He's lying. I have also suffered at the hands of male tradespeople who don't turn up at the time they're meant to, or they just don't come at all. I (and DH) contacted 4 painters and decorators last year to do an inside painting job. (Several rooms.)
First one made an appointment to come the next day at 5pm. Never turned up.
Second one came and spent an hour here, drinking our coffee and eating our chocolate digestives, and made our evening meal almost an hour late. (He was here 5.45pm to 6.45pm and I couldn't start our meal til he'd gone!) He was late too. Should have been here at 5pm! Promised us a quote by text within 3 days. Never heard a thing. Didn't hear from him again. I messaged him and phoned him 5 or 6 times over 2 days and then gave up.
Third one said he would be here at 4pm this one day. I rang him at 4.30pm to see if he was nearly here as it's half an hour past the time we arranged now. He said 'yes, I'm just pricing up another job about 4 miles away, I will be with you by 5pm.' 5pm came and went, and at 5.30pm I rang him again and he didn't answer, so I texted and asked him if he was still coming. He messaged me back at 6.15pm, and said 'something has come up, so unfortunately, I will have to cancel coming to you tonight.' 🙄He said he would come the next day at around 7pm. Didn't come. I didn't even ring or text him and thought 'fuck you.'
3 days later, he (trademan No 3) turned up at 11am, as I was on the way out. I was just locking the front door, as he pulled up in his van. I didn't know who this was as I had never actually met him. I didn't even realise it was someone for us. He called over as I got into the car, and said 'Mrs Zov? It's Steve Partridge, I've come to do your painting quote.' I said 'you never said you were coming this morning,' and he swore he had phoned yesterday, and left me a voicemail letting me know. (He hadn't phoned!) I had no voicemails, and no missed calls.
'Well I'm here now' he said. I said (truthfully) 'I have a doctor's appointment in 20 minutes and it's a 15 minute drive there (8-10 minutes actually - it's about 4 miles - but I always allow 15 minutes in case of slow traffic/diversions etc...) He said 'I won't be long.' I said 'no you can't come in and do it, because it will make me late for my appointment and I will miss it.' I got in my car. He said 'I've driven 10 miles to get here!' I said 'well you should have come the other night, and the night before that - and you didn't. We've found someone else now anyway!' (We hadn't but I wasn't using him now.)
I drove off. When I came back, a garden ornament of ours that was at the side of the house, was smashed and all over our driveway. I know it was him. Can't prove it.
tl;dr sorry. The fourth one came and gave a quote straight away, and came to do the work a week later - hooray! Then he said he had stumbled upon some 'problems' and the job was going to cost £1200 more than the £1800 we had been quoted. The £1800 was quite a lot to begin with IMO - (we felt it should have been more like £900,) but didn't really want to do it all ourselves... So.... £3000 to paint a kitchen, (12 x 10 feet,) a lounge-diner, (20 x 16 feet,) one small bedroom (10 X 10 feet,) and a small back hallway. (8 X 6 feet!) LOL, fuck off. It was just painting, not even any wallpapering!
We binned him off, paid him for the one day, and all the paint he had bought for the entire job - £300 in total - and did it ourselves. Took 3 weeks and was hard work, but it looks great, and we are proud of ourselves for doing it. It looks lovely.
I don't know why SOOOOO many tradesmen are so fucking awful. I am sure a few of them are OK - but the majority are utter twats for one reason or another. Either rip off merchants, or flaky, or totally unreliable.
(Or all of the above!)
Honestly, if it's at all possible, DH and I will do things ourselves rather than deal with tradesmen now. Many of them are dreadful. No customer care skills at all. Zero.
nb. Steve Partridge is not trademan No 3's real name...
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