UKC

Over the last couple of years(or longer) I have contacted various tradesmen to enquire about different tasks that need doing on my property. All too often they either fail to visit to assess the job or fail to turn up at an appointed time to carry out the work. The latest was a firm who specialised in cleaning high level gutters, soffits and fascias. They visited ten days ago and promised to do the work last Thursday or Friday. By 4:30 on Friday, when they had failed to attend, I phoned and left a message on the answerphone. They have not returned my call.

It seems to me that this sort of behaviour nowadays is the rule rather than the exception.

The number of companies etc who respond and attend promptly is few and far between. Is anyone else similarly pissed off?

In reply to FesteringSore:

I'll come back to you on that......

In reply to FesteringSore:

I reported a damp patch on the rear wall of my rented house. The letting agent organised a roofer to come out and look at the problem. He was booked for 3 pm on Friday. He turned up at 3.05 pm, looked at the problem and said he couldn't do much about it due to access but he would suggest coating the gulley with a bituminous coating. He said it would have to be done when the weather had been dry for a couple of days and would be easier for me to do if I had time and a suitable weather window. I said ok and he said he would supply the coating. He took my number and said he'd be in touch with me and the letting agent. On Saturday morning, he called me at 9.45 am and came round with a tin of coating at 10 am, having already informed the letting agent that he couldn't get access to the gulley due to the building configuration and that the dampness was in no way my fault.

A couple of weeks before, the landlord had a heating engineer out to fix the boiler within 2 days of me reporting a problem to the letting agent.

So, in my recent experience, no, I've got no complaints about tradesmen and building maintenance companies, but then I've always been happy to pay a professional company the going rate for quality job, rather than try and squeeze people on price and drive the good quality tradesmen away.

In reply to teflonpete: I will say that I have had a few good, reliable chaps - a plumber who ALWAYS comes when he says he will; a tree surgeon who took a biggish tree down within three days of me offering him the job. He charged me £75 so he got a £10 bonus.

Sadly they seem to be in a minority for reliability.

In reply to FesteringSore:

My father-in-law has just had to pay a plumber to sort out a leaking radiator valve, because it was badly fitted - shame he paid the same plumber that originally fitted it to sort it out, but he's a sort of mate, apparently! Crazy.

I get around most of this grief, by doing the job myself - although I did end up paying someone to finish painting the outside of my old house last year, as I was running out of time. As he was the brother of a guy my Dad knew very well, he turned up and did a great job. Only irritation was that he opened 2 tins of paint to give one to his mate, resulting in 2 half used tins - if he'd used a paint can, I could have taken one back.

Friend of mine is having some major work done to his house - amazing that he struggled to get anyone to take it on, but they've apparently started now.

In reply to FesteringSore:
totally agree with you on this, I've got an old place and have had to get Gas plumbers, electricians and plasterers in for substantial jobs and every time I'll try and get a few quotes and opinions but 1/3 of the people I contact will either not turn up for the initial appointment or disappear when I accept their quote. It seems that these trades have become so protected by building regs. etc. that they are essential and can afford to be slack with the customer service.

In reply to FesteringSore: 'Word of mouth' might be the way to find reliable people if you can find out like that?

In reply to FesteringSore:

Similar problems here. My going rate with plumbers is 1 in 5 turn up when they said they would either to assess or to do the work.

I've taken to going on courses to get the skills so I can do most of it myself. City and Guilds plumbing course last year, doing city and guilds plastering in a few weeks.

My builder, who runs his own company, has similar stories, so they do it to eachother too. he was recently at a building depot getting supples and ran into a couple of guys who were bemoaning their lack of work. He said "right, that's fine, I've got a job on, we're short handed, can you turn up tomorrow?". Many thanks and mutual appreciation all around. The next comes around and they didn't turn up.

In reply to FesteringSore:

When I've found a trademan via the kind of Trust A Trader website or via Yell.com/Yellow Pages, then they have frequently been unreliable.

I've taken to asking on here for recommendations if I don't get any joy with recommendations from friends. The recommendations I've had from here (interesting both from browndog33) have been very reliable and have done a good job.

I've since found that I can buy the telescopic poles for cleaning gutters etc for less than the bloke quoted me to do the job. He's priced himself out of a job.

PS Has anyone used these pole thingies? Is there some sort of attachment for a hosepipe?

In reply to FesteringSore:



LOL! It sounds like you're a real ex-spurt with the telescopic pole thingies, money well spent. :0)

In reply to FesteringSore:

I use the rule that if I contact a company/tradesman and they reply slowly or not at all I just don't use them. If that's their attitude to winning the work then it's almost certain they will have the same attitude when carrying out the work.

In reply to FesteringSore:

My former next door neighbor did this with his double glazing, thought he'd got a cracking deal, straight from Screwfix. He told us all about it in great detail many, many times about how he'd 'Cut out the middle man'.
Looked a frickin mess when he'd done it and his wife went b*tshit at him as soon as winter came round. I think it was quite expensive to get it sorted.

I'm sure you'll have more luck with cleaning your gutters though!

In reply to FesteringSore:

I'll get back to you in a minute with an answer..

In reply to Troy Tempest:
And he would have to get the job signed off by building control if it wasn't installed by a fensa registered company.

In reply to gethin_allen:

I think this was one of the many things he found out later. Nice bloke though!

In reply to FesteringSore:

I have been having trouble with my shower. Rang the plumber who said he was too busy that day but promised to come out at 8 am next day. He phoned next morning at 07.45 to check that it was still convenient for 08.00 and turned up dead on time. He looked at it and said he would have to order the part. He also took a photo of it to make certain he got the right part. The following Monday he phoned at 10.00, said he had the part, was going to be in the area just after 11.00 and duly turned up then and fitted it.

That's service.

I bought a second hand office desk from a second hand dealer last week for £20. It was too big to get into my car, so he said he would deliver on Friday just after 09.00. On Friday he turned up with the chair barely 15 mins late. I asked him if he would take the old chair,which was knackered, to dump. He said yes, and then had a good look at it. He reckoned he could renovate it and when I gave him the £20 he gave me £10 back "as PE for the old chair"! I was agreeably surprised as I had asked for PE.

Again that's service

Was walking on Sunday and at 11.30 we came to a village pub. We decided to go in for a coffee, but when we tried the doors they were locked. We started to move off when the Landlord came out. He asked what we wanted, and explained that they didn't open on a Sunday until 12.30 because they were preparing the Sunday lunches. He then said "You can come in for a coffee if you like". He made us a coffee and went back to the kitchen. When we had finished I asked him what we owed him, which came to £4. I only had a £10 note, and he said that the electric till wasn't functioning so he couldn't give me change. He asked if I had the correct change, but between us we only had £3.40 in small change. "That's fine" he said "enjoy the rest of your walk"

Again that's service.

All three have shown good customer relation business sense, and not only will I use them again, I will recommend them to my friends.

In reply to Trangia:

I wonder what would have happened if you'd had no change? Would he have expected the £10? Sounds like a decent bloke but I'm afraid I don't buy the 'till isn't working' line - how was he going to function when he opened at 1230?

In reply to FesteringSore: I dont know the answer but I have similar experience with some builders - recently one came to measure up for some work, all seemed fine, said he would give us a quote, then didnt hear anything again. Werid people.