if you are going to use the word 'professional' in your job title you need to live up to it.

[shoebedobedobedobedoo]

Everybody these days seems to be a 'professional' even in jobs that require zero skill or training. We just moved house and have had a run of crap 'professional' experiences.

1. The painter. Utterly shit. There is paint on my doors, my windows, my wooden floor (which has subsequently been destroyed by him trying to clean it), missed bits in every room, poor/non existent sanding and preparation work. Eventually I sacked him as he overran and I wasn't prepared to have paint also on the new carpets.
2. Plumber. Came, servcied the boiler, flushed the system, left with 2 radiators still not working.

3.Cleaner (see other post tonight). Failed to clean most of the cupboards in the house.

1. Carpet fitter, did something while fitting the carpet so now the bathroom door doesn't shut.
2. Emergency nanny. turned up 30 minutes late, didn't give DC lunch until 3pm and left the house....well like 2 children have been playing in it all day.

These are all people who call themselves professionals. Really???

I see what you mean, Sparklingbrook - it makes perfect sense that personal recommendations / actually knowing the clients makes all the difference

It was just a shame that all the decorators and builders recommended to me were (understandably) too busy to fit my work in, which left me at the mercy of "unknowns"

I see your frustrations at some of this but do you think the underlay/ carpet is just thicker and that's why the bathroom door won't shut? If so, it' not the carpet fitter's fault. And I'd be happy for a nanny to feed the children when they were hungry if I'd not specified a time. That's hypothetical though. We've never had a nanny.

Yes sometimes it’s just not possible to get a recommendation or you need something urgently and have to take your chance.

There’s a couple of things I want doing but can’t find anyone able to recommend anyone so not sure what to do really.

You expected the painter to redecorate a whole house in a week?

@73Sunglasslover i don't know. he changed the bar under the door frame. I guess I look at it like "well it worked before you changed it", but haven't got the time or energy to do anything about it- I have DC young enough to never get a private wee or poo anyway!

It's like the words "deluxe" or "luxury" put on products that really aren't. Dave Gornan did a sketch on it once, he found a "luxury wig" in Poundland.

If anyone can say it about themselves then the word has no meaning.

Also when the word 'quality' is put in front - it doesn't specify whether it's poor quality or high quality.

@Somanysocks, no! The exchange was delayed and delayed and delayed and then suddenly happened with completion a week later. We wanted someone in asap to do the painting and got 2 similar quotes, one quoted 3 weeks for the job the other quoted 4. The 3 week person could start sooner and had a bigger team, so we went with him. I guess the red flag is that if a builder/painter/carpenter is available at short notice its because they don't have work lined up (except in rare cancellations), and any decent tradesperson is booked up weeks or months in advance.

Ok fair enough, just thought he may have been rushing the job which would explain it, no excuse though.

Why is everyone so shit at their job?

I say this all the time. It’s really shocking to find anyone who is good at what they do or a company which offers excellent service.

I blame the race to the bottom on price. Everyone wants things to be cheap so corners are cut. Do few people offer high quality goods or service these days and there’s a surge in ‘can’t be arsedness’ generally.

My GP forgot to ring with my test results (I phoned to chase after 2 weeks). Painter who I rang in October still hasnt called me back. Friend had forgotten we’d arranged a night out and booked something with her husband. The person who cleans my fish tank tipped a bucket of dirty water over behind my chair and left it to turn foul. Even John Lewis have cocked up two out of three orders this month.