+howevermany for a varied experience.

Builder I’m using now is excellent – I know what the plan is, when things are happening, what the next stage costs will look like.

I had to get the extension foundations piled. He dealt with the piling contractors, almost all of whom fell into the “don’t turn up category”. It didn’t affect me, but the builder was royally annoyed. “It’s the embarrassing thing about our industry – people aren’t reliable” were his very refreshing words.

The rest of his team (esp the site manager who’s also excellent) + most of the subbies have been great. Only one tradesman has been a let down so far: the roofer, which hasn’t been ideal in this weather. As soon as my MIL saw his truck on the drive she said “You’ve got him?! No-one can ever get hold of him!”

Every silver lining, and all that.

If your hands aren’t free you could wear an earpiece and answer texts with voice whilst still working.

You might even use a minute of your 45 minute morning tea break or your two hour long lunch break.

Tea break? Lunch break? What’s them? 🙂
I suppose it depends on the trade and whether it’s practical to have/want your phone somewhere you to check every so often.
Just trying to give a reason as to why trades people don’t always get to you straight away.
But yeah, some are just rubbish like any other profession.

Yeah no excuse for that other than you completely forgot the job /forgot to put in diary in which case fess up and apologise.

If your hands aren’t free you could wear an earpiece and answer texts with voice whilst still working.

I hope im missing that this is a joke….

I sense a bit of envy in this thread…

Maybe that’s why tradesman work as self-employed tradesman. If they wanted their balls kept in the boss’s satchel while he records their movements over Skype and not being able to take an un-monitored piss without signing several 27B/6 TPS Reports they would’ve become IT drones…

I hope im missing that this is a joke….

I kept misreading it as ‘codpiece’.

My problem isn’t answering quick queries, it’s the long complex emails with numbered lists that need half an hour and quite a bit of research to answer that can’t be answered in a spare minute during the day.

Not turning up for a job and without communicating is completely unacceptable. However answering calls and texts while I’m focused on someone’s job I’m charging an hourly rate for I find problematic. I respond to enquiries once I’ve got my feet up on the sofa and have thought through what I can realistically offer folk (not something I can do with a hands free set whilst doing a task that requires full attention). The rate enquiries and jobs build up exceeds the rate I can deal with them even when I’m completely upfront about just how long my backlog is.
Someone mentioned professionalism, well I could turn up with my trousers round my ankles and customers wouldn’t bat an eyelid….market forces have driven things way too far in tradesfolks favour.

To the trades people…all we have to do is get an office and employ someone to answer all the calls and emails …obviously that person would need to be skilled and know all about the trade in order to help so will need to be well paid…..ohhh hang on then the day rate of the trades person will have to go up to cover this..mmm that im sure will go down well

Nope just get the tradesperson to do that in there break 🙂 or whislt working therefor not concentrating on doing a good job for the person paying you at the time… 😉

Its only graft after all … because we dont need to use our brains with it being manual work and all 🙂

would be nice to know the professions of the complainers for balance.

But i agree there are some terrible people who go to to work no matter what the work is .. some dont give a …..

A Stonemason

If your hands aren’t free you could wear an earpiece and answer texts with voice whilst still working.

😆

Awesome work mols.

Oh and can you do it on sunday whist im out on my bike…..

Er no… im going out on my bike 🙂

Am currently having to take two months off my joinery work (no sick pay, insurance* or benefits worthy of the name) due to 1/4 sec inattention whilst using the table saw. Really don’t think I’ll be getting a hands free “run your office whilst u work” system anytime soon.

*before you ask, check costs for self employed cover (plus the t&c and multiply that by the 32 years I’ve ran my business to find out why I don’t have that!

due to 1/4 sec inattention whilst using the table saw.

Doing a ‘Stoner’ as it’s now known?

Regarding heating engineers,we had a local Gas safe engineer recommended to us to carry out the annual check on a rental property.
It amounted to £85 cash for what was literally 5 mins in the house,but we still used to have to chase him for a good 5 or 6 weeks before he eventually turned up and did the job.

