AIBU to think this reply is a bit cheeky?

[OldBoiler22]

As per my username, I need to get our boiler serviced. Used a new company last year who were fine so had intended to use again.

The website of said firm has on a landline and also a mobile number. In a quiet moment last weekend I thought I'd seize the chance to send a message to the mobile number asking if I could book an appointment. This was the response I got:

'Hi OldBoiler, yes no problem. Can you message me again Tuesday when I'm back at work'

I was a bit narked I won't lie.

AIBU to think that, as the customer, it's a bit much him asking me to contact him again at a point that suits him?

I wouldn’t text a tradesperson on a weekend as I’d assume they were having some well-earned time off. Instead, I’d make a note for myself to contact them on the next working day. I don’t think there was anything rude about his reply at all.

I never text tradespeople at weekends. It’s rude (obviously unless the roof has fallen in of course).

If I ring a company without realising it’s not within their working hours, I don’t get offended if there is an automated message asking me to ring back.

More to the point, I lost any sympathy for you when you used the dreadful phrase “reached out”.

My husband and brother are in the trades and to be utterly honest you sound like the type of customer they the avoid.

You contacted him during a bank holiday and think it's unreasonable that you were acknowledged and politely asked to call back during working hours? Really?

Is it really too much to expect men to use notes & calenders on their phones, even for their professions?

Nothing strange about their reply. They answered to be polite rather than to ignore you. I wouldn't think of contacting any tradespeople at the weekend just because I'm having a 'quiet' moment .

To say that you wont use a tradesperson because they take the weekend/evening/bank holiday off work and therefore dont reply to you immediately is entitled as fuck. It is rude and very self involved.

People who work on trade dont seem to get much respect, and their personal time isnt respected because people like you will take your business elsewhere if they wint reply to messages over bank holidays.

It just makes you a very rude person.

Also, it's worth noting that "as the customer" you need them, they aren't chasing you.

@WeepingSomnambulist if I'm not working my work phone is off and my out of office is on. If I get an automated response that's fine by me.

I disagree - putting the onus for contact onto the customer weeds out the time wasters/flaky clients and saves the tradesman time and effort, and many trades are massively busy so they can pick and choose the work they do so don't have to chase people up to beg for work.

The OP could have contacted 10 different tradesmen over the weekend to make an appointment. If she went with someone else by Tuesday then all she has to do is not call this person back and nobody's time is wasted. If she goes with this tradesman then she can call back at a convenient time for her to schedule an appointment so again nobody's time is wasted (presumably if they have a landline then its not just a sole trader, there will be at least one staff member in the office while tradesmen are out on the jobs whose role will include booking in appointments).

If the tradesman puts the onus on himself to call back then there's a much higher potential for it to be time wasted due to the admin involved with remembering to call back the 17 people who all contacted the tradesman over the weekend for non urgent issues; prioritising the calls; ensuring the numbers/messages are correctly given to the receptionist to call the potential clients back as the tradesman has jobs all day so can't call personally; having to call back repeatedly because people don't answer/it isn't convenient for them to talk; having half of them say "Oh we fixed it ourselves/managed to get another guy to come have a look/booked in with someone else" etc

So, practically, it is just far easier to essentially say "If you still need my services, call me during office hours"

If you receive a message on a day you're not working, then surely you just wait respond to that in full on a day you are working?

Acknowledging the text is the most professional thing to do.

If you walk into any business and they’re busy, they should still acknowledge you are there and say they’ll be with you soon.

It's always the people who call DH on Sundays and late evenings that expect to be fitted in at short notice when DH is fully booked at least 2 months ahead this time of year and they have had all summer to get their chimney swept. I expect it's the same with boiler servicing. DH now puts his phone on silent after 8pm.

My DH is a plumber and this really annoys him! The fact you can't be bothered to pick up the phone and actually speak to him is bad enough but to send a message at the weekend and be annoyed with the reply is ridiculous. My DH wouldn't bother to respond to you at all - his weekends, like all of ours, are precious.

Is it really too much to expect that people working a trade can have the bank holidays/weekends/evenings off and not have people testing with non-emergency enquiries?

Nothing wrong with the message at all, jesus

My DH is a plumber and this really annoys him! The fact you can't be bothered to pick up the phone and actually speak to him is bad enough

I always text my plumber as I'd assume he'd find it difficult to reply with his head down a toilet or in a water tank and can then reply in his own time.

Not when they're closed.

At what point would you say that its OK for tradespeople to stop "at least acknowledging the text". After 1 weekend text? After 10? After 30?

Why do you think their time off work shouldn't be considered as actually being off work? Why do you think they need to stop what they're doing on their days off to acknowledge messages?

It was a weekend with a bank holiday and you still think they should put aside their family time to reply?

I agree it would be better to have said thanks for your message, I will reply on Tues when I'm back at work. If he's v busy it might be a useful screener for him that people who bother to ring back are more likely to be worth quoting for.

There's no consensus on the culture of this yet. I think it's fine to email people in the evening, bunging it in their inbox for whenever they are next in. We do it all the time at work, and it's efficient and helpful to start the day with stuff already received. However I now avoid emailing school teachers on evenings and weekends, because they too often reply at odd hours. I don't think they have the culture of switching off, so a late night email would impose on them.

Most independent boiler companies are so in demand they rarely call back, let alone message back at the weekend. They clearly did a good job last time so just call back on Tuesday.

No not cheeky at all. Maybe could have worded it differently I guess but I wouldn't be bothered by this at all yet alone feel I needed to start a mumsnet post on it, I'd think no more of it.

I disagree - putting the onus for contact onto the customer weeds out the time wasters/flaky clients and saves the tradesman time and effort, and many trades are massively busy so they can pick and choose the work they do so don't have to chase people up to beg for work

I wish they bloody well did need the work. I wouldn't mind having to text/call again but it would be nice if someone actually turns up when they says, gives a quote or even responds to a message at all. I have so much work I'd like people to do in the house and can't get anyone in to do it for love nor money. I don't know what you have to do to get someone to do a bit of painting and decorating for you these days. I honestly can't be arsed again as it's so time consuming and soul destroying.

@Rosehugger my DH finds it frustrating when it is a new customer probably wouldn't be so bad if it was someone who used him regularly.

I'd just email them whenever. They need to learn to manage their own time better if they get angsty and are checking their work emails at night.

But why should they have to do any admin outside of work hours? If they are not on call and it is outside of office hours then they have no obligation to be booking in jobs or taking appointments.

I am a union rep for my workplace, my personal mobile is available to any colleague to message me at their convenience, but that doesn't require me to be available 24/7 and at any one time I can have multiple colleagues messaging me for multiple issues. If someone messaged me when I was out with my DD on my day off I would probably fire back a quick "Hi, have seen this message but am busy atm as it's my day off and I'm not back at work till X day. If it's urgent then YYY is the regional office number, otherwise message me back if I haven't got back to you by X day."

It annoys the heck out of me when businesses offer a way to get in contact, such as WhatsApp, only to say "can you ring the office number?" It puts the action back on me when I already took an action. If you have a lead, you follow it, not ask the customer to generate it again .