The world has gone mad!!!!!
Over the past month or so I decided to have some major works done to my house which has involved trying to get quotes and commitments from various building tradesman. I can honestly say that after maybe 40 phone calls and 15 visits by different people I still have no quotes or work done. No one can be arsed to ring back or even produce a quote in the first place. Not only that but when I do get round to agreeing delivery times of things they turn up 8 hours late without any explanation...whats going on. A note to any tradesman that may read or post on this forum...I know you're very busy at the moment and you can pick and choose your work but there will be a time when work will drop off very quickly and the only people that will be working will be the ones who have been honest ,professional and prompt. When times are bad recommendations go a long way and there are a lot of people I would NEVER recommend to even my worst enemies...not naming names but Norton Bathrooms..ahem..wheres my bathroom quote from your visit over 4 weeks ago????.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

This country is a joke when it comes to that kind of service.

Its as if not a single person or company values anybody's trade whatsoever. And when (if) they do turn up to do the work, the chances that they are going to do a good job seem slim.

I only like people I know to do work on the house/car or whatever. I feel like if it's not worth giving me a quote, what sort of effort are they gonna put into the work?

Its a travesty.

its always better to do what you can anyway! because then you can change and do things the 'right' way!

Originally posted by wibbles
The world has gone mad!!!!!
Over the past month or so I decided to have some major works done to my house which has involved trying to get quotes and commitments from various building tradesman. I can honestly say that after maybe 40 phone calls and 15 visits by different people I still have no quotes or work done. No one can be arsed to ring back or even produce a quote in the first place. Not only that but when I do get round to agreeing delivery times of things they turn up 8 hours late without any explanation...whats going on. A note to any tradesman that may read or post on this forum...I know you're very busy at the moment and you can pick and choose your work but there will be a time when work will drop off very quickly and the only people that will be working will be the ones who have been honest ,professional and prompt. When times are bad recommendations go a long way and there are a lot of people I would NEVER recommend to even my worst enemies...not naming names but Norton Bathrooms..ahem..wheres my bathroom quote from your visit over 4 weeks ago????.

Thank you for listening to my rant. Sorry to be pedantic but why are you getting materials delivered with no tradesmen to do the work? The horrendous traffic situation could be something to do with late deliveries. Most tradespeople also have storys to tell about arrogant, late paying customers who moan continuously and wont even get the kettle on.
Could be a tv prog. there COWBOY CUSTOMERS

i missed the bit where he said he was taking deliveries of things with no tradesmen. But even if that were the case, why is it a problem, as long as he has somewhere to store the materials?

Moan about what? Poor quality work?

Late paying? When most trademen demand some payment upfront.

Kettle on? What are they being paid for, drinking tea, or doing some work. (I always offer a drink as working gets thirsty).

Originally posted by dragonsoup
Sorry to be pedantic but why are you getting materials delivered with no tradesmen to do the work? The horrendous traffic situation could be something to do with late deliveries. Most tradespeople also have storys to tell about arrogant, late paying customers who moan continuously and wont even get the kettle on.
Could be a tv prog. there COWBOY CUSTOMERS

Customers have every right to moan about poor work and lazy tradesmen....as for putting the kettle on well thats to the discretion of whoevers house the tradesmen is destroying. I don't expect cups of tea to be made for me at work...bring a flask!!!! They don't get this reputation by working hard and producing excellent quality of work. Like I say enjoy it while you can because things will change and the customer will regain the power.
Sorry to be pedantic but where did you get the fact that I had materials delivered but no tradesmen to do the work. My rant in that case was about late delivery of goods...
Another thing....why do they blatently lie to us. A carpet fitter supposed to turn up at 12 still hasn't rung to say he's late at 4 so you ring him up and ask him where he is. This is followed by a response of " oh sorry mate..been trying to ring you ALL day"
******** you have..my phone has been next to me all day long, turned on with full signal. If he'd have rang at 1 ish to say soory he was going to be stuck on another job for a couple of hours then I would've totally understood but instead I waste my lunch hour waiting then have to take another half hour later in day to let him in. :loopy:

I feel your anger Wibbles. I hate having things delivered to the house, because most of these tradesmen seem to have a problem getting to you on time.

How difficult can it possiby be for them to TURN UP WHEN THEY SAID THEY WOULD?!

If it's a tight schedule, DONT PROMISE A TIME YOU KNOW YOU WONT BE ABLE TO KEEP!

This annoys me so much. After staying home all day waiting for some slack company to deliver/fit something without them ever arriving, I think there should be some sort of law saying you get a 10% discount or something.

This tardiness is simply not acceptable.

You'd be surprised at how difficult it is sometimes for people to turn up when they intend to - you never been late for anything?

