If your DH/DP is or you are a tradesperson........

[Ravenspeckingontheroof]

Do they communicate with you/your OH as dreadfully as they communicate with clients??? We are supposed to be having a garden project done this week. DH WFH and I’ve arranged work to be available. They Email on Friday ‘see you next week’. In my mind that means Monday. Well we’re half way through the week with no sign of them and no communication. It’s more than a weeks work and we are on holiday the week after next, and they aren’t doing it if I’m not there.

We had a huge project done a couple of years ago, there were plumbing issues. I messaged the plumber about coming. Weeks later I messaged again to see why he hadn’t come. His response? “I’ve called at your house several times and you are never in”. I’m sorry, but I don’t stay in my house 24/7 in case a tradesperson that I’ve contacted in the last 12 months happens to be passing and expects me to be in despite not ever saying he might call’
What is so hard about sending a text saying ‘sorry, I’ve been held up in a job, can’t get to you until x’ or, ‘thanks for asking me to quote but the jobs too big/ I’m booked up for 6 months/I think you seem like a pain the arse and I don’t want your job’.
I’ve lost count of the number of people over the years who have come to quote for us, spent over an hour at the house and simply never sent a quote (and I never chase because if I need to chase you for a quote the whole job will be a nightmare). Why? Just please explain to me their/your psychology and defend their/your rudeness. Rant over.

I’m surrounded by tradesman. Dad-joiner, brother-tiler, brother- builder, brother -electrician hubby-plumber and I am not lying when I say it’s always a fight to get ANYTHING done from any of them.
I often wonder how there businesses are still going, but they are all good at what they do.

My dad and half his brothers are/were tradesmen and I think they must be the exception because they were all there when they said they’d be there. Even now my dad is retired and he gets people asking him for DIY favours (including me!) and if he says he’ll be there at 9:00 he is there at 9:00. He’s always prided himself on his good reputation and the others are the same. If a job is booked, that’s where you go on that day. There father was a very strict and harsh man so I assumed they learned to do exactly as they said they’d do from a very young age.

I feel your pain. We are having a new roof, scaffold went up two weeks ago. Roofer text last week to say he'd be here this week. No sign of him at all. Very little response by call, email or phone. It's so tiresome trying to chase tradesmen all the time. I wish I could do the work myself!

Omg i do not understand how some tradesmen operate like this. Like one of the previous posters, I have a lot of tradesmen in the family who are all very professional (I wonder if it's because some of them spent a lot of time working for local authorities to work on council tenants' houses - perhaps the council requires you to have decent customer service/organisational skills? I have no idea).

On the odd occasion I have to go outside the family for work, we will go to a few trusted family friends who we know do excellent work. However, they are an absolute nightmare communication wise!!! God awful. If I didn't feel obliged to use them due to the fact they're close friends, I certainly would go elsewhere just to get some semblance of professionalism - no matter how good the friends' work may be!!

Oh it's a daily nightmare. I work in the office of a trader and I've never known such a haphazard way of working. The business absolutely thrives though.

I've learnt that you just can't change tradies. No matter how much I try to implement filing and diary systems, make communication with customers more timely and professional and organise the accounts, I know by Friday that paperwork will be lost, customers won't have been called and we'll be back to addressing everyone as mate.

I’m in exactly the same position with a landscaper , and they are always having issues with their phone !!

No when dh was self employed tradesmen he was there when he said he would be unless something drastic but always communicated.
Df and db also tradesmen and they are same, sometimes may be delays that can't be helped but again always communicated to clients

I only use tradesmen who do what they say , currently waiting on landscaper and he is a week behind but know that can haopen as weather dictates a lot and can put behind and he has let me know.

and it gets worse. So no word all of last week. on Sunday I messaged and said "we will be away from 3rd for 1 week and I don't want you working when I'm not there". He replies "will try to start Tuesday or wednesday"...and i think "well i'll not hold my breath". left the house at 8am, had a missed call from him at 9.30, got home at 11am to find him well and truly started.. I'm out all day today and tomorrow and DH is away, so he just gets to crack on with no-one around to check its all ok. Why can't they just communicate? I am SO cross.

We had a decorator round last September. He spent nearly 30 mins talking about all of the decorating we wanted doing and he wrote it all down in his notebook. He left his paint charts so we could choose colours while he put the quote together. I text after a fortnight and he said he would drop it round ASAP. We never heard from him again.
It annoys me now when people recommend him on our local village facebook group. Maybe he just wasted our time and isn't like that with everyone else.

My dh is a tradesman. He isn't like you have said. If he says he will do something or be somewhere, he will be

And now he wants to move the car and has asked our cleaner to ask me. Or he could have just come when he said you would and then I’d have been there. .

OP,
Be very very careful.

I have had a lot of work done over the years and regularly have people in to do jobs and I wouldn't accept that.

People that don't turn up without calling would have a job cancelled.

He is treating you like shit and you are taking it.

Have you paid him money?
No one does work in my home or garden without me here to supervise.
Particularly someone who is doing work for the first time.

You need to be very specific with times and start dates.
You cant leave ANY space for ambiguity.

In your absence yhey will do what's easier for them and then say well you weren't there.

Do NOT allow them to do work while you are not there.
Very foolish IMO to.