To think tradesmen who point blank ignore your requests for quotes/work bookings are just plain rude?

[Whatsthatsheila]

Title says it all really,

surely a “apologies we wouldn’t be able to do this/be interested/it’s not worth my time/can’t be arsed with this job” is better than just point blank ignorance?

It’s so rude.

I think they are just really busy, and much better at plumbing or whatever than they are at running a business. I'd be the same, I think. When I was a freelancer i was crap at all the admin. Just wanted to do what I was good at.

I've had two this week who said they'd call to quote but neither showed up at the agreed time. So rude.

Would you rather they gave you a stupidly high quote which you wouldn't accept anyway?

Request half dozen quotes and accept some tradesmen wont respond.

They're often one man bands or micro companies. They can't spend hours writing polite emails and messages declining work. They are literally working. They're too busy on site. When they get home they reply to clients they already have.

I get it. It is annoying but they are tradespeople not office based communication specialists. And the good ones are always busy. It's a red flag if someone is free the very next day for anything significant.

Yes, they are rude.

But do you know how many people ignore the quotes they send?

Answer: It's a LOT.
More goes into a quote than some customers realise. They sometimes drive for a long time, especially if it's a big job, and often in the evenings and weekends, taking time away from their own families.
Some customers will ask endless questions and be very chatty making what should be a quick measure up and chat take 90 minutes or more, the tradesman has to make a good impression in comptitive market so will be polite and stay as long as the customer wants.
Then the tradie has to collect quotes from his own suppliers, sometimes chase up his suppliers if they don't get back quickly enough, which they often don't.
Then work out the quote, and send it, often along with graphics that have to be drawn up using softwear.

And very very often: complete radio silence. Not even a thank you for the quote. Nada.
Sometimes the customer will come back, and ask some questions or ask for a different quote, different sizes, shapes, colours, money off yada yada yada, and the tradesman can spend weeks off back and forth.
Then the custyomer will change their minds or find someone else and will just be gone and the tradesman has lost time and money without even an explanation or a thank you for your time.

It's very rude.

So while it's unacceptable on both sides, it's not all on the tradie. Customers can be just as bad, and probably just as often.

If tradies were treated a bit better and made to feel visits weren't going to be a waste of time, that the custyomer was actually serious about the job, actally had the money, and wanted it done, and wasn't going to flake on them, they might be a bit more reliable.

Yes it seems rude but maybe they're just crap at admin or really busy like others have said.

But to me this is step one of the 'interview' process. If they fail at it and you don't like it, then go elsewhere. It's often a good indicator of what they'd be like if they actually worked for you. It would drive me crazy to have someone doing work for me but never answering my calls / being late / not turning up at all, so if they do any of those things when they're just coming to give a quote then I thank my lucky stars that I found out what they were like before employing them!

I think it’s unrealistic to have the same expectations of a self-employed tradesman as you would have of a bigger company who have staff available to deal with new enquiries.

So for context.

guy that did the original job (friend of parents) said to parents yeah they can text me if she needs it correcting - he’s ignored us.

messaged two other reputable tradespeople one gave a quote and then blocked me when I asked if we could book in after Christmas the other just said “we are too busy between now and Christmas” “that’s okay we can wait can we book in after Christmas” - blocked by them also

@comeandhaveteawithme
Same happened all the time with my DH, who used to spend 2/3 evenings each week travelling to see prospective clients who firstly were late, forgot he was coming, although mainly he would phone first, often not have a clue what they wanted, return home 2/3 hours later. Spending 2 hours getting prices of materials and prices from other tradespeople that would be needed, writing out quote and then me typing the quote, so probably 5 hours. Some never bothered getting back, although they knew we had an answerphone so they could just have left a message without needing to speak to DH. Now we are retired and having to get people in to give quotes for work, we now understand why DH was never out of work.

No, I don’t think they are. I think this because I understand it. I’m a swimming teacher and I get approx 100 requests per week to do private lessons which I can’t accommodate. So, no, I’m not spending two hours of my time responding no to them. Especially given 99 will follow up with ‘do you know anyone who can.’

Doesn’t work that way - they come out to have a look so you arrange your week (multiple times for multiple tradesmen) so you are home to show them around, show them the job etc, then they say they’ll get back to you with a quote and never do. Waste of everyone’s time. This is why we are SO glad we paid a project manager for our extension and now just use him for everything even if it means we pay over the odds. We always get trades who show up and do the job (and never leave a mess or swear!). He’s basically our tradesman fixer.

