Why is there so much disdain towards tradesmen on MN?

[Enfys1982]

I’m genuinely baffled by it. Most of the men in my family are in trade. including my dad and brother. They are not lazy cowboys or crooks, my dad has worked since he started his apprenticeship when he was fifteen and has never been out of work since (he’s now semi retired) and barely had a day off sick either. He pays all his taxes and his is a registered Limited company with companies house. All are as honest as the day is long. No tax dodging or cash in hand jobs.

Please also be assured that none of them are ‘thick’ as posters are implying on one thread. You won’t see a ‘thick’ plumber or electrician as they need good GCSE grades, particularly in Maths, English and Science, to get a place at college to train. It’s very, very competitive and anything less than a B is pushing it for a place. They’re not going to let ‘thick people’ install gas boilers or rewire peoples homes ffs🙄

Rant over!

The "Snob" hunters clearly haven't read the thread.
RTFT! As we posh ones say 👍

I don't really need to. I already know how a lot of MC people view tradesmen.

You're telling me that if I go and read all ten pages of the thread it won't be filled with people justifying their snottiness with "oh well, our plumber didn't turn up once so my views are justified".

@ZoZoisresting might be right about the dating though.

I had a roofer showing, you know, interest. Turning up knocking at the door at 1am. However, I'm too full of myself to open the door to a builder rapist/murderer in the dead of the night, so I got CCTV installed instead.

I'll go check my privilege and be more open-minded in the future. Ta 🙄

Yup, page one, fourth reply. I knew it would be the case. 😂😂😂

I run a trade business with dh and our communication is excellent 😊

Some of the problems people have with trades is that they are reluctant to pay the quoted price, always thinking they are being ripped off and it should be cheaper, so will opt for the cheapest quote and then get upset when it’s not done properly. We’ve had that many times- new customers say we’re too expensive and go elsewhere only to come back further down the line asking us to rectify the mistakes.

We don’t advertise at all as word of mouth is plenty and have lots of loyal customers…

Yep, you should read. It's much worse than you would believe.

My experience of builders in the North East has made me disgusted with the whole local lot. I'm pretty sure I flinch when someone "comes out" as tradie down the pub.

Judging by the average reviews of most builders hovering around two stars, I ain't the only one not lovin' it.

About to hire a large contractor as a last resort - so far so good but will know for sure only once the works commence (or not, as often is the case).

There is disdain for everyone on here, it’s complete equal opportunities disdain.

You’ve just noticed it more towards tradies because you come from a family of tradies.

Why let it wind you up?

Yeah, because this definitely happened. 🙄

@HelloDaisy

You might be of the few decent ones!

I don't choose the cheapest quotes but the most expensive ones mostly are unjustified. In fact, it's taking the absolute piss often!

Just now I'm about to buy two windows from the manufacturer directly. The most presentable glazing company wanted just over 3.1k for them supplied and installed.
Well.. Both windows will cost me (so no discounts, no VAT back) to buy 1k from the manufacturer. The installation will be a days work.
So the glazing company wanted to make at least £ 2100 (!) on 1 day of labour.
No wonder the job's a minted one!

I feel really sorry for less resourceful clients who either over-pay, or are stuck with a substandard product.

I feel the industry needs a serious watchdog and consumer protection (from cowboys and bodges). Most building works carried out by licenced, insured companies and the self-employed permitted only for landscaping, decorating, non-structural joinery, etc.
At least there would be somewhere to turn for the big bodges! And they would happen less too.

I trained in a construction based trade. No degree, just C&G, so no snobbery here. I'd say my experience has been 50/50, totally understand where a lot of these posters are coming from, we've had some shockers working on various house renovations. The pp who mentioned catching a plumber rolling a joint, the best plumber we ever had was a cokehead🤣.
I actually made a sideways move into another profession, because of the rampant sexism.

What annoys me the most is their almost total unwillingness to complete any regulatory paperwork on the jobs. Getting it done after you have paid is next to impossible.

So much so the last job I had one did I made him do a separate line on the quote and invoice for the regulatory completion, with the cost associated with getting the certificate, so there was no way he could claim it was out of the agreed work.

So I paid the invoice and did I get the cert ? Of course I bloody didn't - even though I paid for it.

It's not enough to just do the good job, you need to supply the paperwork and register the job in many cases.

I couldn't really get annoyed about a plumber rolling a joint. Loads of the brickies are at it.

I wasn't bothered about our plumber having a coke habit, as I said he was easily the best plumber we've had. He did keep odd hours, but we weren't living in the property at the time, so as long as the job was done 🤷‍♀️

But having renovated quite a few properties, one of the biggest challenges is actually finding someone and getting them to commit. I get that trades are super busy. But if you come out to look at a job, just why wouldn't you say if you don't want the work, or even drop an email. Or why say you'll come round to look and then not turn up. It's not just the tradesman's time and money, it's also the homeowner's time (which is also money) and the resentment of being dicked about.
And then if you get them to do the job, then getting a written invoice is another battle. If you are selling a house then these bits of paper are needed. It's all so infuriating.

I think many over commit. Much like the salesmen whose bids I used to help write.

I employ subcontractors, my biggest bugbear is poor communication or over-communicating with ridiculous commentary. Re-giving opinions with limited information or knowledge.
Some of them are thick as two short planks.
The training must be upgraded to a diploma or degree level, with a customer service-professionalism module.
That would weed out the numpties.

Trouble is a lot of them have no formal "training" at all and just pick it up on the job themselves. So having "better" training wouldn't help. What is needed is proper regulation on a par with gas engineers and electricians, where it's actually illegal to do work without a proper training/qualification behind them. Once we get to that point, then yes, improve the training, but as it stands, pointless to make training/qualification harder when there's no actual need to do it at all!