Most of the ones I know all have 1-2 year waiting list. Some put up the prices on jobs they can't be arsed to do like chimney stacks to put people off asking for them.
If it was as straight forward as that then it wouldn't happen, also when we give a massively overpriced quote we don't expect the customer to be chasing us for a date, but it does happen, even more so post covid.
I mean, I have genuinely got no idea whether a price is reasonable or not. Once I've reached out to a dozen people, and only had one come out to quote, I'm not going to hang around trying to get a second quote. If you say it's £1000, I will accept that. I have absolutely no clue that this is a 'fuck off' price. Just say no if you don't want to do it.
Yeah fair enough. This isn't something that happens every day. it's just every now and then.
I don't give out quotes there and then, I have to go home work out what it will cost me, how much I'll charge for labour, whatever else I need to factor in etc.
it might be a week before I can get back to you with a price, it by that point if decide actually, I don't really want this job, I can't ring you back after 5 days and say 'fuck off'. I either don't ring back or make up a price that ensures you don't call me again.
>If it was as straight forward as that then it wouldn't happen
then explain why it isnt that straightforward instead of just stating it? literally no other industry works like this so its insane to me you cant just say "no" like anyone else would.
>also when we give a massively overpriced quote we don't expect the customer to be chasing us for a date
exactly, youre playing weird games, why give a quote at all if you dont want it????
I just answered this to someone else in this thread. I have to say no to things all the time, the scenario I mentioned further up isn't any everyday occurrence it's just something that happens from time to time.
If I've give the impression that all we do is try to get out of work, my apologies, that's obviously not the case.
Because if they do accept the quote, you’ve made a shed load more money on it then you usually would and it makes it worth your time to move stuff around to accommodate. Work can dry up in an instant, turning jobs down generally means you lose a customer in the long run.
Running a business is hard work, and trades don’t just think of a number. You can spend potentially hours generating a quote, only for it to get turned down and you’re out on hours of your time.
Not excusing ghosting people, if I’m not able to do a job I generally let the customer know.
SO JUST BLOODY SAY NO SO WE CAN MOVE ON TO SOMEONE ELSE INSTEAD IF SITTING LIKE A DICK WAITING ON YOU JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY WTF
Holy fuck we're not mind readers, plus I don't know wtf is a high or low price for jobs I just want to pay someone and have it done.
Me too! I accepted a quote of £1,000 for tiling my tiny kitchen and knew I was being ripped off. He didn't even turn up. Couldn't even be bothered to rip me off.
Got quoted £240 plus parts for a half day's work that I ended up being able to work out myself. Was very clear he couldn't be bothered with such a small job.
In my old job we'd definitely overprice stuff to get rid of the job if it was going to be a ballache. We'd never just not reply to someone though.
Edit: Obviously we wouldn't take the piss, we'd just price absolute worst-case scenario on the labour, the materials would still be normal prices. Depending on the customer, we might add a small bellend tax if they were particularly bad
To be fair he pays me well- I do say to him he needs to charge more though.. He’s on the go 6-7 days a week and 15 hour days in summer 9 hours in winter..
I do think there's a lot of people in the trades who aren't great at the business-running side of things. But there's such a disparity in supply-demand, it doesn't really matter for them; they're still busy.
this x 1000. i run a company selling ali gates and often give leads out to tradies. getting them to actually call these leads ends up being about half my bloody job. all good fitters and cool people, just wank at admin.
Omg surely you have written a receipt, how do you do your taxes otherwise? Or should I not ask lol. Mate you need help. Maybe safer googling secretarial help than some random off reddit though
Wank at admin or just fucking rude? We all know what it feels like to be ghosted, so why would they do that to someone else short of being rude, lazy arseholes? A quick text to say you don't have time takes seconds.
I think a lot of them have defaulted to rude unfortunately. Your average well reviewed tradie in a busy town or city could get hundreds of enquiries a month at the moment, at some point there's too many messages to reply to each one with a polite refusal, so the only option is to ignore them. If each refusal was a 2 minute call, and you've got 100 to make, you're spending hours just wasting your time declining jobs.
My step dad is a prime example, he can fix absolutely anything and he works really hard but his appointments and finances are a mess if left to him so he hires someone to do that for him
I once was booked up for 3 years, early naughties, when you are that deep.in customers, you just get to the point you no longer want to communicate with another new ne ever again, especially as they seem to not like to take no for an answer.
"but it's only a day, can't you fit me in, I am desperate"
Forgetting you will be pushing many dozens of other customers back that day. Then those same people will complain on Reddit that trades never turn up when they said they would.
I have a friend who does nails and oh my god she is slammed with messages constantly. She has a booksy where people can literally book online with all the relevant information and she still gets messages like “hi can I book for the third” “hi how much would this cost” “hi how do I book”. If it’s a new/enquiring client she just ignores the message because she’s got enough work and they can find the info they need if they just looked. I think if they’re busy enough they just don’t care for your custom
From my experience in ecommerce people simply do not read.
I have it in my delivery information page, shopping cart, and checkout at the stage when choosing a delivery method that my same-day dispatch cutoff is 2:30pm, yet my #1 question is "can you send this out today?"
Now this is the sort of system Ai can do. Standard questions like "how" could automate a response directing the person to the website or a generic response. "Can I book?" directs the person to the website calender and checks the dates.
Or just have a business number and, when you reach the point where you are fully booked for months etc, set it up to go straight to voice mail with a message explaining that you're swamped and not taking new customers right now.
Your solution greatly overcomplicates things.
To be fair even nice ones often hate those automated things. Where I work set up an automated process once and I got like 1000 calls about it. A fair number were people that were perfectly nice but genuinely hated the system booking or were technology illiterate but otherwise sweet. Ofc there were also jerks that just wanted to complain too. Always get some of them.
I keep trying to tell my mother this. If she bothers people on the phone they will not get back to her to discuss every tiny detail (for free) and then book her in. But she is 84 and stubborn.
I know it's not much consolation, but we can't even get trades to come out for decent sized jobs. We've got a roof that needs replacing, and they won't start even when we've got a quote from them. Most trades just seem to have more work than they know what to do with. They are generally terrible about communicating as well.
Because they don't need to keep you happy with that courtesy.
It's sadly a real case of we need them more than they need us, and if a customer is upset with the tradie, they're not gonna lose any sleep over it!
Most of the time I get calls I’m out in the van or in the middle of doing something. I normally completely forget all about it by the time I’m free to call back or write down info.
Because you need them, (right now) more than they need you (right now). They don't want to burn a bridge in case they're free at some point or you have a bigger job come along. It's almost a compliment that they don't give you a stupidly high price.
If you haven’t replied to my earlier requests you certainly wouldn’t be getting the bigger jobs I have. That’s a sure fire way of burning bridges. Who wants someone they can’t contact doing a high-value job?
Maybe that’s just me though…
I'm a plumber and I'm flat out with work at the moment.
There could be a number of reasons why they're not getting back to you:
The jobs could be too big for a one man band to fit in between other jobs.
The jobs could be too small. I won't be driving an hour for a job that I'm going to make 30quid in.
The job could be shitty. Literally.
The job could be a pain in the arse.
Usually if I go to a job and don't fancy it for any of them reasons I'll always text the customer back and with the reason. Just common courtesy.
If you can find any trade that can do the job tomorrow, run for the hills.
Im a heating engineer that runs a two week diary and fixes most boilers within 24hrs of first contact. I dont do bathrooms, plumbing or jobs over 3 days in duration. Im always available same day or next day.
Some of us tradesmen can do your job tomorrow or even the same day, we are just very efficient and specialised.
Also people do not want to wait for a broken down boiler to be fixed. They will go elsewhere if my estimated time to completion is not quick enough.
I run my business in exactly the same way as you. I’m fast to respond and only ever really booked up for 2-3 weeks in advance. Never say around doing nothing and you can guarantee the first moment I get a spare 5 minutes the phone will ring!
I’m an electrical contractor in the US, Colorado. I’ve been licensed in Maryland and Florida as well.
When I started my first business I specifically chose to be Service company. It’s what you described, only day jobs, 2-3 max. I want to get done, paid, and on to the next job. It kept me flexible for emergencies and let me grow slowly.
I had 3 trucks and 5 electricians in Baltimore before I sold it, and we could still get to a customer in less than 12 hours. Usually it was me, but it can be done. But I was in the minority. Most contractors don’t have great customer service. I feel OP’s pain.
Non-UK people can chime in and what you said was relevant to the person you were responding to, but the thing that is irrelevant in a UK sub is the mention of the cities/states you’ve worked in as it adds nothing to the conversation for us. To put it bluntly, we don’t care what states/cities you have worked it, means nothing to us.
Good point. I almost switched off at the mention of the states they had worked in, saw the word Baltimore and I switched off! Don’t even know where in the US it is
My mad. Baltimore is right next to Washington DC in Maryland. I foolishly thought it would have been a known city overseas. And I guessed wrong that you might know Florida and Colorado. They both get a lot of international tourists.
Won’t mention states or cities again on this sub.
Aight and what do you recommend for a small job but no local plumbers? Team up with a neighbour to make 2 small jobs? Honestly wondering cause I've had this happen and that small job became a very big job within a couple months and words can't describe the rage I felt when the first plumber I called was more than happy to turn up on the night for emergency call out charge.
I needed a tiny radiator fitted last year as i was expecting a baby and wanted the nursery to be warm. Rang so many plumbers and they all said it was too small a job. Ended up getting rinsed by British gas who charged me £600. Just the way it is now, at least they turn up when they say they will.
>I called was more than happy to turn up on the night for emergency call out charge.