I'm not saying it's right and fair enough some of the time it might be down to laziness etc. but the problem with trades is it's very hard to give an exact schedule on a lot of jobs. There's lots of things that can prolong a job - suppliers letting you down, staff letting you down, tools breaking, traffic (arrrggghhh), vehicles playing up, the weather etc. Having said that any decent tradesman will acknowledge if they've screwed you about too much and will reduce the bill or compensate you.

We used to get the problem a lot - we travelled all over the UK, somewhere different everyday and the company we contracted for would tell customers a time we would arrive without asking us first (usually just to get them off the phone) so it got to the point where I would have to ring people up and say we can't give you a time when we will be there as we have X miles to travel first (usually 200+) - sure it ****** off some of the customers as it didn't fit with their schedule but at least I wasn't making a promise and then breaking it.

the other thing they don't do is phone to let you know when they will definitely be late. It's just common courtesy, if i'm going to be late for something, then I let people know.

I accept its hard to stick to deadlines..anything can happen to make people late but if I was going to be late its in my human nature to ring up that person and offer an explanation..especially if it's a paying customer..not blatently lie and say I'd been trying to ring all day. Just a bit of common courtesy goes a long way. :thumbsup:
All I ask is that I get treated with a little bit of respect by these people. If they turn up at your doorstep on time and you kept them waiting can you imagine how hard it would be to get them back??...It doesn't take much especially in the day of the mobile phone. don't want to quote firgures I'm not exactly sure of but there has to be a high percentage of people that posess one nowadays..especially tradespeople.

Originally posted by Cyclone
the other thing they don't do is phone to let you know when they will definitely be late. It's just common courtesy, if i'm going to be late for something, then I let people know. Ha...great minds think alike :thumbsup:

Yeah that's why I always phoned the customer to let 'em know I ain't gotta clue how long it's gonna take me to get down the M1 on that particular day etc. even after some numpty in the office would quite happily tell 'em we'll be there for an exact time :rolleyes:

Anyway my point was that not all tradesmen are that bad although by the sounds of it you've not exactly had much luck so wouldn't be surprised if you didn't believe me :P

What are you having done anyway out of interest? :)

what aren't I having done would be an easier question. Woke up one day and had the stupid idea of changing loads of stuff in house. Since then I have toned down the ideas somewhat..as a result of a minority of bad tradepersons...usual stuff really. total redecoration, new bathroom, new kitchen, done up garden, re plastering etc etc

Hopefully we just got a contract installing kitchens for a local company :)

I know a lot of people who did not want to do the building site,mechanic, engineering type of stuff so they went into the office or retail type thing which at one time may have been the better option. Now the people who get dirty for a living (no smirking at the back) sometimes earn fantastic money in the building trade, but it can be very dangerous and also cold in the winter (no f..kin. off home cause the school boiler aint working).
So if you decided you wanted to go to work in smart clothes, maybe that was the wrong option as regards salary and Cyclone follow me to one more thread and see what happens. COMPRENDE?

Im also sick and tired of builders / trades people's lies and pathetic excuses, and when they do decide to turn up they either do a shoddy job or go off at a tangent and you end up with the complete opposite of what you wanted.

In Past I've had taken a day of work for a sheffield builder to do some work to my property, arranged by a leading sheffield estate agent, but they failed to turn up at 9am as said, got a call at 12noon from them saying sorry we cant make it, will be around tomorrow. I called my work to arrange the following day off and yes you've guessed it they didnt show the next day, no phone call or nothing. I called them to find out where they were and wouldnt even answer their phone. So all in all two working days booked as a holiday lost. Why dont they just say they dont want the job or dont have time to do it rather than mess you around.

As other people mentioned rang around other builders for quotes and still waiting two years later !!!! In the end I thought **** it and enrolled myself on bricklaying, joinery and plastering courses at night school.

I get the impression that people just dont want work these days

How did you do on the courses, can you plaster, lay bricks etc.
p.s. megamonty WHY would you use an estate agent to arrange a builder?

The courses were at Rother Valley College, Dinington.
The Builder was arranged by the estate agent upon house purchase as work was needed on the house in order to complete.

Anybody ever come across a guy called Mike Wild of Sheffield Kitchen Co./Kitchens by Design/Sheffield Mortgage Co. last seen at Woodseats.
I would be VERY interested in hearing your story.

Maybe we should be tardy about paying their bills

"The cheque will definitely be there two weeks on thursday mate"...

"I'm still waiting on materials, there's a shortage of biros at the moment"..

:-)

Originally posted by garrence
Maybe we should be tardy about paying their bills

"The cheque will definitely be there two weeks on thursday mate"...

"I'm still waiting on materials, there's a shortage of biros at the moment"..

:-)
No change there then