Getting work done in your house: AIBU or is it always a lottery as to whether you get ripped off?

[crew2022]

Posting for traffic really.
In the last few years I have had more bad than good experiences with trades doing work on our home.
I'm literally done with it now and feel like just not starting any more jobs. But am I just unlucky?
I used Checkatrade until second time in and I lost £3000 by paying a 'reputable' tradesman to complete some drainage work which he basically never turned up for. Checkatrade said sorry but we did all the checks so over to you, we can't help.
So instead decided to try local Facebook and nextdoor app recommendations
Paid (this time on debit card) large deposit for fittings etc for a plumber to refit a bathroom. He didn't turn up and said he would send a refund. It never turned up either. Bank refunded it as I paid on debit card, but all the time spent getting quotes and choosing tiles etc wasted.
Double glazing turned into a nightmare as company measured one room wrongly. They paid for replacements but we went through winter with poorly fitted windows and window sills were ruined.
Tiler (recommended) laid our outdoor tiles wrong and consequently they have blown due to frost.
We have lots more jobs to do but I am just exasperated by it all and feel like just leaving it until we move in a few years.
Am I just unlucky or is it so hard to get competent and honest tradespeople?

They are generally very busy, and you tend to have to wait for them, but I always ask people I know for recommendations.

Any "recommendation" from someone you don't know is to be taken with a big pinch of salt, as obviously it can just be mates / family / even false accounts, and people even get paid to write recommendations on websites.

Nor have I ever given a tradesman money up front. before the work is done, and I've been a home owner for over 30 years.

Try and get recommendations of friends or family and once you find one that you like stick to them. That's generally what we do and we only have good experiences. Also pay them at the end.

Off*

You are not alone. Where were live you can't get anyone decent to do a job. Two years we've been trying to get someone in to replaster hall, landing and stairs, I've practically given up.
Quoted to get new front wall built in September and we are still waiting for " next week".

Same, I’m so sick of dealing with tradespeople

No but similar to a previous poster I only use people who are recommended by someone I know. Also I would never hand over any money until a job was done (properly) and am prepared to wait for a reliable tradesman. Sorry you've had rotten luck.

You can only put a review on checkatrade if they give you a code. So you can't trust those reviews.

Rated People refused to allow me to post my review as it was "overly negative"
I thought honest reviews were the whole bloody point!

Thanks all.
I do need to go with personal recommendations (although the tiler was) and agree about not paying up front.
It's just so difficult and it's made me not trust people and also I just can't be bothered to do stuff now.

Hey I’ve had same problem it isn’t just yo. I now ask my husband to sit in on quotes - annoyingly we seem to get faster and cheaper responses.
our strategy nkw is only use people with 100% good feedback on checkatrade and get 3 decent quotes for everything.but yes it’s really draining …don’t give up though 😀

You're not alone! Even after choosing a plumber with loads of 5* reviews I was still left stressed and disappointed in his work. I think being female and living on a council estate made him think he could just get away with doing the bare minimum. 🙄 It has really put me off getting anything else done professionally- it's all just getting added to the DIY list.

We got a friend to do our extension and while he did a good enough job of the actual extension, we stupidly asked him to fit the kitchen for us too just to try to save having to co-ordinate different work men. The result was shabby, I think he actually just let his apprentice lose on it, it looks like he just hacked at things. I cringe each time I look at it, it really is a shocking job. I actually cried over it. Stupidly never said anything as I don't like confrontation and it was a sort of friend / someone I've known for years. Would never try to cut corners again though.

Same here. Literally gives me anxiety now when I think about getting work done.
Downstairs bathroom completely cocked up by the dh of someone at work (they came highly recommended!) Never again.

Had garage extended, another disaster and that was by a reputable local company. Garage and extension are on different levels, and it doesn’t look finished.

£3000 fitted wardrobe by another reputable company….. he messed up the measurements and didn’t do everything he said he would (sealing properly inside/adding shelves). It doesn’t look like it will last long. Oh but he did bring me flowers and wine to say sorry 🤔

I need my bathroom done, but just don’t know if I can take the stress. Everyone we’ve had just doesn’t listen to what we want or they don’t do what they say they will. It’s very frustrating.

Has anyone ever used a female tradesperson? I’m just wondering if there are many about and if they might do a better job.

For us it’s an issue,we have a big and expensive house, fair play, I get that, but we are normal folks, not wealthy, we work normal jobs like everyone else, we just bought it a wreck and did it up over the last decade, using every penny, every spare moment, many turn up, think we are loaded and try to fleece us. They just see the house. Not us.

But we usually find decent folks amongst them who don’t do it and do decent work, but I’m pig sick of seeing them looking round , seeing pound signs and then treating us like absolute fucking idiots and then if we do have the misfortune of getting a bad one them doing a shit cheap job with cheap fixings. It is an absolute lottery and you need your wits about you.

