Dealing with Tradies?

[TMNT]

ok, ive used a fair few tradies over the last couple of years,

some good some bad,

however, it seems that I keep on getting stuffed up somehow or someway in about 50% of the cases,


my last incident, a remote reno,
agreed on price, agreed on work, he did it, all good,
I also told him to take before photos, which he said he would,

got the "ill do it once I get home" excuse while he was doing the actual job,

job finished, checked out the work myself, was happy with the job, paid him, and he said he would email the photos,

after 3 more promises, starts ignoring my calls,
yes I know its only a small part of the job, but the photos were important to me,
I could have said "once you send me hte photos, then ill pay you" but that to me shows passive aggressive without due cause,
so here I am no photos, and fully paid the job

my incident before that
had a guy who ive done 2 renos before, worked with him for 2 weeks, all went well,
3rd job, paid deposit, half way through the job, he asked for a 33% payment saying that he needed it for materials, and I never heard back from him again

If I have to I will but I dont want to have to make indirect threats like, "ill make the final payment, once the agent/myself has gone through and checked all teh work" type of comments,

How do others deal with it, yes its territory, but im pretty fed up with being on the losing side of the deal constantly

NOTE: just remembered another one, ended up giving up chasing the invoice for a job which I got told was coming today, "having issues with printer/myob/internet/excel, and can he be paid because his "INSERT LAME EXCUSE HERE", never heard from him again, and the light he installed started flickering, so had to get another electrician in for an hour to test it was all ok

 

[nww]

Tomorrow I will ring up the fourth floor sander/polisher.
Have made time and dates for the last three and not one has shown up or rang.

 

[Piston Broke]

If I have to I will but I dont want to have to make indirect threats like, "ill make the final payment, once the agent/myself has gone through and checked all teh work" type of comments,

It not a threat it's a condition of contract.
% upfront, the rest when the job is finished satisfactorily.
Or progress payments if it's a big job.
Never pay in full until the work is complete.

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

Progress payments require caution. NEVER pay a tradie on the basis of 'needs materials' as this means that his credit or trade account may have been suspended - warning bells!

When tradies don't turn up or call I never use them again. If they call a few days later I simply tell them not to worry I got someone else to do it.

Finally, get them to invoice you on coompletion of the job. I always check the work, then sit on the invoice for a couple of days (in case I think of anything else to check) then pay it.

 

[wylie]

It is great to have a trusted list of tradies to call on. You know the job will be done properly and they know they will be paid quickly.

Inexplicably though, the plumber we've been using for probably ten or more years, and who has called in on a public holiday to clear our blocked loo and refused to charge us (we dropped around a carton of beer) just did not turn up when we wanted our bathroom done recently.

The relationship had been great, we never got other quotes. He wasn't cheap, but then... no plumber is cheap.

When we first started with him, he had maybe one apprentice, but as his business grew, it became a concern that he was spending time on our job (whilst no doubt charging his time to us) organising other jobs and troubleshooting problems and telling his plumbers on different jobs what to do, how to go about fixing problems. We would be charged for three men when only two were working. He was mostly on the phone. We had never let on that this was a concern to us, but it was something we were increasingly bothered by.

More recently, I received an overdue account in the mail with a comment like "come on guys, how about paying this one". I was really offended. It was an invoice for a small part of the total job, that in total cost us about $9K and we had paid as the invoices came in, the same day. I paid immediately, emailed him saying we hadn't got that invoice, and the lady who does his books clearly missed it, or issued it but didn't post it. During this major reno, I paid any bills each night so I wouldn't miss any.

He said no need to be concerned, but just after this incident, we asked him to come and look at the job we were about to do. He didn't seem too interested (perhaps thought we were just looking for a quote, when we wanted him to look at the job before we gutted the bathroom). When I said we were about to gut the room, his attitude changed, but we never heard from him again.

Shame really. Nice guy. So we asked the builder we met on the major reno in January for his plumber, and he is fantastic. Works on his own, lovely guy who just laughs when presented with a problem. Nothing seems to rattle him.

I still don't know why our old plumber ditched us. He used to thank us for sending so much work his way. I suspect he had too many other issues going on and thought we would chase him up?

 

[pinkboy]

In 7 years of trading, I have never asked, nor received a deposit for a job, no matter how big. Good businesses can carry materials and wages for jobs they tender for however big.

The only 'part payment' I have received is a 90-95% payment where the Principle contractor holds a 5-10% 'Defect Liability' for 12mths. Nature of the game I guess. I personally mitigate this by a higher priced service to make up for lost income or use of those funds for the next job (then add my FUF and it becomes a healthy little earner by itself ).

I guess the moral of the above is to make sure the contractor you engage can get the job done without the need for excessive payments to get them through the job. Nothing worse than a job grinding to a halt over a 10% part payment.

I think receiving materials and supplies on 'credit' is what gets people in small business unstuck. Its to easy to stretch 30 day creditors out an extra week/month/2 months. Its not like you can stretch your staff out further than payday, or the bank a mortgage payment.

As for not turning up when you say you will without a valid excuse - well that's poor form and probably doesn't deserve your business.

pinkboy

 

[D.T.]

