Leaving a bad review
Discussion
Djtemeka said:
ClaphamGT3 said:
The issue is that many one man band self employed tradesman are one man bands because they are utterly disorganised and incapable of managing workload and self employed because they are unemployable by anyone else.
Unless you know such a tradesman extremely well, it’s usually better to pay a little more to hire a reputable contractor
Utterly Bull$hit.Unless you know such a tradesman extremely well, it’s usually better to pay a little more to hire a reputable contractor
I’m a 1 man band tradesman and I don’t do this to people. I call before a scheduled appointment if I’m being held up. Once I’m back on track I’ll send a WhatsApp location to the client so they can track me to the job. It’s infrequent when I get held up so rarely do it.
Don’t brand us all with that brush.
If it’s any consolation, I’m going through the same issues as the OP with finding new subcontractors in my new area. f
k me! It’s hard work. Gotta slay a few dragons to get your princess… We closed our business in London on Nov when we moved and I’ve been rammed from day 1 in the new area.
Good service wins jobs. End of.
My experiences recently have been exactly the same, I’ve been trying to get someone to build an extension. Everything’s sorting my end, planning/calcs etc, funds in place, I’m ready to go. Can I get a quote? Nope!
Alucidnation said:
steveo3002 said:
dont blame you , they in such demand they can pick and choose the best customers to work for.
update the review to mention abuse via text since leaving a review
FTFY.update the review to mention abuse via text since leaving a review
either way...cant be bothered bother to turn up or say look mate im busy for xx weeks speak then , then he's not gonna turn up and complete the job imo
Chozza said:
Other side then....
His first emergency could have been real , his second he was already working on a customer and the job may have taken longer than expected or had a unforeseen complication ( Imagine the review if a tradesman left half way through a job ) and he offered an alternate time.
If the guys decent he could be in demand and would be booked weeks/months in advance
Leaving a bad review seems a bit petty to me especially since you haven't got the work done yet. What review do you leave when someone does turn up and does a rubbish job?
BTW. How many good reviews have you left on Facebook , or TripAdvisor etc.?
Then, he should be proactive and telephone the OP. Not wait until the OP calls and the text.His first emergency could have been real , his second he was already working on a customer and the job may have taken longer than expected or had a unforeseen complication ( Imagine the review if a tradesman left half way through a job ) and he offered an alternate time.
If the guys decent he could be in demand and would be booked weeks/months in advance
Leaving a bad review seems a bit petty to me especially since you haven't got the work done yet. What review do you leave when someone does turn up and does a rubbish job?
BTW. How many good reviews have you left on Facebook , or TripAdvisor etc.?
Texting is not acceptable in this circumstance, IMO.
Absolutely did the right thing. Going through the same thing myself and wasted hours for the tradesman not to turn up.
Usual excuses of busy, stuck on a job.
Funny how he responded after you left a review.
There's these things called phones which you can call and text. They need to be used. If you are late or can't turn up that's fine. It's the radio silence that boils my piss.
Usual excuses of busy, stuck on a job.
Funny how he responded after you left a review.
There's these things called phones which you can call and text. They need to be used. If you are late or can't turn up that's fine. It's the radio silence that boils my piss.
loskie said:
Aspire competitions : I left them a very neutral(3 stars) review on Trust Pilot. I bought a ticket, I didn't win, I didn't say they were great.
They canvassed me asking me to up my review. My review wasn't negative or derogatory so that really got my back up. I left my scoring the same but added that I didn't like to be approached.
If they don't want honest reviews don't subscribe to such sites.
As I said my view of this company was neutral. In all honesty it went DOWN after they contacted me.
Why did you leave them a review in the first place?They canvassed me asking me to up my review. My review wasn't negative or derogatory so that really got my back up. I left my scoring the same but added that I didn't like to be approached.
If they don't want honest reviews don't subscribe to such sites.
As I said my view of this company was neutral. In all honesty it went DOWN after they contacted me.
I've used them and the whole process is slick. I didn't win either but I wouldn't have given them a neutral review.
If I was them I would have got in touch with you to see what I would have done better. Aside from winning I don't see what they could do.
MonkeyBusiness said:
Absolutely did the right thing. Going through the same thing myself and wasted hours for the tradesman not to turn up.
Usual excuses of busy, stuck on a job.
Funny how he responded after you left a review.
There's these things called phones which you can call and text. They need to be used. If you are late or can't turn up that's fine. It's the radio silence that boils my piss.
I think your comments sum the whole thing up for me spot on. I would not have posted a bad review and may have even entertained a third visit if he kept me updated so I wasn’t waiting around. I’m a reasonable person, I fully understand tradesmen get held up or emergencies come up, but good comms is needed. Usual excuses of busy, stuck on a job.
Funny how he responded after you left a review.
There's these things called phones which you can call and text. They need to be used. If you are late or can't turn up that's fine. It's the radio silence that boils my piss.