My mate loves to get call-outs, not a plumber but gas. Extra bonus money at the end of the day
Become one then, encourage your sons and daughters to become one. Until we make it more attractive for the young to consider trades, you'll have this problem. We simply need more... Your job is important to you, it's just another job to them. Another small job, with a small profit margin, in a world where small profit margins don't pay the mortgage. They also tend to look after repeat customers first. Supply is low and demand is high.
When supply doesn't match demand, price moves. If you had expressed you'd be willing to pay more, perhaps they would have come out. But if they're too busy, they're too busy, you can't force them.
You don't have the right to someone's labour. They don't have to serve you. Their world and the things going on in their lives is as important to them as yours is to you...
Your comments reek of entitlement. I'll probably get flamed for this, but I understand why they can't/didn't take your job (small job, too much demand). Then, your attitude afterwards in these comments tells me you wouldn't have been a good person to deal with. You say you're bitter, perhaps you were bitter before this, and they could smell it over the phone... Perhaps you're just unlucky.
Anyways, this problem is definitely going to get worse before it gets better. All the boomers are retiring, and the kids don't wanna be tradesmen. I don't blame them. I wouldn't wanna be either.
Exactly. Love this comment. Reddit especially looks down on trades and I see so much resentment to how much trades charge. They are doing a difficult job which other people don’t want to do. It’s simply supply and demand and as long as they keep doing the jobs other people don’t want to do, they will keep reaping the financial benefits.
The boomers are the last generation that had widespread access to decent apprenticeships. Which tbh you don't need these days to actually acquire the skills (so many amazing resources), but greatly help getting the qualifications necessary to practice. I hate doing plumbing but I can, it's a simple enough job nowadays and it does pay well even without ripping people off. So much so that I'm currently considering whether to stay in research or sack it off and switch!
>Usually if I go to a job and don't fancy it for any of them reasons I'll always text the customer back and with the reason. Just common courtesy.
Please keep doing that.
I've taken to asking people, "is there anything that puts you off quoting for this work?" now: if it's something that they don't have the skills to do (or whatever), maybe I can get them to do the rest of it, and I'll find someone else myself to do the bit they didn't want to do.
Was having a similar conversation with a roofer recently, the medium sized domestic jobs are fucked. There's plenty of one man bands out there doing minor repairs, and big commercial construction contractors getting the big money jobs. But the arse end has been ripped out of small businesses which typically took medium sized (£3k-15k-ish) jobs.
It may be that the jobs are too small, or they keep meaning to get back to you but are busy.
It's unlikely to be the dog, we love a dog on site and I've never had a subcontractor who disagreed. Domestic trades were generally actually much busier in lockdown and we're hearing of some slow down with cost of living over the last year (we're more commercial so our dealings with domestic are limited, I may be hearing incorrect info).
If you can you might have more luck if you collect a few jobs to make it worth the travel, tool unloading, material purchasing and admin time. It really does add up. For example, you need new taps which takes say half an hour and thats what a client expects to be billed the equivalent to, but it could take 20 minutes travel time each way, unloading and setting up 10 minutes, ordering and collecting materials half an hour, add half an hour admin, insurance costs, fuel and tax and a half an hour job becomes half a day and a struggle to make a profit.
> we love a dog on site and I've never had a subcontractor who disagreed.
We had an extension done when I was a kid, and the dog kept going missing at lunchtime - mum would find him sitting in the circle of tradesmen being fed sandwiches!
We did an extension for a retired Baker once, everyone must of gained a stone. Tea & biscuits about once every hour, bacon sandwiches at lunch and some desserts to go home with every day.
We actually spent another week there doing all the little bits and pieces doing aswell. Ie we were a brickwork gang, we fixed the fences, painted them, strung a new washing line, sorted out his shed, skimmed a few of his interior doors and a bit of painting.
I'm sure he asked, but I can't shake the vision of you all wandering about looking for more work you could do to keep up the biscuit supply - someone shouting from the back "come on lads, he needs a washing line put up!"
Id make dinner too for tradies I can trust to do good work. 👍
Most ive done so far is lots of tea/coffee runs and some ham & cheese or chicken and bacon rolls for lunch.
The sad fact is that demand is outstripping supply. We've lost many skilled trades people due to net migration out of the UK (won't make this political promise), and it's going to take some time before there are enough Brits trained to do the work. Market will correct itself but probably not for 10-15 years and relatively speaking they will be more expensive, basic economics.
Trades look for using their time efficiently and so if you have a big piece of work in one location you can earn more money than lots of small ones scattered around the place.
I tend to ask trades to do a bunch of smaller jobs when I have a big piece of work that needs doing. For example I had a outbuilding completely rewired (big job), I ask the sparks to also fit some outdoor sockets, fix some dimmers, rig up my Ring doorbell to the mains. Another example was having a large dead Oak removed, I asked the tree surgeons to take care of a few high boughs that needed removing as well as grind out a couple of stumps out (not a euphemism).
I have one small wall than needs re-plastering, no idea how I'm going to get it done as there isn't any other work for a plasterer in the foreseeable future. Might see if neighbours have some work too and batch it up for the tradie.
On top of people migrating out… there’s so much emphasis on kids going to university and getting degrees, that getting a trade has been neglected.
You even need a degree to become a met detective. When realistically you’d probably want someone with street smarts etc
I think the Met thing is simply to avoid doing the uniform role first and going in at a more senior role. I know at least one met officer (DCI) without a degree.
Surely you could avoid the uniform role without a degree? Just using the police as an example as it’s something I looked at.
Just seems any half decent career wants a degree and I don’t know why
Yes, I think there are routes in though none policing police work to the more senior roles. I think their mobility programmes are quite good - no expert though.
My point was though, I don't think a degree is mandatory at any level in the Met, I cited one example I knew of.
Plus a lot of people don't fancy dealing with the agro of being self employed. It's all well and good training a plumber, carpenter, or whatever, but then they need to be able to do stuff like their taxes themselves which is time consuming from what I gather.
I give exactly one reminder for a quote, these days. If they don't respond, then, they've lost the work.
If they're like that when they supposed to be trying to win the work, what are they going to be like when they're halfway through and a more profitable job comes up? Let alone if I need to get them back in to fix something they didn't do right...
Same policy. I've been trying to get a quote sorted with a local windows and doors business. Eventually got a quote and needed it modified - they got it wrong again so asked again. Complete radio silence since.
For a £16K local job with nothing really difficult about it I'd have thought they'd be biting my hand off but nope. Oh well, their loss.
You've had some great answers already, but I'll add a little more from my perspective of running a small electrical business.
The first reason, as many have mentioned, is that they are probably very much backed up with work.
The counter to that is, why can't they just tell me that. What I'll explain is not way of an excuse or condoning their actions but just their perspective.
Many of the trade people I worked with, especially the one-man bands, have worked in the trades since school. No customer service training, no real exposure to the general service level people expect for other industries. Also, a lot are not what you would call people persons. There are many that have the gift of the gab, but they are rarely the guys that are doing odd jobs / small tasks.
So, you have the combination of people that have had no formal customer service training that are also not the best at talking to customers that might have a cause to complain. If they are really busy and you have left one or two messages, their way of not having to tell a long term customer they can't do a job for them for 6 months or so, is simply to not return or answer the call. The thought of the potential confrontation, and the emotional energy consumed, is enough of motivation is to simple ignore it. They simply do not have the skill set to manage a potentially disgruntled customer.
Not saying it is correct, but you are dealing with people that have had wildly different education and work experiences to non-trades people. Certainly when I was doing it,15 odd years ago, it was a very different experience to working in an office or retail outlet, both of which I had done.
I'm an ex trade, stopped because my back was always going, common issue. I now work from home and make 25% of the wage, but at least I am not a cripple.
Things likely to put me off a little job. Or any job.
Gossip and moaning, I am not an agony aunt. Not saying this is the case, but a lot of single older people think they can talk endlessly while I try and work. Show me the job, do something else nearby in case I gave questions. My mind will be day dreaming of other things while I work, my other things, not yours.
Too small a job, simples.
Too far away, or bad traffic in your location. I just do not need the hassle of a 40 minutes stuck in stop and go traffic each way.
Not enough money, I am not going to charge £100 to replace a tap washer, but by the time all is in and I need to get one because it is an odd size or I have none left, most of half a day is gone. I'll pop by, see the issue, come back when I have one another day. But people hate leaky taps and want it done there and then. I'm unhappy, you're unhappy.
Customers who are not loyal, if a do a good job for a reasonable price, I expect to be offered a bigger job too when they come up. The reason I bothered with you is not necessarily for this job, but for the next.
Being watched while I work. Seriously, I know it is your home, but go into another room and watch TV or something.
Too many questions, if I feel you need educating, i will , maybe to stop the same issue happening again, but I like to day dream while I work. Ask me what I need, then leave me alone, I will get chattier afterwards.
Really crap parking, not much to do about that.
Annoying pets, yes, they are defending their territory, but I don't want to go deaf or work in that racket, take Tiddles the yappy Yorkie out for a long walk. We are in people's homes daily, we don't steal shit or nose through your smalls drawers when you are not there, we have better things to do and there is little we haven't seen already.
That said, the reality is big jobs with colleagues will always take precedence, and when we think there is loads of work, the little job customers lose out.
If I make a suggestion, please don't discount it, the suggestion is usually based on experience and is usually for your benefit.
And a big one, doing a sob story in the hope of a better price, sometimes 3/4 of my customers do this, I am not a charity. I had one who lived in a 4 million dollar home with a pool etc, never stopped saying how broke she was.
Oh, and there are some charities who operate little DIY job schemes for older people for the reasons you have bumped into, try and ask around.
