To wonder how some tradesmen stay in business?

[RestEasy]

I called a man out to deal with my drains when we had a blockage.

He was lovely, turned up promptly, dealt with the neighbours beautifully (shared manhole) sorted the problem and cleaned up after himself. When I asked about payment he said he'd email an invoice. All good. This was in June.

Since then I've text a number of times to remind him, he always said it's on it's way. At the time of his visit, DH was bedbound in a hospital bed by the window he was working near so TBH, I began to think he'd taken pity on us and decided not to charge.(he really was lovely).

Anyway the invoice has arrived by post today. I shall pay it tonight. But I'd forgotten all about it by now, I could have moved or died! Surely this is no way to run a business?

I wonder this too. We have had two separate incidents where a tradesman has half finished a job and then disappeared off the face of the earth, neither even tried to charge for the couple of days they did do.
Then there are the ones who agree to do a job and just never turn up. Why?! Do they think we'll collapse with disappointment if they just say they can't/don't want to do the job?
And don't get me started on finding ones that will actually come and look at something to give a quote.
The ones who turn up on time, email a quote the same day and give you confidence that they will actually complete the task are like gold dust. Once found, hang on to them!

I had a plumber last week who moved the washing machine and yanked the waste water pipe out so I was left with a flooded kitchen when I used the machine
Now smells of damp, and black mould to come soon no doubt.
He also walked off leaving his ultra bright torch turned on in the cupboard under the sink.
Crap!!

I (and several relatives and friends) owe our local mechanic a fair amount of money. I owe him at least £400 for a couple of MOTS and a couple of jobs that have been done on my car over the last 3 years.

My BIL owes him about 2k!

You go around and ask for the bill, and he always tells you he'll get back to you with it and call you back. Then he never does.

My work colleague asked who we used and when I gave the name, he said "Oh, he's the guy it's hard to pay", as he's well known for it.

No idea how he stays in business.

Usually their businesses are a front for money laundering hence them being so blasé about payment. Google it.

@DrMadelineMaxwell haha I'm wondering if we have the same mechanic.
My one is the same. Had some pretty costly work done, MOT, alternator and wheel bearing. Every time I text to ask for the bill he says yes I'll send it and never does.
Been about 3 months now

I've got a tradesman in doing some work at the moment. It is testing my patience.

He doesn't get here till 11. Then he panics because he's got hardly anything done, so we've had him here two weekends on the trot - Saturday and Sunday! It's great he wants to get it done (and tbh I should just say no) but he could just get better at time management.

I asked him to send me an updated invoice. It was completely wrong. He knows how much is left owing (not much as hopefully we're nearly done) but still managed to send it to me wrong.

He's only just set up on his own having previously been an employee and I really want to offer him some constructive advice about that. I won't, but I want to!

I had a builder like that a few years ago! He did a really good job & I’ve recommended him to a few others who have subsequently used. I kept texting him for bank details and he finally replied on the 8th text.

Agree with @ComingtoKent though. If tradesmen don’t want the work, just bloody say so! I could do without the theatrics of them pretending, or giving an obscene quote because they don’t want to do it.

We have a heating engineer like this. An older guy, definitely not a front for anything dodgy. We literally wave goodbye while saying ‘make sure you invoice us!’. Then have to pester him for months. Eventually it turns up in the post, last time with a note ‘an elephant never forgets.’

@TotallySuper

Usually their businesses are a front for money laundering hence them being so blasé about payment. Google it.

What a load of utter shite

Tradesmen are good at their trade, a lot of them are bloody awful at admin - it’s not their thing.
My dad owns a large decorating company (commercial not residential) Company has a huge turnover, Dad is excellent at what he does.
I do a lot of the paperwork for him, when it comes to putting through stuff when doing the books I find most of the receipts I need on the flour of a van, in his car, in various coat pockets, usually with stuff scribbled on the back. He would t last 5 minutes if he got a job in an office!