Edited by clarky92 on Saturday 19th June 09:07
You did the right thing. If he can’t be bothered to give you a pro-active “sorry mate, tied up” rather than leaving you hanging for an hour and then after the fact that he won’t be there on the 2nd go, he needs a wake up call to improve his communications. I’d have done the same thing. He may well have had an emergency, problems at the other job but does he think his time is more valuable than yours ? At the least it’s common courtesy, but good communications should be a core for service providers. It’s a good portion of how I measure them anyway. Even if your the best provider on the actual job, you’re going to get honest feedback from me if your coms stink as that element leads to a stress free customer.
clarky92 said:
I have never left a bad review for a trades person on Facebook before, until today. This particular situation really annoyed me. Would like to know others opinions, am I in the wrong for doing so?
Got a recommendation and text said trade person to arrange him coming round to look at potential work. I had not booked other people and wasnt messing about playing the quote game I was up front and a serious potential customer. Day and time agreed.
He didn’t turn up on time and I waited 1 hour, nothing. I called and no answer. Few mins later I get a text saying he had an emergency and wouldn’t be attending, could we arrange for the next day. I get emergencies, stuff happens, fine. Arranged for the following day with a time.
Again, he didn’t turn up on time. Waited and 10 mins later I get a text saying he is held up on a job (30 miles away) and won’t be attending. I was asked if I could arrange for tomorrow morning.
At this point I was just going to ignore him and not reply, crap communication firstly and I had wasted enough time waiting round. Move on. But, this happens too often from trades people (past experiences) so I decided to leave a short and sweet Facebook review, plainly that he didn’t turn up twice as arranged to warn others in the future.
Somewhat expectedly after the review is posted I start receiving calls and texts from him and a voicemail accusing me of being gutless! Not an apology in sight.
Normally I would have just let it go and moved on with life, but this particular time really p*ssed me off. Was I wrong and should have let it go? Genuinely open to others opinions
Now leave a second review detailing his abuse. Got a recommendation and text said trade person to arrange him coming round to look at potential work. I had not booked other people and wasnt messing about playing the quote game I was up front and a serious potential customer. Day and time agreed.
He didn’t turn up on time and I waited 1 hour, nothing. I called and no answer. Few mins later I get a text saying he had an emergency and wouldn’t be attending, could we arrange for the next day. I get emergencies, stuff happens, fine. Arranged for the following day with a time.
Again, he didn’t turn up on time. Waited and 10 mins later I get a text saying he is held up on a job (30 miles away) and won’t be attending. I was asked if I could arrange for tomorrow morning.
At this point I was just going to ignore him and not reply, crap communication firstly and I had wasted enough time waiting round. Move on. But, this happens too often from trades people (past experiences) so I decided to leave a short and sweet Facebook review, plainly that he didn’t turn up twice as arranged to warn others in the future.
Somewhat expectedly after the review is posted I start receiving calls and texts from him and a voicemail accusing me of being gutless! Not an apology in sight.
Normally I would have just let it go and moved on with life, but this particular time really p*ssed me off. Was I wrong and should have let it go? Genuinely open to others opinions
The types of workers are a pain in the arse. They can't cope in the real world without their mother. They give the professionals a terrible name and both professional and customer should be utterly intolerant to them.
They waste thousands of man hours every year. They know they are going to be late, stuck elsewhere, hungover or have got something more fun to do but it's the fact that they don't have the basic etiquette, consideration or even thought process to inform the other person and to just leave them hanging.
There are people who go through life simply not having 'emergencies' and never causing issues and then there are those who just stumble from one fabricated 'emergency' to the next, wasting the time of everyone they come in contact with and ultimately having to resort to menaces.
You absolutely did the right thing. Unlike the earlier reviews where chances are they were docked about but were typically English in saying how marvellous this person was.
Fundamentally, the difference between a good tradesman and one of the losers is defined by the absence of these regular life 'emergencies' and the very basic skill set of warning someone in advance that they are going to fail to meet the meeting agreement they had previously committed to.
In London it was so endemic, with so many drunks, over sleepers, golfers etc that unless you knew the tradesman you never actually waited to see if they might appear but instead ent to work as usual and simply agreed with them that they would text you when they were 30 minutes away. More than half the time they would never message because they were never coming. And that was fine as they were really telling you to give them a wide berth as they were incompetent. Ultimately, the best solution was to always use an agency as it effectively put mummy back in the equation and mummy would help them get dressed, tell the time and be somewhere, just like mummy always did when they were little kiddies.
The most annoying thing though is that the good tradesmen, the competent humans will cover for these people, make excuses for them and even revert to trying to make out that it is the customers fault that a grown man couldn't stick to a really simple agreement or even send a message when the problem first arose.
I'm lamenting the loss of our village handyman earlier this year. He was an artist at everything he did from dry walling, landscaping, roofing,etc. Always kept any word he gave without fail and if he introduced you to someone it was to someone with the same moral fibre and skill. Frankly, having relied on him for 15 years I am dreading the process of cycling through a load of idiots and freeloaders before finding a pro. They might charge more but they save thousands in otherwise lost man hours wiping grown men's arses.
