My husband is a plasterer and I do all his admin - quotes, invoices, pricing and communicating with the customer. If I didn't, it wouldn't get done because his skill is plastering and he's rubbish at dealing with the other stuff. We always return quotes as soon as possible and he does his best to keep to a schedule. However plastering, like many other trades, relies on other people getting their part of the job done on time - this week he had three jobs booked in, none of which ended up being ready for him on time. This means I have to frantically rearrange schedules meaning that yes, he can look flaky and, where that's not possible, that he won't earn any money this week through no fault of his own. It also often happens that when you turn up to the job for which you have quoted, there's a lot of 'while you're here can you please also do this, and that, and that...' - if he says no they say he is difficult, if he says yes he overruns and pisses off the next customer. Oh, and most people don't want to actually pay any extra for the extra work, on the basis that 'he's there anyway'. He gets paid based upon the amount of time a job takes and the amount of material used to do it. Little extras take more of both so why the hell wouldn't you expect to pay for that?
Furthermore, yes, customers can be deeply unpleasant. Withholding money for various spurious reasons - this week, for example, I'm chasing payment from one customer who is happy with work done over a month ago but now claims to simply not have the money. Another is not happy with what their electrician (nothing to do with my husband who has never even met this sparky) has done so is withholding payment to all the trades involved in the job. On another job he has been waiting for thousands for weeks now for a job on which he was a sub-contractor, because the other trades overran and the client doesn't want anyone in the house over the summer so the job can't be finished and the client won't pay until it is. My husband's work was finished weeks ago and the client is happy, so why should any of this be his problem?
Trades don't get paid for quoting and often do it during family time at evenings and weekends - they don't do it for the fun of it - and then turn up to clients having a domestic because the husband and wife can't agree on what they want done, who claim they haven't got any money to spend but want the Earth, who proudly tell stories about how they didn't pay previous tradesmen for various petty reasons. Why would he want to turn up to work for such people and risk not getting paid due to their pettiness?
Because we both work in this industry we have no trouble getting tradesmen in but I can understand how frustrating it must be to those who struggle. My advice would be to be very clear on what you want done and understand why some flexibility on timescales might be necessary.
As for those who don't like to offer even a cup of tea of coffee, that's just mean. These are human beings who are doing their best to solve your problems for you and to have that bit of human interaction really makes my husband's day. He always remembers the clients who are helpful and friendly and treat him like a human being instead of a robot or servant.
Sorry, that was long and ranty.