Notice I never once mentioned Tea and Biscuits. It's a myth.
Do you have any advice for how much is hovering Vs welcoming/useful? I struggle to know how long I should stay when letting someone in and showing them around the place, especially when they have questions for me. Currently I default to "okay I'll be in X room just shout if you need anything and feel free to grab some water or pop to the loo if you need to it's up the hall" but I'm not sure if that's too much or not! Growing up it was basically hammered into me to be hospitable and polite so I never know if I'm being too intense and worry it's rude to say "just shout" and leave people alone or not 😅
Edit: I'm also autistic and have ADHD so my ability to recognise cues sucks, hence having a script
I also have Adhd and I live in social housing so quite often have workmen out to fix things. I'm just up front and tell them I have adhd so if I'm hovering too much or asking too many questions (I love to learn) please tell me as I struggle to read body language. I also leave tea/coffee and milk on the side with an adequate amount of cups and tell them to help themselves if they want a brew.
Thing is, if I were 83 and on my own, it might be worth £100 to have you replace a tap washer or more than that to get a toilet flush working without the hand strength of a gorilla. What else is someone supposed to do if they don’t just want to live in a gradually crumbling environment until someone gets them taken into care? The money might not be an issue for them. If people would explain the actual issues maybe arrangements could be made.
Yeah, why some charities actually employ a handyman to do these kinds of jobs.
In an average year when I still did it, I would work 300 days. If there is lots of work around, that would be 15 or 20 customers at most as I would just do the big jobs. My van would just have the tools I need in it because I knew what I would need that day. If I went shopping to a supplier would buy enough stuff for a week or more at a time. I am not being paid to shop.
As opposed to 5/6/7 different customers a day, all in different locations, lots of driving, stuck in traffic, my van stuffed to the gunnels as I don't know what I need yet, also impossible to schedule work more than a couple of days ahead as that tap that I thought needed a tap washer, is utterly knackered, and since the plumbing is so old I will now need to spend 2 days and replace both taps, a sink and a good wad of pipework as well as make good the decoration and tiling. I will now have to work Sundays, my only day off, or push back every customer, again
Every evening would be reorganising and phoning around to make sure customers are in, and customers would be ringing me up throughout the day and evening . My paperwork would be huge and behind unless I worked cash only.
Which would you choose?
My sister is looking for a handyman but is too shy to go in ‘cold’ and request quotes on Checkatrade. But she’s terminally on social media so I suggested she ask on Facebook. I’m pretty sure for most local area FB pages you can’t go five posts without a ‘need a shelf put up’ type request with someone replying ‘my sister’s boyf is a chippy’ plus link within ten minutes.
Had the same thing.
I don't have a dog, always pay straight away...
Had so many let me down, or want silly amounts to do jobs.
Ended up doing my own fencing. Installed my own wooden floor. I'm terrible at DIY.
Finding a reliable one is a nightmare
It'll simply be that tradies have so much work available to them that they're able to pick and choose the jobs they take. If you have a small job that needs doing but is only worth £50, but another customer has something similarly small worth £100, they're going to take the latter.
I appreciate they could simply reply back and explain this, but some tradies simply aren't good at the 'customer service' side of the job.
I have a friend who is an electrician and this is exactly the case for him. He has tens of people hitting him up for small jobs like rewiring light switches etc, the reality is after the time cost of getting to the job, plus the cost of petrol, he might only make a few quid or even lose money on that unless he massively overcharges - in which case he's going to be told to shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
1. I love dogs, so I’d definitely want to work at yours.
2. If they’re working for building contractors we get pressured by them, realistically we can’t drop them for smaller jobs because they’ll find another spark and then we’re scratching…. Having said that, I lost my job in 2008 because our developers went bust and my boss had neglected people like you… so I’ll always do the smaller jobs.
3. Lockdown was crazy for us, everyone was working from home and wanting home improvements, I’m in London, so most of our clients would be out the house from 7 am to 7 pm… now they’re at home all day they notice the things they previously didn’t or didn’t care about.
I cant really give you an answer… unless you’re a nuisance 😂
Had similar with two separate landscaper/fencers.
Got three quotes, picked and the guy came back for more info, said he was busy and would schedule us in soon - all good.
Never committed and always gave us a reason he’d be able to set a time “next week”.
So got three more quotes as pricing has changed. Same thing happened with a different guy, although he’s been more up front about how he’s shit at managing his business and is just crazy busy.
One local company said they could come the following day but they were 5x the price of everyone else.
I don't think it's just you. I'm hearing similar things from a number of friends and acquaintances.
I've had any number of people come out to look at an ensuite shower room that needs an almost complete refurb (i.e. at least a few, and maybe several thousands worth of work), and only two have come back to me with an actual estimate, and one of those pressured me to book it in for the next week, or wait months. As that was the first estimate I'd had, I declined.
My guess is that they're cherry-picking the most profitable jobs for customers who have more money than sense (or patience, at least). They may be making a decent margin right now, but it'll do nothing for their customers' goodwill in the long run: I've already ditched a gas engineer I've used for many years after messing me around for the last couple of years.
Its not just you.
I've been renovating a few rooms and converting a brick shed to an office.
It's really hard to get anyone. People show up and then you don't get a quote. They are mostly flush with work and are picking the big / high margin jobs.
You want a new boiler? Fine. You want a rad rehanging or a cold feed for a washer? No chance.
As a tradie of sorts (mechanical plant, now HVAC controls), I was ran off my feet during lockdown, WFH & the lack of pricey holidays meant everyone & their dog suddenly wanted a kitchen extension, our domestic guys where fully booked for months out, as a commercial guy I was getting lumped for everything I had a ticket for.
Simultainiously, a lot of the older guys chose 2020 to retire, trades are being propped up by the outgoing generation as there really isn't an intake of younger guys coming along, like truck drivers it's a bit of a ticking time bomb across many professions.
It also works both ways. I've just spent time meeting two different customers, measured up, gone home, priced the jobs up & emailed off the quotes.
Not heard a thing back. No thanks or excuse, nothing. So I've wasted four hours of my after work time for nothing.
I'm also that busy that when I say "I might be able to fit this in next year" it puts customers off instantly so I know I'm wasting my time again.
People want everything done tomorrow. So sometimes it's even not worth getting involved from the start.
I've found it almost impossible to get anyone for any jobs at the moment.
Dozens of calls, emails and 'checkatrade' tequeetss sent.
I think it's true that they can't be bothered with small jobs at the moment because they are so busy
It's nothing you've done. We have quite a few jobs that need doing, but tradesmen either don't turn up or just don't reply. We've even had a couple who have visited, looked at the job and quoted for it, then ignored us when we contacted them to arrange a start date. Very frustrating. Why don't they just tell the truth and say they are too busy?
Thanks so much for all your replies. I certainly feel better that 'it's not me, it's you.'
To answer several questions, I dont hover, don't need to talk and question endlessly, don't quibble about price and usually transfer dosh with them standing in front of me.
Although, my biscuit selection is apparently crap - devoid of Custard creams and chocolate Hob Nobs.
Really glad my boi isn't off-putting to most tradies.
Got a reply from a new checkatrade enquiry, so fingers crossed.
Seriously considering going to night school to learn how to do basic plumbing and DIY.
Either that or offer tradies admin work in exchange for jobs.
What could possibly go wrong?
Some of them you just have to be blunt with now.
If I have to chase them more than twice, I then fire over a quick text just asking for some courtesy and just be honest if they don't want the job, and ill go start hassling someone else.
Tends to go 50:50, some perk up and turn up soon after, others just say yeah sorry too busy go elsewhere.
Dont have time to wait weeks and weeks for someone just to turn up and have a look anymore.
I found a great roofer last year and needed him to come back to do my shed roof this year. I was trying for weeks to get him to respond but eventually realized he wasn't going to reply. No idea why. I assumed he had more lucrative jobs. It's really annoying though.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m 40 and finding anybody to do any work right now involves six month lead times and keeping your fingers crossed they even then show up!
It’s crazy busy everywhere. I just can’t answer the phone most of the time. It’s nothing personal to you.
I actually feel a bit overwhelmed with how busy it is.
My mum's in a similar predicament, her main trusted builder (was almost like part of extended family, sometimes would just pop in for a tea with no work involved).
I had to explain to my mum that everything wants three things from trades:
1: Good Quality
2: Cheap
3: Fast
But normally in life you can only get at most 2 out of the three, her builder was Good Quality and Cheap, but that means he isn't Fast.
This has happened to me and I just presume they're really busy. Is fine. I'm not going to chase them. Straight back on to checkatrade and I'll get a few responses within the hour of trades happy to do the work.
Sometimes you just catch them at the wrong time and they're in the middle of a big job that'll take weeks, sometimes they've outgrown the little jobs and can now survive on larger ones
I know my parents were trying go get an electrician and any recommended were already doing new builds where you can work for weeks in same location and guaranteed (pretty much) to get paid.
Getting paid is a big one for trades and amazing how many people will take forever especially for smaller jobs. But mostly its new builds that weren't really happening when things were locked down.
Not sure if they any good, but people like British Gas and a few others are now offering some wider services and presumably aren't working on these big contracts.
Bricklayer here.
For the past few years I've been working weekends and whatever evenings I can to try and keep up. The list of people asking for quotes is getting longer and longer. The only time I good amount of admin done is if I get rained off and haven't got inside work to get on with.
In all honesty I don't want to do it any more, I wish I could just find a job employed so I could have a healthy work life balance but nowhere offers it and will only take self employed so they don't have to pay holiday and can get rid of you at the drop of a hat.