So personally, I thank you for taking the time and having the backbone to leave an ho eat review. It will save good customers and push more business to the good tradesmen so all good people win.
DonkeyApple said:
Now leave a second review detailing his abuse.
The types of workers are a pain in the arse. They can't cope in the real world without their mother. They give the professionals a terrible name and both professional and customer should be utterly intolerant to them.
They waste thousands of man hours every year. They know they are going to be late, stuck elsewhere, hungover or have got something more fun to do but it's the fact that they don't have the basic etiquette, consideration or even thought process to inform the other person and to just leave them hanging.
There are people who go through life simply not having 'emergencies' and never causing issues and then there are those who just stumble from one fabricated 'emergency' to the next, wasting the time of everyone they come in contact with and ultimately having to resort to menaces.
You absolutely did the right thing. Unlike the earlier reviews where chances are they were docked about but were typically English in saying how marvellous this person was.
Fundamentally, the difference between a good tradesman and one of the losers is defined by the absence of these regular life 'emergencies' and the very basic skill set of warning someone in advance that they are going to fail to meet the meeting agreement they had previously committed to.
In London it was so endemic, with so many drunks, over sleepers, golfers etc that unless you knew the tradesman you never actually waited to see if they might appear but instead ent to work as usual and simply agreed with them that they would text you when they were 30 minutes away. More than half the time they would never message because they were never coming. And that was fine as they were really telling you to give them a wide berth as they were incompetent. Ultimately, the best solution was to always use an agency as it effectively put mummy back in the equation and mummy would help them get dressed, tell the time and be somewhere, just like mummy always did when they were little kiddies.
The most annoying thing though is that the good tradesmen, the competent humans will cover for these people, make excuses for them and even revert to trying to make out that it is the customers fault that a grown man couldn't stick to a really simple agreement or even send a message when the problem first arose.
I'm lamenting the loss of our village handyman earlier this year. He was an artist at everything he did from dry walling, landscaping, roofing,etc. Always kept any word he gave without fail and if he introduced you to someone it was to someone with the same moral fibre and skill. Frankly, having relied on him for 15 years I am dreading the process of cycling through a load of idiots and freeloaders before finding a pro. They might charge more but they save thousands in otherwise lost man hours wiping grown men's arses.
So personally, I thank you for taking the time and having the backbone to leave an ho eat review. It will save good customers and push more business to the good tradesmen so all good people win.
That's a great post. Spot on.The types of workers are a pain in the arse. They can't cope in the real world without their mother. They give the professionals a terrible name and both professional and customer should be utterly intolerant to them.
They waste thousands of man hours every year. They know they are going to be late, stuck elsewhere, hungover or have got something more fun to do but it's the fact that they don't have the basic etiquette, consideration or even thought process to inform the other person and to just leave them hanging.
There are people who go through life simply not having 'emergencies' and never causing issues and then there are those who just stumble from one fabricated 'emergency' to the next, wasting the time of everyone they come in contact with and ultimately having to resort to menaces.
You absolutely did the right thing. Unlike the earlier reviews where chances are they were docked about but were typically English in saying how marvellous this person was.
Fundamentally, the difference between a good tradesman and one of the losers is defined by the absence of these regular life 'emergencies' and the very basic skill set of warning someone in advance that they are going to fail to meet the meeting agreement they had previously committed to.
In London it was so endemic, with so many drunks, over sleepers, golfers etc that unless you knew the tradesman you never actually waited to see if they might appear but instead ent to work as usual and simply agreed with them that they would text you when they were 30 minutes away. More than half the time they would never message because they were never coming. And that was fine as they were really telling you to give them a wide berth as they were incompetent. Ultimately, the best solution was to always use an agency as it effectively put mummy back in the equation and mummy would help them get dressed, tell the time and be somewhere, just like mummy always did when they were little kiddies.
The most annoying thing though is that the good tradesmen, the competent humans will cover for these people, make excuses for them and even revert to trying to make out that it is the customers fault that a grown man couldn't stick to a really simple agreement or even send a message when the problem first arose.
I'm lamenting the loss of our village handyman earlier this year. He was an artist at everything he did from dry walling, landscaping, roofing,etc. Always kept any word he gave without fail and if he introduced you to someone it was to someone with the same moral fibre and skill. Frankly, having relied on him for 15 years I am dreading the process of cycling through a load of idiots and freeloaders before finding a pro. They might charge more but they save thousands in otherwise lost man hours wiping grown men's arses.
So personally, I thank you for taking the time and having the backbone to leave an ho eat review. It will save good customers and push more business to the good tradesmen so all good people win.
Like Steve also says above "He may well have had an emergency, problems at the other job but does he think his time is more valuable than yours ?"
I cannot stand lateness at the best of times but coupled with no communication then I (admittedly more than most) get really frustrated.
Having had a large extension completed on my house about 18 months ago I was able to get chatting to the various local trades brought in by the main builder. Through conversation it was quick to see which ones actually entertained an element of customer seevice about them and which didnt. Hence the good ones I've had back for further work that I'm paying them for and the rubbish ones havent.
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