Trades not giving quotes

[tobee]

I know this has been done before.

I know people will reply that not all trades people are like this etc etc.

But is this commonplace at the moment?

Trying to get various trades to do jobs for us and just left in limbo. Feel so put off.

Need some gardening jobs done (once a year type stuff). I've asked 4 separate companies. 1 said not their type of job. Fair enough. 1 said send some photos of job to be done. Nothing back after sending them. 1 came to look to send a quote. Nothing back since. 1 no reply at all. Now Dh sent photos to a different company on a recommendation. Nothing again.

Even though there's a cost of living crisis (supposedly) no one seems to want the work. Plenty of other things we're going to need doing over the next couple of years and I think it's going to be like this every time.

I'm presuming they don't actively turn down the work because other jobs for other people might fall through?

Anyone else?

We should be telling our kids to get apprenticeships in these trades. Seems a great way to earn a living for life - most of these probably won't be made obsolete by AI.

I think we're historically and culturally too snobby about apprenticeships and trades in the middle classes in this country.

I live rurally and it's difficult to find people here too. A lot of them have permanent contracts on farms and estates, so don't really have time for small one offs. I find many of them are not terribly well organised either, so unless they have a wife (or mum!) organising things you can never get hold of them.

It's been a struggle for us for over 20 years to find good people to do gardening work, it wasn't until a couple moved in next door to us that we found someone reliable. They have a small holding and do this work as well and they are brilliant.

I have a reliable guy, never gives a quote bill is labour plus materials, very simple but you have to have trust, used his dad for nearly 40 years before him.

I think we're historically and culturally too snobby about apprenticeships and trades in the middle classes in this country.

This is absolutely right. DS has had no luck finding a job since graduating 3 years ago and we are saying this is just what he should be looking at. It is quite hard to find someone good to take you on though.

Any decent government would be prioritising this sort of training for our young people, instead of pushing them into crappy degrees.

I've got £15k+ of work to give out but I've lost track of the number of trades who've ignored my contact/ghosted me after an initial conversation. The idea of getting three quotes for comparison is a joke.

Yep it all changed with Blair. He encouraged millions into meaningless university degrees and made out like practical work was second class. Now the skilled trades are making a killing.

Half a day's gardening as a one off isn't worth it to them,

The proper gardeners do contract maintenance - one day a month three people type stuff.

In general they prefer regular work ( for obvious reasons) as it's regular income and you know what you are doing and where you are going and build a relationship with clients.

For the same reason they often prefer building site work to domestic.

We are in peak time for gardening activity, so all gardeners will be flat out with the customers they have. And the sort of customers they want is regular, year round ones, not one offs during their peak time. So I am not surprised no one is available to quote, and am not sure what it has to do with the so called cost of living crisis? I would have thought by definition those employing gardeners are hardly impacted by a bit of inflation!

Fair enough but then there must be tonnes of work going begging, people wanting just a one off!

Well I think that the cost of living crisis might impact stuff? I mean impacts most things on a scale. So if 100 people could afford X a few years ago maybe 75 could now? Aren't people cutting their cloth? Like the newspaper articles saying "if you shop at Waitrose now you need to go for Sainsburys as a cheaper option" or whatever?

Nope. There is far too much work for the amount of skilled labour in the country. The people who can't afford it are irrelevant because there's still far too much work for the amount of skilled labour in the country.

Well I need to look at what I paid previously, what their offer is etc @AmusedTraybake . We usually pay for parking for visitors around here. Often it's expected. The thing that id expect to pay, for include in the price would, be access to dump/commercial waste whichever, as well as labour, expertise, etc etc.

I've not been stressing about the price to be honest as, not having a quote of any kind yet, seems a bit premature.

Well there we go then. That's what I was asking in the first place really I suppose.

I shall have to resign myself to never, ever getting anything done ever again and living in an overgrown, falling down house. While trades people can effectively tell me fuck off. As even if there suddenly were tons more tradespeople around they know I'd still be needing help.

I still wish they could bother to reply but that's not going to happen.

@tobee have a look on your local facebook pages as it's not overly skilled work. There must be a local group? You may find guys who don't advertise in the yellow pages or wherever people look these days.

You're not wrong to be annoyed and frustrated, OP. It's basic manners for them to either say they're not interested in the job, or to give you a time frame for providing a quote and then meet it. I suspect half a day's work is just not worthwhile for those you're approaching. Have you asked absolutely eveyone you know (neighbours, colleagues, local schools)? Do you have a free local paper, as they often advertise local suppliers?

I am on the other side of the fence and find it equally frustrating. Frequently people ask me to quote, I take the time to provide detailed information and then I never hear anything back. I'd rather they responded and said it wasn't in their budget, they've changed their minds, they found someone else etc.

Finding a skilled gardener (as opposed to someone who will come round and mow your lawn) has always been tricky.

I'm disabled and ExH was a workaholic so we've always had one but some have been much better than others. The good ones always had a waitlist and pretty much only took on friends of friends.

Maybe thats your issue - half a day. Expect a full day minimum and be prepared to pay for it. My husband is a trade and is sick of people who want quick and cheap and straightaway. Its £250-300 per day and a wait of 3 months.

But its not 20 mins is it? Its travel time there and back, its fuel cost there and back, its coming to look at the job before doing the job and its expertise , insurance and the right tools - which all comes at a cost. A decent professional ladder ... £600. Professional liability pa upwards of £500-£1000.

Yep I'd take the lead from them @Ilovemyshed and if needs a whole day fair enough. And we're not the sort to try to get them to lower the quote etc. Appreciate professional skills.

The first person to get back to me was the guy who said that I probably needed other services apart from them. I wish I'd bothered to reply to them to say "well thanks for letting me know anyway"! Just as what goes around comes around.

Thanks for the Facebook suggestions etc from other posters.

The only thing about getting people off facebook or whatever is after my experience with the guys who dumped all the cuttings up the road, in a neighbour's garden, is once bitten twice shy. It was embarrassing that they dumped it in the neighbours garden and you also feel like you've been a trusting fool.

Beggars cant be choosers though. Its a good question, where to find tradesmen. Other than recommendations where else can you. Facebook has a huge reach nowadays, plenty professionals on there as well as the cowboys im sure. They can post up pics of their previous work so you can judge if it meets your standards. Most shouldnt dump the waste, I think you got unlucky.

Sorry you’re having such a rubbish time getting hold of people. There is so much work at the moment we’re only taking on jobs through word of mouth referrals. For all your tradespeople can be a nightmare so can customers - so right now dh is only working for clients who come through word of mouth/recommendation. Have you tried asking your neighbours who they use for similar work? You’re most likely to get a response if you’re a known entity.

Yes I try to remember that @TheMousePipes. I'm sure tons of customers are appalling.

Yes I'm sure that we were unlucky with the cowboy gardeners dumping stuff @Treestumpp. It was particularly galling coz it was entirely me that sorted it rather than Dh, or the both of us.

One of my nephews dropped out of university last year and is tentatively looking to do a trade now. On the back of this thread I'm going to absolutely encourage him!