AIBU to think that if a tradesperson doesn't want a job, they could just bloody well say so?

[SerenityReynolds]

We're looking to get a bit of work done in our garden - probably a couple of thousand pounds worth. Looked around on Which? etc and asked friends/family for recommendations and duly booked for 3 people to come and look/give us a quote.

Guy number 1 asks me to email him after he's been over so he can email me a quote. I do so. Never hear anything back.

Guy number 2 quotes for part of the work and makes some suggestions over a couple of back and forth emails about slightly different things to do with the garden. Very nice and enthusiastic. DH and I discuss his ideas, but decide we don't think they'll suit us, tell him we'd rather go with what we originally asked for. Never hear back.

Guy number 3 gives competitive quote for the work that we want. Email to confirm we'll go ahead. No response. 3 days later (today) I call and speak to him. He says he probably can't start for 2 months but will call me back when he has his diary. I have a sinking feeling I'm not going to get a call.

AIBU to think if they didn't fancy/couldn't take on the job, they should just say so straight out and not waste my fucking time? Or am I missing something? Four weeks down the line and we're still at square one!

I had a similar experience trying to get some roofing work done
A few years previously similar circumstances got 3 estimates, chose a tradesman agreed start date, job done - I paid straight away everyone happy
This time I rang 14! Only 5 rang back, of whom 3 came out to look at job, then one didn't send me a price, one I didn't feel I could trust, final one was so way out of price anticipated that I nearly gave up
In the end my BIL recommended someone who we were happy with, but I started thinking. I needed a new career as a roofer, as they're obviously very very busy!

Rae please is your good plumber anywhere near Buckinghamshire/Herts area?

DP is a tradesperson. Sometimes emails asking him for work find their way into his junk folder. He would never find them if I didn't check. If you send an email and don't get a reply, try following up with a phone call. We had similar just recently. Chap had sent an email asking DP to call round, his email had gone into the junk folder, DP apologised. Customer was fine, appointment rearranged - everyone happy.

Also, DP is working all day long, not sitting in front of a computer/iPad/laptop/able to answer his phone. During his working day, he is normally to be found either at the top of a ladder, scrambling about on a rooftop or clinging to a chimney pot. And customers wonder why he's not answering his phone immediately.

And of course you get the customer who asks for a quote, then in the middle of a job decides to change their request and ask for a lot of extra work to be done, but still only wants to pay for the original quote. Or one lady who refused to pay at all because DP doesn't have a call-out charge. She genuinely thought he was running around doing work for people free of charge. At very short notice on Christmas Eve (4:40pm) he'd squeezed her in out of the goodness of his heart, fixed her problem, then she refused to pay him.

And I get calls sometimes from people saying: He was meant to be here at 3:00pm and he hasn't bothered turning up!" And this is at 3:05pm.

Not to mention the 7:00am calls on a Sunday morning, or 11:00pm calls on a Friday or Saturday night. We run a business from home, not a 24-hr service!

Not all tradespeople are bad. Of course, some are, and we ourselves have been on the receiving end of some very bad ones. But some of them are good, and sometimes there can be miscommunication or misunderstanding.

We are in the same place at the moment - had two weeks of our water pump being broken which means no running hot water upstairs! Plumber came out 10 days ago - who we have used before - we are still waiting for the quote. Luckily found another one who came to quote for us yesterday and has done a temporary fix and booked us in for two weeks time.

We have chased and chased the original - whats bizarre is he serviced our boiler and fixed it three weeks ago and we have chased multiple times for the invoice/bill wanting to pay him but he doesn't even answer those messages!

We don't want instant for things but when its a semi emergency a response would be good!

It's so frustrating.

SoGod afraid not, we're a bit more nothern!

Evans oh yes I have no doubt it works both ways- like I say we've had a brilliant plumber recently. I get that tradespeople are usually very busy, I have no problem with waiting for a response.

Evans I completely agree about it working both ways too. When we needed an electrician last year, both the people that came to offer quotes were excellent and I actually hated having to chose between them as they were lovely! The one we went with did a fab job and I would definitely recommend him.

I think I'm extra irritated about this as we had similar issues when getting our porch done. I would never expect someone e to call/email me back immediately, but certainly within a few days.

We are in a small town and want an extension building. 2 different companies. Both let us down twice for just coming out to give us a quote. Bastards.

It never ceases to amaze me how many times we ring tradespeople, arrange for them to come out to give us a quote and then they just don't turn up. If they don't want the work why don't they just say so!! It's infuriating spending your day off waiting in for someone who doesn't show up

Yanbu. I had exactly the same problem, eventually got someone and he did such a bad job of it, and now trying to get him to come back and fix it is a nightmare! It's very frustrating

My daughter had someone from Rated People to do some work in the kitchen. Complete bodge. Had to have it redone.

We asked he man who landscaped our neighbours gardens. He's on Checkatrade. Did a lovely job for them. Quoted double the price we finally paid for a small job. I reckon that's what they do if they really don't want the work.

I don't know about Rated People, but certainly on Checkatrade you can leave negative feedback if you've had an unsatisfactory experience.
Personal recommendation is always a good way to go. DP is with Checkatrade and has lots of positive feedback, but most of his work comes from personal recommendations. His brother is a plumber and he's let us down badly (two young children in mid-winter with no hot water or heating for four days)!! DP used to recommend him, but he was so unreliable that if people call us now asking for his number, we tell them the truth and suggest other, more reliable plumbers.

I agree, it is incredibly annoying when tradespeople let you down, and they give the honest, reliable ones a bad name, unfortunately.

