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??

In my experience, 95% of the time, yes. It's beyond infuriating! We try to do as much as we can ourselves now, which is also infuriating.

Still no reply.

Ive had a few other people get back to me.
How long should I give this decorator to sort this out before I tell him forget it, I’ll get someone else!

Yeah, that's the way it is these days. Had the same thing, twice, with tradespeople, even the contractor wasn't brilliant at getting back to us.
Job should have taken 6 weeks, ended up taking 3.5 months, with little or no communication, even excuses, no return calls. We were stuck, half-way to being done, so what are we supposed to do? We figured it out that they had more customers to go to and sign up and then everyone can just wait. My neighbour had a contractor that was organised, very good at fitting in work that could be done while waiting for supplies to arrive. That's where most go wrong.

OP, whatever you do do not try to find a plumber. Seriously, you'll have a nervous breakdown. To answer your question, not only are tradesmen rarer than white rhinos these days but their communication skills are virtually non existent. That's if you can even find one in the first place.

I would not find this unusual tbh.

I think he's has long enough to reply now, I would tell him you'll find someone else.
I really can't stand bad communication, there is very rarely a good enough excuse for it.
How long does it take to send a quick message?

The worst part is he said he would come yesterday morning and then just went radio silence on me. A full 2 days he’s not responded! Absolutely sick of it.

It boils my actual piss.

And as a PP mentioned, we never say anything or complain publicly because they know where we live...

I now have an electrician and plumber I can rely on to turn up. They both charge a bit more than I'd like and do a slightly worse job. But they turn up, and that's basically priceless.

I also have a handyman who turns up on his own schedule. Sometimes weeks later than promised. But again, he has turned up in genuine emergencies and that's golden.

I could tell horror stories of other trades that would be so outing I might as well write my name on here. Honestly the whole industry is built on lies.

I just remembered one decorator from six years ago who gave several excuses as to why he was late/missing/whatever, has twice since texted me instead of a different "Claire" in his phone with the same lame excuses about why he's late to a job. Yet people still recommend him all over Facebook. I do my own decorating now.

Yes it's totally this. Really pissed off at having to daily pay a Brexit tax when I didn't vote for it.

All sounds completely normal to me, and is the major reason why we have a zillion things that need doing around the house that we're just ignoring or trying to bodge by ourselves. We only contact a tradesman when things are absolutely desperate or very specialised - not that they bother to get back to me even then.

And don't get me started on the astonishing unreliability of vans, even in 2024. Breaking down all the time, they are.

That's my experience.

I have an electrician and 2 plumbers on speed dial who are excellent. However my friend waited 6 months, yes 6 whole months, for a decorator to contact her to start work. He gave her a quote for the work, she agreed said quote, he said he would contact when he would start. She chased him up twice and after 6 months called him and said ' I think we can agree it's pointless me waiting, isn't it'. He agreed.
I've been told that lots of tradesmen prefer to do subcontracting. They still advertise their services but if they can do several weeks subcontracting they do that, then if the job finishes early they will fit in your 2/3 days of work. You really come a very poor second.
And Brexit didn't help either.

There are few things more enraging, I think, than people who simply ignore you. It drives me absolutely round the bend too, so I feel your pain, OP. We've been doing up a house and getting tradesman just to come round and look at jobs has been virtually impossible. the ones that do (reluctantly) then drop you like a hot brick after promising to quote.

I also laugh grimly at their websites that say 'give us a call! No job too small! Look at all our great testimonials and excellent work!' Then you ring and a surly bloke laughs contemptuously and says 'No chance. Can't do anything. Not booking in anything for at least 6 months'. Customer service, anyone? I'm not going to think about trying you again if you treat me like an annoyance and belittle me, even if you ARE busy - there are ways of dealing with potential paying customers to keep them onside.

Thank God we did eventually find two guys, not a company, who work as a team and basically do everything from plumbing to decorating to building whole extensions. They’re an absolute godsend and always cheery. But that was after over a year of searching and by recommendation, finally.

It took one tradesman I employed 14 months to finish a job that should have taken four days.

Another, took a month for him to collect his rubbish.

A gardener that was supposed to come every two weeks disappeared and I never heard from him again. The next gardener I found was great, every fortnight, then took six weeks to show up and complained about how long the grass was.

@PocketSand no tradespeople have always been like this.
I used to flip properties (pre Brexit) and on one job went through four plumbers, with one being ordered off site as a fight was about to break out! I've had guys I've worked with previously come out three times to look (before purchase and then after) and quote for a job, and then drop off the face of the earth.
My last team for my own house (three years ago) was a dream. One leader (on recommendation) and all his subs showed up on time, were very professional, tidied at the end of the day and really cared about their work and did a fantastic job. Not cheap but couldn't fault them.
In your case I would have done the wallpapering myself at this stage, or got someone else in.