Customers from hell!

[Dan Robinson]

Oh and in addition....nearly all the 'people who have come to the house to do work' are making loads more money than me, especially plumbers. They have bigger houses and flash cars. But thats not what life is about as far as I'm concerend. I would rather be honest and fair, and enjoy life, than have all the material possesions.
(I wish they had a smiley showing an angel with a halo!)

Does that mean if I come and work in your house I'll get more money and a few more rooms tacked onto my house?


What twaddle.

 

[sierracsierra]

nearly all the 'people who have come to the house to do work' are making loads more money than me, especially plumbers. They have bigger houses and flash cars.

Umm.. are you just making this up. At what point have you seen all of the houses and cars of people that do work in your house?

No Rob, i am not making it up. But it is what they or their work colleagues tell me. So maybe they are making it up...just another addition maybe to the constant Bull.

 

[sierracsierra]

sierracsierra wrote

and I am sorry to say that I have'nt had a professional person yet come to my house to do work, plumber. electrician, builder, labourers etc.

Pay peanuts and you get monkeys. What do you expect ?.

UMM, I can't remember saying anywhere that I paid peanuts But if monkeys are known to cut corners and make things easy on themselves, then yes i must have paid peanuts.

nearly all the 'people who have come to the house to do work' are making loads more money than me, especially plumbers

Have you considered a career in plumbing ?
You could join the elite band of CCC's.

URR, NO WAY, but thanks for the offer!

as well as being a qualified mechanical engineer

What branch of engineering are you involved in if I may ask ?.

All sorts of industries, mainly electro/mechanical design (thats ELECTRO/MECHANICAL AND not electrical/mechanical as you guys use). Most recently in the pneumatics components industry.

 

[sierracsierra]

Oh and in addition....nearly all the 'people who have come to the house to do work' are making loads more money than me, especially plumbers. They have bigger houses and flash cars. But thats not what life is about as far as I'm concerend. I would rather be honest and fair, and enjoy life, than have all the material possesions.
(I wish they had a smiley showing an angel with a halo!)

Does that mean if I come and work in your house I'll get more money and a few more rooms tacked onto my house?


No Dan, cos in future we will try and do all the work ourselves! No more 'people who come to do work' in my house thanks! I'd rather get a decent job done, with no damage or breakages!

 

[moosehead]

If I may chime in as a punter, I think that people who contract with trades professionals need to wise up a little but it's only through experience that you wise up.

We had an extension built and left it to the builder to arrange all the professional trades as part of the build - mistake number one!

Our mistake and it was made because we wanted, like most people, to have the work done quickly and we thought that by allowing the builder to choose the tradesmen it would be ok.

The plumber he used was ok for plumbing (see other posts re 22mm non return valve), but was he the best guy to fit the bathroom shower enclosure - no. Instructions to fit enclosure discarded because, and I quote " I do this every day of my life" - result enclosure fitted upside down. Only realised this two years later when internal seals are starting to discolour and rot. Same guy also fitted boiler, CORGI registered and did a good job but didn't complete all the necessary details in the log.

Result is now I have a great engineer who does the boiler and other gas fittings. An ok plumber who does small jobs and righted the shower enclosure (me) and I'm looking for a CH engineer to give the system the once over.

Moral - use the right professional tradesman for the right job and don't cut corners. And when you get a good one keep hold of them.

(P.S. comment on workman versus professional, this is purely a hangover from prior times (and people don't realise the offence it causes) when the average plumber or spark didn't need to have qualifications but your average accountant or beak did. These days, as we now know, that is not the case.)

 

[Mike2007]

There are so many people out their that know how to do plumbing, heating, electrical systems (of sorry, fit kitchens, bathrooms, roofing, tiling, block paving etc, etc)
BUT, still choose to get a supposedly dodgy person in to do this work for them. So they may stand over them and criticise every aspect of there labour, like undermining your work practice is built into the costs??
I had a customer a fews years ago who pulled up a chair and watched for three hour long how I drained, removed and refitted new radiators!!
I know what a professional office/company environment is like, they all sit at there computers looking busy but also browse Ebay and other shopping sites and holiday things (its true, admit it)!
I say if customers are so knowledgable about building services, great get on with it yourself. Get down to B&Q and get a rake rubbish parts and install them in your expensive bourgeois 5 bed, ten bathroom detached home.
If someone looks like a numb idiot don't let him through your door!

 

[Agile]

One of the problems I see so often is the customer who wants a job doing quickly even if there is no time constraint involved like fitting new curtains.

I deal with urgent calls like no heating or hot water first and cosmetic work later when I can fit it in.

There are many customers who only want someone to turn up at an exact time later that same day. There is a well known company in Pimlico who are very good at that and they make their customers very happy with a charge of over £100 p.h. even if they cannot actually complete the work. Some have to later call me to actually do whatever is required to fix the problem for far less.

Tony

 

[JohnD]

I didn't know you fitted curtains, Tony

 

[sierracsierra]

(P.S. comment on workman versus professional, this is purely a hangover from prior times (and people don't realise the offence it causes) when the average plumber or spark didn't need to have qualifications but your average accountant or beak did. These days, as we now know, that is not the case.)

[/quote]
Not quite true, you must admit (and some posts here give instances and examples) there are an awful lot of people out there, still working as plumbers and electricians etc etc, that are definately neither qualified or professional. And nobody seems prepared to shop them.

 

[andytheplumber]

You need to check out the customers first . Ask questions about the job if there awkward there probably start to argue with you and disagree with everything you say, if they are likes this when your just looking at the job.
the chances are you wont get any money out off them.

Dont waste your time

 

[Agile]

That last posting was about 9 months ago Andy!

I wonder if they are still around now!

Tony