I'm surprised you even managed to find someone to turn up.

I've been finding it utterly impossible to get a tradesman to even turn up to the house to take our money.

They are all bloody useless. Good at the labour (sometimes), crap at admin. The issue is that they fill their week with jobs, and there is no time put aside to do the admin. IMO they should all have an assistant that does it for them, or the tech to quickly put a quote together as soon as they are back in their van, before the next job.

The ONLY tradesmen I have had that have been 100% reliable & good at admin have been over 60, and seem to value doing things properly. Oh and one electrician around 40 who is so outstanding that I am considering kidnapping him & cloning his DNA to make more of him.

It makes you feel ridiculous to be chasing someone to pay them. I say chase once - after that, if they don't want/need the money, that's on them

I know two excellent tradesmen who've ended up bankrupt due to their dire admin skills. In these cases it's definitely because they love the job but are clueless/totally uninterested in the admin. They learned the hard way and now outsource the accounts!

I owe a tradesman 7k. I've been asking for the invoice for a few months. He's had to ask me how much the quote was as he forgot. He still hasn't provided an invoice. I'm baffled.

My parents had an MOT and service last July. They chased many times for the bill. I took over chasing when they got ill and passed away. Still no bill. Have given up and settled the estate. I wanted to pay but couldn’t.

Many tradesmen are hopeless when it comes to any kind of admin.

My DH is a contractor so he can claim some stuff back on expenses - fuel, MOT, some tools etc. but come tax time, we always have a big panic because half his receipts are in the glove box, under the drivers seat, shoved in a drawer or in the pockets of a coat he's not worn for five months

I'm also self employed and every evening I sit down at my laptop and input any information from that day into my accounting software. So I'll sit down and input any payments I've received, any expenses I've had to pay out, fuel bills etc.

My taxes take me about thirty minutes each April. It can easily take DH several days - but he never learns as each year we have the same performance

Luckily as a contractor he's paid regularly by a company otherwise I dread to think how he'd cope!

Most trades people are not money laundering, that's hilarious

They should cover the basics of this stuff at college. DS 17 is learning a trade at college and he's good at the hands on stuff. He's also re sitting English GCSE for the 3rd time.

I'm not expecting him to pass English, not because he can't read and write to a reasonable degree, because he's as uninterested as it's possible to be in the sort of thing on the GCSE syllabus. He just can't see it as relevant to anything (despite my best efforts). I don't think he's turned up for a lot of the classes even though his attendance is good on the trade side.

All those hours on his timetable over the last couple of years would be more useful going into learning the kind of admin that comes with self employed trade. Even if he works for someone else initially there's a good chance at some point he might be self employed.

@TotallySuper

Usually their businesses are a front for money laundering hence them being so blasé about payment. Google it.

What an utterly bonkers response

I had a pest control man who came and laid a load of poison last year - he came back once to check it and the problem does seem to have gone away - but I never had a bill.

It hadn't occurred to me that tradesmen could be a front for money laundering. I assumed it was just our sun bed parlours and cash only barbers.

About ten years ago we had to have all the wiring chased into the walls. They did a great job, I requested and requested the invoice. Gave up eventually.
Probably saved me a couple of grand.

I have a different problem. Tradesmen turn-up on time. All very polite and make notes of what's to be done and then disappear, just as quickly , with a promise to text/email their quote. Only I never hear from them again. In the end I call my local builder, who is very good but also very expensive. This has happened several times now.

I reckon it's part of why trades are so expensive atm. Half of what you are paying is that they forget to actually collect payment half the time. It's a lottery whether you get lucky and get your work for free or pay a load

The guy who does our car mots gives you an invoice but then never ever follows up! Last time DH and I got mixed up, each thought the other had paid it. Only realised about 6 weeks later then paid it. The guy never chased once!!

It's crazy that they don't have a better grasp on cash flow and bills especially when there are plenty on apps that can assist them and can be done from a phone or tablet in van after the job.