To feel like this about tradespeople...

[Glitterlikeawinner]

Ignoring calls and messages, saying they'll give you and quote and then don't, say they're going to come round and then don't.....so unbelievably fed up!!

I'm sure this is very common and quite normal behaviour from what I can gather from friends and family experience but why oh why do tradespeople treat people like this? In any other business this is a sure fire way of not getting custom but this apparently is quite normal?

Since we initially started our extension planning journey in Oct 2020 we have so far done, nothing. We had plans drawn and planning permission that took a whole year to complete (architect and structural engineer dragging heels and constant chasing to resolve). Builders quoting insane amounts for whole build (despite asking architect to do drawings to meet our budget) so we ask if we can do it in phases, they said sure then no one has come back with phase 1 and phase 2 prices. I suspect because they want the big job at once.

In the meantime I've tried to get quotes for plasterers to do ad hoc jobs around house, 1 showed up and never did a quote, another one said they were coming and never did. Same with a carpenter, said he was coming and didn't bother.

I've followed up with messages to see if they want to rearrange and then never hear anything. Feel like we've been on a first date and now I'm being ghosted!

Is this disorganisation, picking and choosing jobs or standard behaviour we have to accept as part of any building work and I just need to keep chasing?

Honestly it's driving me to tears! We have the money to do the work and we're just stuck here doing nothing! Never done any major building work so this is all new to us but it's getting me so down!

Appreciate there are likely good tradespeople out there who treat customers well, but I'm yet to find one I'm afraid! Sorry for the rant!!

From the other perspective, lots of people on these forums have completely unrealistic views of what jobs cost in both time and materials. While this isn't necessarily you, it probably is 9 out of 10 jobs they've quoted this week.

There's also a lot of requests to come at very specific times that make fitting other tasks round them difficult, people you turn up to that aren't in, can't talk right now as on a work call but can you come back in 10 minutes etc, etc.

I find the best way to get tradesman to return for future jobs is to pay them promptly.

Indeed, the sky's the limit for tradesmen if they have an entreprenneurial spirit and good organisation/administrative skills.

Another of my clients was an electrician specialising mostly in alarm systems. He just "plodded along" making a decent living but nothing special, and he always complained it was boring work, but he'd got a good local reputation so was the "go to" guy when Ethel down the road wanted a new alarm!

A good few years ago, maybe a decade or more, he was well into led lighting systems (the top of the range mood lighting, colour changing, light show type of thing), as well as using broadband for controlling home electrics, as well as electrics for camper vans (led lighting, solar panels, invertors, batteries etc). It became his hobby for his own house, his own camper van etc.

He "re-positioned" himself, wound down the alarm business, and his led/broadband/camper van "hobby" just exploded. He's kept himself fully up to date, always looking at the "next new thing" and is making an absolutely killing installing top end led light show systems in top-end houses, executive motorhomes (coaches), etc.

It's an national disgrace that "manual trades" is so looked down upon in schools, by teachers and by parents (thanks a lot Blair you fool!).

A lot of civil contracting firms are the same. If they can't do what they planned on a certain date (either weather, faulty equipment, materials not delivered, etc), they just either sit around all day doing nothing or just go home early. They price in the "down days" in their costing/quotations, so they know they're getting paid anyway, so aren't remotely bothered that they're not doing anything!

Maybe if they're self employed.
SIL is the works coordinator and if its raining she'll route out the next indoor job.

I worked in the building service sector for years and we'd never allow engineers/builders have a slack day.

From your post, it seems you've also had to chase architects etc too.

So it's clearly not just 'tradespeople' who are 'unreliable' is it!

Honestly though, I am married to a tradesman. I know he doesn't always get back to everyone superfast because...

He's on site all day and is often exhausted when he gets home. He doesn't always have energy to read and send emails with the efficiency of someone who sits in a warm office or wfh. He's also dyslexic, so every email takes 10x as long as it should take as he wants to come across well.

He sometimes just gets a 'bad vibe' from potential clients and has learned to trust his gut. Red flags in the first email or phonecalls means he doesn't take them on.

Quoting takes hours. Literally hours. Non chargeable hours after he's been on site all day or at the weekend. Then the customer doesn't like the price (because materials costs have often rocketed or the architect is completely out of touch) and they ask the builder to requote, for free, of course.... Often the customer doesn't even acknowledge the quote. It's soul destroying.

It's exhausting and sometimes not worth it. He has a network of known customers and they will always be his priority as he knows they will treat him with respect and pay him on time.

I can totally see it from the customer point of view, as I've had similar issues with all kinds of people including cleaners, tutors, car mechanics, dog walkers, dog groomers, gardeners etc. I think they are all very very busy and there aren't enough good ones.

I would happily pay for quotes if it meant the tradesperson reliably turned up and actually provided a quote afterward. I understand that their time is valuable and they get time wasters.

I’ve thankfully not had these issues. I usually go on personal recommendation or look up the top rated people on Trust a Trader (or similar). They’ve always turned up and done it.

Thing is that "in the old days", self employed people would usually have someone doing their admin for them, often a spouse, but just as likely an admin assistant/secretary etc. I started my career in accountancy in the 80s and it was almost unheard of for someone self employed to do their own books/admin - even small "one man bands" like window cleaners would have someone doing it for them a few hours per week.

Nowadays, because of everything is online and having mobile phones, lots of "one man bands" try to do it all themselves to save money, but in a lot of cases it's false economy because they spend valuable time doing "admin" when they could be earning more per hour actually doing chargeable work.

Yes, obviously some things need to be done personally, such as viewings/meetings for quotations, but an awful lot of the "behind the scenes" work could be delegated.

This is why I'm still thinking about switching to plastering as a career.

