Can a lone, older woman indulge in a 'fucking tradespeople!' tirade?

[SerenityNowInsanityLater]

I've had scaffolding left up. The company was fabulous when I needed it put up. Taking it down though has been another story. I became their storage.
Calls, messages, emails, all ignored, left unread.

So, this morning, I sent a final text: Thanks so much for sending the guys around. They're dismantling it now. Great stuff! I'm making them coffee!

How fast did the company call me? I barely hit send when they were blowing up my phone.

I hate that I've had to resort to manipulative tactics. I've had to lie and make a huge fake drama in order to get this company to remove their scaffolding.
I'm about to put my home on the market and the last thing I need is to become a scaffolding company's long-term storage.

The scaffolding will be coming down today. Result. Yes. But I feel like utter shit. I hate lying. Hate it. I hate that the guy couldn't just deal with me in a respectful, professional, direct, honest manner, And I hate that I didn't deal with him in a respectful, professional, direct, honest manner in the end. God knows, I tried.

It's really upset me, the whole thing. More than it should.

I don't know if this is a rant or what. But these are the moments when I find being a lone, older woman kind of hard. Maybe I'm making a thing out of this. But I do feel so much more aware of how much I need to protect myself from being taken advantage of.

Did the scaffolding company send your neighbour round today? I would go round to the neighbour and ask him why he thought it was OK to do this and if he could pass on a message to the company to say that you are no longer responsible for the scaffolding and will be finding someone to remove it as soon as possible.

Yep, that was a bit daft. Dont tell me you paid cash too.

SirenGirl I didn't pay cash, but goodness, I do have it in me to be silly enough to do so. I am seriously wearing my hair shirt. I actually annoy myself. I know how to be more savvy about things. But then I go along and immediately trust the process, thinking, 'it'll all be fine!' which is just not at all bright of me. I'm sure I could unpack this on a therapist's couch! 😅

Tbh, if he does come to your door and accuse you of lying, say "yes, I did. I've been trying for x weeks to get you to come and take your stuff away, and you've been blowing me off. If I had to lie to get you to remove your equipment from MY property, that's a YOU PROBLEM, NOT A ME PROBLEM. Thanks for finally coming."

Scaffolders are notorious for this. It isn’t to do with you being a lone, older woman but well done for getting them out to take it down!

If it any consolation they have not left it because your a lone woman they would of treat anyone like this
it’s standard to leave it till it’s needed for next job as you say free storage

absolute top marks for how u handled it

I really really really love and appreciate your post and username 😆IfMichaelMosleysVoiceWasWrittenasMusicalScore. Thank you so much!

Thank you SO much for the love, all of you glorious MNers. God knows I need the MN mantle of support and comfort for SO many, many, many things in life, but today's scaffolding blues have been lifted by you wonderful lot! And for this, I am eternally grateful.

Watch, I'll pop up in two weeks with a photo of the scaffolding that reads, "Guess what's still here?!!" 😳
I kind of want to start my own scaffolding business. Just to prove a point. My motto would be "You will not become our storage!"

Brilliant work, OP! We had the same
problem and DP was on the verge of taking the sodding thing down himself when they finally came and got it.

Tbh, if he does come to your door and accuse you of lying, say "yes, I did. I've been trying for x weeks to get you to come and take your stuff away, and you've been blowing me off. If I had to lie to get you to remove your equipment from MY property, that's a YOU PROBLEM, NOT A ME PROBLEM. Thanks for finally coming."

God, I want to say this. Like, it's all there. The words are ready to use,ready to be spoken.
But I swear, I'll end up hiding underneath my kitchen table, holding my breath 'til they're gone (probably taking my windows with them!).

A friend lives in Marylebone in property owned by the Howard de Walden estate.
Renovation work has been done for a lot of the buildings involving masses of scaffolding.
My friend's home had problems with the roof so more scaffolding went up. And it's still up, despite the complaints to the scaffolding company.
If a company running an estate worth roughly £4.5 billion has problems getting contractors to remove their scaffolding, what chance do us mere mortals have???

I had a chimney rebuilt and the scaffolders came back a week after the builder finished. I just called the builder and it was him who told them to get it shifted.
He did say the scaffolders were on a final warning with him, for foul language on site, so wanted a report of how they behaved each time. He says scaffies are notorious in the building trades - even other tradesmen get cheesed off with them.

That is genius! Scaffolders are known to be rough and scary our builders were quite scared of them.

Apparently scaffolders, politicians, and chefs are the biggest cokeheads.
I don't know why I know this. But it explains a lot!😆

I had a loft conversion just after the pandemic and the scaffolding was up for a whole year. Nobody would come and collect it. I finally had enough after I saw a post on the local area FB dog walkers group saying "let's meet at 11am tomorrow outside the scaffolding house" and realised that was my house.

Annoyingly, only six weeks after the scaffolding came down, the storm blew some roof tiles off and I had to pay a fortune to hire a man and a cherry picker to come and replace the tiles.

That was a genius of you OP - I am banking that method for next time!

Bloody brilliant OP - my hat has been taken off !

We will be having our roof done next year - I will keep this in mind

Scaffolders - anecdotally, I know many who have ADHD hence the attraction to a dangerous job and penchant for cocaine.

Chefs - crazy, long, and unsocial working hours so a penchant for cocaine.

MPs - lots of money to spend on coke.

😂

That's a stroke of genius, I applaud you! 👏

I learnt this one the hard way too. In the end I told them my storage rates and that I would be starting to invoice at the end of the week. My T&Cs were that payment was due immediately and it would go to small claims if it wasnt received. They showed up pretty quick after that. Lesson learned, dont pay till its gone and you're completely happy with the results.
Btw its not tradespeople, its tradesmen, the tradeswomen I have had the pleasure of dealing with have all been thoroughly decent.

I had a loft conversion just after the pandemic and the scaffolding was up for a whole year. Nobody would come and collect it. I finally had enough after I saw a post on the local area FB dog walkers group saying "let's meet at 11am tomorrow outside the scaffolding house" and realised that was my house.

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry!* *"Let's meet at 11am tomorrow outside the scaffolding house." That is an absolute killer! You became one with the scaffolding! Your whole identity... how very Zen. 😳The whole thing reads like some Buddhist Lessons in Gratitude (which are highly annoying! ). 😆

Btw its not tradespeople, its tradesmen, the tradeswomen I have had the pleasure of dealing with have all been thoroughly decent.

Oh my god. Too right. I didn't want to offend anyone. But as I wrote my title, I thought, I'm knowingly throwing the women under the bus here because we ALL know it's on the men, this one. But if I put tradesmen, I fear I'd have gotten a lashing or two. And there are so many lovely tradesmen who have sincerely helped me out so much in these past few weeks... the scaffolders are a law unto themselves.

Can't offer any advice apart from Embrace The Deception and bask in the glory of getting it sorted.

It's really frustrating generally that tradespeople are tardy, don't get back to you with quotes, not turning up when they say, offering pathetic excuses or ignoring calls/messages.

So I doff my cap to your Machiavellian approach. It's a shame we have to resort to such measures but if that's what it takes then so be it.

Now leave them a shit review on Trip Advisor.

I feel your pain, especially with scaffolding companies.
I think you did brilliantly. You sorted the matter out in a clever and civilised way.
If it’s any consolation my problems with a scaffolding company were before my DH passed away, and he didn’t get very far either.
We weren’t even that elderly. The company just didn’t care.

Yes this is how scaffolding has always worked. You're storage until it's needed elsewhere. I thought everyone knew that.

Fantastic! I love this!

You're a genius. If I were you I'd be patting myself on the back and toasting my cleverness with fine champagne.