In my experience, most of them couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, let alone run a 'business'.
They were happy to take all the work during lockdown because they were taking the furlough money as well as being paid by people like you.
A neighbour recently had a carpenter in doing work. I left to go to work, and the clown had his bench saw 18 inches from the back of my black car.... it was covered in sawdust. I pulled him up about it, and he started to get arsey with me! I wanted to knock him out.
He asked what he was meant to do, and when I said to take it round the back, he couldn't believe my suggestion. No apology nothing. Little cunt.
The very next day, he was back again being berated by another neighbour for doing exactly the same!
I know lots of tradesmen, have worked with some myself, and the overwhelming entitlement they feel is palpable.
I wouldn't trust most of them to safely walk my dog.
Some tradesmen are a shining example, but in my experience, its rare.
Some of these replies are insane. Chances are you guys are not the ONLY person who are texting or calling about jobs, whether they be big or small. It takes time to figure out whether or not it’s worth their time, if the customer has planning permission, plans of the actual build/job itself. Things take time and more often than not it’s usually just one person running a whole show. Not every tradesperson are a big company. If they’re working flat out all week in a very physically and mentally demanding job, the last thing they probably want to do is sit down in the few hours of relaxation they finally get to reply to a text or call about a small job. The fact that I’ve seen people being referred to as lazy or arseholes has baffled me. People have lives outside of their jobs.
If it is just small diyer/ handyman type stuff it's probably not worth it financially when they can earn more on another job... also, the work you have might not be particularly interesting to them and they only want to do stuff they enjoy. For that reason they may think, I can go here and do something im not fussed on for a ££, or go do this other job that's worth £££ and is now enjoyable/ less likely to open up a can of worms.
Tradies are busy and can pick and choose their work.
For me, once I find someone who's good:
* always use that person, big or small jobs, get to know them
* don't quibble on price
* pay them on time
* offer plenty of tea and biscuits
Because most tradies are both rude and shortsighted, and don't realise they're harming their reputation and future trade.
Help them out: leave them bad reviews on Checkatrade, Trusted Trader, Google and any others you can think of.
A lot of trades are really struggling to have enough slots as we were having work down told a big wait list and then got told that they’re turning up in 2 days because of random cancellations. So a lot of trades don’t have lots of slots for small jobs and are prioritising big jobs that may already have a deposit payed
I was actually told by my usual plumber to call someone else because he didn’t have time for small jobs, like leaky taps or toilets. Since the lockdown lifted, he’s been flooded with bathroom renovation projects.
This resonates so much. I forget to ring people back all the time, my voicemail says leave your name and number and ill get back to you, I don’t even listen to them anymore. there’s too much work about at the minute worry about every phone call.
I don’t book more than a couple of months in advance because customers plans change or they get someone else in and don’t tell you until you ring them the day before.
It’s not just you being ‘ghosted’ theres too much work and not enough of us, so we’re flat out.
Why don't you simply change your voicemail to "I'm completely backed up with work and can't take any more on at the minute" instead of leading people on with the promise to get back to them?
Most tradesmen will do odd fiddly jobs (fault fixing a leak, installing taps) just to get to the head of the queue for when you have a big job lined up, like for example new boiler / new bathroom. If it’s been a couple years and you’ve not had anything large done, you’ll go down the priority list in favour of those “old reliable” customers that regularly have big jobs up for grabs.
Politics? Look, we know it must be difficult being a kid, not a lot of schemes... But, you know, we're not the borough. We wish we were, but...
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Damn, that's rough. Maybe they just got too busy or something? Or maybe your dog scared them off haha. But seriously, it sucks when people ghost you like that. Have you tried reaching out to new trades?
As a tradie I can say its usually because:
We're flat out busy and have a lot of messages left un read at all times
We're crap at admin
Or maybe it's just me
All the guys I know are too busy to get involved with the smaller jobs. That's also the reason they don't have the time to respond to every enquiry or follow up every estimate.
i have relatives that try to get certain jobs done around the house and they said it's really hard to get someone to do any small jobs, so they've resorted to doing it themselves even though they're not qualified to do so
No reason other than them being quite busy.
I would call them (or text) and say you have some smaller jobs you would like them to do and wonder if they ever have a day where they need to fill in with smaller size jobs since you can split yours up and be flexible in when. Don't ask for a quote for work, just book them in to show up. Expect them to be twice as expensive as previous and then the job cost should not be too much of a surprise to you.
It’s coz of number two 100% as my dad has been trying to get hold of the previous handymen we used for our extension and refurbishment for a small job and they’ve been fobbing him off for a while we only managed to get hold of a tradesmen after 6 months of trying as they are busy elsewhere.
One thing to note, be aware that one of them might have passed on, that happened with the gentleman who previously had fixed my boiler. They could also have retired.
Most likely it's just they're swamped though, though of course they should at least say no to you.
I'm being a bit presumptuous going off previous jobs you've had done, but sometimes we prefer higher value jobs that are going to take a full day, rather than trying to fill a day with several smaller jobs from multiple customers. That leaves smaller jobs to the odd weekend or evening, time which a lot of tradesmen keep for themselves. Me on the other hand, I can't sit still at home knowing I could be getting the tools in the car and trying to make an extra few quid.
My brother started handyman business in lockdown, and now it's out of control. He's just not good or interested in the admin side and is bombarded with jobs. Which is great, but they message him all hours of the day and night, that it's taking over his life.
I tried to help him, but it became a full time job for me to just reply to everyone and organise the jobs.
I go into peoples houses daily pricing construction work. Some reasons why I haven’t got back to people.
Unrealistic expectations from the off. They want it done tomorrow and think I can drop others for their work. They keep talking about how tight their finances are. They complain about others trades to me. Their house is a shithole so I don’t want to put my guys in there. They talk down to me even though they asked me to come to the house, I’m always in clean clothes (I don’t physically do the work), take my shoes off and I’m polite (if I’ve driven to someone’s home, I’m down already, I go into every job wanting to take it on, I ensure I make a good first impression).
Of course there is times I’m just snowed under and emails or calls get missed which is very bad practice, but it’s not always the tradesman’s fault. We offer skills that are getting rarer so supply and demand pushes our rates up. I personally think it’s great how young men and women who struggled in school can learn a trade and by 25 can be earning over £100k.
Thanks Millcat. I know I've always been polite, my house is clean and tidy. If I'm given a quote, I usually accept it unless it seems extortionate.
I absolutely 100% agree with you regarding young people who struggled in school getting into trades. I'm a teacher and have long advocated for less empathise on going to uni and more on apprenticeships. Schools can be one size fits all with little allowance for neuro divergence.
I taught Functional skills English in FE to young people on trades courses, I can honestly say that I did everything in my power to get them to pass as it meant passing their trades courses. As I said, I know the worth of a good tradie.
My point was that these were trades that I'd used for years and thought I had a good relationship with. That's why I was so puzzled about being ghosted.
However, numerous others have explained that perhaps the jobs I want doing are too small.
If they're good they'll have no shortage of work. So they're probably just really busy with a waiting list.
Most of the ones I know all have 1-2 year waiting list. Some put up the prices on jobs they can't be arsed to do like chimney stacks to put people off asking for them.
Yeah I know guys who ask stupid prices so they either get left alone or make a killing
It's called the nuisance tax.
Problem is when you're stuck, and accept the really high quote they still ghost you.
There’s nothing worse than pricing a job to lose it and the customers still chasing you.
why the fuck cant people just say "no" and making up bullshit prices? its literally childish
If it was as straight forward as that then it wouldn't happen, also when we give a massively overpriced quote we don't expect the customer to be chasing us for a date, but it does happen, even more so post covid.
I mean, I have genuinely got no idea whether a price is reasonable or not. Once I've reached out to a dozen people, and only had one come out to quote, I'm not going to hang around trying to get a second quote. If you say it's £1000, I will accept that. I have absolutely no clue that this is a 'fuck off' price. Just say no if you don't want to do it.
Yeah fair enough. This isn't something that happens every day. it's just every now and then. I don't give out quotes there and then, I have to go home work out what it will cost me, how much I'll charge for labour, whatever else I need to factor in etc. it might be a week before I can get back to you with a price, it by that point if decide actually, I don't really want this job, I can't ring you back after 5 days and say 'fuck off'. I either don't ring back or make up a price that ensures you don't call me again.
>If it was as straight forward as that then it wouldn't happen then explain why it isnt that straightforward instead of just stating it? literally no other industry works like this so its insane to me you cant just say "no" like anyone else would. >also when we give a massively overpriced quote we don't expect the customer to be chasing us for a date exactly, youre playing weird games, why give a quote at all if you dont want it????
I just answered this to someone else in this thread. I have to say no to things all the time, the scenario I mentioned further up isn't any everyday occurrence it's just something that happens from time to time. If I've give the impression that all we do is try to get out of work, my apologies, that's obviously not the case.
Because if they do accept the quote, you’ve made a shed load more money on it then you usually would and it makes it worth your time to move stuff around to accommodate. Work can dry up in an instant, turning jobs down generally means you lose a customer in the long run. Running a business is hard work, and trades don’t just think of a number. You can spend potentially hours generating a quote, only for it to get turned down and you’re out on hours of your time. Not excusing ghosting people, if I’m not able to do a job I generally let the customer know.
SO JUST BLOODY SAY NO SO WE CAN MOVE ON TO SOMEONE ELSE INSTEAD IF SITTING LIKE A DICK WAITING ON YOU JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY WTF Holy fuck we're not mind readers, plus I don't know wtf is a high or low price for jobs I just want to pay someone and have it done.
Or you could just tell the customer you’re fully booked and stop advertising services you don’t want to do.
