To think that tradesmen take the piss with their rates?

You're paying for their training, tools, time, travel costs, admin time, collecting materials, Software for accounts/invoicing, stationary, NI, sick pay, holiday pay etc. Being self employed they don't have anything provided for them like you would if you were employed. They also don't get paid if they're off work so need to charge reasonable prices to cover loss of earnings whilst unable to work.

But they may be stuck with one shit teacher for a particular subject for 3 or 4 of their 5 secondary school years.

That happened to me with Maths. Was my best subject at Primary, but got the same completely useless teacher for 4 out of 5 years at secondary. I ended up with a poor grade. Then took it again at college with a different teacher (obviously) by evening class and got an A a year later, then took A level and got an A. I managed to recover it, but I could so easily have been one of the many "I can't do maths, me" type of people, due wholly to crap teachers rather than lack of ability.

Same happened with our son who got a crap English teacher for 4 out of 5 years. He's articulate and well read, but his English Lit and Lang GCSE's were his worst out of the whole lot. Again, because he'd been stuck with a crap teacher for year after year.

Students can survive a crap teacher for one year, or maybe a couple, but when it's the same for the majority of their secondary school year, they've not a hope!

Let's not forget they came out for a 7am start on a Sunday, meaning they had to be out of the house by 6.30am latest - probably earlier, given that they needed their other person to arrive, too. They were flexible enough to fit me in on a weekend, because my job means I cannot do weekdays. The broken down van came complete with pictures and subsequent injury which he showed me this morning, so I'll err on the side of belief this time. And, having dealt with many a heating engineer before, this was not only quick but also definitely above what appears to be industry standards.

You are very lucky, it seems
However as someone whose been developing for over thirty years a
van breaking down excuse is as old as the hills
Lets not forget they woke you at 7am on a Sunday
Id be very peeved about a Saturday cancellation after waiting a week anyway and then a 7am wake up call on a Sunday.

Everything they’ve done though including putting you on the books for a reminder next year is standard stuff.

My tradie has just been, with another one from his company, to fix a new boiler. At 7am on a Sunday morning they were at my door. They would have been here yesterday, but their van broke down and rather than letting me down, they worked on a Sunday morning, having already worked last Sunday to identify the issue. They sourced and installed it, checked my pipework, cleaned up after themselves, bled all my radiators while they were there, filled in all the paperwork (gas safe certificate etc) sorted the warranty there and then and even set me up on their system so that I can get booked in for the boiler's annual service with them next year without the need for tracking this on my own. All for less than the Google AI bot estimated it would be for my type of house.

Given all the work done, the drive, the insurance needed, the materials themselves (boiler, extra pipework, sealant), the tools and the fact that I paid for the work of two of them, this was the opposite of a pisstake. Good tradies exist, but if you pay the first one you find (been there, done that) and without even checking reviews (ditto) then you pay the price.

This was exactly how I dealt with it, you want to pay cash - fine, you don't want an invoice - I just won't give you your copy.

I still priced it up the same, paid tax etc.

Ultimately, I certainly wouldn't have risked the penalties of tax avoidance for someone else to benefit from a cheaper bill!

This
My husband works in this area and it's really not just money in their pocket, there is so much more to it.

The thing is though, an individual child is not going to be stuck forever with one shit teacher.

No, not every profession
No other profession has the potential for hundreds of young minds stifled, potential lives ruined, every year
Or, conversely, no other profession has the chance to inspire so many

My dh gets cash on a lot of jobs. I can assure you he isn't one ' of them' who doesn't pay it In. Every job is Invoiced whether the customer wants one or not.
Yes they often say ' how much for cash' and he says the same price.

My dh is in a different trade his is £100 ph plus vat. Or £750 per whole day Inc vat.
It's not just the hours they are there. It's the sourcing materials prior. travel time , some of dh jobs are an hour away so that's 2 hours in total in the day gone before he's earning, their overheads, accountants, trades bills , Insurances Wear And tear on their tools.
It all adds up.

Well, being paid in cash means he won’t be declaring it to HMRC, will he? Tradesmen often want to be paid in cash for this very reason.

The amount of student debt these days is a big factor in the decision though.
I'm old too but maybe if i were a youngster now i might not go

This person wasn’t a tradesperson.
why are you using subpar black market people to do work for you?

You need to choose your friends more carefully.
You paid a friend in the same street, who is not a tradesman, and then you complain about tradesmen.
Your ‘friend’ ripped you off, not a professional tradesman.

This literally applies to every profession though? And if we didn't have some 'average' teachers, then we wouldn't have sufficient teachers?

Don't get me started on the crap ones though!!

Completely agree about independent vets certainly charging less than large groups, and in my limited experience of the latter, the independents provide at least as good a service
Mine outlines the prices for the vaccinations and other needed drugs and for their time
The latter is always reasonable, the former far less so

But, you could have gone to uni, and maybe your learning would have broadened your mind, and contributed to starting your business - which you still could have done post-uni?

Did you ever consider taking a p/t time degree later in life - because learning now really is lifelong? You don't have to do it all at 18.

I'm old so I went to uni long before there were fees but when roughly only the top 5% of pupils went, so obviously it's a different decision in many ways now because of the financial implications. I wouldn't have missed out on my uni experience for the world! It was one of the best times of my life. However, I find myself now coming up to retirement with less of a pension than others my age who left school and went straight to work! Plus when I started my working life, it was in the expectation that I would retire at 60, and of course now I am expected to work an extra 7 years... but that's another debate!

All three of my DC have followed in my path to uni too. None of them would make it as a plumber, or an electrician or whatever trade! They're just not geared that way. If they had wanted to take that path, I'd have been fine with it. They have all followed their passion, three very different ones.

Teaching seems to be one profession where the good are very good and can change the lives of some for the very best

But there are far too many who are average at best, and can ruin multiple lives in every generation that has the misfortune to end up in their class

I won't pay cash in hand. I'm PAYE - I'm not subsidising some fucker who isn't paying their share!

It does but the tradie starts much younger.

I had a tiler here last year same age as my teacher DC. From what I was charged, the tiler is outearning my DC exponentially!

However, DC has a good pension (hopefully!) to look forward to, sick pay when needed, paid leave and no business admin.

You pays your money, I guess!

Our neighbour asked for 400 after having spent 4 hours in our appt...so it could be worse. Also cash in hand and we now got a leak again but this time we will call someone else. A shame, he's a plumber so we could have used his services but he decided to take the piss...

I don't think many tradies go for long without work, especially not if they have a good reputation.

You can hardly get anyone to do a job, especially if it's a small one, because most of them don't want to know. They have plenty of larger jobs!

I know they have expenses, obviously, but prices are through the roof because there's not enough supply to meet demand.

And he'd be well within his rights to go back upstairs a d undo the work done
You agreed a price, then refused to pay it?
That's despicable

For one thing life isn’t just about making money and nor is success marked by who earns the most