“Can we pay you at the end of the month?”

That’s a regular one. 🙄

Doing a ‘Stoner’ as it’s now known?

Well I now appreciate the importance of having a roller trestle supporting the work when ripping using a scribing blade plus normal blade!

Really don’t think I’ll be getting a hands free “run your office whilst u work” system anytime soon.

All such systems require a bit of executive decision making skill…

Yeah, I think the execute bit was the problem in my case…
I think I need to retrain and get an office job, learn to multitask a bit: “Do” my prescribed job, look at singletrack all day and polish my crown jewels all at the same time! 😀

I love the way people are almost spitting out the word ‘tradesman’.
We all do different jobs just like everyone else who’s employed. I don’t start threads about the ’employed’s’ after I’ve had a problem with an estate agent or a hairdresser. Some of us work bloody hard (no tea break, no lunch) so can some of you stop treating me like a workshy roofer you once had a problem with just because I have to drive a white van to work.
Thanks.
(Sorry….that got a bit ranty. No offence intended)

If it’s any consolation I’m having a similar problem in the USA.

Need some work doing on our house near Seattle – new (small) kitchen, one bathroom, some fencing. Probably about $50k of work (using low-end stuff).

Can I get a quote? Nope. Even using trades recommended from others.

Yes support for the tradesman here and white Tranny pick up driver although a new one
Dont get me started on council or public sector workers a sneeze and off for a week or two full pay, self employed no pay

would be nice to know the professions of the complainers for balance.

I’m a photographer (advertising/design/editorial) so im self employed too.
The idea of not turning up is simply not on unless there is a very good reason, and as for not letting people know?? That’s just a piss poor attitude that unfortunately seems to be the norm for tradesmen who deal with the general public.

I employ other freelancers and if you were constantly late or didn’t communicate you wouldn’t last 5 minutes in my line of work.
I’m struggling to think of a valid reason for tradesmen to somehow be absolved from basic courtesy and good manners when conducting business?

My problem isn’t answering quick queries, it’s the long complex emails with numbered lists that need half an hour and quite a bit of research to answer that can’t be answered in a spare minute during the day.

Then have a standard reply ready then.
I use something like “hi, thanks for your enquiry, I’m on a location shoot today but will respond in full later.” Or something similar.
If you can’t allocate an amount of time in your day for admin tasks like responding to emails/quoting then you need to increase your rates enough to cover some admin time and not have to be producing/generating income every minute of the day.

in my experience i feel it’s largely due to maximising profit and minimising hassle.

If you can’t allocate an amount of time in your day for admin tasks like responding to emails/quoting then you need to increase your rates enough to cover some admin time and not have to be producing/generating income every minute of the day.

Hehe. Yeah right.

All that happens then, is that the STW IT crowd will go with the lowest quote, from the guy who hasn’t taken your advice and upped his rates.
And then moan about it on here afterwards because he’s so busy he never answers his phone.
Meanwhile, anyone that took your advice would have plenty of time to answer their phone while they were waiting in line at the food bank.

That was aimed at Ben, that’s a specialist field that while not immune to pricing levels is probably more results driven than bottom dollar pricing.

I’m struggling to think of a valid reason for tradesmen to somehow be absolved from basic courtesy and good manners when conducting business?

I suspect part of the answer is in your story. Someone let you down and didn’t communicate, yet you still asked them to complete the job for you.

My boiler needed a service last autumn. My usual guy wrote me a reminder. I rang him and gave him several days when I would be at home (shift worker). He didn’t show so I rang him – “I’ll call back in half an hour”. I’m still waiting for that call.
Tried the guy who plumbed my new kitchen for a service this autumn. Long story blah di blah “I’ll call back next week”. He didn’t so I rang him. “Yeah, next week definite”. That was two months ago, still waiting.