Some customers - not saying this is you OP but if it is then it's an explanation - just come across as total nightmare customers.

Some are "talkers" they follow the tradesperson around chatting in their earhole about endless crap, while they are trying to measure up, and the tradie can barely get a word in about the actual job. The tradie just dreads working with them as they don't think they'll be left alone to get on with it.

Some are just umm and aaahers. You can tell they don't know what the hell they want, or whether they have the money, or if they're going to move or not, or if they want to spend £2k on a holiday instead. The tradie worries he'll get messed around with either them getting back to him, or getting paid at the end.

Some advertise the job on facebook and say something like "cheap as possible please" no decent tradie ever answers these, you'll only get crappy desperate people. They'll worry you'll want to cut corners or won't pay at all when the job's finished.

Sometimes the house is an absolute shithole and smells and the tradie doesn't want to work there or they come across really snobby and tradie just doesn't think they will gel, or they've got a really annoying yappy dog, or they bang on about how they're an "engineer" and you just know they'll be a pain in the ass and question everything, leaving the tradie wondering why he got him in if he can do a better job.

And sometimes it's not you at all, the job itself is just annoying and there's an easier one waiting round the corner which pays just as well

If he says of of this to you, he risks offending you and damaging his reputation. It's a real risk and worry that a disgruntled person you measured up for once and didn't want to work for is going to go on google and leave you a really shitty essay of a review and in just five minutes of meeting someone, your business is ruined.

So he fobs you off with an excuse about being busy between now and Christmas (actually that's probably even true - everyone likes to get their house done before Christmas so it looks nice for hosting and they're not left dealing with half done jobs over the period) and hopes you'll get the message. You don't and keep asking - so he blocks you and hopes you think something happened to his phone or something.

Right now, it's a tradesman's market. There's plenty of work and the tradesperson can pick the jobs they want - within reason - so it's worth actually trying to make your job attractive to the tradesperson, not just assuming everyone must want your job .

I honestly hope that helps. I'm just trying to give an honest perspective.

I do feel your pain.

Oh and don't forget - on sites like checkatade, mybuilder, bark etc... you're not the customer.

The tradesperson is the customer.

You are the product.

That doesn't make them bad, plenty of decent tradespeople use them, it just means the sites want to please them, not you. They are the ones that pay.

And for a lot of those sites, mybuilder for example, the tradesperson pays per lead, so they see a lead IE: the advert you have written, decide they like the look of the job, and then pay the site to release your contact details so they can ring you.
A lot of the time customers wrote the advert on a whim and don't answer the phone as they're not serious about hiring someone. This happens a LOT - so much for tradies being the rude ones - and the site won't refund the tradesperson for the "dead" lead. Mybuilder won't tell you this and the tradesman isn't allowed to under the terms and conditions of the site.

So sometimes, especially during busy times of year (the lead up to Christmas, Spring and Autumn) you have to really make your advert attractive and sound like you are keen to get a tradesman to bother buying the lead and contacting you.

I also hope that helps.

Because they can... so much in demand. And when they do turn up, they may charge a lot more (per hour) for the small job than they would for a full day.

I got a plasterer round for a small job (3.5 hours one morning & 1 hour followup). I paid him handsomely. I want him to come back !!

I'm not a tradesman but I am self employed.

You wouldn't believe the sheer number of parents who contact me asking for tuition and then just completely ignore my replies, often after I've spent a while putting together a reply and answering their questions.

My dh was a tradesman for many years and the hours he would spend on site visits and quotes to get complete radio silence was really demoralising.

It would take seconds to say thanks for your time but we aren't interested.

People are rude. It's not just tradesmen.

I'm not a tradesman but I am self employed.

You wouldn't believe the sheer number of parents who contact me asking for tuition and then just completely ignore my replies, often after I've spent a while putting together a reply and answering their questions.

My dh was a tradesman for many years and the hours he would spend on site visits and quotes to get complete radio silence was really demoralising.

It would take seconds to say thanks for your time but we aren't interested.

People are rude. It's not just tradesmen.

I don’t think it is rude. Because if you want them to factor in say 2 hours a week admin saying no to people for jobs they don’t need or want, then they will need to add that 2 hours labour to their prices. I would rather a job cost me £100 than £110 because they had to factor in responding no to customers whose jobs they didn’t want. I can work out myself that if they point blank ignore my request for a quote, then they’re not interested in doing it.