Tradespeople - we're having a mare

[WobbleHead]

Maybe it's us.

Maybe we have 'nightmare clients avoid at all costs' written on our foreheads in ink that only tradespeople's eyes can see.

Is anyone else finding that it’s almost impossible to get tradespeople to quote at the moment, or actually turn up to do jobs? I know they’re all much busier than normal right now because everyone’s at home and wanting projects done, but it’s getting beyond comprehension for us and it’s really getting me down that we have all these things that need sorting!

I just need a rant really.

Recently, altogether, we've tried to get in:

• A decorator to strip and repaint our stairs
• A fencing contractor to replace some broken fence panels
• A hard landscaper to do a driveway and some raised beds ALL of these jobs are just a step 1 so there would be even more work to come in the future for the person who took them on. All of these projects are worth £1-5k each so they’re not too tiny to bother with.

So far:

To get two decorators to come out and quote we had to contact 15 different companies

The first decorator that quoted asked for a deposit up front, failed to turn up 3 days in a row after the original start date then admitted they actually didn’t have time to do the job and sent our deposit back

The second decorator that quoted said they could only do it nearly two months later - and that date has come and gone and they’re not responding to any messages now despite us making a firm booking

We didn’t manage to get any of the 10 fencing companies we originally contacted to come and quote – three said they would come and quote and just never turned up at the agreed time

One fencing guy asked us to send photos, we did, he asked for a deposit and then just didn’t turn up and husband is unsure about reporting it to the police because this person knows our address

Finally, we got lucky and a fencing contractor turned up to quote and agreed to take it on – quote was higher than expected but we were desperate because the garden had now been unsecure for weeks

Didn’t tell us in advance that he expected full cash payment on the day rather than via invoice and got pretty narky about it, but we managed to pay him as he wanted

I reckon we must have contacted pretty much every driveway and landscaping company within a 3-mile radius of us. Out of them all, we’ve had three actually visit

One visited and we took him through all the plans and then he sent an email back after a couple of weeks of chasing to say he was too busy to even write out a quotation

The second spent ages measuring the garden, driveway, planned patio area, etc., seemed really keen… vanished and never responded to any messages again

The third company visited in a group and were quite intimidating and said that the works would add up to nearly £25k but only if we agreed to a contract on the spot, which is beyond ridiculous

Please tell us that we’re just having a really bad run of luck. Or are we likely to be missing something?? Any insights on what could be going on here?

Yes we are having a similar problem getting tiler to do our bathroom. Both DH and I were going to get this done before lockdown, had one tiler come around (recommendation from a neighbour) promised us a quote then nothing!
Since lockdown we couldn't do anything. Now the restrictions have eased he tried emailing someone else (twice done this) and noticing! He's emailed another tiler whose contact details we just happened to come across so still waiting to hear back.
It's so bloody frustrating as we have money waiting, we need to order the tiles etc so it's not as if that's a problem.
On the other hand we have had a leaky kitchen tap for months, fortunately I knew someone who has just set up his own company and he's coming on Tuesday to replace the old one.

Yes! We've often struggled to get anyone to even come and quote. For a little while we wondered if the house were on some sort of 'secret tradesman blacklist' which considering the previous owner wouldn't surprise me... we never had this problem at our old house which was newer, this is an old house so maybe it just has potential nightmare job written all over it?!

@skankingpiglet thank you, that all makes sense. I guess then that what tradesmen are tradeswomen are looking for in a client is a grown up who knows what they want but has realistic expectations, knows what the going rate is and won’t try and haggle. I was coming to that realisation but I’ll try to project that even more from now on!

whataboutbob yes, that is a very good summary. A clear brief is great too.