We had someone in to do work on our house. He took 10 weeks to do the job which should have taken 2-3 weeks. We were paying weekly rent on the scaffolding. He did an appalling job and when my husband refused to pay the final payment till the worst bits were fixed he threatened physical violence. He was recommended by an acquaintance. He turned up at our house after an expletitive ridden rant on the telephone where he'd threatened to rip our roof off to be met with my wild Irish temper. I found out afterwards that my youngest son was in the kitchen using his krav maga skills to select knives for defensive purposes while we waited for the police to arrive. (Think a pair of bread knives so you can fend off without getting in close.) The whole thing was incredibly traumatic.

We have new builders in at the moment and they seem competent and are doing various repairs including fixing the previous work at vast expense. They are getting on with it and completing work on schedule. They could easily pick that the work on our extension was done by an earlier competent builder and not the recent cowboy. This time my husband watched the new builders doing renovations at a club he belongs to and saw they did good quality work.

I now think it's key to have actually seen examples of previous work.

We have used Checkatrade twice and both times were happy. Started with one job and then kept them for all the other jobs we needed doing. Got three quotes, didn’t pay final instalment until happy.
However, both times we had a crew of Polish people in, and they were fantastic- suggested details we hadn’t thought about. The English ones we had in were… oh no, can’t do this, this is going to be expensive…
and then one time it did go very wrong (not Polish, not Checkatrade)- had to fire him in the end and withhold final payment to get job finished.
It’s a real lottery and sadly, having a man there (OH is an engineer), being very present, not paying until you are happy helps, but it is still a lottery

i really feel your pain re trades. The first time I ever did actual building work on what is our forever home now the builder came recommended by my brothers friend. I remember meeting him at my house and I said to him if anything goes wrong with the job you won’t be dealing with me…..you’ll be dealing with them & I pointed to my 2 younger brothers who had said nothing at all. Turns out I had a Cowboy Builder & not just any cowboy builder ladies & gentleman but one who subsequently was made famous on that Channel 5 show about Cowboy Builders. His lies started unravelling, I received an anonymous text saying not to trust him & when he gave me a receipt for a log burner & I looked into it I rang my younger brother. I remember him coming over and telling him in front of the cowboy builder everything I had found out & my brother just looked at him and told him she told you what would happen if you didn’t do the job properly. Let’s just say my brother threw him in the car took him to the council offices made him pay the fees he said he paid 2 months ago, stood over him & watched his ‘team’ do the work & made him pay me. That was so satisfying but so stressful when it all came out. He was then sent to prison for fraud etc. please do not use Checkatrade as he was also on that & Rated People is just as bad. They don’t check these tradesmen. Checkatrade didn’t even know he was bankrupt and not allowed to hold any directorships. I had my bathrooms done last year by a plumber on the Nextdoor Neighbour App. If you live in Warwickshire I can recommend him you will not be disappointed. Personally I think this app is great as I can get reviews, find local tradesmen & do my own due diligence!

I have built up tradesmen l now trust mainly from personal recommendations.

I give them a small job first to see how they get on.

I've got a decorator, plumber, odd job man, and mechanic so far!

Our plumber is female. Needed a full replacement central heating system when we moved into our new house and had the new boiler moved to new location. Cracking job. Had her recommended by our male decorator, who was creating our vision for our living room 😁 Also a cracking job.

There are red flags. If tradespeople are available right away, they haven't been booked up and you wonder why. Some have wanted cash in hand, and quoted much under the job market value. I suspect this is to lure a naive customer into taking them on, before they (a) run off with the cash or (b) start the job and discover 'new' work costing much more. I could write a book on dodgy tradespeople over the years. I do property developing so I have seen it all. I have a painter and decorator who I have fired off the job lately for stealing, and doing the paint finish of pre-school kids. Honestly the paint splatters, damaged furnishings and half finished walls makes my blood boil. He fitted bathroom screens that fell off immediately, and watered down paint that ran off an external wall when it rained. Once I find good people, I treat them nicely and call them back for lots of work. I recommend them too. I try to use recommended people these days as I think that is the safest option.

I would love to try as I feel they might take more care and listen to what you want (I know I'm stereotyping) but I literally have never come across any.

@Violasaremyfavourite that sounds so stressful!
Years ago we also had an experience where we withheld money to a company who had done a shocking job (they actually appeared on a TV programme outing their poor workmanship, after we'd signed the contract). They threatened us and harassed us by calling our landline 24/7 etc. it was awful and we had to write a cease and desist letter in the end. And put up with their crap work (although we never paid more than the deposit).

@DutifulDaughterWifeMother totally agree about Checkatrade. Waste of time.
What would really help is if I could borrow your brothers!!!!