Needed everywhere. Some people would prefer a man, but I reckon enough would prefer a woman for it to be worthwhile. And I know how to manage a calendar and my inbox.

I do his bookkeeping and accounts. But I also have a full time job.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to attempt quoting jobs. I'll stick to my day job as a school teacher!

We've moved to a new area and a really old house so we're getting a few big jobs done by companies and then speaking to their tradesmen and taking their cards as we go, as we know they're competent and build a rapport with them.

I think it's a combination of factors.

1. It's often a physical job. Paperwork like emails, invoicing, tax returns, quoting etc all take place outside of work hours. So they are knackered, eat their tea, maybe bathe Thier kids and it's 9pm. They don't want to sit and do all that stuff when they have to be out again at 6:30 in the morning and their body aches.

1. People want cheap jobs and it's not cheap to provide a decent quality job. If they think this about a client, it's enough to put them off.

1. If you leave school and don't go to further education, they often don't have the skills needed for the invisible bit of the job. Like time management, pricing, replying to emails etc. They are also not at their phones, tablets laptops all day.

1. They have loads of work. Like, loads and don't need to up their game in this respect to be busy.

Only on a slight tangent, I have recently had to ring round several tradesmen. Without exception they have all answered the phone with a strangled noise which may or may not have been a hello.

Each time I have to say, hello is that Smith & Son (or whatever)? Yes it is. Well why don't you answer the phone in a professional, understandable and polite manner then?? 🙄

Wow fancy that a builder with a nice car & a personalised plate , how fucking dare he do well for himself @Glitterlikeawinner
It's of no relevance what he bloody drives , you either want him to do the work or you don't
Architects are not builders , they haven't got a scooby how much materials cost or what builders charge individually
Everything has gone up massively and is reflected accordingly

My husbands a tradey. In Ireland so maybe different. But yesterday he worked 7.30am to 11.30pm. Came home in between for half an hour to put the kids to bed and wolf down some dinner. Theyre just really, really, really busy. Hes constantly declining work lately and the people he declines are literally phoning him daily begging him as they cant find anyone else, so hes stopped answering his phone directly and responds to messages periodically during the day instead. And what @rosesinmygarden said is probably the truest bit; once theyve been in business a while they can spot red flags a mile away and just wont take on your work if they see those flags waving at initial contact with you. Like people who comment on their phone manner ....

Can I give a bit of perspective from the business side. I am an architect.
The past few years have been a complete nightmare in terms of workload, demand, new legislation and lack of materials and labour.
It's been impossible to give indications of costs. I used to be pretty spot on but now I couldn't give an idea if I wanted to.
For example we are in the middle of a project at the moment, we got it priced by builders before it went to planning to make sure it was affordable before it went too far, added a contingency fee and still when it went out to proper tender prices came back almost double for the same spec. That's £200k different!
That's double in less than 6mths. I have builders who won't price until January as they say it's too volatile. I am brutally honest with clients about this at the moment because I have to be.
I think some of them still think I'm making it up.
Builders are often amazing tradesmen but not so great at the business side of things. Site work takes precedence, quotes happen after that and many are still insanely busy.
I know who to approach and what to do and have been struggling to get projects out of the ground and at a recent professional event this was a hot topic of discussion between architects working in the domestic sector, we cannot get jobs tendered (quoted for) at the moment.
I think communication is key so I do tell clients everything but I'm sure my clients don't believe me that for the past 6mths I've literally been chasing quotes/ builders every working day and it's killed my ability to progress a project and actually make any profit atm. We are all anticipating a crash but everyone is also scrambling to get as much done as possible at the moment whilst being unable to predict material prices except that they are high.

Woah, calm down, I think you've misread what I meant and the context of earlier messages!!

I was responding to other comments that working in a trade is by no means a low paid job to be sniffed at. As you will read from my next paragraph that I would without hesitation encourage my children into this area of work!

Completely agree.

I think if you go to uni it has to be for a career goal where a degree is a requirement. Eg Nurse.

Or a trade.

There is definitely a shortage of trades people, and on top of that, they often don't have the organisational skills to run a business and manage a diary, or the customer service skills, and they set up on their own and middle through, just because there is more than enough work.
I'm married to a tradesman, he retrained this year after redundancy. He worked in sales and customer service for 26 years. He always calls/turns up when he says he will, and he doesn't shun the little jobs because he knows that they lead to regular future work and recommendations. I've never come across anyone else like him 😂

I understand they don't want the work. That's their choice, but why don't they just say that?!

"I'm really busy right no so not quoting for anything new." "This isn't the kind of job that interests me, but if you ever need xyz, give me a call" etc. It's the just not turning up/returning calls that's so frustrating.

How did he retrain and how did he find it?

Trying to convince the OH to do this as he is stuck in another dead end sales job.

For me, communication is key in all this. If they don't want to do the work or aren't going to make, simply be honest. I'd rather honest responses that they're too busy to attend an arranged appointment than not bother turning up and stop all communication.

Or if they're not interested in the work, just say so. As a customer I'm not going to be offended, but I'll respect that you've kept me updated / I don't have to do further chasing if you don't want the work.

Yep had this exact save experience as well. I suspect it is at least in part down to a shortage of tradespeople and therefore low competition for jobs.

Totally this.

I've had the same and find that those who do come round and quote, don't really have any work lined up which is worrying. My brother is a tradesman and does t treat customers like this. He's done work for me and is very good so I do recommend him. I ask him to recommend people to do jobs for me and I don't know if it's because they know him, but they do a good job and usually get back to me asap. But I've asked so many other people and they message back but never actually come out. It's normally for odd smaller jobs and none of them seem interested.

I get annoyed on their behalf when I see people asking on FB for "reasonable