I suspect part of the answer is in your story. Someone let you down and didn’t communicate, yet you still asked them to complete the job for y

Had loads of trouble trying to find a plumber, found a good one who did the job 2 days later after quoting.
The chap who didn’t turn up yesterday came today to fit locks and hang doors got the job done, I gave him a mince pie, made him a coupe of posh coffees and helped carry his tools down the stairs.
I just couldn’t deal with telling him not to bother and then go through the whole process again of being let down again while finding somebody who can do the job and have the ability to send a text f they can’t make it.

At no point have I ever queried a quote or asked for a cheaper deal, I even rounded up by a tenner when paying today’s tradesmen.

Is it too much to expect a text or email saying “sorry, job has overrun, is tomorrow o.k?”
It took me a few seconds to write that sentence, it’s not like it’s difficult and texts come bundled in their thousands with mobile contracts these days.

Dont get me started on council or public sector workers a sneeze and off for a week or two full pay, self employed no pay

Well if we are defensive….. I work in public sector and have had two days off in 8 years. They were after a car accident.

I started this thread and still havnt managed to get a quote for the work. Three guys now all failed to show.

I don’t bother with trades people much these days and tend to do most stuff myself. I have one good builder who is semi retired and likes odd jobs. Plumbers and heating engineers are like rocking horse shit round here and decorators have a highly inflated view of their day rates in my opinion.

Whoa there…no one forces anyone to get a decorator in, but there are an awful lot of people who can not, for one reason or another do it themselves.
If you think decorators have a highly inflated view of their day rates I seriously hope you never need a solicitor. If we all charged £100 a day there wouldn’t be any decorators in Surrey as no one could afford to live here.

My boiler needed a service last autumn

When my boiler needs a service I just book it in online with British Gas who turn up at the exact time booked, It costs more but I pay for the service I want.

I arrange to have my boiler serviced a month before it needs it. I find building in a month buffer usually sees it getting done bang on time.

Get your boiler serviced in summer when they are much quieter.

As a gardener I get frustrated that everyone waits until peak growing season to get work done on their garden and get annoyed that they have to wait several weeks for the work to be fitted in when very often the work could be in quieter times. This has made me appreciate that some other trades have busy times so I generally get my chimney swept and boiler serviced in summer. The chimney guy was well chuffed and said he charged less in summer but still everyone normally waits till September/October and then the phone goes mad.

Then have a standard reply ready then.
I use something like “hi, thanks for your enquiry, I’m on a location shoot today but will respond in full later.” Or something similar

Don’t people find those more annoying than not? I do – I think “Oh look, I’ve got a really quick reply.”

Much better than no reply, especially if the follow up happens when claimed

Don’t people find those more annoying than not? I do – I think “Oh look, I’ve got a really quick reply.”

Thanks for your great contribution. This is a reply just to let you know we have received your post, and one of our Jamies will get back to your shortly. We thank you for your patience. While you wait for a response, your answer may be found on our faq here.

But email’s basically an electronic letter – you don’t get letters saying “Thanks for your letter, we’ll reply soon.”

If it was a personal email answering a couple of things but leaving a full reply until later, that’d be different. But an automated email response is basically just an acknowledgment of receipt.

Edit: 😀

Just had new kitchen floor put in, got two quotes. One was more expensive and was just a price with no breakdown so we asked for a breakdown, nothing, emailed and phoned several times, nothing. Went with the cheaper quote, all fitted and good now. More expensive quote had several recommendations but if someone asks I’ll not be passing their details on.

But email’s basically an electronic letter – you don’t get letters saying “Thanks for your letter, we’ll reply soon.”

Yes you do. Pretty common when dealing with the council or government departments. It is mostly an acknowledgement of receipt but that’s a good start. Firstly there’s the not knowing plus I may have asked the same questions to a couple of suppliers. The deal might be done while I assume you are ignoring me, if I know your reply is coming I’ll be more inclined to wait. Its better customer service imo. Not talking about an automated reply, but a personal response stating when the proper response will come