How Many Times Do tradesmen leave you dissatisfied?

[Bahco]

Further to my earlier thread about my frustration with tradesmen.......How many of you have had work done which has left you dissatisfied and left you feeling that you could have done a better job yourself.

Probably 90% of the times I have got someone I have had to call them back to rectify or put it down to experience.

Will not accept poor work ever again and this highlights the need for WRITTEN details of what the job entails with a copy to both parties.

Lets hear your stories or is it the case that I get all the jokers?

BTW I pay the going rate and not peanuts!

 

[HERTS P&D]

Never!

As I ask the right questions, get 3 quotes, only pay on completion to my satisfactory (which they are told in the beginning and agree to) also see previous work if need be.

Andy

 

[namsag]

Never but i`m lucky i have mates in everytrade who are excellent so its just a case of i want this doing how much do you want

Also working in so many houses i get to see so many different standards of chippy work ,plastering , sparkies and brickwork and i know wherE your coming from .
3 quotes only if you can find 3 half decent guys who you know who they have worked for and can look at thier work nothing worse than open mitres and plastering that looks like its artex

 

[joe-90]

You sound like the customer from hell.
If you are unhappy with an aspect of someone's work - then speak up.

Don't let them finish and leave and then say 'come back I don't like it'.

 

[longdogs]

Never had a problem with tradesmen, always been happy with the work but I don't specifically go for the cheapest quote either.

When I finish a job, I always ask my customers if there's anything they are unhappy with before I leave. I would rather that than they are are unhappy and don't recommend me to someone else.

 

[stuartturbo]

The reason I am doing my loft, and the cost lol, will take me longer but mistakes are mine.
ie builder that removed chimneys (silly stuff best bit was i took off most of the sockets, but forgot a couple so they are now flush fit t his plasterer just skimmed up to them!!!!!. )
Guys that laid patio 8m*3m,with a gradient that i said would be fine.But runs across the garden the wrong way ,dips and troffs did not realize for 6months till we had proper rain. Poor manhole cover finish. i lays at say 40 degrees and when i did the first one the line of the slabs followed. but they just put the slab straight in .

 

[SimonH2]

... I don't specifically go for the cheapest quote either.

I've been trying to educate a colleague at work on this matter.
As it happens, we're doing a lot of work between us, it having started off with loads of "is this ..., can I that ..., what about ..." questions showing he was going to be hopelessly out of pocket and ****ed off by the time he'd finished doing up his first property (a 1980s bungalow).

I think the first one was "is £500 for a consumer unit change reasonable ?" - it was what the bathroom fitters told him he needed to spend before they could legally do his bathroom

Anyway, I've been trying to get him out of the mindset of getting 6 to 9 quotes and going with the cheapest - but it's hard going.

 

[Bahco]

Don't let them finish and leave and then say 'come back I don't like it'.

What I actually say is come back and do the job right!

Obviously if there is nothing to put right then the conscientious tradesman will have a wasted journey.

Surprising how some will try and cut corners and fail to spot poor workmanship.

It does trouble me that by asking them to call back I am stopping them from earning cash due to lost time.

Never mind.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

It's the shoddy customers that get my goat!
Litter, clothes, toys, junk, furniture..... FFS be wiping arse next

 

[Alarm]

Nothing worse than not having access when promised.
Stopping halfway and having to go back and forth.
Promises and then broken, and expected to work to the same quote when all was made clear beforehand.
Given access and it revoked a hour later.

Removal men working when you need the access.
Painters painting walls you need to chase.
plasterers plastering your cables when you have agreed where they are and where to be left, like in the back boxes.
chippies boarding over your access points.
Sparkies nicking your cable routes (Okay I do the same to them )

Life is sh1te deal with it!!!!

Any customers that lie and want more than quoted for!!!

 

[pineapple]

I was tempted to be flippant when I saw the title of this thread. After all - I'm not that kind of woman!
But on the whole I've been lucky. Best one recently was a guy I picked from the Gas Safe Register. I was partly guided by the pics - he was one of the few who didn't look like he should be in a police line up....
The one thing that bugs me is when they come to look at a job, they arrive on the allotted day and go straight back out again to get materials. Or when the guy you THOUGHT was doing the job, drops off couple of underlings and you never see him again. Hmm....

 

[joe-90]

But on the hole I've been lucky.

So I've heard.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

 

[pineapple]

It's a good job I've got a pure mind!

 

[SimonH2]

The one thing that bugs me is when they come to look at a job, they arrive on the allotted day and go straight back out again to get materials.

Well it may be that until he's actually seen the job, he can't be sure what he needs. Short of driving round in a warehouse on wheels, he can't carry anything but a few common items in the van. Also, if he does carry "stock" then that's cash tied up and it makes accounting harder.
Ie, suppose he uses a lot of left hand 9/16 BSP widgets, and although he pays £10 each for them, he uses so many that it's worth carrying them around. Each time he uses one he needs to account for the movement from stock to customer - and it's easy to grab one from the pack and forget to write it down. If, on the other hand, he only ever buys them as needed along with other materials - the widget used on your job appears on his invoice with the rest of the materials he used, and it's easy to account for them when doing the accounts a few weeks or months later (and it may be his accountant having to piece it all together).

A friend who's self employed as a chippy explained another part of this.
If your guy turns up with all the materials, most customers will still time him from when he arrives - and ignore the time it's taken getting the materials. And I can tell you from experience, getting materials can soon eat into the work day.
However, if he comes to your house first, he's "clocked on" as it were, so now the customer sees the time taken to get materials and is less likely to complain - eg "you've billed me 2 hours, you were only here 30 minutes".