Businesses not motivated to close business

[muscatdxb]

I’m trying to get a few jobs done that all came up at once. 2 in the car, 2 in the garden approx £5k each.

With all 4 suppliers I feel that I’ve had to chase them and still don’t have a final executable quote weeks later.

Even if I get to a quote I’m left with the impression that the job will be more of an inconvenience for them rather than something they’re actually motivated to slot in and do well.

I think a lot of business is lost at this stage. It really damages first impressions.

[trickywoo]

They make too much easy money to be bothered.

I recently had some tree work done. It took one guy a day and I paid £900. I was happy with that because I had quotes for double for less work and loads of people who came to look didn’t even quote.

Getting any work done is a massive pain now.

There are trades who post on here who will be along to say they have you pegged as a pain through some 6th sense and that’s why. Always makes me laugh.

[200Plus Club]

trickywoo said:

They make too much easy money to be bothered.

I recently had some tree work done. It took one guy a day and I paid £900. I was happy with that because I had quotes for double for less work and loads of people who came to look didn’t even quote.

Getting any work done is a massive pain now.

There are trades who post on here who will be along to say they have you pegged as a pain through some 6th sense and that’s why. Always makes me laugh.

We live in a very rural location and getting anyone to actually come and quote for stuff is a miracle, it's like you are doing them the favour, plus local recommendations off the FB group haven't actually given up any decent quality either, it's as if people have settled for poor as the new "average ".

[muscatdxb]

I do think the issue is that the people with the good reputation get so busy that they don't need the work.

I've been trying with the top guy on Checkatrade for the garden work and he's not really interested in the slightest. I wouldn't have thought the market for landscape gardening would be that great in December!

[trickywoo]

muscatdxb said:

I do think the issue is that the people with the good reputation get so busy that they don't need the work.

I've been trying with the top guy on Checkatrade for the garden work and he's not really interested in the slightest. I wouldn't have thought the market for landscape gardening would be that great in December!

He’s probably getting ready for his winter Maldives holiday.

I’m not even being cynical with that as I was trying to get some roof work done two years ago and more than one company who were actively advertising got back saying they weren’t available for two months as they were on holiday in Florida.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

trickywoo said:

They make too much easy money to be bothered.

I recently had some tree work done. It took one guy a day and I paid £900. I was happy with that because I had quotes for double for less work

One of my neighbours had a magnolia tree cut back last year, I could have done it with a step ladder and a hand saw.

I heard the guy who was doing it on the phone to a friend who said he was charging £1500 a day. I was absolutely shocked, that is absolutely mental, I cannot believe people think it is worth that.

[PoorCarCollector]

I feel your pain.

I've got a boundary hedge that needs removing and replacing with a regular close board fence

3 seperate companies have been out, measured up and then have never got back to me with a quote, despite me chasing.
1 finally got back to me to say they couldn't find someone to remove the hedge.

All a bit odd......

[22s]

trickywoo said:

There are trades who post on here who will be along to say they have you pegged as a pain through some 6th sense and that’s why. Always makes me laugh.

I actually think that's true though. A pain being "won't pay upfront, accept me turning up when I want and give me a pat on the back after doing a shoddy half-arsed job".

There are some brilliant trades out there, but there are a lot more "matey boy" ste ones. The good ones will be able to pick their customers - why not choose the easy ones?

To flip it on its head, there are also a lot of ttty customers who want to pay peanuts and get 5* VIP services, or just cause issues out of nothing for the sake of it.

So all in all... No advice here, just some observations.

[Geoffcapes]

PoorCarCollector said:

I feel your pain.

I've got a boundary hedge that needs removing and replacing with a regular close board fence

3 seperate companies have been out, measured up and then have never got back to me with a quote, despite me chasing.
1 finally got back to me to say they couldn't find someone to remove the hedge.

All a bit odd......

Hire a mini digger for the day and remove the hedge (depending how big it is), you'll probably have fun whilst doing it.

Then just get a fencing company in. They're plenty of them. They do fences and that's it.
There always seems to be a problem if it's beyond what they normally do.

[POORCARDEALER]

I was quoted £4700 to cut a row of tall conifers in half, mulch the cuttings and remove… 2 blokes 3 days work

[Steve H]

I’ve been ranting about this for a while now; if your kids aren’t heading for £100k+ professional jobs, don’t send them to uni, get them a trade.

People who can fix/build/adjust/install/trim things aren’t getting replaced by AI for another generation yet.

[Jon39]

Tradesmen would arrive to view a potential job and as a way of not wasting their time and to establishfind whether they wanted the work, I would look them in the eye and say, "Is this a job you are interested in?"
The always replied, "Oh yes".
Would never hear any more from them.

Fortunately over the years, I now have several tradesmen who are reliable and importantly, if the say something, they do it.

[ntiz]

I finished a 3 year long project last year converting a barn to live in and my parents have a pretty sizeable Rectory that they bought as a failed Art School that is in need of constant work.

