How often to chase builders for quote/reply/commitment? Getting really fed up now. :-(

TELLIT01

My brother-in-law plus two of his brothers are in the building trade and they have more work than they can handle, and people constantly calling them wanting new work done.  They can, and do, cherry pick the jobs which are the most cost effective for them.  It's financially more attractive to be at one job for 5 days than 5 jobs of 1 day each.  That may be the type of problem the OP is facing.

ComicGeek

greyteam1959 said:

The tradesmen are probably all heading off to all the building sites.
Startling rates of pay,bonuses, pensions & guaranteed work.
Who would want all the hassle, risk & stress of chasing £2000 /£5000 jobs ??

Definitely not for large developers - housing developers pay the lowest rates but expect the most flexibility. There are also so many subcontractors involved that the person who actually does the work gets paid peanuts. Generally I find that the tradesmen want to work on smaller projects for builders they know - but if Doozergirl can't keep them, then it's getting serious! 

I've just finished some work on my house - none of the builders, tilers, carpenters, bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, painters, flooring companies are taking on any work from new customers, they're all booked solid for months and months.
For my own work, I can't do all of the work from my existing clients, let alone taking on new clients. First time in over 20 years that I'm turning away so much work.
Been working weekends and evenings for over a year now, just not sustainable. And then the idiot politicians start talking about a boom - we've been trying to survive that for a year already, no juice left in the tank for any longer!!

ChasingtheWelshdream

I just thought I'd update - we may have hope!

One of the builders who had promised to quote, did just that. And then......emailed to say he's booked in the job, and will contact us nearer the time to measure up properly!

We don't have a definite timescale, and he has been honest that the quote may fluctuate depending on the prices of materials at the time, and depending on availability it may take longer to get to us. 

But....we are booked in!!!!! :-D

Doozergirl

ChasingtheWelshdream said:

I just thought I'd update - we may have hope!

One of the builders who had promised to quote, did just that. And then......emailed to say he's booked in the job, and will contact us nearer the time to measure up properly!

We don't have a definite timescale, and he has been honest that the quote may fluctuate depending on the prices of materials at the time, and depending on availability it may take longer to get to us. 

But....we are booked in!!!!! :-D

Good luck 😉 

ChasingtheWelshdream

Doozergirl said:

Good luck 😉 

I may be back next year - we’ve been here before…  

kasqueak

Good luck!
i’m having similar problems trying to find some tradespeople to do some building jobs for me. I just hate it when they don’t reply to you. A simple “sorry not interested” would suffice so I’m not left waiting for weeks wondering if I should find someone else or if they’re going to come back to me. Just find it a bit rude. 

ComicGeek

kasqueak said:

Just find it a bit rude. 

And that's the problem - you're expecting the same level of customer service that you get from large retail brands etc. You might be lucky and get hold of someone while travelling between jobs, or on a quick break, otherwise you're waiting for them to have a paperwork day/evening to get back to you - with current workloads that is even less frequent than before. There is no receptionist to take calls, no manager to organise diaries, no other person to buy/pick up materials. 

Im not a tradesman but work in the industry. Even though I'm at my desk 75% of the time, I don't get time to respond to 25% of enquiries at the moment. I prioritise existing clients and more interesting projects, the rest get ignored - I'm pretty much guaranteed to get any work quoted for existing clients, so why bother wasting time on quotes that I may not get, and more importantly for work that I just don't need at the moment.

I do get angry phone calls regularly from people chasing quotes. I could spend a couple of hours each day responding to all enquiries, or I could spend time with my family. You might find it rude, but there are only limited hours in the day. 

Gavin83

I imagine it’s difficult for tradesmen. I expect if they’re honest and say they don’t want the job there are people who’ll take it personally and get quite argumentative/abusive about it. Taking the age old route of over-quoting has its problems too. You’ll get people arguing with the price and we’ve seen plenty of threads on here from people complaining they’ve overpaid and how do they recover the extra. It is a little rude but I can understand why they wouldn’t respond.

There is a shortage of tradesmen but frankly it isn’t a glamorous job and there’s been far too much competition from European workers willing to work for a lot less. There’s been points I’ve considered working in a trade (my dad was an electrician himself) but honestly I earn more money doing what I do with much less hassle.

I’m taking the route of going DIY as much as physically possible. It’s the only way to get things done these days.

ChasingtheWelshdream

I thought I’d jump on and update, especially as it’s good news!

Our builder called round a couple of weeks ago to check in that we are still wanting to go ahead, double check things and order the steel. They started work today. 😁

Added to that, the company have continued to be highly recommended by others in random conversations, I’m so glad we went with them and they will definitely have repeat custom. 

TELLIT01

I realise this is a bit late but the title hit a nerve with me.  I had two contractors round to look at a job.  One was back in touch within a week with a figure.  The other, who came highly recommended, took 3 weeks and then the quote didn't cover all the work.  I have had to chase a couple of times for more detail.  Guess which one has now been removed from the options.