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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In not removing review

351 replies

onanothertrain · 21/08/2019 13:16

Contacted a tradesperson for urgent repair, was told no problem, they would check the diary and phone me back within an hour. 4 hours later, no phone call so I sent a text. Another 4 hours later still nothing. I will admit to being annoyed so I left a Google review stating the above. An hour later I got a text asking me to remove the review as they hadn't actually done any work for me and they were working hard to maintain their business. I didnt respond and have now had 2 more texts asking me to remove the review. Im now considering either ignoring the texts and blocking, removing my review but leaving another one explaining why or just removing it all together. Although my stubborn side is not leaning towards the third option. So Aibu not to remove it?

OP posts:
ArgumentativeAardvaark · 21/08/2019 15:18

it can be impossible to ring back when promised sometimes.

So why make the promises @Ilovecolinjackson? Don’t you see the inherent contradiction in “promising” when you already know that you often can’t keep such a promise?

user1493759849 · 21/08/2019 15:20

@ArgumentativeAardvaark

@onanothertrain

Wink
Ilovecolinjackson · 21/08/2019 15:21

I never make promises, I get back to them as soon as possible, simple as that.
Meaning, I want your business, I want to help but I need to do it will dealing with the day's work and keeping those customers happy too.

ArgumentativeAardvaark · 21/08/2019 15:23

But you said “as promised” @Ilovecolinjackson Hmm?

Chivers53 · 21/08/2019 15:23

I would remove it, but message them saying you didn't mind they hadn't called back but not to say they will if they can't achieve this. Perhaps they haven't realised before that people would rather not have a timeframe if it can't be stuck to.

RedDogsBeg · 21/08/2019 15:23

We can be so busy with the work we have it can be impossible to ring back when promised

Don't promise to call back then and be honest with the caller and tell them you have too much work on to consider their job then they can find somewhere else immediately without wasting time waiting for you to deign to call them back sometime this side of Christmas 2020.

Or, alternatively, if you are so busy and successful employ a.n.other person to take customer calls and respond to e-mails?

PonderLand · 21/08/2019 15:23

I did this too. We hired someone to take out our kitchen, floor, remove chimney breast for oven blah blah. We ordered everything from wickes and had gone through all the plans with the guy and we were really happy for him to do it, he seemed nice and worked for himself locally which was a bonus as we live in a close community. I received a confirmation email with the quote and date to be started.

Three weeks before the kitchen was due to arrive he emailed me with a breakdown of the quote and I emailed him back to confirm the quote as it was different in the email to the original one. It was lower so I wasn't sure if there was a mistake or a certain aspect of the job he hadn't included. I rang and texted, left voicemails and messaged the Facebook page as I was sure he was going to ignore me and not do the job. They were still active on social media and putting up photos of completed work, I saw him in his van in work clothes numerous times whilst trying to get hold of him. I did leave a 3* review after a week of no contact stating the above as we had to cancel the kitchen delivery, plasterer, kitchen fitter, gas engineers, skip, appliance deliveries... 10 minutes later I got a message from his wife from the number I'd been contacting (wife also handles the SM) claiming he had been in hospital and unable to contact me and I'm a horrible person and need to remove the review.

Why not reply as quick when a customer messages them privately about it? I removed the review and hoped it was a one off for them. They then had the cheek to ask me for a 5* review!

Ilovecolinjackson · 21/08/2019 15:25

Paying people costs a lot and isn't actually worth the cost for this service, the extra business pays their wage, no extra profit.
I speak with 10 yrs experience and 10 yrs of having a full diary and having to listen to I'll educated advice from people who have never worked in this environment seeming to have all the answers an expecting perfection.

ChinkChink · 21/08/2019 15:26

Tradesman had an opportunity to apologise and explain why no call back as promised when they asked OP to remove the review. Had they done that I'd say remove. They didn't, so let it stand. It's the truth.

ArgumentativeAardvaark · 21/08/2019 15:27

You still haven’t explained why you said “as promised” then claimed you never make promises!

Ilovecolinjackson · 21/08/2019 15:29

We promise to call back, often the customer adds the rest, I better stop posting my cynical opinions about the people who pay our wage are showing.

Just try running a trade for a long time and you would change your view very quickly, that I do promise 😁

ILoveYou3000 · 21/08/2019 15:32

Funny how he couldn't get back in touch, despite promises, for eight hours yet can make contact within the hour for a poor review.

Don't know why this is baffling so many people. I'd assume the 8 hours of no contact he was actually out working, then saw the review and made contact once he was back home for the day. Why is that so difficult to grasp?

SunshineCake · 21/08/2019 15:33

I don't think you have done anything wrong. If they can reply to a negative post then why not contact you for the quote? If they want to maintain a good business then this is a good lesson for them.

