Why do so many tradespeople fail to show for potential work

[reesewithoutaspoon]

So frustrated, been trying to get some work done (removing old flags, relaying new patio and further flagging around front and side of house. so not a small job) 2 separate firms have offered to come out and measure and give quotes and arranged time and day to do this and neither of them have turned up, no phone call to let me know they were held up on other jobs etc. just radio silence.
How are you supposed to trust a firm who cant even be arsed communicating.
I just want my bloody flags done

She sounds like quite a catch, ambitious, hard-working, still young and malleable, no wonder the plumber did a good job of her bathroom

the boyfriend may be exasperated that his hairdresser sweetheart keeps recommending him for jobs, he tried to throw your father-in-law off by giving you the runaround but you wouldn't have it so he had no choice but to do a botched job and take the money anyway

the hairdresser may be totally confused by this ...she knows that her boyfriend has the skill to do a good job and she can't understand why he doesn't😳

How are you supposed to trust a firm who cant even be arsed communicating.

You don't, you just move on to others. I've never bothered trying to re-contact tradespeople who've been no-shows. It says it all to me if they can't be arsed to turn up or re-arrange.

Because there's a shortage of tradespeople, many think that they don't need to make an effort, hence not turning up, over-pricing, etc.

That's up to them, but they'd better not ring or turn up weeks later when they've suddenly run out of work.

We had a local builder who had that kind of approach. He was highly recommended etc and we had him to do a few small jobs, but he was painful to get to commit - it was always that he'd give us a ring with a start date but he never did, then we'd have to chase, and then he'd randomly turn up without notice expecting to start. Trouble was that he did a good job once he finally got around to turning up. We gave him a years' notice that we were going to have scaffolding put up to paint the house exterior, replace the guttering, etc and asked him to do a roof service (i.e. replace a few cracked tiles, ridges, valleys, etc). We told him what month we'd be doing it. 3 months beforehand, we phoned and told him again - all fine by him. A month before, we tried to get him to commit to a week, but he said he'd phone back closer. When the scaffolding had been put up, we phoned him and told him it was there for 4 weeks. After 2 weeks, we phoned again. In the final week, we phoned and he just glibly said he was too busy that week. So we managed to get another roofer to come and do it. Two weeks after the scaffolding had been taken down, the pillock turned up and was really pissed off that the job had been done. He had expected us to keep the scaffolding (at extra cost for longer time), so he could turn up when he felt like it. A few other people in our village have said the same about him. Now, it looks like he's short of work as he's been walking around putting leaflets through doors. Tough, he's missed his chance due his arrogance and self importance.

Things do work the other way too. I only work from recommendations and have lost count of the times I've gone around to look at a job, discussed it, gone home and spent ages on the quote to hear nothing back. Apparently that's ok thoùgh.

It costs me time and money and not even the courtesy of a text message saying no thanks, now that's annoying.

I think some of it is arrogance ...people who decide to work for themselves often get that decision because they find it it hard to tolerate having a boss of any kind, but then if you are tradesman your customer becomes a kind of boss and some types of people are constitutionally unable to defer to anyone

Fully agree with that. Also, as the "trades" aren't really considered a "good career", many of the bright kids go to get office jobs, leaving a vacuum for the "dirty" work, which is often filled by pretty unsavoury characters who'd not get a sniff of a "proper" job earning good money due to unreliability, criminality, etc. I've always been impressed by an old school friend of mine - he was pretty bright, good O and A levels, and I genuinely expected him to go to Uni - in fact, he followed his father's footsteps and became a Corgi plumber/gas fitter. He never employed anyone, never went "big" like a lot of them do - he stayed on his own, doing normal domestic work, but charges a pretty hefty rate for an exceptional job, so can afford to work part time. We've had him a few times and never seen anything like it. He even offers to paint the copper pipework and he brings in his own vacuum and wipes to clean up after himself. He's a real perfectionist, and no, he never advertises - it's all repeat business and personal recommendations. Good tradesmen don't need to advertise!

Sounds like both sides of the equation would benefit from better processes

Things do work the other way too. I only work from recommendations and have lost count of the times I've gone around to look at a job, discussed it, gone home and spent ages on the quote to hear nothing back. Apparently that's ok thoùgh.

Yes, it's annoying, but that's part of what happens with EVERY business. People go into shops, waste the shop-keepers time, and then go home and buy on the internet. People happily go to several accountants or solicitors for their "free half hour". People go and get test drives from garages. It's just a cost of being in business. If any business gets too few conversions into proper paying custom, then they need to review where they may be going wrong.

@Kazzyhoward these aren't total strangers though.

Fortunately for me I get plenty of decent customers

Oh god I’m in this predicament at the moment! I asked for recommendations on Next Door to have our garden done. One guy replied and said he was keen and then he was also recommended by a few people. So I asked him to give a quote as well as a couple of others.

Firstly he changed the time he was coming to quote about 3 times but I thought fair enough, he’s probably juggling it around a job and the weather. Then I had to chase him for a quote. I wouldn’t normally but our other quotes were so ridiculously high and I actually thought he was the best. Then I get the quote and a message saying he can do it in 2 weeks time. So I confirmed we want to go ahead and he said he’d confirm the exact date in a few hours.

That was last week I text last night and he replied this morning to say he’d get back to me today with a date but nothing so far. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult!

We only went out and asked for recommendations because we’ve been waiting on a family member who was going to do it for us (fully paid) but theyve given us excuse after excuse for the last 3 months.

I want to pay someone to do the job! I don’t understand why it’s so difficult. I wonder if they just don’t need the business right now as two others that gave me quotes emailed them over and then never called to see if we wanted to go ahead or anything.