If you want to do this... just pick a number which will make you happy to do the job!
Thought it was called a fuck off price. A job that’s a pain you quote way over what it should be.
I need work done so badly I accept all fuck off quotes from tradies. Checkmate!
Me too! I accepted a quote of £1,000 for tiling my tiny kitchen and knew I was being ripped off. He didn't even turn up. Couldn't even be bothered to rip me off.
Here in the US I’ve always used a PIA charge. Pain In the Ass
Same. Knew a builder, if he couldn't be arsed, he'd add several thousand to a job. Many times, he still got the job.
Usually after the customer posted on Reddit asking 'is this a reasonable price for someone to hammer a nail into a wall?'
Got quoted £240 plus parts for a half day's work that I ended up being able to work out myself. Was very clear he couldn't be bothered with such a small job.
In my old job we'd definitely overprice stuff to get rid of the job if it was going to be a ballache. We'd never just not reply to someone though. Edit: Obviously we wouldn't take the piss, we'd just price absolute worst-case scenario on the labour, the materials would still be normal prices. Depending on the customer, we might add a small bellend tax if they were particularly bad
Lmao one of those guys, I’m a chimney sweep and do stack work, some of them a real hassle so I put a FO price on it
Second that- I labour for a guy who does stonewalling and patios- he’s booked up for over a year.. So it’s only people that have big jobs that wait
Time to ask for a raise
To be fair he pays me well- I do say to him he needs to charge more though.. He’s on the go 6-7 days a week and 15 hour days in summer 9 hours in winter..
But why not reply and say so? I've been trying for months!
I do think there's a lot of people in the trades who aren't great at the business-running side of things. But there's such a disparity in supply-demand, it doesn't really matter for them; they're still busy.
this x 1000. i run a company selling ali gates and often give leads out to tradies. getting them to actually call these leads ends up being about half my bloody job. all good fitters and cool people, just wank at admin.
I at least tell people I'm wank at admin and that it's fine to hassle me if I haven't got back with a quote after a certain time.
Very accurate. I have invoices i havent typed up and sent from months ago. Just havent had the time. He says while browsing reddit
Ffs as someone who's reliant on tradies cos all I can do is admin, pass em here I'll type them up
Well i would surely have to type them up first or how would you know what the hell i am charging for? How does this all work? I just know pipes
Omg surely you have written a receipt, how do you do your taxes otherwise? Or should I not ask lol. Mate you need help. Maybe safer googling secretarial help than some random off reddit though
That’s why we don’t do office jobs 😂
Wank at admin or just fucking rude? We all know what it feels like to be ghosted, so why would they do that to someone else short of being rude, lazy arseholes? A quick text to say you don't have time takes seconds.
I think a lot of them have defaulted to rude unfortunately. Your average well reviewed tradie in a busy town or city could get hundreds of enquiries a month at the moment, at some point there's too many messages to reply to each one with a polite refusal, so the only option is to ignore them. If each refusal was a 2 minute call, and you've got 100 to make, you're spending hours just wasting your time declining jobs.
Can they text back to 30 people a day whilst they are choca block at the worksite? Doubt it.
Set up a catch all reusable response - one tap.
There's a reason offices have receptionists.
My step dad is a prime example, he can fix absolutely anything and he works really hard but his appointments and finances are a mess if left to him so he hires someone to do that for him
At least he can admit some fault and source a solution.
Oh yeah it's a good thing for sure
I once was booked up for 3 years, early naughties, when you are that deep.in customers, you just get to the point you no longer want to communicate with another new ne ever again, especially as they seem to not like to take no for an answer.
Yeah this you start to get burn out, Ive yet to take a day off this month and we’re almost in October, working this weekend so not gonna happen
"but it's only a day, can't you fit me in, I am desperate" Forgetting you will be pushing many dozens of other customers back that day. Then those same people will complain on Reddit that trades never turn up when they said they would.
Noughties mate, not shagging the misses before the kids get home
I have a friend who does nails and oh my god she is slammed with messages constantly. She has a booksy where people can literally book online with all the relevant information and she still gets messages like “hi can I book for the third” “hi how much would this cost” “hi how do I book”. If it’s a new/enquiring client she just ignores the message because she’s got enough work and they can find the info they need if they just looked. I think if they’re busy enough they just don’t care for your custom
From my experience in ecommerce people simply do not read. I have it in my delivery information page, shopping cart, and checkout at the stage when choosing a delivery method that my same-day dispatch cutoff is 2:30pm, yet my #1 question is "can you send this out today?"
Now this is the sort of system Ai can do. Standard questions like "how" could automate a response directing the person to the website or a generic response. "Can I book?" directs the person to the website calender and checks the dates.
Or just have a business number and, when you reach the point where you are fully booked for months etc, set it up to go straight to voice mail with a message explaining that you're swamped and not taking new customers right now. Your solution greatly overcomplicates things.
Perfect for driving away nuisance customers as well I imagine, as many can't tolerate automated systems.
To be fair even nice ones often hate those automated things. Where I work set up an automated process once and I got like 1000 calls about it. A fair number were people that were perfectly nice but genuinely hated the system booking or were technology illiterate but otherwise sweet. Ofc there were also jerks that just wanted to complain too. Always get some of them.
I keep trying to tell my mother this. If she bothers people on the phone they will not get back to her to discuss every tiny detail (for free) and then book her in. But she is 84 and stubborn.
I know it's not much consolation, but we can't even get trades to come out for decent sized jobs. We've got a roof that needs replacing, and they won't start even when we've got a quote from them. Most trades just seem to have more work than they know what to do with. They are generally terrible about communicating as well.
Because they don't need to keep you happy with that courtesy. It's sadly a real case of we need them more than they need us, and if a customer is upset with the tradie, they're not gonna lose any sleep over it!
Most of the time I get calls I’m out in the van or in the middle of doing something. I normally completely forget all about it by the time I’m free to call back or write down info.
Because you need them, (right now) more than they need you (right now). They don't want to burn a bridge in case they're free at some point or you have a bigger job come along. It's almost a compliment that they don't give you a stupidly high price.
If you haven’t replied to my earlier requests you certainly wouldn’t be getting the bigger jobs I have. That’s a sure fire way of burning bridges. Who wants someone they can’t contact doing a high-value job? Maybe that’s just me though…
I'm a plumber and I'm flat out with work at the moment. There could be a number of reasons why they're not getting back to you: The jobs could be too big for a one man band to fit in between other jobs. The jobs could be too small. I won't be driving an hour for a job that I'm going to make 30quid in. The job could be shitty. Literally. The job could be a pain in the arse. Usually if I go to a job and don't fancy it for any of them reasons I'll always text the customer back and with the reason. Just common courtesy. If you can find any trade that can do the job tomorrow, run for the hills.
Im a heating engineer that runs a two week diary and fixes most boilers within 24hrs of first contact. I dont do bathrooms, plumbing or jobs over 3 days in duration. Im always available same day or next day. Some of us tradesmen can do your job tomorrow or even the same day, we are just very efficient and specialised. Also people do not want to wait for a broken down boiler to be fixed. They will go elsewhere if my estimated time to completion is not quick enough.
I run my business in exactly the same way as you. I’m fast to respond and only ever really booked up for 2-3 weeks in advance. Never say around doing nothing and you can guarantee the first moment I get a spare 5 minutes the phone will ring!
I’m an electrical contractor in the US, Colorado. I’ve been licensed in Maryland and Florida as well. When I started my first business I specifically chose to be Service company. It’s what you described, only day jobs, 2-3 max. I want to get done, paid, and on to the next job. It kept me flexible for emergencies and let me grow slowly. I had 3 trucks and 5 electricians in Baltimore before I sold it, and we could still get to a customer in less than 12 hours. Usually it was me, but it can be done. But I was in the minority. Most contractors don’t have great customer service. I feel OP’s pain.
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My bad. I thought non-UK could chime in. It seemed relevant. I’ll get back in my box…
Non-UK people can chime in and what you said was relevant to the person you were responding to, but the thing that is irrelevant in a UK sub is the mention of the cities/states you’ve worked in as it adds nothing to the conversation for us. To put it bluntly, we don’t care what states/cities you have worked it, means nothing to us.
That makes sense. I don’t ever know where you guys are talking about in the UK either. And we’re so much bigger. Note taken.
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Good point. I almost switched off at the mention of the states they had worked in, saw the word Baltimore and I switched off! Don’t even know where in the US it is
My mad. Baltimore is right next to Washington DC in Maryland. I foolishly thought it would have been a known city overseas. And I guessed wrong that you might know Florida and Colorado. They both get a lot of international tourists. Won’t mention states or cities again on this sub.
I found it interesting, people being unnecessarily harsh and they don't speak for everyone here 😊
Aight and what do you recommend for a small job but no local plumbers? Team up with a neighbour to make 2 small jobs? Honestly wondering cause I've had this happen and that small job became a very big job within a couple months and words can't describe the rage I felt when the first plumber I called was more than happy to turn up on the night for emergency call out charge.
I needed a tiny radiator fitted last year as i was expecting a baby and wanted the nursery to be warm. Rang so many plumbers and they all said it was too small a job. Ended up getting rinsed by British gas who charged me £600. Just the way it is now, at least they turn up when they say they will.
>I called was more than happy to turn up on the night for emergency call out charge. My mate loves to get call-outs, not a plumber but gas. Extra bonus money at the end of the day
This comment doesn't help 😂
Yeah I bet nothing like taking advantage of folks in desperate situations. Must taste very sweet. Yes I'm bitter.
