Plumbers - just WTF is wrong with them?

[hairyben]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

I'd love to name and shame this guy, but it's against the rules, so, anyway....

Some years back I was preparing a house for sale, and one job was tightening a bath tap. I took the side off, and considering I had maybe three inches space around the nut I hadn't got the correct tool for the job.

No bother I thought, there was a plumber whose van lived a matter of 50 metres from my house. I got his number, called and explained what was needed. I said no need to call out especially, just one day when he leaves for work or returns, pop in for five minutes, and I'll slip him £20. His response was simply 'my call out charge is £80'. My reply was something along the lines of 'you want £80 for two minutes work when you live a matter of doors away from me?!' He replied 'take it or leave it'

You can imagine my reply. Found another local guy who was happy to pop in when passing, who gladly took £20 off me for two minutes work, scarcely any effort.

You wanted his services for less than his time was worth to him - where exactly is the potential name and shame?

Theres a lot of dheads in trades and we could explore the interesting reasons why, but there's also some patronising attitudes in this thread that might explain why some of you are having so much trouble.

[pim]

mp3manager said:

I have a 27 year old gas combi boiler, it needs replaced and it was spewing out fumes from a flue joint and the whole job is worth a few thousand pounds. Called five different plumbers, only one turned up. He wasn't interested and never got back to me to agree a price.

wkers!

ETA: Had to buy some cementing compound and fix the flue joint myself. Not easy for a disabled person like myself but better than being killed by carbon dioxide poisoning.

Edited by mp3manager on Saturday 11th February 15:35

27 year old boiler? Not trying to be clever I would buy a new one for the money you are spending on repairs.For a few thousand pounds you will be buying a good boiler.

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

hairyben said:

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

I'd love to name and shame this guy, but it's against the rules, so, anyway....

Some years back I was preparing a house for sale, and one job was tightening a bath tap. I took the side off, and considering I had maybe three inches space around the nut I hadn't got the correct tool for the job.

No bother I thought, there was a plumber whose van lived a matter of 50 metres from my house. I got his number, called and explained what was needed. I said no need to call out especially, just one day when he leaves for work or returns, pop in for five minutes, and I'll slip him £20. His response was simply 'my call out charge is £80'. My reply was something along the lines of 'you want £80 for two minutes work when you live a matter of doors away from me?!' He replied 'take it or leave it'

You can imagine my reply. Found another local guy who was happy to pop in when passing, who gladly took £20 off me for two minutes work, scarcely any effort.

You wanted his services for less than his time was worth to him - where exactly is the potential name and shame?

.[/
quote]

Greed, and attitude. I fail to see how £20 for a few minutes work without having to make a special trip out is not worth it even if you earn £100K. Plus the fact that it would be a helpful job for him to assist with, which would earn him praise, recommendations or even further business from us, like the recent new central heating install we had done at £3500. As it is I now think he's a tosser.

I own my own business, and have helped people with small jobs, even though they won't make me rich.

[mp3manager]

pim said:

27 year old boiler? Not trying to be clever I would buy a new one for the money you are spending on repairs.For a few thousand pounds you will be buying a good boiler.

You haven't read my post properly.

I was wanting to replace the boiler, I have the cash in my hand to replace the boiler.

Nobody wants the work to replace the boiler, nobody wants the cash in my hand to replace the boiler.

[eldar]

mp3manager said:

You haven't read my post properly.

I was wanting to replace the boiler, I have the cash in my hand to replace the boiler.

Nobody wants the work to replace the boiler, nobody wants the cash in my hand to replace the boiler.

With the government wanting to build 1,000 houses per working day for the next 4 years tradesmen will be even scarcer/unreliable.

[mp3manager]

I even had an appointment booked with Scottish Gas 8 weeks in advance.....guess what? They didn't turn up either.

[DonkeyApple]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

hairyben said:

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

I'd love to name and shame this guy, but it's against the rules, so, anyway....

Some years back I was preparing a house for sale, and one job was tightening a bath tap. I took the side off, and considering I had maybe three inches space around the nut I hadn't got the correct tool for the job.

No bother I thought, there was a plumber whose van lived a matter of 50 metres from my house. I got his number, called and explained what was needed. I said no need to call out especially, just one day when he leaves for work or returns, pop in for five minutes, and I'll slip him £20. His response was simply 'my call out charge is £80'. My reply was something along the lines of 'you want £80 for two minutes work when you live a matter of doors away from me?!' He replied 'take it or leave it'

You can imagine my reply. Found another local guy who was happy to pop in when passing, who gladly took £20 off me for two minutes work, scarcely any effort.

You wanted his services for less than his time was worth to him - where exactly is the potential name and shame?

.[/
quote]

Greed, and attitude. I fail to see how £20 for a few minutes work without having to make a special trip out is not worth it even if you earn £100K. Plus the fact that it would be a helpful job for him to assist with, which would earn him praise, recommendations or even further business from us, like the recent new central heating install we had done at £3500. As it is I now think he's a tosser.

