Are all tradesmen this bad at communicating?

[cakecakecake98]

Small local owned decorating company. Told them I wanted a feature wallpaper done along with painting. Fine.

I was told the whole job would take 1.5 days. That ended up taking 3 entire days with no communication as to why. Luckily I was off work as I work shifts but that could’ve been really inconvenient if not.

Then the worker they’ve sent says they can’t actually do wallpaper so the owner will come back to do it next (this week).

I message owner who says he “forgot” about the wallpaper. Agrees to come next Friday (today) Says will message me yesterday to let me know a time.

Yesterday goes by with no communication, I message him and am still awaiting a response. I need to go for a shower but reluctant to incase on the off chance he messages and says he’s on the way (unlikely!!)

Didnt post this in AIBU but am I right to be pissed off or is this just standard??

Dear god - called him earlier, too busy to do it today now but will come Sunday!!

AAAGGHHH!

In my experience, 95% of tradespeople have little to no communication skills.

We've nearly finished a massive renovation of a derelict property. We must have had at least 15, different, trades people over the time. Some, communication has been brilliant, others as bad as you described, but the vast majority have been in between.

Do they have any reviews? If not, I'd add one, but only after telling them how disappointed you are with their failures, and giving them a chance to rectify/reduce the cost etc. I'd only mention this AFTER they put the wallpaper up though! I wouldn't be happy if I had to take time off work/change shifts etc to accommodate THEIR incompetence's. Even a text to tell you what was going on would have been something, rather than you having to constantly chase them.

They have all good reviews, none bad so I’m quite shocked at this! Honestly at this point I just can’t wait for the work to be finished - the feature wall is where our bookcases normally are so all books and ornaments have been sat in boxes for over a week now.

Can’t believe I’m writing this but he didn’t turn up again!
DH was going to let him in at 10, agreed time, before going out.
I was night shift so didn’t wake up until 1330 - had a message from him near 10am saying he’d just woken up as he was ‘ill’ but would come at 11.
I messaged him back and called twice - no sign and no reply to messages!!
Fuming is an understatement!!

I’m not good with confrontation but thinking of sending a direct message which basically says if the job isn’t convenient for you let me know and I’ll get someone else.

Too much? Too little?
I’ve already been asking around other decorators but it seems trying to get one is nigh on impossible as they’re all booked till new year. Don’t want to cut my nose off to spite my face but this is taking the piss!

The painting has all been done but he’s not asked me for payment yet and I won’t be paying until the full job is done.
You’d think he’d want to get it done in order to be paid?!

That it terrible OP! And a shit excuse of being ill! If he really was ill, he shouldn't be doing work in someone's house. Far more likely to be a hangover!
I too hate confrontation, but if all fees haven't been paid, I'd love to tell him to F*&K off and send him an invoice for your time and inconvenience!

That’s so true, I’m forgetting it’s a Sunday today so could likely be a hangover!

Oh yes that would be good doing that!! I keep getting messages back from other decorators saying they’ve no availability so I feel like he’s my best chance, but WHEN will he turn up?… 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤦🏻‍♀️

They are mostly terrible, tho they are juggling jobs frantically to maximise income. This is why you don't pay in advance and buy your own materials.

They’re all TERRIBLE in my experience!!

That’s a good point, it’s been all my own materials and no payment in advance so that’s good.
But WHY are they all so terrible? We’re FTBs so this is my first ever experience with a tradesperson, we rented before so didn’t have this issue.
Why don’t they just have a diary and stick to that diary???? The mind boggles, it really does

They can get away with being crap because of the shortage, and they know it, and just don't care.

It's why we do most things ourselves these days. OH has bought loads of tools and equipment - fills the garage and two garden sheds. We'll try everything ourselves now (except "big" things like roofing!). We've decorated our entire house ourselves over the past few years as we just couldn't bring ourselves to deal with crap tradesmen - it's not just that they're crap at organisation/communication, they're often crap at their "day job" too - we do a far better job of decorating than any of the "professional" decorators we've had in the past as we actually spend the time to do it right rather than rushing the job and buggering off early to the pub every day!

@cakecakecake98

Why don’t they just have a diary and stick to that diary????

Firstly, they're not organised enough to keep a diary.

