AIBU to think that a tradesman should come when they say they will?

[berryfull]

Booked a tradesman to come today to do a job, but he messaged last night to say he wasn’t coming and would come when he could. Apparently the materials he ordered weren’t going to arrive on time. Which makes me wonder why he didn’t order them in time.

This isn’t the first time this has happened , why do tradesmen think that this is acceptable? I’m self employed too and I’d never dream of messing a client around, if I say I’m going to do a job at a certain time then I do.

Is there something I’m missing? Why is beyond the trades to be able to plan their whereabouts, be professional and reliable?

There could be a variety of reasons at least he let you know last night.

My husband is having issues with stock from China due to the Coronavirus. I am sure the tradesman what’s thrilled at losing a days pay 🙄🙄

As someone who was messed around on every single day off from work for three weeks by a carpet fitter YANBU. If he wasn’t self employed I could have complained but as it was there was no one.

But surely you just build in contingencies and strategies to deal with risk and you don’t let them impact in your clients? I can’t get my head round being unreliable professionally like tradesmen are being acceptable. If you Say you are going to do a job then you do it surely.

YANBU. It's happened to me and I've cancelled.. I had to take time off work for them then not to show up. Luckily I hadn't paid in advance/deposit. It just makes me not want to use anyone who is a sole or self employed trader frankly. Nobody else I know would get away with being so unreliable at work.

YANBU. It's happened to me too, countless times.
Always, the tradespeople have been men. I'm having some decorating done at the moment, and the decorator is a woman. So far she has arrived when she's said she will, given a timeframe that seems realistic and hasn't patronised me once. It makes a nice change!

YANBA I took days off for a British Gas engineer to come to fix my boiler, kept getting cancelled due to high demand (it was winter). One time, they pulled up out side the house, I was overjoyed. Drove off after about 3 minutes then I received a text to say they'd called and I wasn't home!! They never left the van. I had to start again and wait weeks before they could come out. I rent so couldn't even go with another company. So frustrating

YANBU - yesterday I took the day off to deal with two tradesman. One called to cancel and the other didn’t turn up. Frustrating as hell.

How the hell do they get away with it?

We get away with it because it often is not our fault. Yes, late communication is shit but...

This week I have had 4 customers ignore communication and done things that suit them best, costing me about 6 hours of time and making me late for. 2 other jobs. I could only give those. 2 people 30 minutes or so notice of my being late.

Many of us work with very little safety net, we can't afford to carry stock, build in just in case time etc.

But again, communication makes a big difference.

It took us about 7 attempts to get our plastering done. One plasterer even turned up on the day after making us wait for ages as he was 'ill', he looked around said hang on I'm just going to the shop for a drink and never returned not a text, call or apology it was awful. The house was upside down with no heating and two young children which he knew.

Some things are unavoidable though.
OH is a tradesman and had a job last year. He ordered the materials as soon as he knew what he needed, Wickes said they would’ve delivered 3 days before he needed them which was perfect.
They didn’t turn up. He spent hours on the phone trying to sort it, he didn’t have a spare £1k to buy it elsewhere. The customer was annoyed but what on Earth could he have done?!

I've had the same experience with 3 different plasterers. Said they'll come on X day, don't turn up, don't answer phone or texts then call back at around 5 in the evening with some excuse.
We finally found one person who came and did the job in 3 days whereas the others had said it would take a whole week. He worked from 9 in the morning till 9 at night. Really hardworking, polite and great work all round

No, of course, something is not the traders' fault, but we have had 4 traders claim there was a death in the nearest family. I know one of those claims to be true, but I don't believe the 3 others. I just had a call regarding an invoice. I said I would like a discount as they had not shown up 4 times and had not let me know either. I had taken time of from work, 2 of the times, so it had cost me money, but it was big surprise that I wanted a discount. The accountant said she couldn't authorise it. I suggested she go talk to someone who could authorise it. That was apparently unreasonable.

He should at least rearrange for a time that suits you and be apologetic, if it’s truly not his fault.

“When I can” is no arrangement at all!

I've had that this week. Booked electricians who were specifically mentioned for being reliable and good communictors, they said they'd turn up at 8am, I finally heard from them around 2 saying they'd get to me after 4, and they finally turned up at half 6, and did, tbf, make a start to the job. TBF, they did seem to have a good reason that wasn't their faulyt but I don't know why they didn't tell me in the morning!

They were then going to come on Thursday, so I took another day working from home - no word until 6pm, whe he said he couldn't make it until tues or weds next week (luckily it's non-urgent). I have solid meetings all morning both those days and have told them, but can have the au pair on hand to let them in if it comes to it. However, I'm betting, if they come at all, they'll phone when I'm busy to say they'll be there at short notice and then obviously I won't be able to let au pair know if he's not at home. I'm going to remind them to give me as much notice as possible, but I bet they won't!

The most annoying thing is when they don't come and say 'But we can come tomorrow' as if you have nothing else to do!

How the hell do they get away with it?

Because there's a massive shortage of decent trades-persons. They know that, so know they can get away with a certain amount of pissing their customers around.

After 25 years of owning our home, we've finally got a good selection of trades who are honest and reliable. But over those years, we've been through dozens of crap ones. It's like dating - you need to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.

Unfortunately, the "trades" aren't valued, so generally it's the lower end of the education spectrum that end up in the trades. They're the sort who are less capable in planning things, administration, etc.

One of our classic thick trades-persons was a decorator who we got to paint the exterior of our house. Turned up an hour late on the first day of the job, only to look at the house, look at his van, and then he had to go home because he'd forgotten his ladders. Came back 2 hours later, took forever to put his ladders and planks up, get his paints etc out of the van and then had to go away again because he'd forgotten the paint. It was after lunch before he even started!!