We are pretty much constantly in contact with various trades and have been for 20 years. We are still yet to have anyone do more than a couple of jobs for us in a row, before disappearing, doing a terrible job, trying to charge us a tonne at the end for their mistakes etc. ITs really frustrating if we could get a good group together they would have regular work for them.

We have tried cheap, expensive, recommended, friends all have ended up disappointing.

I was chatting to my Dad about how do they stay in business? Just going from job to the next doing a rubbish job. The conclusion my Dad came to was how often do you really have your house plastered or rewired? Barely ever so repeat business isn't part of the game just be rubbish and move on to the next victim I mean customer.

I do have friend who is an electrician who did my Barn who is considered good locally (not sure why). I can tell you once he hits 80k for the year he just stops and goes on holiday. I put it down to a lot of these guys are making more money than they thought they ever would and don't see the point making much more when they can just not work.

I always wonder how the hell do these companies that build these immaculate mega mansions manage it? Is it a case of the project manager having an iron fist to stand over them or is it a case of look great from afar but up close the details still isn't perfect.

Apologies to the trades on here I'm sure lovely people but Christ its hard work finding them.

[trickywoo]

ntiz said:

I always wonder how the hell do these companies that build these immaculate mega mansions manage it? Is it a case of the project manager having an iron fist to stand over them or is it a case of look great from afar but up close the details still isn't perfect.

Those types of setup will have various trades on the books and employ them directly.

Although self employed makes the most money its not for everyone and really good tradesmen will often quite like a guaranteed salaried job which they don't mind earning less for. They will still be well paid though.

A former office landlord of mine did office renovations and they let me look at a costing sheet for the various trades. They were all half or less per day than joe punter would have needed to pay for a plumber or spark etc. to come in to their house.

Edited by trickywoo on Thursday 12th December 13:28

[Dewi 2]

ntiz said:

I finished a 3 year long project last year converting a barn to live in and my parents have a pretty sizeable Rectory that they bought as a failed Art School that is in need of constant work.

We are pretty much constantly in contact with various trades and have been for 20 years. We are still yet to have anyone do more than a couple of jobs for us in a row, before disappearing, doing a terrible job, trying to charge us a tonne at the end for their mistakes etc. ITs really frustrating if we could get a good group together they would have regular work for them.

We have tried cheap, expensive, recommended, friends all have ended up disappointing.

I was chatting to my Dad about how do they stay in business? Just going from job to the next doing a rubbish job. The conclusion my Dad came to was how often do you really have your house plastered or rewired? Barely ever so repeat business isn't part of the game just be rubbish and move on to the next victim I mean customer.

I do have friend who is an electrician who did my Barn who is considered good locally (not sure why). I can tell you once he hits 80k for the year he just stops and goes on holiday. I put it down to a lot of these guys are making more money than they thought they ever would and don't see the point making much more when they can just not work.

I always wonder how the hell do these companies that build these immaculate mega mansions manage it? Is it a case of the project manager having an iron fist to stand over them or is it a case of look great from afar but up close the details still isn't perfect.

Apologies to the trades on here I'm sure lovely people, but Christ its hard work finding them.

My son wanted to have an extension to his house. Found an architect to prepare plans and deal with plannig permission.
Then came the time to find a builder.

A builder based 20 miles away had repeatedly done house extensions nearby my son's home and all the neighbours/customers had been pleased with how the work had been done. A great piece of luck and couldn't have had better recommendations. Interesting that the builder man had a sequence of customers all within in one small area, even though his own home was some distance away. With more neighbours waiting for extensions, I suppose there was also a motive to continuing doing a good job, because he would know the neighbours communicated.

One of the other builders who had been asked to quote, never provided any written estimates, but repeatedly made contact, to say he could beat the best quote. He was immediately placed in the jokers category.

The builder had two general building employees, with further specialists coming in as required, whilst the builders role seemed to be coordinating progress. When work was underway, various building supplies were delivered on exactly the day required. It all went very well and even the weather cooperated, which can be so important with these projects. A well organised and hard working team.

So there is a tale of success finding tradesman, but it really only happened because of (probably unusual) lucky circumstances. Of course that builder is undertaking one expensive job after another, so I don't expect he would be interested in any individual minor work.

[Wilmslowboy]

I posted about this in the homes property section.

We recently had our house lightly refurbished. It required most trades (landscape, drive, electrical, building, kitchen fitting, flooring, paint decorating etc)

I dreaded dealing with trades so much, that I hired an interior designer who manages projects end to end, to run the whole thing.

Total cost of all work was about £70k, £15k more than I’d expect to pay and according to my brothers (one has a BTL portfolio and the other full time multi skilled tradesman) about £25k+ more than they would pay.

However I didn’t need to search, select the trades, ensure they arrived, coordinate their work, and chase up snagging.

Foe some reason this softley spoken (well organised) late 20 something year old lady, largely just made it happen.