Secondly, they prioritise their "mates", usually from the pub, family and friends, so drop "normal" customers and go to their "mates" when they get a call from them instead.

Re the organisation, we once had a plumber to fit a saniflow and block off the old drain. He came in the morning, but had forgotten to buy the saniflow unit. Then come the afternoon, he realised he'd forgotten the plastic thing to block off the old drain. He spent most of the day travelling between us and the plumbers merchants - not for unexpected things but for the very things he knew he'd need. The mind boggles!

God, what a bloody farce it all is! He even messaged me last night to double check the wallpaper so he knew what tools to bring 🤔 what a laugh, I do wonder if he intended on coming at all or just sent that for show!

Still no response from him, he’s not even read my messages from yesterday!!

Do I send him another blunt message saying if the job isn’t convenient I’ll look elsewhere?

Or do I just hold out, since he’s not been paid yet surely it’ll be done soon? If it wasn’t so hard to get a bloody decorator I wouldn’t be putting up with this 😩

I would now be giving him a deadline.
If job is not completed to high standards with punctual arrival by x date.
Money will be used to pay other decorator to finish the job.
He will reply immediately and then turn up on time.

I forgot to say this but because he “forgot” I wanted wallpaper, that wasn’t included in the quoted price.
£650 to paint the lounge, upper landing and two bedrooms. He then said he’d do the wallpapering in the same budget anyway as that’s what he’d quoted me.
Now I wonder if he can’t be arsed as he isn’t getting paid the ‘proper’ amount for the wallpaper - but then he hasn’t been paid any of the original amount anyway so not sure that makes sense either!!

A lot of tradesmen are terrible for this sort of thing. I think we should all start leaving them honest reviews on Google and the like, and then either they'll sharpen up or go out of business. I think often we don't because they know where we live etc.

We had similar when we needed an electrician. Endless back and forth arranging a day, didn't turn up, more back and forth. Came and fiddled a bit with the issue, decided to try and force two things together and ended up breaking one of the parts (which was fine to start with!). Had to go to the merchants for a new part, took absolutely ages (as in, hours when it was probably a 40 minute round trip), eventually turned back up when we thought he must have gone home for the day. Fixed the problem although the finish on it was terrible.

The company then tried to charge us for the hours he took going to the merchants, and the new part that he broke by his own incompetence. We refused, sent several emails asking them to rectify the bill, also rang a few times asking for a new bill. Was told one would be sent out- never got one. Reminded them- still nothing. Just ended up not paying the bill and never heard anything more from them!

That’s quite good you didn’t end up paying anything though 😂😂 wouldn’t mind that too much!
I’ve just sent him a message saying I’d appreciate some communication as I don’t know what’s happening.

They are all the same, I read with amazement on here that anyone manages to get any work done on their house, we need tons of stuff doing but the thought of even starting to make contact with people is putting me off, and has done for years

The advice of get 3 quotes makes me laugh too, what 3 quotes, I cant get 3 people to get back to me in the first place

Brexit. No competition plus shortage of skilled workforce. Means uk tradesmen charge over the odds and take the piss. All this being ill or a family member dying is like the dog ate my homework.

Yes we are pissed off with them but have nowhere else to go. Unless we do the work ourselves.

This is unsustainable and won't last.

The things is there is a massive shortage of trades people at the moment. They can pick and chose their jobs so if a bigger more financially lucrative job comes up then they will take that.

Also if he is an employer he may have lost a lot of staff. I am currently waiting for an electrician to come to me in my workplace to do a relatively big job. I meet him over the weekend and he told me he had lost three staff members in the last couple of weeks to going to Oz to work in the mines.

I find that they can be so brilliant at their trade but very disorganised. The ones who have admins working for/with them are better organised. The local garage/recovery service runs like clockwork because of the person who runs the office. The (skilled) mechanics can barely remember if it’s Monday or Tuesday, frankly.

I agree. One of the downsides of the internet and apps is the "message" that tradesmen can do it all themselves, i.e. an app for admin, an app for invoicing, ordering supplies by apps, etc etc. But they don't do it properly, as they're not administrators/managers. The ones who use professional admins, either staff or freelance PAs seem to be a lot better organised, as you'd expect them to be because they're not spending half their days doing admin/management/organisation (often badly).