I own my own business, and have helped people with small jobs, even though they won't make me rich.

But you actually seem like the greedy one with the attitude rather than him!

You offered him a deal (a crap one. £20 for a bit of work that would leave him at risk if the slightest bit went wrong), he didn't fancy the commercial terms and said no thanks, you seem highly offended.

[bristolracer]

Gosh has it been a whole week since the last tradesman bashing thread?

[Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah]

DonkeyApple said:

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

hairyben said:

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

I'd love to name and shame this guy, but it's against the rules, so, anyway....

Some years back I was preparing a house for sale, and one job was tightening a bath tap. I took the side off, and considering I had maybe three inches space around the nut I hadn't got the correct tool for the job.

No bother I thought, there was a plumber whose van lived a matter of 50 metres from my house. I got his number, called and explained what was needed. I said no need to call out especially, just one day when he leaves for work or returns, pop in for five minutes, and I'll slip him £20. His response was simply 'my call out charge is £80'. My reply was something along the lines of 'you want £80 for two minutes work when you live a matter of doors away from me?!' He replied 'take it or leave it'

You can imagine my reply. Found another local guy who was happy to pop in when passing, who gladly took £20 off me for two minutes work, scarcely any effort.

You wanted his services for less than his time was worth to him - where exactly is the potential name and shame?

.[/
quote]

Greed, and attitude. I fail to see how £20 for a few minutes work without having to make a special trip out is not worth it even if you earn £100K. Plus the fact that it would be a helpful job for him to assist with, which would earn him praise, recommendations or even further business from us, like the recent new central heating install we had done at £3500. As it is I now think he's a tosser.

I own my own business, and have helped people with small jobs, even though they won't make me rich.

But you actually seem like the greedy one with the attitude rather than him!

You offered him a deal (a crap one. £20 for a bit of work that would leave him at risk if the slightest bit went wrong), he didn't fancy the commercial terms and said no thanks, you seem highly offended.

I'm not offended. I just thought he was a prick.

[judas]

bristolracer said:

Gosh has it been a whole week since the last tradesman bashing thread?

There's a piss-easy way to stop this: turn up when agreed and do the job properly

[bristolracer]

judas said:

bristolracer said:

Gosh has it been a whole week since the last tradesman bashing thread?

There's a piss-easy way to stop this: turn up when agreed and do the job properly

Maybe I do and am getting a bit tired of the constant tarring with the same brush,accused of ripping people off, earning to much etc etc.
Yet when you look in some threads there are plenty of sparks plumbers aerial/av builder type people all happy to offer advice, which if followed will point you in the right direction maybe even cure the problem for you.

Yet still we are all still despised.

[hairyben]

Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:

Greed, and attitude. I fail to see how £20 for a few minutes work without having to make a special trip out is not worth it even if you earn £100K. Plus the fact that it would be a helpful job for him to assist with, which would earn him praise, recommendations or even further business from us, like the recent new central heating install we had done at £3500. As it is I now think he's a tosser.

I own my own business, and have helped people with small jobs, even though they won't make me rich.

Theres a big difference between you deciding for yourself somethings a 5 minute/£20 job and you deciding it for a professional you wish to employ.

You wouldn't believe the disparity in many punters estimation of how little their jobs are. Little job is often twitspeak for those who don't want it cost much rather than any real world assessment of the job, and "I've already opened it up for you" often means "I've FUBAR'd the st out out of it and made it seventeen times more awkward now and even if you turn up in 1 second and pay me while fixing it I'll still act a because you represent my failings"

BTW as you're so insistent your golden £20's such a score give us your job breakdown analysis and what profit he makes after all his running-a-business costs, van, insurances, registration, accountancy, tools, tool theft, knockers, time wasters, go on educate us.

And you talk about attitude.

[judas]

bristolracer said:

judas said:

bristolracer said:

Gosh has it been a whole week since the last tradesman bashing thread?

There's a piss-easy way to stop this: turn up when agreed and do the job properly

Maybe I do and am getting a bit tired of the constant tarring with the same brush,accused of ripping people off, earning to much etc etc.
Yet when you look in some threads there are plenty of sparks plumbers aerial/av builder type people all happy to offer advice, which if followed will point you in the right direction maybe even cure the problem for you.

Yet still we are all still despised.

My comment was meant in jest as much as it was in annoyance.

Advice is always appreciated, but when you've taken time off work or rearranged things, or on a short timetable, and are sat there wondering where the hell someone is and whether they're going to bother showing it's immensely frustrating - and wholly unnecessary. A quick text to say "Sorry, something's come up and I can't make it" isn't difficult. Nor is saying you're not interested in the job in the first place. Anything else is just being a grade A cock.

