Tradesman

20122013

What are your experience with tradesman, especially when you need the work done and have to pay 30% upfront so they can hold your place (??) and things keep changing before the work has even started. 

Beeblebr0x

I'd only pay a tradesman in stages once the work has begun, as set out in the contract.

Bigphil1474

We have a guy who does work for us regularly. Always been happy. We pay 50% before they start and 50% afterwards. We've never paid to keep our place, just paid a few days before they've started and within a couple of days of completion.

TELLIT01

Paying something up front for materials is one thing, and not unreasonable shortly before the work starts.  Paying to retain your place in a queue is something I certainly wouldn't advise doing. 

Doozergirl

Different people work in different ways.  We don't have any details of what is being done, how much it costs or what is changing.  

The key is the due diligence that you do beforehand.    How have you found the person?   What checks have you done?  

Tradespeople get a bad rap but a lot of good tradespeople are equally wary of cowboy customers and they find ways to protect themselves too.  

comeandgo

I have never paid a deposit and never will.  A decent tradesman will have accounts with suppliers,, if they don’t then that shows they are high risk financially.  Non of the tradesmen I use even ask for deposits, they do the work and get paid immediately they invoice.  

Doozergirl

comeandgo said:

I have never paid a deposit and never will.  A decent tradesman will have accounts with suppliers,, if they don’t then that shows they are high risk financially.  Non of the tradesmen I use even ask for deposits, they do the work and get paid immediately they invoice.  

Here's a question. 

How does a tradesperson know what kind of financial risk you pose?  If you don't pay them, who pays their supplier? If you cancel at the last minute, who pays them for the lost work? 

I'm not advocating for any particular route, but that credit line you're taking for granted is very much extended to you.  You might be good for it, and the tradesperson might be good for it, and you can take out insurance backed guarantees if you like, but how does a tradesperson protect themselves? 

Trust is a two way process.  

Any plc will be asking you for 100% upfront - they know that customers aren't trustworthy! 

Section62

comeandgo said:

I have never paid a deposit and never will.  A decent tradesman will have accounts with suppliers,, if they don’t then that shows they are high risk financially.  Non of the tradesmen I use even ask for deposits, they do the work and get paid immediately they invoice.  

You've never purchased a car?

rob7475

It's a tough one from both sides:

From the trades perspective - how do they know you will pay once work is started. Even if they ask for payment in stages for larger work, they are working for free until you make that first payment. I understand some trades wanting some payment up front as they probably can't afford the loss if you fail to pay.

From a customer perspective - if you don't know the tradesman, how can you trust that they will do the work or do it to a good standard once they have your money.

I think as we move into a society that is less trusting, it creates a good business opportunity for an intermediary that can process the payments between customer and tradesman and "hold" them until both parties agree funds can be released.

Silvertabby

rob7475 said:

It's a tough one from both sides:

From the trades perspective - how do they know you will pay once work is started. Even if they ask for payment in stages for larger work, they are working for free until you make that first payment. I understand some trades wanting some payment up front as they probably can't afford the loss if you fail to pay.

From a customer perspective - if you don't know the tradesman, how can you trust that they will do the work or do it to a good standard once they have your money.

I think as we move into a society that is less trusting, it creates a good business opportunity for an intermediary that can process the payments between customer and tradesman and "hold" them until both parties agree funds can be released.

This was 30 years ago, but our new conservatory contract was nothing up front, just payment in full once the job was finished and we were happy.

Well, we were happy and went into the local office/showroom to pay.  To find the cashier being yelled at by a guy screaming "it's not my f'ing fault I can't get a f'ing bank loan - you'll have to accept a fiver a month or you won't get any f'ing money at all".  I had to mop up the poor girl's tears and make her a cup of tea before concluding our business.

Sadly, this company went bust shortly afterwards.  Which was a pity, because they did a really good job - when we changed the old style conservatory for a hybrid conservatory/orangery a few years ago the  quality foundations were more than up to the job.

Albermarle

From the trades perspective - how do they know you will pay once work is started. Even if they ask for payment in stages for larger work, they are working for free until you make that first payment

When we had a large job done, I agreed to make the first payment, once they actually turned up and started work. So they were only working for 'free' for a couple of days, and from my point of view at least I could see the work was getting started.