To blame my surname?

[facepalming]

I have a very obviously Eastern European surname, although I am English.

I have recently started to send out email enquiries regards various services for our upcoming house renovation but I'm getting a distinct lack of replies. I've contacted all sorts from cleaners, to plumbers to builders etc

Am I being unreasonable to think this might be because of my surname? Or do tradesmen find it harder to pick up emails than phone calls? maybe they are all just overloaded with work?

We find tradesmen don't respond quickly to phone messages either. Certainly in our area they are very busy. Not sure about the name thing, but it might be worth changing your email add just to see. Certainly some people have had problems over their 'foreign' names, as detaield above. Mind you, DH who makes most of the contact does have a very Irish sounding name!!

My Brother in Law is a builder and recently went to work for a popular local Indian takeaway. The proprietors told him that they had contacted LOADS of other builders and none would work for them.

Some even told them they wouldn't work for Indians. :(

The jokes on them though as BIL now has some lovely friends in those proprietors and they never, ever will take any money when he goes for a takeaway.

My oh has distinctly polish first and surname yet was born in England and never been to Poland. And his names are hard to pronounce. When we get married I will also have the surname. I don't think he has ever had a problem except for a few questions at passport control.

This is nothing to do with your surname.

Over the last three years, I must have contacted over sixty tradesman of one sort or another, leaving phone messages, texts, and emails. Only two have ever got back to me. We ended up finding people through contacts from neighbours.

I suspect a lot of tradespeople don't want smallish jobs and prefer contract work on new developments or large scale renovations because that's where the big money is.

It's the same with window cleaners, I've found. No one can be bothered to do a street of average houses anymore. They all want the office or venue contracts that mean just turning up with your special pressurised hose and getting paid a squillion pounds.

I doubt it's your surname. I think it's just that many small companies are notoriously bad at replying to emails.

Nothing personal, in my experience all tradesmen are useless at getting back to you.

I probably ought to mention that most people in our area have had the same problem, regardless of surnames or ethnicities.

The problem comes down to a scarcity of tradesmen because of the need for young trainees to get an apprenticeship in order to qualify for the higher levels of nvq etc. If they can't find one, they can't qualify so the pool of existing tradesmen just gets smaller as older tradesmen retire.

I've had the same problem when trying to set up viewings when renting a house. My name is very obviously not English (even though I am very English!) and I really struggled to get any responses. Tried again using my partners name and got viewings booked in straight away. I couldn't believe it as I thought I was just being paranoid at first.

This is simply explained by the vast majority of good tradesmen having more work than they can handle. Ask friends for recommendations -- the tradesmen are more likely to quote if they liked working for your friend.

Maybe customers should get stars like Amazon salespeople for e.g. prompt payment, good refreshments etc!

I work with tradesmen and builders all day long. None of them answer my emails either. Nothing to do with the name, just that they are busy, or they have poor admin etc.

I can't remember the last time I contacted a service company and they replied in a decent timescale.

I don't think it is racism so much as "oh dear I will have to ring back Mrs Difficultname and I don't know how to pronounce it and I am going to look a fool." So they put it off but they phone Mrs Smith back because they know how to say that.

My DSis has an unusual surname and has stopped bothering giving it when asked "What name?" for booking haircuts, restaurant tables etc. She just gives her much plainer maiden name. She doesn't give her Christian name as people can't say or spell that either !

Tradesmen around us don't respond to any form of communication it feels like some days!!!

Text seems to be one of the best ways, phone calls, FB, emails all get ignored!! It is moaned about a lot on a local area FB page so don't think it is personal!

Or they turn up and verbally quote and you never hear from them ever again!

I have a very English name. (It's a horrible name and I'd rather go back to maiden name but that's another thread.)

Anyway, I've been trying to get someone to come and do some work in the house. I'm on my fourth tradesman now. I text, get a reply, Yes, they'd love to do a quote. Me: Ok, when are you free? Radio silence.

I think you could be called Mrs Pinkington Smythe or Mrs Poo Bum and still tradesmen will ignore you. What you need to be called, imo, is Mrs IHaveAVeryBigExtensionToDoAndAVeryBigWallet.

Rhoda What you need to be called, imo, is Mrs IHaveAVeryBigExtensionToDoAndAVeryBigWallet.

Re. the study showing "foreign" names weren't shortlisted for jobs - wasn't that due to assumed incompetence? Would it really apply in this situation?

Yep, going by recent experience doubt it's anything to do with surname. They are generally just difficult to pin down or get any response from by any method. Understandable really as to be actually earning they will be probably be doing something where they are not in a position to answer the phone every 5mins. Be prepared to accept that for a good trades person you may have to wait... but then they sometimes want to actually do things at very short notice. It's just part of them needing to maximise their productivity. Good luck! (This is why we hired a builder who then organised all the different contractors for our extension - we could not be doing with the stress of trying to coordinate it all!)

I doubt for one minute they would turn down the work and subsequent money just because they think you may be Muslim! They are notoriously bad at emails, unless they have an office receptionist or such, which most do not .I would suggest a phone call instead

Haha I may get 'Ihaveaverybigextensiontodoandaverybugwallet@alsohavelotsoffriendswithbigwallets.co.uk' as my email!!

I'm doing better on the phone thanks to all those who replied! One person said they thought I was fishing for competitions pricing when they saw my email!

You would not believe the trouble we had trying to get our kitchen and bathroom fitted. Both expensive jobs but very few people returned calls, even fewer turned up to quote, and only one actually supplied the formal written quote!

Email, is so old hat as well. I only check mine once a week as most people tend to use WhatsApp & social media these days

Really TheNaze? I'm always checking my email although do seem to get more messages via FB/WhatsApp these days. I find it much easier to type a long email and to paste links on a computer rather than a fiddly phone keyboard. That said I found it easier to get in touch with a decorator recently via text message.