Justaboy · 21/08/2019 15:39

If he's that busy, then maybe he needs to be paying someone to field phone calls for him?

Good point and unless his unpaid home helper i.e. the wife/partner can do that then yes he does have to employ someone and then his costs go up.

In some ways it dosent improve anything as he will inevitably have to phone up the customer or use the "phone answerer" to pass that reply onto them.

One given is that any tradesman or woman they are out there who is any good will never be short of work so even if he/she is difficult to get hold of then a good assmumption is thay are fgood and get the work.

Course matching the work demand to the supply of the tradesperson thats another matter and not a easy to fix one.

Course everyone wants someone right now this miniute!, tomorrow is too far away!

Wonkybanana · 21/08/2019 15:39

But what happens if someone has a truly major emergency - I don't know this guy's trade, but suppose plumber and an upstairs pipe is leaking so badly that the ceiling's in danger of coming down. The person with the emergency reads all these glowing reviews so rings said plumber. He promises to ring back in an hour but doesn't. How long do you give him before you start trying someone else?

I think as long as it was factual and completely truthful, the review should have stood. If I was looking for a tradesman it's something I would want to be able to see. If other reviews say that he does good work, that's valid too. But it shouldn't be the case that only good reviews are allowed.

Ravenblack · 21/08/2019 15:41

@ILoveYou3000

Don't know why this is baffling so many people. I'd assume the 8 hours of no contact he was actually out working, then saw the review and made contact once he was back home for the day. Why is that so difficult to grasp?

Yeah SURE that is what happened. Wink It wasn't simply because he couldn't be arsed to ring the OP ALL DAY (because he is unreliable and rude,) then couldn't get on the phone quick enough to demand she removes the shitty review, because all he cares about is himself!

And he OBVIOUSLY had no mobile phone/ any access to any phone. He was down in a mine with no way of contacting the outside world for a full 8 hours. Then when he saw the shitty review, he miraculously found his way to a phone as soon as he saw it!

I reckon she dodged a bullet. He sounds like a bit of an arse tbh.

whattodowith · 21/08/2019 15:42

YABU. Taking a while to respond is no reason to leave a shit review.

Justaboy · 21/08/2019 15:45

But what happens if someone has a truly major emergency

If as you say a pipe is peeing out water then turn of the house stop cock thats usually 'tho not ways under the sink, and if you don't know where it is then FIND OUT NOW!

If that dosnt in a short space of time stop the deluge then open all the taps to drain doen the hot and cold water storage tanks but make sure the house stop cock is OFF and stays off!.

That will give you time to the pester the plumber.

daisychain01 · 21/08/2019 15:49

How the fuck is telling the truth "spiteful" ?

Not meaning to pick up on only this comment, but just to say that unless you've run a small business it's difficult to know the tremendous challenges and pressures nowadays, and the last thing they need is negative comments tarnishing their reputation on social media.

It might be appropriate it if they had:

  • been dishonest
  • started a job they haven't finished
  • taken your money and done a runner.
  • shoddy substandard work

But for not getting back to you - come on, cut the guy some slack. If you have a point to make, make it to him personally, not put it out there in the public domain for such a minor thing.

cranstonmanor · 21/08/2019 15:50

As a customer I like reading honest reviews. I won't reject someone just because of 1 bad review but it does depend on the reason and the reaction. I don't want to employ someone who doesn't keep his word tbh, he can comment on your review with an explanation. The fact that he isn't doing that makes me think that he is very dishonest. I'd be thankful to read your review. Please don't remove it.

jgjgjgjgjg · 21/08/2019 15:52

I'd leave it. They promised to call you back and broke that promise. End of.

loobyloo1234 · 21/08/2019 15:55

Just out of interest OP - were the rest of his reviews good? If they were, genuinely, maybe it was a one off that he 'forgot' to call you back

familycourtq · 21/08/2019 16:03

But for not getting back to you - come on, cut the guy some slack. If you have a point to make, make it to him personally, not put it out there in the public domain for such a minor thing.
It's not spiteful though.

When it's in the public domain people can and will make up their own minds.
As is clear on here some people feel (like me) that truthful comments can be judged by others on their merits, whilst others think that posting such comments (even when accurate and truthful) is spiteful and the act of a dick or a cunt.

BoneyBackJefferson · 21/08/2019 16:04

I've found this thread quite interesting having just had some work done.

The actual work time was about 90 minutes, the time spent on the phone was about another 30 minutes.

Luckily my landlord will be dealing with the 2hrs work that the tradesman has billed them.

Watchingthyme · 21/08/2019 16:04

I just find it funny the amount of people that leap to the defence of poor hard done by tradesmen

They tend to be all of a certain type. The only ones that have been decent really have been like diamonds in the rough. Bloody rare.