I love these threads where 99% of people think we’re all crap, and the other 1% can’t believe it when one actually turns up on time and does the job he/she has quoted for.

On the other hand, all you have to do to be at the top of your profession, with as much work as you can do by word of mouth alone – is show up.

If ever there was a case of setting low expectations and then pleasing people by exceeding them, then this is it.

It’s tough, isn’t it. Going “all tradesmen” is just a rash generalisation and obviously untrue, but it can be shockingly difficult to find someone honest and reliable.

I had some work done in my bathroom a couple of years back (the bath split, with hilarious consequences). I got a personal recommendation from a mate who’d just had a new bathroom fitted, the job he’d done there was excellent. The chap came round, gave me a quote, I agreed, then at some point he must’ve decided that the work was beneath him as it wasn’t a full room and subcontracted it out to some other bloke who made a right pig’s bladder of it.

And don’t get me started on roofers. How hard can it be to get someone to patch a leaky gutter and fix a couple of broken tiles? I’ve had four different ones out now and the $%^&ing thing still drips. Seems if it’s not a four-figure job no-one’s interested.

this firm was the first to offer a discount for cash and it was 30%. Why 30%? They’re taking all the risk by skipping the tax don’t they want a cut of the savings? Also it wasn’t a small firm, surely once you get to ~10FTEs working for cash doesn’t make sense?

20% VAT
Employers NI
Employees NI
Employees income tax

Invoice the materials to a different job so they get paid for twice etc

Also they get the job in the first place, the profit margin is only the same if you assume they would have got the job if they quoted the higher figure.

A mate of mine set a business up, first venture as a tradesman. After 6 months he told me all he had to do was turn up on time, dressed appropriately and reasonably competent…he was getting 100% acceptance.

Then he got a bit over confident, started taking the piss and charging way over the market.

Turns out others had taken his place. Seen it happen so many times, you are only as good as your last job.

Worst thing about moving up north was leaving our reliable plumber. Took six years but finally found a decent one up here.

Unfortunately the good sparky has retired in the meantime.

I am one of those tradesmen who turns up on time, gives written typed estimates, look tidy clean jeans and sweatshirt/jacket, always give a receipt, tidy up afterwards, and have a few boxes of chocolates and biscuits for my elderly customers stored away for the week before christmas to hand out.

Yrs and we do occasionally get a customer who cancels on the day for work to start, strange how many sick kids are out there, even if thy dont have kids.

Also a few years ago, spent most of the night at a hospital, my auntie was ill,then she died,customer rang up next day screaming abuse because i was 20 mins late, to do a small 30 quid job,she got told forefully what she could spend her 30 quid on, lessons in being polite.

It’s the same in work, if you want someone to do a job which requires them to sit in a nice warm office and tap away on a keyboard all day, 2 a penny, honestly I could throw a stone out of the window and hit the second rebounding off the first.

If I want someone to do anything ghastly that requires a practical skill or heaven forbid a non-climate controlled environment, or worse a LADDER! You better know a few good ones and hope an pray they can actually turn up and do the work.

It’s not that they’re bad workers, far from, it’s they’re bad communicators, it’s really hard to know how long a job will actually take and if you’re in the habit of booking a day to do a 4 hour job in case it runs over you’ll go bust very quickly, but rather than say they’ll be late, they just turn up late and by late, I mean 2 days later.

Honestly if you’ve got kids who want to work in the exciting world of IT Support, tell them if they want to work 1st Line they’ll be paid a pittance and flat out all day resetting passwords, adding printers and yes, asking people to turn it off and on again.

But if they can terminate a Cat lead and use a drill, they’ll never be short of work and the money is far better, and they get to give me pain all day, every day.

You know when you have a tradesman round and they’re on their phone a lot and you get frustrated that they’re not concentrating on your job?

They’re being courteous and reliable by answering the phone to customers. You can’t have them only be courteous and attentive just to you.

It can be difficult to manage all these demands and some are better at it than others.

I always answer the phone to customers, turn up on time and all of that. On the other hand I’ve done a lot of quotes with detailed drawings for people who I’ve never heard from again.Can work both ways.

Mouthing off on Facebook at someone after a couple of hours is maybe not great though. 😀

waiting for a tradesman to come and service my central hearing boiler.

May be that he answered but you couldn’t hear him because your hearing needs servicing?

Mouthing off on Facebook at someone after a couple of hours is maybe not great though.

It’s amazing that in 20 years of work as a manager of people I’ve maybe had one or two instances of people not phoning in sick using the correct procedures (Normally ring within 1hr of start time generally) even from people who had cancer, people who have had car crashes, people who have had a death in the family etc etc. And those one or two have phoned later in the day with a very good reason why they didn’t ring earlier. And this is out of hundreds and hundreds of instances.

So why can’t these “professionals” do it? Surely they have a diary which says “Mr Smith, boiler service 9am” and they just have to let that person know.

I’m sorry but there is no excuse for not contacting someone to inform them what’s going on.

You know when you have a tradesman round and they’re on their phone a lot and you get frustrated that they’re not concentrating on your job?

There’s this new invention I’ve heard about called an answer machine, I think they even allow you to put your own greeting on it too to explain when you will ring back – maybe at a time when someone else isn’t paying for a service you are supposed to be providing.

“Hi it’s Smith Plumbing – I’m working for a customer right now so I can’t answer. Leave a message and I’ll ring back at lunch or the end of the day.”

A couple of years ago the plumber we’d booked in didn’t turn up.
He was fitting a new bathroom so it wasn’t a small job. After waiting for 2 months for him to be able to do this in the first place (as he was booked up) it was frustrating.
An hour later I got a phone call to tell me his father had been rushed into hospital.
After years of putting up with a curtain fitter that I use regularly for work and all his bad excuses, I was not happy.
A few days had passed and I called the plumber. Sadly his father had died, so in this instance it was a bona fide reason for not turning up.

Been waiting on the central heating guy to finish fitting an outlet valve cover for 8 years now

I’m sorry but there is no excuse for not contacting someone to inform them what’s going on.

I agree with this. I wonder why he didn’t?

And those one or two have phoned later in the day with a very good reason why they didn’t ring earlier. And this is out of hundreds and hundreds of instances.

Did you ring them after an hour and abuse them on their answer phone?

I had reason to use 5 electricians in a short space of time this summer and a plumber. Experience/satifactions/value varied wildly. My conclusion is that facebook is the best place to find someone – the reviews are there to read, dated and an objective FB algorithym tells you how responsive they are to messages.

I will never use ratedpeople.com again

WOM is good but I think falls down where good = busy and if you are in a rush you can be left hanging.

For balance I’ve had plenty of folk working in offices not return calls they promised to.

Makes you think.