Yes, you're getting tarred with the brush meant for others, but we all get that sometimes in whatever area we work and have to roll with it.

[eldar]

judas said:

My comment was meant in jest as much as it was in annoyance.

Advice is always appreciated, but when you've taken time off work or rearranged things, or on a short timetable, and are sat there wondering where the hell someone is and whether they're going to bother showing it's immensely frustrating - and wholly unnecessary. A quick text to say "Sorry, something's come up and I can't make it" isn't difficult. Nor is saying you're not interested in the job in the first place. Anything else is just being a grade A cock.

Yes, you're getting tarred with the brush meant for others, but we all get that sometimes in whatever area we work and have to roll with it.

True. My son is a builder, and successful. Probably because he does what you would expect. About 80% of his business is repeat customers, private and commercial and he is fussy about new customers. A lot of his existing customers came from fixing the cock ups made by his cheaper and inept competitors...

[Quattromaster]

My usual plumber doesn't get involved with water softeners so I called in another for a quote last night. I came home early from work to meet him, started off with him being 45 mins late.

Showed him the kitchen, mentioned I thought the stopcock was behind the large American fridge rather than under the sink. Left him to it to take a phone call. 10 mins later he comes out of kitchen, says he will email over a quote and I show him to the door, head back into the kitchen to find my fridge freezer pulled right out.

Unable to push it back as I'm a wheelchair user so had to wait for wife to come home.

Skip forward to this morning and I'm having my weekly shower, in full lather mode, when all of a sudden the cold water stops, you guessed it, the bellend had turned off the stopcock, then not turned back on, tank in loft had emptied.

Ended with me, fully soaped up trying to move a large fridge on my own, the air was blue I know that.

[hairyben]

inabox said:

I see this all the time, I've been a builder for 10 years and have retrained as an electrician. A lot of people become tradesmen because they lack in certain areas such as organisation and communication skills but excel with practical tasks. It's not often out of badness that they don't turn up, rather a lack of skills or training in running a company. Many tradesmen are excellent at their job but can't cope with essentially running a business as well.

I really think there's room for business training for the trade-oriented as early as the low teens and I wish the people in charge of our education would stop trying to force everyone into university to do non-degrees and ignoring a good portion of the population's needs. Oof, bit of a rant. Anyway, good luck in finding a plumber who's of some use.

Why did you train as a spark, to supplement building? As a spark I'm so sick of putting right carp work done by others I'm tempted to go into building instead, mostly so I can manage a project and it's standards.

right on everything though, many self employed tradesmen kind of shun "traditional employment" for a variety of reasons rather than set out to be a money making businessman which is why the businessy side suffers so much so often.

You could generally avoid this by using a bigger firm but you'll pay more! People often want the big firm service with small guy prices.

[V8RX7]

It depends...

My plumber is a bit of a pi$$ taker so I manage him accordingly.

I picked him up today at 7.45 to get to the merchants when they opened at 8am.

He's then been fed with "breakfast in a bap" and worked until 3.30pm.

I'll pick him up at 9am tomorrow to finish the job.

Two days will be £300 and some food and will see the new heating system installed in a 3 bed house (excluding boiler)

[48Valves]

Its not just tradesmen that are like this.

I have the same problem almost daily with supposedly professional people.

[037]

As a building contractor I've spent many years building relationships with all the trades that I rely upon to subcontract for my projects. Work is now so plentiful that few established plumbers/electricians will even bother looking at a job that will be for a one off customer. Its easier for them not to work in an occupied house, not to move furniture or lift carpets etc.
Not sure why people are messing you around and not turning up. I'd be annoyed if someone ducked on a meeting.
Worryingly, there is simply not enough guys doing the work these days. Everyone seems to want to be a manager.

[DonkeyApple]

48Valves said:

Its not just tradesmen that are like this.

I have the same problem almost daily with supposedly professional people.

That would certainly widen the discussion out but frankly, I agree. Depressingly it is actually surprising when someone does what they've agreed to do, when they've agreed to do it and to a sufficiently competent level of completion.

More and more I find myself in meetings, structuring deals where I actually have to put together the other half as well as my own or the deal just won't get done. People seem to have learnt their business skills from watching US TV so love agreeing to everything in a meeting but no comprehension that they then actually have to do the real work after to make the deal actually operational. And then the idiots whinge to me that they aren't earning enough from the deal 6 months later when hence never understood what the deal was or done any of the work to get it generating revenue. Muppets.

You can see a similar effect in retail. Staff just agree to everything in the shop and then stand there as if saying 'yes' is actually the deal/transaction. It's quite baffling at times.

Even finding I have to chase solicitors and accountants on deals as well these days. They used to be the ones who'd put me on the back foot as they were on hourly fees but now I seem to have to chase them to spend money with them.

Ultimately, I think it is just a cultural shift across all aspects of life but while it is baffling and very annoying the actual reality is that it is much more profitable.