To tell you to do this when hiring a builder/trader

[trekking1]

Have your husband/partner do the hiring and communicating or if you do not have one, pretend you are a man 😂

The reason for this is because a lot of them charge more if hired by a woman. My brother-in-law is a builder and told us he charges women twice as much because apparently women are demanding and change their mind all the time 🙄

I'm not in the UK, but since my DH died, I always book tradies in his and my names.

I’m perfectly able to get several quotes and figure out who the chancers are. I don’t need a man to do this. In my experience men can be shit at negotiating anyway because they can’t bear to look tight / penny pinching to other men.
Most builders I’ve had have been lovely because I’ve chosen well.
Hope you told your brother in law he’s a misogynistic cunt.

Never had a problem with tradesmen. And I've dealt with them on my own.i pay what I consider to be a fair price.

Sadly I’ve had that experience too, I call it “woman tax”, and also where I live we also get “postcode tax”

Fortunately the trades I use aren’t assholes like OP’s BIL

edited to say, anyone who has quoted a job with “woman tax” gets no work from me

I think they need to have a plug in radio on and have it loud enough to notice if it goes off. This is because of safety with electrics I think?

It's a balance isn't it. Yeah there are demanding customers but there are also too many 'tradesmen' who have clocked that they can get away with over-promising and under-delivering. Charge the premium that comes with the premium service and cut every corner going.

This is especially true for 'iceberg' jobs, where most of the corners that are cut can easily be hidden.

We've had a few different ones in lately, and every single one has mansplained utter bullshit at me, decided mid-job to change what was agreed without telling me, tried to cover up lazy mistakes and corner-cutting and even had a mantrum and got threatening when caught out. Unskilled, thick, and greedy 'tradesmen' are endemic where I live but of course I, a mere woman 'who thinks she's all that because she can use Google' (yeah, one did actually say that and no, I didn't get 'you can't lay a patio level, it needs a fall for drainage' from Google) will be labelled 'annoying' for daring to pull them up... Logical.

Maybe the take home should be do the fucking job you're being paid for.

I did a job for a tree surgeon. He openly told me he charges more for rich people.

I felt like adding an arsehole tax to his job but unfortunately I had already given him his quote.

I’ve been in the industry for years, as has my husband, and most of our family and friends. I have never heard of someone raising their quote just because it’s for a woman. They will absolutely be misogynistic twats who assume women know nothing but they don’t stick extra digits on the quote because of that.

edit to add the actual sensible thing to do, which is much easier, is just to get quotes from more than one contractor and try to take recommendations from personal contacts. No need to pretend you’re a man. Ffs

That's a thing? That is disgusting.

Exactly. He should be reported.

I have recently had a renovation project carried out by a building firm. Despite me giving my name and details they insist on phoning my husband about it. It's very annoying and he keeps telling them to phone me, his number is only there for if they can't reach me.

Have you reported your BIL for this?

So your BIL is a misogynistic twat?

I just asked dp who's in the trade if this is a thing, he's never heard of it before. He actually called your BIL scum.

I have found that if I post as my husband rather than me, I get more responses from tradesmen than if I text as me. It makes me very angry . . .

My DH owns his own building company and would never do this, your brother in law is not a nice person, and probably a misogynist, and hopefully in the minority of the trade.

Your brother is an arse. Captain Arse of Arseville. With a PhD in Being an Arse.

I work with trades every day and this is not a thing. It’s your brother in law being illegally discriminatory. Are you going to report him?

A quick google will tell you the average price for most household jobs; boiler service, new bathroom, new wiring etc.

This is why you Google before and get multiple quotes.

I think your BIL sounds like a tit and i’d be ashamed if he was part of my family.

I've just decided to cancel even attempting to do things in the house that require a tradesperson and just live with not doing any of it.

It's like pulling teeth. I live alone too.

Get several quotes. Go with the one you like and trust and who backs their quote up with details, not just a ‘back of the fag packet’ figure - they probably don’t want the job anyway. Do some research to get an idea of what the job is likely to cost. I’ve had ridiculous quotes, I never thought it was because I was a woman, it was because the tradesman didn’t really want the job; too fiddly, not big enough, or they’ve got other work on.

I found a lovely builder, who doesn’t mansplain or patronise me and treats me with respect. I answer queries, try and make the job easier for him (eg by clearing stuff out the way, making decisions about things so he isn’t kept waiting) and paying his bills on time. He was in the house for six weeks the first time, I think he’d have wondered where my imaginary husband was by then!

PS your brother-in-law is a misogynistic twat.

There may be a few people who do this, but it isn't universal. I'd say typically I get a better quote than dh.
I generally know what I'm talking about, and he doesn't, so maybe that has a factor.

So let's say it's 10% or 1 in 10 tradespeople who do this.
If people get 3 quotes, the chances of having 3 people who do this is 1 in 1000, or 0.1%. Even if people get 2 quotes the chances are only 1 in 100 or 1%.
So then they won't get the job.

So they'll be losing a lot of jobs on that basis.

Those Google quote pages are NOT accurate.

I had this, the tradesman was a total arse. He saw DH after I'd spoken to him & said 'do you know what your Mrs wants?' As if I was stupid.

DH went ballistic with him, told he was a sexist pig and warned everyone we knew not to use him. Sounds like the OPs BIL as his family don't like him either!

There was way more to it than the above but I won't go into all the detail but you get the gist.

Sexism is still thriving unfortunately. I had someone knock my door to ask me about replacement windows and I said no and he said "I'll come back when your husband is in". His face when I said I don't have a husband, I have a live in boyfriend but he doesn't own the house - I do. Priceless. It's so sad.