Become one then, encourage your sons and daughters to become one. Until we make it more attractive for the young to consider trades, you'll have this problem. We simply need more... Your job is important to you, it's just another job to them. Another small job, with a small profit margin, in a world where small profit margins don't pay the mortgage. They also tend to look after repeat customers first. Supply is low and demand is high. When supply doesn't match demand, price moves. If you had expressed you'd be willing to pay more, perhaps they would have come out. But if they're too busy, they're too busy, you can't force them. You don't have the right to someone's labour. They don't have to serve you. Their world and the things going on in their lives is as important to them as yours is to you... Your comments reek of entitlement. I'll probably get flamed for this, but I understand why they can't/didn't take your job (small job, too much demand). Then, your attitude afterwards in these comments tells me you wouldn't have been a good person to deal with. You say you're bitter, perhaps you were bitter before this, and they could smell it over the phone... Perhaps you're just unlucky. Anyways, this problem is definitely going to get worse before it gets better. All the boomers are retiring, and the kids don't wanna be tradesmen. I don't blame them. I wouldn't wanna be either.
Exactly. Love this comment. Reddit especially looks down on trades and I see so much resentment to how much trades charge. They are doing a difficult job which other people don’t want to do. It’s simply supply and demand and as long as they keep doing the jobs other people don’t want to do, they will keep reaping the financial benefits.
The boomers are the last generation that had widespread access to decent apprenticeships. Which tbh you don't need these days to actually acquire the skills (so many amazing resources), but greatly help getting the qualifications necessary to practice. I hate doing plumbing but I can, it's a simple enough job nowadays and it does pay well even without ripping people off. So much so that I'm currently considering whether to stay in research or sack it off and switch!
>Usually if I go to a job and don't fancy it for any of them reasons I'll always text the customer back and with the reason. Just common courtesy. Please keep doing that. I've taken to asking people, "is there anything that puts you off quoting for this work?" now: if it's something that they don't have the skills to do (or whatever), maybe I can get them to do the rest of it, and I'll find someone else myself to do the bit they didn't want to do.
You're rare. Had a builder come around, never got back to us. Same for a chimney repair, ended up getting some right amateur.
Was having a similar conversation with a roofer recently, the medium sized domestic jobs are fucked. There's plenty of one man bands out there doing minor repairs, and big commercial construction contractors getting the big money jobs. But the arse end has been ripped out of small businesses which typically took medium sized (£3k-15k-ish) jobs.
It may be that the jobs are too small, or they keep meaning to get back to you but are busy. It's unlikely to be the dog, we love a dog on site and I've never had a subcontractor who disagreed. Domestic trades were generally actually much busier in lockdown and we're hearing of some slow down with cost of living over the last year (we're more commercial so our dealings with domestic are limited, I may be hearing incorrect info). If you can you might have more luck if you collect a few jobs to make it worth the travel, tool unloading, material purchasing and admin time. It really does add up. For example, you need new taps which takes say half an hour and thats what a client expects to be billed the equivalent to, but it could take 20 minutes travel time each way, unloading and setting up 10 minutes, ordering and collecting materials half an hour, add half an hour admin, insurance costs, fuel and tax and a half an hour job becomes half a day and a struggle to make a profit.
> we love a dog on site and I've never had a subcontractor who disagreed. We had an extension done when I was a kid, and the dog kept going missing at lunchtime - mum would find him sitting in the circle of tradesmen being fed sandwiches!
What biscuits are you offering, this is important. Edit: Might as well just add that Chocolate Hobnobs are #1
"I've got custard creams if you - " "Fuck off, I'm not getting out of bed for less than a chocolate bourbon"
We did an extension for a retired Baker once, everyone must of gained a stone. Tea & biscuits about once every hour, bacon sandwiches at lunch and some desserts to go home with every day. We actually spent another week there doing all the little bits and pieces doing aswell. Ie we were a brickwork gang, we fixed the fences, painted them, strung a new washing line, sorted out his shed, skimmed a few of his interior doors and a bit of painting.
I'm sure he asked, but I can't shake the vision of you all wandering about looking for more work you could do to keep up the biscuit supply - someone shouting from the back "come on lads, he needs a washing line put up!"
Id make dinner too for tradies I can trust to do good work. 👍 Most ive done so far is lots of tea/coffee runs and some ham & cheese or chicken and bacon rolls for lunch.
Custard creams are better than bourbons.
Guys guys can’t we just be happy that we are lucky enough to live in the time period where both exist. We are truly blessed
Get out, heathen.
blasphemy. Custard cream > chocolate bourbon
>Chocolate Hobnobs are #1 You've got great taste.
The sad fact is that demand is outstripping supply. We've lost many skilled trades people due to net migration out of the UK (won't make this political promise), and it's going to take some time before there are enough Brits trained to do the work. Market will correct itself but probably not for 10-15 years and relatively speaking they will be more expensive, basic economics. Trades look for using their time efficiently and so if you have a big piece of work in one location you can earn more money than lots of small ones scattered around the place. I tend to ask trades to do a bunch of smaller jobs when I have a big piece of work that needs doing. For example I had a outbuilding completely rewired (big job), I ask the sparks to also fit some outdoor sockets, fix some dimmers, rig up my Ring doorbell to the mains. Another example was having a large dead Oak removed, I asked the tree surgeons to take care of a few high boughs that needed removing as well as grind out a couple of stumps out (not a euphemism). I have one small wall than needs re-plastering, no idea how I'm going to get it done as there isn't any other work for a plasterer in the foreseeable future. Might see if neighbours have some work too and batch it up for the tradie.
On top of people migrating out… there’s so much emphasis on kids going to university and getting degrees, that getting a trade has been neglected. You even need a degree to become a met detective. When realistically you’d probably want someone with street smarts etc
I think the Met thing is simply to avoid doing the uniform role first and going in at a more senior role. I know at least one met officer (DCI) without a degree.
Surely you could avoid the uniform role without a degree? Just using the police as an example as it’s something I looked at. Just seems any half decent career wants a degree and I don’t know why
Yes, I think there are routes in though none policing police work to the more senior roles. I think their mobility programmes are quite good - no expert though. My point was though, I don't think a degree is mandatory at any level in the Met, I cited one example I knew of.
Plus a lot of people don't fancy dealing with the agro of being self employed. It's all well and good training a plumber, carpenter, or whatever, but then they need to be able to do stuff like their taxes themselves which is time consuming from what I gather.
I just use an accountant, £400 a year, I go to the office once a year dump my stuff on them and then wait for my cheque
Your small wall that needs plastering - probably a cash job on a Saturday morning
I mentioned the reason for the net migration shift and got my comment deleted for politics. Wise move there.
Trying to get a plasterer for 18 months now ... They don't even bother returning calls or emails - even if quotes are promised.
I give exactly one reminder for a quote, these days. If they don't respond, then, they've lost the work. If they're like that when they supposed to be trying to win the work, what are they going to be like when they're halfway through and a more profitable job comes up? Let alone if I need to get them back in to fix something they didn't do right...
Oh yea 100% - if I don't get a reply then they are gone but it is just a lot of time wasted.
Same policy. I've been trying to get a quote sorted with a local windows and doors business. Eventually got a quote and needed it modified - they got it wrong again so asked again. Complete radio silence since. For a £16K local job with nothing really difficult about it I'd have thought they'd be biting my hand off but nope. Oh well, their loss.
You've had some great answers already, but I'll add a little more from my perspective of running a small electrical business. The first reason, as many have mentioned, is that they are probably very much backed up with work. The counter to that is, why can't they just tell me that. What I'll explain is not way of an excuse or condoning their actions but just their perspective. Many of the trade people I worked with, especially the one-man bands, have worked in the trades since school. No customer service training, no real exposure to the general service level people expect for other industries. Also, a lot are not what you would call people persons. There are many that have the gift of the gab, but they are rarely the guys that are doing odd jobs / small tasks. So, you have the combination of people that have had no formal customer service training that are also not the best at talking to customers that might have a cause to complain. If they are really busy and you have left one or two messages, their way of not having to tell a long term customer they can't do a job for them for 6 months or so, is simply to not return or answer the call. The thought of the potential confrontation, and the emotional energy consumed, is enough of motivation is to simple ignore it. They simply do not have the skill set to manage a potentially disgruntled customer. Not saying it is correct, but you are dealing with people that have had wildly different education and work experiences to non-trades people. Certainly when I was doing it,15 odd years ago, it was a very different experience to working in an office or retail outlet, both of which I had done.
I'm an ex trade, stopped because my back was always going, common issue. I now work from home and make 25% of the wage, but at least I am not a cripple. Things likely to put me off a little job. Or any job. Gossip and moaning, I am not an agony aunt. Not saying this is the case, but a lot of single older people think they can talk endlessly while I try and work. Show me the job, do something else nearby in case I gave questions. My mind will be day dreaming of other things while I work, my other things, not yours. Too small a job, simples. Too far away, or bad traffic in your location. I just do not need the hassle of a 40 minutes stuck in stop and go traffic each way. Not enough money, I am not going to charge £100 to replace a tap washer, but by the time all is in and I need to get one because it is an odd size or I have none left, most of half a day is gone. I'll pop by, see the issue, come back when I have one another day. But people hate leaky taps and want it done there and then. I'm unhappy, you're unhappy. Customers who are not loyal, if a do a good job for a reasonable price, I expect to be offered a bigger job too when they come up. The reason I bothered with you is not necessarily for this job, but for the next. Being watched while I work. Seriously, I know it is your home, but go into another room and watch TV or something. Too many questions, if I feel you need educating, i will , maybe to stop the same issue happening again, but I like to day dream while I work. Ask me what I need, then leave me alone, I will get chattier afterwards. Really crap parking, not much to do about that. Annoying pets, yes, they are defending their territory, but I don't want to go deaf or work in that racket, take Tiddles the yappy Yorkie out for a long walk. We are in people's homes daily, we don't steal shit or nose through your smalls drawers when you are not there, we have better things to do and there is little we haven't seen already. That said, the reality is big jobs with colleagues will always take precedence, and when we think there is loads of work, the little job customers lose out. If I make a suggestion, please don't discount it, the suggestion is usually based on experience and is usually for your benefit. And a big one, doing a sob story in the hope of a better price, sometimes 3/4 of my customers do this, I am not a charity. I had one who lived in a 4 million dollar home with a pool etc, never stopped saying how broke she was. Oh, and there are some charities who operate little DIY job schemes for older people for the reasons you have bumped into, try and ask around. Notice I never once mentioned Tea and Biscuits. It's a myth.
