Do you have trouble hiring tradesman?

Nathaniel_Essex

bris wrote: »

Not true, I can from first hand experience tell you that the amount of times I have turned up to quote for a boiler repair only to realise I was actually just giving out free advice on the fault that the "I can do that" homeowner was always going to fix himself is uncountable.


As a result I had to decide between a callout charge or just giving a price to fix it without telling them the problem. I went with the latter.

It will be interesting to know as a ratio how many of those were time wasters. I work in professional services and have my fair share of time wasters to a point I can sniff them from a mile away. With that said, because they are such a minority of my overall clients, I still give everyone the time of day. I simply qualify a call as much as I can before travelling or get them to come to me so I am not wasting too much of my time.

With that said, these tradesman I call, I make sure they are local all the time and give them a realistic timescale of the work; whether it is something I am looking to do immediately or later on. I try to qualify the work for them as much as I can.

Problem is, a lot of these people advertise "no obligation quotes" and "no job too big or too small" so I contact them based on that premise. I have contacted at least a dozen gardeners that have either come round, quoted and then never bothered to show up to do the job or just never bothered to do the quote. I wanted a custom built cabinet in my living room and set aside £1,500 for it to be done - got quotes, mock images produced etc. only for every single one not to show up and do the job. Ended up buying something from John Lewis instead.

In every case I offer to send pictures, set my budget etc. I just think there are too many people who simply lack basic customer service skills coupled with the ironic British attitude of not ever saying "no".

In a direct response to your self, I see no problem of telling the customer what is wrong. I had someone come over to check my boiler as it was not working. He was just stopping by to quote and was not planning to actually do the job. Quick look and send the pressure had gone and needed resetting. Told me to follow the instructions on the manual and it was something I can do myself - "call me if you prefer for me to do it and it will cost £30 call out fee".

Done it myself, thanked him for the advice. When I need an outdoor pipe, 2 taps replaced and some tiling done, he was the first person I called to do the job.