I have to say I have had some good people recently. So if anyone is in north Birmingham I can recommend plasterers, decorators, tree surgeons and roofers. Maybe I am lucky! Also I never email, I call and then text to confirm/ chase.

I'm in the exact same boat - was given a £5k quote for some small garden work, another guy who said he could start tomorrow and turned up stinking of booze with his kids in the car, then everyone else we have called has said nah, I'm fully booked until September. Do people not want work now?! Driving me mad but hubby is driving himself up the wall with it.

You can't leave negative feedback on Checkatrade if someone hasn't actually done the job though - even if they have dicked you around with quotes etc.

I know because I tried to do it for a roofer who came round to quote, provided me with a quote and then completely disappeared into thin air when I said I was happy and could they do the work. 3 bloody weeks I wasted emailing, then leaving messages - how difficult would it have been to respond politely that, actually, they couldn't do the work after all - I would have just shrugged my shoulders and seen it as one of those things, rather then furious with them for being rude timewasters.

Same here, it's got to the point now where I have to contact at least 3 or 4 tradespeople re a job in the hope that one of them will get back to me. Why the others can't just say it's not possible, make up an excuse or whatever, just COMMUNICATE!!

onemouse, that's it exactly. I would have absolutely no issues with someone letting me know that they now couldn't undertake the work. It's the hanging around waiting for them to get back to you, when you could have been looking into alternatives

Looks like my gut feeling was right - no contact from garden guy number 3 this evening. Will leave it until early next week then start looking again

Well you might not be able to leave negative comments on check a trade. Truth hurts does it, but. There's nothing stopping you from ranting on Facebook.

We got a few quotes for a fence we wanted putting up. We choose the one we felt would do a good job of it. Rang them, told them we were happy with the quote and could they do the job? Yes. No problem. Couldn't be straight away as they were busy. Fine. Arranged for the 3rd week in August. Or so we were told.

I rang them and got the answer machine every time. Left messages but eventually gave up. Where did I go wrong? If they didn't want the work why could they say so instead of basically lying to me and wasting my time.

Have had some really good tradesmen to make up for the crap ones. It's a wonder they get any business.

What about the tradesmen who actually do a job, but then never come back for payment , this has happened twice and I truly can't get my head around it. No invoice no answering of calls, no returning voice message after voice message.
I think many of them just have a very poor business model and poor business processes.

Mmm, I had an Irish friend malign all 110 million Mexicans because of a bad Mexican plumber, as if Irish plumbers were infallible.

Same trouble here OP. Thought we had found a reliable good plumber and we had until he made a pass at me! Can we find another who actually replies to calls and emails and doesn't keep cancelling on us no we bloody can't. It drives me insane the way they string you along. I wish they would just be truthful with you.

Oh I hear you OP - exactly the same here. Recently went to 4 different decorators to look for quotes for timber restoration on porch, stripping hallway, stairwell and landing, painting all the woodwork, same for living room.

none of them came back to me, including the chap that a dear friend recommeded and had called to say "fanny will be contacting you...".

I generally use checkatrade (without much success) , but actually used ratedpeople recently - I feel like at least the people on there have shelled out for your contact details and so will be more inclined to quote.

Im about to go out for quotes for a major bathroom building project - DH moans and groans about things taking so long, but doesnt understand how the tradesmen just cant be arsed to quote.

I hear you OP.

We went out to tender last year for a major building project - a 'move out for six months whilst entire house is gutted and extended' type job. The kind of major build that, we were told, lots of builders would be interested in, and would be keen to quote for.

We sent out seven tender packs. Of those seven, only three ever bothered to come back to us. Despite us chasing up and despite numerous assurances that quotes were 'on the way'.

I can only assume that there is so much 'home improvement' type work out there that the various tradespeople are inundated with options so can literally pick and choose what they do.

We are lucky to have a great, reliable plumber who will come out and do all manner of small jobs. He is an older guy who has been going for years and I would always recommend him if you are in North Oxfordshire.
We have also recently found a brilliant guy to sort out gas heating and do servicing on gas fires etc.

As for finding a plasterer, well that is a totally different ball game.
We thought we had struck lucky when the people across the road from us recommended a guy who was a relative.
It took ages for him to call back and answer any messages, but then we finally got a date for him to come round and quote. We then got a text saying that he was ill and in hospital but would be in touch when he got out of hospital. Of course we heard nothing. I did a bit of FB stalking and found that he was entirely recovered and working/going out etc again, so we text him asking if he could give us another date. He replied saying that he would let us know as he had a few jobs to catch up on. We never heard anything.

This guy turns up, in his work van covered in his name/logo, every single week to see the neighbours across the road who recommended him. He parks about 5 metres from our house! He must remember that he was due to do a quote/job here, but has never bothered his arse to keep his promises. How he isn't embarrassed/uncomfortable, I don't know!
I would love to go and knock on his van window one day and ask if he is better now about a year on but haven't got the guts!

As a tradeswoman I find this fascinating. I'm in my first year (nearly second)of independent trading and can't imagine valuing customers so little. BUT in the first few months ( often even now) 80% of my jobs were those where more experienced, more recommended, able to afford rated builder- plumbers had failed to turn up! I was/am a last resort. I'm now getting work from word of mouth recommendations, on top of advertising.

When I don't want a job I tell people. I won't lie- this has led me to close my Facebook account. In my experience there are more people I was truthful to, who I honestly refused , who are then attempting to ruin me - saying I'm incapable of the job they wanted, I'm a spin merchant and so on.

So in summary- as a trade person I have personal experience of how unbelievably unreliable my peers are! I benefit from it and still don't understand it! But equally a lot of customers want the moon on a stick and yesterday! So I get why people back off.

In summary I have splinters in this arse o mine