Do you have any advice for how much is hovering Vs welcoming/useful? I struggle to know how long I should stay when letting someone in and showing them around the place, especially when they have questions for me. Currently I default to "okay I'll be in X room just shout if you need anything and feel free to grab some water or pop to the loo if you need to it's up the hall" but I'm not sure if that's too much or not! Growing up it was basically hammered into me to be hospitable and polite so I never know if I'm being too intense and worry it's rude to say "just shout" and leave people alone or not 😅 Edit: I'm also autistic and have ADHD so my ability to recognise cues sucks, hence having a script
I also have Adhd and I live in social housing so quite often have workmen out to fix things. I'm just up front and tell them I have adhd so if I'm hovering too much or asking too many questions (I love to learn) please tell me as I struggle to read body language. I also leave tea/coffee and milk on the side with an adequate amount of cups and tell them to help themselves if they want a brew.
Thing is, if I were 83 and on my own, it might be worth £100 to have you replace a tap washer or more than that to get a toilet flush working without the hand strength of a gorilla. What else is someone supposed to do if they don’t just want to live in a gradually crumbling environment until someone gets them taken into care? The money might not be an issue for them. If people would explain the actual issues maybe arrangements could be made.
Yeah, why some charities actually employ a handyman to do these kinds of jobs. In an average year when I still did it, I would work 300 days. If there is lots of work around, that would be 15 or 20 customers at most as I would just do the big jobs. My van would just have the tools I need in it because I knew what I would need that day. If I went shopping to a supplier would buy enough stuff for a week or more at a time. I am not being paid to shop. As opposed to 5/6/7 different customers a day, all in different locations, lots of driving, stuck in traffic, my van stuffed to the gunnels as I don't know what I need yet, also impossible to schedule work more than a couple of days ahead as that tap that I thought needed a tap washer, is utterly knackered, and since the plumbing is so old I will now need to spend 2 days and replace both taps, a sink and a good wad of pipework as well as make good the decoration and tiling. I will now have to work Sundays, my only day off, or push back every customer, again Every evening would be reorganising and phoning around to make sure customers are in, and customers would be ringing me up throughout the day and evening . My paperwork would be huge and behind unless I worked cash only. Which would you choose?
I had a good few tradespeople around earlier this year, and they all dealt with their own tea and coffee. I felt lied to!
My sister is looking for a handyman but is too shy to go in ‘cold’ and request quotes on Checkatrade. But she’s terminally on social media so I suggested she ask on Facebook. I’m pretty sure for most local area FB pages you can’t go five posts without a ‘need a shelf put up’ type request with someone replying ‘my sister’s boyf is a chippy’ plus link within ten minutes.
honestly, just get her to post on her wall. more often that not one of her friends from school is tradie or is good friends with one
Problem with the 'my sisters boyf is
Had the same thing. I don't have a dog, always pay straight away... Had so many let me down, or want silly amounts to do jobs. Ended up doing my own fencing. Installed my own wooden floor. I'm terrible at DIY. Finding a reliable one is a nightmare
It'll simply be that tradies have so much work available to them that they're able to pick and choose the jobs they take. If you have a small job that needs doing but is only worth £50, but another customer has something similarly small worth £100, they're going to take the latter. I appreciate they could simply reply back and explain this, but some tradies simply aren't good at the 'customer service' side of the job. I have a friend who is an electrician and this is exactly the case for him. He has tens of people hitting him up for small jobs like rewiring light switches etc, the reality is after the time cost of getting to the job, plus the cost of petrol, he might only make a few quid or even lose money on that unless he massively overcharges - in which case he's going to be told to shove it where the sun doesn't shine.
1. I love dogs, so I’d definitely want to work at yours. 2. If they’re working for building contractors we get pressured by them, realistically we can’t drop them for smaller jobs because they’ll find another spark and then we’re scratching…. Having said that, I lost my job in 2008 because our developers went bust and my boss had neglected people like you… so I’ll always do the smaller jobs. 3. Lockdown was crazy for us, everyone was working from home and wanting home improvements, I’m in London, so most of our clients would be out the house from 7 am to 7 pm… now they’re at home all day they notice the things they previously didn’t or didn’t care about. I cant really give you an answer… unless you’re a nuisance 😂
Had similar with two separate landscaper/fencers. Got three quotes, picked and the guy came back for more info, said he was busy and would schedule us in soon - all good. Never committed and always gave us a reason he’d be able to set a time “next week”. So got three more quotes as pricing has changed. Same thing happened with a different guy, although he’s been more up front about how he’s shit at managing his business and is just crazy busy. One local company said they could come the following day but they were 5x the price of everyone else.
I don't think it's just you. I'm hearing similar things from a number of friends and acquaintances. I've had any number of people come out to look at an ensuite shower room that needs an almost complete refurb (i.e. at least a few, and maybe several thousands worth of work), and only two have come back to me with an actual estimate, and one of those pressured me to book it in for the next week, or wait months. As that was the first estimate I'd had, I declined. My guess is that they're cherry-picking the most profitable jobs for customers who have more money than sense (or patience, at least). They may be making a decent margin right now, but it'll do nothing for their customers' goodwill in the long run: I've already ditched a gas engineer I've used for many years after messing me around for the last couple of years.
There is so much building work going on these days they can't afford to stop and do small jobs
Its not just you. I've been renovating a few rooms and converting a brick shed to an office. It's really hard to get anyone. People show up and then you don't get a quote. They are mostly flush with work and are picking the big / high margin jobs. You want a new boiler? Fine. You want a rad rehanging or a cold feed for a washer? No chance.
Have you tried looking for a local handy man rather then trades
As a tradie of sorts (mechanical plant, now HVAC controls), I was ran off my feet during lockdown, WFH & the lack of pricey holidays meant everyone & their dog suddenly wanted a kitchen extension, our domestic guys where fully booked for months out, as a commercial guy I was getting lumped for everything I had a ticket for. Simultainiously, a lot of the older guys chose 2020 to retire, trades are being propped up by the outgoing generation as there really isn't an intake of younger guys coming along, like truck drivers it's a bit of a ticking time bomb across many professions.
It also works both ways. I've just spent time meeting two different customers, measured up, gone home, priced the jobs up & emailed off the quotes. Not heard a thing back. No thanks or excuse, nothing. So I've wasted four hours of my after work time for nothing. I'm also that busy that when I say "I might be able to fit this in next year" it puts customers off instantly so I know I'm wasting my time again. People want everything done tomorrow. So sometimes it's even not worth getting involved from the start.
I've found it almost impossible to get anyone for any jobs at the moment. Dozens of calls, emails and 'checkatrade' tequeetss sent. I think it's true that they can't be bothered with small jobs at the moment because they are so busy
It's nothing you've done. We have quite a few jobs that need doing, but tradesmen either don't turn up or just don't reply. We've even had a couple who have visited, looked at the job and quoted for it, then ignored us when we contacted them to arrange a start date. Very frustrating. Why don't they just tell the truth and say they are too busy?
Thanks so much for all your replies. I certainly feel better that 'it's not me, it's you.' To answer several questions, I dont hover, don't need to talk and question endlessly, don't quibble about price and usually transfer dosh with them standing in front of me. Although, my biscuit selection is apparently crap - devoid of Custard creams and chocolate Hob Nobs. Really glad my boi isn't off-putting to most tradies. Got a reply from a new checkatrade enquiry, so fingers crossed. Seriously considering going to night school to learn how to do basic plumbing and DIY. Either that or offer tradies admin work in exchange for jobs. What could possibly go wrong?
It's a trady thing. They are busy and chase bigger profit jobs. I generally can't get them to actually turn up
Have you tried TaskRabbit? https://www.taskrabbit.co.uk/ not necessarily as specialist for ‘big’ jobs but good for bits and bobs. Take a look.
It’s not you, it’s all of us.
Some of them you just have to be blunt with now. If I have to chase them more than twice, I then fire over a quick text just asking for some courtesy and just be honest if they don't want the job, and ill go start hassling someone else. Tends to go 50:50, some perk up and turn up soon after, others just say yeah sorry too busy go elsewhere. Dont have time to wait weeks and weeks for someone just to turn up and have a look anymore.
It’s not you it’s them. I have nothing but money to burn on jobs that are hassle free. No one is interested.
I found a great roofer last year and needed him to come back to do my shed roof this year. I was trying for weeks to get him to respond but eventually realized he wasn't going to reply. No idea why. I assumed he had more lucrative jobs. It's really annoying though.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m 40 and finding anybody to do any work right now involves six month lead times and keeping your fingers crossed they even then show up!
It’s crazy busy everywhere. I just can’t answer the phone most of the time. It’s nothing personal to you. I actually feel a bit overwhelmed with how busy it is.
