To be fed up of trades men and their lies

[cherryys]

Just a rant really

We're going through a house renovation and everything is soo stressful but the main stress in my life are bloody trades men who you hire because they tell you they can start tomorrow at x time and when that time comes you don't hear from them for 6-10 hours when they tell you they are at someone else's house 5 hours away and will have to delay you for 5 days....

Why say you can start tomorrow then? I'm about to loose it with all of them when they get here.

My DH is very chilled but I'm on a deadline and I want to pay people who are reliable but none of them are .. they are not cheap and they make promises they can't keep.

Why not be honest and say I'd take the job but can't start until x date. I would appreciate that much more

Yesterday I was meant to have an electrician and Plummer in from 9am and one didn't text all day only to get a text today to say" I was busy see you tomorrow at 8am" (it's 8:30 and no word from him) & the other who turned up at 8pm last night after my kids were in bed ..

AIBU to send them both a text to not bother turning up today?

Hope it makes sense.. I am so angry

Honestly OP I've just finished a double storey extension and excuse my French but fucking hell majority of them are useless , liars and just shit at their job. Pisses me right off
We were meant to get our garage door sprayed yesterday so I messaged the guy now he's making some bullshit excuse up. I booked it in 12 weeks ago it's a joke

I'm not sure this problem is going to be fixed any time soon. Brexit has meant fewer workers from Eastern Europe. There seem to be loads of new flats and houses being built which means plenty of regular work for tradies.

Then there are all the people doing massive extensions.

Small jobs are just not worth the bother I suspect.

My partner is absolutely useless at DIY as am I and we aren't getting any younger. We need a stack of work doing around the house but I just shut my eyes to it now.

I thought things would be bad for a while after lockdown but now I can't see things changing for the foreseeable.

Wow I have read every single reply & I'm shocked at how many of you have / have had the same struggles.

My 2 tradesmen were supposed to start at 8am this morning... one turned up at 1pm(no apology & hasn't even tried to make up an excuse) and the other one arrived just after 2 with the excuse that he slept in as he missed his wake up alarm ? Does he think I'm an idiot? They left a few hours after their arrival.

One of them is asking for 50% of the payment to be sent tonight latest. I honestly don't think he's done much today .. in 3h30.
Is it acceptable to put together a text saying he'll get the payment tomorrow evening after he has been and to show me his work progress etc ? I'm reluctant to send him £850 when he's not even done 4 hours of work out of the 5 days needed for this job. He was meant to start yesterday... only to delay for 8am today but actually showed up at 13.00 and left by 16:30. What if he doesn't show up for another week and I'm - £850
Ahhh

Also I know not all of them are bad ...

We have a landscaper who has been so reliable and always on time etc. no problem.

But the rest ... I am tempted to learn the trades within the next year and do it all myself 😂

I had a phone call from an electrician complaining that my bad review could ruin his business.
I told him if anything was going to ruin his business it would be his shitty attitude to working for a living.

I find it incredible how much power the building trade has. I guess because of supply and demand but to a certain extent they’ve always had a lot of power:

Power to change dates with very little notice - to be able to overload themselves with jobs to maximise profits and then juggle them about at the customer’s inconvenience.

Power to make their own hours of work - who on Earth decreed that builders don’t keep normal working hours, and can turn up at the crack of dawn so as to be able to leave at 3? Come at 9 and work a normal day!

Power to decree that “oh builders run on cups of tea and free food” - why? No other business can demand their customers make them food and drink!

It was getting better when we had more Polish and other EU builders in plentiful supply but now we’ve gone back to the bad old days of unreliable English builders.

I'm confused. Are people paying up front for the whole job, not just materials?

In my experience they all have different requirements when it comes to payment

Some want cash
Some bank transfer

Some ask for half a payment on day 1 & the rest on last day

Some divide the total amount by the amount of working days and ask for that sum at the end of each day.

Not sure what the norm is at this point

We waited in all day on a day off for a guy who agreed to box in our bathroom pipes but never arrived or answered his phone.
He turned up days later unexpectedly. I politely said I had booked someone else now so thanks but we were expecting you last week when you said you’d come and didn’t.
He was genuinely astonished and told a mutual friend how unreasonable and unfair it was. For expecting him to turn up to work, ring, or get sacked for being AWOL, like every other working person?!

You’re not wrong. We’ve moved to a new area and the unreliability of the trades people has been absolutely unreal. SO much ghosting and mucking about. Only a plumber and floor restoration guy has been decent. Everything from chimneys to bathroom to carpentry to decoration to tree trimming to roofing and guttering has been beyond painful.

I'm reluctant to send him £850 (50%) when he's not even done 4 hours of work out of the 5 days needed for this job

I can't say I blame you, @cherryys; personally I'd be paying him 50% when he's done 50% of the work and not before

Unless some of that's for materials, and if you're paying for those upfront just make sure they're on your own property and not susceptible to "going missing"

Love this! I can't believe he was shocked when you turned him away.. what was he expecting..

We also had a guy who didn’t work Fridays. Which we found out when he failed to arrive at the end of week one of a few weeks work. No biggie in the grand scheme of things, but don’t act like it’s the norm in every industry or try to persuade us we should have assumed, when we express surprise.

@cherryys he was genuinely outraged at what he saw as the sheer injustice of it!

Unreliable tradesmen is one of the reasons I bought a house which needed very little work.
I am not interested in any major renovation projects

Very sensible but when you have lived there for a while things deteriorate and you start needing tradespeople.

Well unless you continually move to newer properties I suppose.

Here's one for you. I had a tradesman come to my house with my vinyl flooring for my kitchen. He worked for the store I bought it from.
There was a small crack in the cement floor, so he said I can't put the flooring over that, get it fixed and I'll keep the flooring in my garage for you and I'll come back to do it.
So I got it fixed. And I never saw him again. Or my flooring.

He wouldn't answer his phone and the shop closed down, I'm hoping someday I come across the thieving scum bag.

I'm now being messed about by someone who said he'd fix my door weeks ago. I've text him and no reply so I don't know whether to get someone else or just hang on in limbo.

True for the big things, maybe like your roof. But really most things can be looked after by basic maintenance and small scale DIY jobs so you don't really need a lot of tradesmen, you just need the tools and the ability to watch youtube videos, or get small jobs done by tradesmen/odd job men before they become big jobs, i.e. keep up with the maintenance.

Eg, you really don't need a plumber to change a tap washer, you don't need an electrician to change a light fitting - You tube is your friend! You can get someone to clean out your guttering so you don't end up with leaks and damp in your walls so you don't need "big" replastering jobs just to repair a lack of basic maintenance.

Obviously, there are times when "big" jobs need doing and you need proper qualified tradesmen. But, I'd contend that for most of the time, just keeping up with basic maintenance, not letting small jobs turn into big jobs, etc., means you can often find "odd job men" to do the work, and when it's only routine stuff, it matters less if they turn up or not, because the job isn't urgent. You've got all year to find someone to clear your guttering, so if the first, second, third, don't turn up, you've time to find a fourth. Conversely, if you don't clean them out for a decade, the damp from leaks etc will be penetrating and you do need someone urgently when your ceiling falls in or you get a huge damp patch on your lounge wall!