many trades as the trades themselves. You would think this makes us a client from hell. Instead trades are available almost at the drop of a hat. Trades know what we expect and find us a refreshing change from the norm.

We also issue clear instructions, discuss the work, listen to isues, address trades courteously, are respectful, respect their skills, monitor and check their work, pay on completion and offer tea, coffee,cake and toilets.

Finally out of respect to leveller2911 we have a golden rule to avoid problems - all labour must be local UK. I confess one sub contractor put an East European in for a days work three years ago, unknown to us. We can still cringe at the problems created, but it was agreed the work would be FOC, so here we won on a financial basis.

Again, as in my earlier post, perhaps some consumers could learn from our experiences.

martinthebandit

In a different thread some time ago I got shot down for saying this but I still believe it's true.......

Good trades people don't work for bad customers.

micky2phones

martinthebandit wrote: »

Generally with trades you can pick any two of the following;

Good,
Cheap,
Fast.

Good and cheap, won't be fast,
Good and fast won't be cheap
Cheap and fast, won't be good.

Very good, my thoughts aswell

Doozergirl

Furts wrote: »

Please look on this with lateral thinking. You have posted that you contact ten tradesmen/women for one job. The converse is these folks know that 90% of your calls will be time wasters. Then if they respond, visit, price up, produce a quote, win the work, do the work, produce an invoice, chase up payment...it is not worth it. The job might only be worth £50-£100 and this adds insult to this process.

This is so true. Even with our regular guys, I know that they won't be keen to come out to my house to do random bits and pieces and so I save work until there's enough for a full day's work - and allow them to come on their own schedule so they can fill a gap in the diary between more chunky stuff, perhaps. Obviously, this isn't going to fit with people who don't work from home, but even I have to make things easy for good people.