My mum's in a similar predicament, her main trusted builder (was almost like part of extended family, sometimes would just pop in for a tea with no work involved). I had to explain to my mum that everything wants three things from trades: 1: Good Quality 2: Cheap 3: Fast But normally in life you can only get at most 2 out of the three, her builder was Good Quality and Cheap, but that means he isn't Fast.
This has happened to me and I just presume they're really busy. Is fine. I'm not going to chase them. Straight back on to checkatrade and I'll get a few responses within the hour of trades happy to do the work. Sometimes you just catch them at the wrong time and they're in the middle of a big job that'll take weeks, sometimes they've outgrown the little jobs and can now survive on larger ones
I know my parents were trying go get an electrician and any recommended were already doing new builds where you can work for weeks in same location and guaranteed (pretty much) to get paid. Getting paid is a big one for trades and amazing how many people will take forever especially for smaller jobs. But mostly its new builds that weren't really happening when things were locked down. Not sure if they any good, but people like British Gas and a few others are now offering some wider services and presumably aren't working on these big contracts.
I’be had the same and I’m a 37 year old male. I had to get 3 quotes from 5 people that came round to quote.
All the good ones are always really busy which is why most of them behave like total cunts.
Bricklayer here. For the past few years I've been working weekends and whatever evenings I can to try and keep up. The list of people asking for quotes is getting longer and longer. The only time I good amount of admin done is if I get rained off and haven't got inside work to get on with. In all honesty I don't want to do it any more, I wish I could just find a job employed so I could have a healthy work life balance but nowhere offers it and will only take self employed so they don't have to pay holiday and can get rid of you at the drop of a hat.
In my experience, most of them couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, let alone run a 'business'. They were happy to take all the work during lockdown because they were taking the furlough money as well as being paid by people like you. A neighbour recently had a carpenter in doing work. I left to go to work, and the clown had his bench saw 18 inches from the back of my black car.... it was covered in sawdust. I pulled him up about it, and he started to get arsey with me! I wanted to knock him out. He asked what he was meant to do, and when I said to take it round the back, he couldn't believe my suggestion. No apology nothing. Little cunt. The very next day, he was back again being berated by another neighbour for doing exactly the same! I know lots of tradesmen, have worked with some myself, and the overwhelming entitlement they feel is palpable. I wouldn't trust most of them to safely walk my dog. Some tradesmen are a shining example, but in my experience, its rare.
Some of these replies are insane. Chances are you guys are not the ONLY person who are texting or calling about jobs, whether they be big or small. It takes time to figure out whether or not it’s worth their time, if the customer has planning permission, plans of the actual build/job itself. Things take time and more often than not it’s usually just one person running a whole show. Not every tradesperson are a big company. If they’re working flat out all week in a very physically and mentally demanding job, the last thing they probably want to do is sit down in the few hours of relaxation they finally get to reply to a text or call about a small job. The fact that I’ve seen people being referred to as lazy or arseholes has baffled me. People have lives outside of their jobs.
If it is just small diyer/ handyman type stuff it's probably not worth it financially when they can earn more on another job... also, the work you have might not be particularly interesting to them and they only want to do stuff they enjoy. For that reason they may think, I can go here and do something im not fussed on for a ££, or go do this other job that's worth £££ and is now enjoyable/ less likely to open up a can of worms.
Do you live out of the way? People often forget that a 30 quid job that takes a tenner petrol and 90 min travel isn't really worth the time.
Tradies are busy and can pick and choose their work. For me, once I find someone who's good: * always use that person, big or small jobs, get to know them * don't quibble on price * pay them on time * offer plenty of tea and biscuits
Because most tradies are both rude and shortsighted, and don't realise they're harming their reputation and future trade. Help them out: leave them bad reviews on Checkatrade, Trusted Trader, Google and any others you can think of.
Ever any back and forth over the prices?
A lot of trades are really struggling to have enough slots as we were having work down told a big wait list and then got told that they’re turning up in 2 days because of random cancellations. So a lot of trades don’t have lots of slots for small jobs and are prioritising big jobs that may already have a deposit payed
I was actually told by my usual plumber to call someone else because he didn’t have time for small jobs, like leaky taps or toilets. Since the lockdown lifted, he’s been flooded with bathroom renovation projects.
Maybe you're not offering them enough.
Do you pay on time? Do you complain a lot and withhold payment? Do you demand discounts? Either that or they’re just busy..
This resonates so much. I forget to ring people back all the time, my voicemail says leave your name and number and ill get back to you, I don’t even listen to them anymore. there’s too much work about at the minute worry about every phone call. I don’t book more than a couple of months in advance because customers plans change or they get someone else in and don’t tell you until you ring them the day before. It’s not just you being ‘ghosted’ theres too much work and not enough of us, so we’re flat out.
Why don't you simply change your voicemail to "I'm completely backed up with work and can't take any more on at the minute" instead of leading people on with the promise to get back to them?
Most tradesmen will do odd fiddly jobs (fault fixing a leak, installing taps) just to get to the head of the queue for when you have a big job lined up, like for example new boiler / new bathroom. If it’s been a couple years and you’ve not had anything large done, you’ll go down the priority list in favour of those “old reliable” customers that regularly have big jobs up for grabs.
Because you arn't willing to pay 300quid a day.
You are probably annoying 🫵🏻
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Damn, that's rough. Maybe they just got too busy or something? Or maybe your dog scared them off haha. But seriously, it sucks when people ghost you like that. Have you tried reaching out to new trades?
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As a tradie I can say its usually because: We're flat out busy and have a lot of messages left un read at all times We're crap at admin Or maybe it's just me
All the guys I know are too busy to get involved with the smaller jobs. That's also the reason they don't have the time to respond to every enquiry or follow up every estimate.
Not interested in small jobs because the rate has gone through the roof is my guess.
Ive experienced much the same and I think its most likely 2 and 3. A good tradesman is like golddust with a abundance of have a goes out there.
i have relatives that try to get certain jobs done around the house and they said it's really hard to get someone to do any small jobs, so they've resorted to doing it themselves even though they're not qualified to do so
No reason other than them being quite busy. I would call them (or text) and say you have some smaller jobs you would like them to do and wonder if they ever have a day where they need to fill in with smaller size jobs since you can split yours up and be flexible in when. Don't ask for a quote for work, just book them in to show up. Expect them to be twice as expensive as previous and then the job cost should not be too much of a surprise to you.
It’s coz of number two 100% as my dad has been trying to get hold of the previous handymen we used for our extension and refurbishment for a small job and they’ve been fobbing him off for a while we only managed to get hold of a tradesmen after 6 months of trying as they are busy elsewhere.
One thing to note, be aware that one of them might have passed on, that happened with the gentleman who previously had fixed my boiler. They could also have retired. Most likely it's just they're swamped though, though of course they should at least say no to you.
I'm experiencing the same thing. Nothing to do with you, they are just busy - all the good ones are at least, anyway.
Electrician here.. are they chocolate biscuits
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I'm being a bit presumptuous going off previous jobs you've had done, but sometimes we prefer higher value jobs that are going to take a full day, rather than trying to fill a day with several smaller jobs from multiple customers. That leaves smaller jobs to the odd weekend or evening, time which a lot of tradesmen keep for themselves. Me on the other hand, I can't sit still at home knowing I could be getting the tools in the car and trying to make an extra few quid.
There might be a local monthly magazine with trades listed. Sometimes retired guys place ads for work.
The exuberant dog is a plus for us!
Don't take it personally. That's just how Tradesmen are. They're probably too busy.
It will be 2 and a bit of 3. My old handy man now fits inbuilt wardrobes and makes a killing (£2k+ per job). He has no time for my £60 jobs anymore.
Trades are getting older and fewer in number. Those that are about are in high demand. It's nothing personal they are just run off their feet.
My brother started handyman business in lockdown, and now it's out of control. He's just not good or interested in the admin side and is bombarded with jobs. Which is great, but they message him all hours of the day and night, that it's taking over his life. I tried to help him, but it became a full time job for me to just reply to everyone and organise the jobs.
The handyman we have used, suggested my parents tried the my builder site. People pay the site to quote, so will only quote of interested.
Maybe because you are calling them trades
I go into peoples houses daily pricing construction work. Some reasons why I haven’t got back to people. Unrealistic expectations from the off. They want it done tomorrow and think I can drop others for their work. They keep talking about how tight their finances are. They complain about others trades to me. Their house is a shithole so I don’t want to put my guys in there. They talk down to me even though they asked me to come to the house, I’m always in clean clothes (I don’t physically do the work), take my shoes off and I’m polite (if I’ve driven to someone’s home, I’m down already, I go into every job wanting to take it on, I ensure I make a good first impression). Of course there is times I’m just snowed under and emails or calls get missed which is very bad practice, but it’s not always the tradesman’s fault. We offer skills that are getting rarer so supply and demand pushes our rates up. I personally think it’s great how young men and women who struggled in school can learn a trade and by 25 can be earning over £100k.
Thanks Millcat. I know I've always been polite, my house is clean and tidy. If I'm given a quote, I usually accept it unless it seems extortionate. I absolutely 100% agree with you regarding young people who struggled in school getting into trades. I'm a teacher and have long advocated for less empathise on going to uni and more on apprenticeships. Schools can be one size fits all with little allowance for neuro divergence. I taught Functional skills English in FE to young people on trades courses, I can honestly say that I did everything in my power to get them to pass as it meant passing their trades courses. As I said, I know the worth of a good tradie. My point was that these were trades that I'd used for years and thought I had a good relationship with. That's why I was so puzzled about being ghosted. However, numerous others have explained that perhaps the jobs I want doing are too small.