To wonder if we are on some kind of trades person blacklist?!

[RozDoyle]

Arghhh I am so frustrated 😡

Ok, to keep a long story as brief as possible, I need a bedroom redecorated before Christmas. I also need various bits and pieces done around the house e.g. new internal doors, mirrors hung, a stairgate fitted etc.

I cannot get a decorator to do the room for love nor money. I just repeatedly let down. They don't turn up to give a quote. They give you a quote and then don't text you back or answer the phone. I'm starting to panic now. The room really needs done, I have a new bed ordered for it and new furniture cluttering up the landing.

Same story with joiners and handymen re the other jobs. Just having no luck at all. Handyman was meant to be here at ten o'clock today to do the gate and the mirrors and he isn't here yet. I have a feeling he's just not coming. I hope I'm wrong.

I just really needed to vent. I am making absolutely no progress with this house at all. It is stressing me out. Does anyone else have this issue?!

It's not you!

We had a tradesman coming at 9.30 today. 9am he rang to say he wasn't coming, but would be coming at 11am. We will see.

I could cry. Seriously.

It may just be that the jobs you want done - one room painted, odd bits of wood work - are just too small for a professional to bother with. They want to be on longer jobs. TBH what you want is more like DIY.
Sorry if that's not helpful!

We are having the same issue with bathroom fitters at the moment. They all seem to be too busy (rural area and not many of them around).
Can you do any of the jobs yourself?

What kind of people are you calling? It might be too small a job for a decorator to be bothered (still rude not to return your call and tell you they're not available though). Maybe some kind of general handyman?

Internal doors are quite difficult. Measuring, sizing, bezelling, hanging & then fitting handles etc. I wouldn't call that basic DIY.

What's the point in a handyman then? They list "stairgate fitting" on their website.

There are some traders blacklists in some areas my uncle is a plumber and is informed by other plumbers when they get "difficult" customers aka bas ones that wont pay etc

But on the whole its most likely there is such demand that they are just swamped with customers

We have never been awkward or not paid. In fact I can count on one hand the number of times we have used tradespeople.

This is normal. It's not just you.

I've had a raft of disorganised unreliable tradesmen. It's a nightmare.

I wish I had a solution I could share but sadly I don't think there is one!

I get personal recommendations wherever I can. I always use people who are on checkatrade as I have found checkatrade brilliant at resolving any 'issues' i.e. I then leave a bad review and the tradesman that was previously ignoring my calls suddenly turns up and wants to rectify things!

If I was as bad at my job as half the tradesmen I've come across I would've been sacked a long time ago.

Sorry I've just ranted on your thread!

I think that they list all the jobs they are prepared to do but prefer larger jobs. In leaner times they may take smaller jobs on as fillers. Bit shit really and annoying though.

I sympathise, we had this issue when we first bought this house. Though our jobs were bigger, it took us about 2 months to find someone who in the end turned up. There were so many before that who vame for the initial visit, gave recommendations, seemed on board with everything, only to hear nothing afterwards.

I think they could be coming across other jobs that seem more worth their while, rather than odd jobs here and there.

Initially we were trying to find a separate tradesmen for each type of job, but in the end we made a list and posted it as one big job instead, and a 'refurb' type company responded and said they could do it all (and they did)

How are you contacting the workmen?

I posted on 'my builder'. You can invite companies/tradesmen to quote and see their reviews before any contact is made.

A lot of them who are listed as 'refurb' etc will also do the smaller bits if you group them, and it might make it easier for you to coordinate with one contact with dates, quotes etc

Good luck

The latest decorator was a recommendation. My in laws are friends with him, he's redecorated their whole house. He came down, spoke to me at length about the room, texted me a quote which was reasonable. I went back and said great, when might you be able to start? No reply.

Thank you Dan that's actually a good bit of advice. Group them into one big job.

Sorry, forgot to add, on my builder, the tradesmen can also respond to a job themselves if they are interested, so its a bit more likely they'll turn up(not guaranteed though !) if they show initial interest

My experience in waiting for a painter/decorator is that they will prioritise outside jobs until the weather gets bad. The chap i had to paint outside our house - who eventually came 2 months after the plan - said he was booking stuff in for next Spring already. Presumably from Nov - March they prioritise indoor jobs.

But getting tradesmen around here in general is difficult as they have more work than they need!

This drives me bonkers as well.

We need a new gate for the garden. I have contacted at least 6 local companies and they've all said they are interested in the job. Several have arranged times to come round and quote.

Not one of them turned up.

If they don't want the bloody job just say so and don't waste my time.

We should all start leaving feedback on google for this unprofessional behaviour. Maybe tradesman would take a bit of notice when it starts to put off potential customers.

I cannot actually believe this guy today hasn't turned up. We even spoke on the phone about how hard it is to get tradespeople and he said "that's exactly why we started doing this" 😡😡

I've had the same with a tiler. He came, did a quote, arranged twice to come and never turned up and then I get some rubbish about not being able to come due to his wife being in hospital! That was 4 weeks ago, not heard from him since. I've sorted it out now, so he's lost the money and wasted his time for coming out to do the quote!

It isn't you. Tradesmen are just not very reliable or are disorganised. Ask around to find to the good ones. Or the consumers association 'Which' has a register of the better ones.

Our residents association keeps their own list of reliable local tradespeople for this very reason.

Have you tried mentioning it to your in-laws? They might contact him and it might put a boot up his arse if he thinks he might lose a longstanding customer.

We've had this, in-laws recommend someone they've used for years, we contact trader and arrange a date/time, they don't turn up, non-contactable, we ring in-laws, in-laws ring trader, trader turns up.

It's a right ol' palaver though.

Feel like texting him "I thought you were different, Jim 😩"

I second that - Its not you.

I sometimes wonder if I'd get better service if I wasn't so nice to tradesmen and if I hinted that I have many properties that will need maintenance and also that time is of the essence.

I also wonder if they treat women differently.
I now go by recommendation only - start by asking neighbours who they use.
I have recently found a lovely Polish handyman who really wants to work it's so refreshing!

It's definitely not just you, we have had unbelievable grief getting tradespeople to do any work in our house - from decorating, plastering, hedge cutting etc to landscape gardening - I honestly couldn't tell you how many people we've tried to get to do these jobs and most of them are unfinished. And if they're too busy to do little jobs, why not just SAY that instead of just wasting your time? It infuriates me, totally unfair and rude.