Most of the ones here don't seem interested in quoting, only doing

 

[BayView]

Tomorrow I will ring up the fourth floor sander/polisher.
Have made time and dates for the last three and not one has shown up or rang.

you are assuming tradies have been educated in customer service and other life skills such as empathy for client, manners, care factor after they have been paid, etc.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

 

[D.T.]

My biggest gripe with tradies is that most are only willing to come out and quote and / or work during business hours.

How does that work for those of us who are employed?

 

[sanj]

you are assuming tradies have been educated in customer service and other life skills such as empathy for client, manners, care factor after they have been paid, etc.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

As someone who deals with tradies all the time I think they are often unfairly treated. Like with any profession there are the good and the bad and thwre are some excellent tradies out there.

 

[BayView]

As someone who deals with tradies all the time I think they are often unfairly treated. Like with any profession there are the good and the bad and thwre are some excellent tradies out there.

aah; the exuberance and optimism of youth.

I was your age once.

Let's revisit that thought after another 25 or so years....

Good luck.

 

[sanj]

aah; the exuberance and optimism of youth.

I was your age once.

Let's revisit that thought after another 25 or so years....

Good luck.

Remove your condescension mate, im a property developer so I deal with them all the time and have for 6 different projects in the last 3 or so years including a couple of office fitouts, new construction and renos. You being older doesnt mean you're automatically right.

Trades are often very good at reading peoples approach to them and if so they prob would treat you badly considering your attitude.

 

[D.T.]

Remove your condescension mate, im a property developer so I deal with them all the time and have for 6 different projects in the last 3 or so years including a couple of office fitouts, new construction and renos. You being older doesnt mean you're automatically right.

Trades are often very good at reading peoples approach to them and if so they prob would treat you badly considering your attitude.

bingo.

 

[weg]

Remove your condescension mate, im a property developer so I deal with them all the time and have for 6 different projects in the last 3 or so years including a couple of office fitouts, new construction and renos. You being older doesnt mean you're automatically right.

Trades are often very good at reading peoples approach to them and if so they prob would treat you badly considering your attitude.

As an 'oldie' I have to agree with sanj.

And yes tradies would be good at reading people because most have been burnt or taken advantage of at different times by bad customers.

my theory is most good tradies have sussed out the bad customers within the first few minutes of a conversation and either don't turn up or overprice a job because they don't want it {you can afford to lose jobs because there is no shortage of work when you're good}, so the bad customers usually end up with the bad {or gullible} tradies .

Ok maybe not always but i bet this happens a lot.

 

[Mush]

Remove your condescension mate, im a property developer so I deal with them all the time and have for 6 different projects in the last 3 or so years including a couple of office fitouts, new construction and renos. You being older doesnt mean you're automatically right.

Trades are often very good at reading peoples approach to them and if so they prob would treat you badly considering your attitude.

Well said sanj........

 

[Mush]

As an 'oldie' I have to agree with sanj.

And yes tradies would be good at reading people because most have been burnt or taken advantage of at different times by bad customers.

my theory is most good tradies have sussed out the bad customers within the first few minutes of a conversation and either don't turn up or overprice a job because they don't want it {you can afford to lose jobs because there is no shortage of work when you're good}, so the bad customers usually end up with the bad {or gullible} tradies .

Ok maybe not always but i bet this happens a lot.

Your on the money there weg........

 

[TMNT]

As an 'oldie' I have to agree with sanj.

And yes tradies would be good at reading people because most have been burnt or taken advantage of at different times by bad customers.

my theory is most good tradies have sussed out the bad customers within the first few minutes of a conversation and either don't turn up or overprice a job because they don't want it {you can afford to lose jobs because there is no shortage of work when you're good}, so the bad customers usually end up with the bad {or gullible} tradies .

Ok maybe not always but i bet this happens a lot.

I seem to get shafted even though I've said or done no wrong

I've used no agression, sarcasm or any thing that could be taken as negative
The only thing that I suspect I might do is I come across as too easy going, and I give them too much control of the Reno

I need to learn to say, this needs to be done in x days or x hours

Deep down I'm worried that they will simply say " I'm not doing this anymore"
And since I'm usually interstate finding someone else will take days iehalf my entire trip, so unfortunately i take it up the rear pipe a lot of the time

 

[weg]

I seem to get shafted even though I've said or done no wrong

I've used no agression, sarcasm or any thing that could be taken as negative
The only thing that I suspect I might do is I come across as too easy going, and I give them too much control of the Reno

I need to learn to say, this needs to be done in x days or x hours

Deep down I'm worried that they will simply say " I'm not doing this anymore"
And since I'm usually interstate finding someone else will take days iehalf my entire trip, so unfortunately i take it up the rear pipe a lot of the time

my theory has exceptions .

I think being interstate makes it a whole lot more difficult considering you can't meet up with tradies, or look over a job together, or check the job on completion, etc.

There is a website called WOmO where people give recommendations of services used. Handy in your situation.

I've used online reviews with success, especially where the reviewers have made many reviews - watch ones with a single positive review of a business as this is often non genuine.

 

[Mush]

Use a small builder TMNT. You will pay an extra 15/20% but you should receive a more organised,professional service.

 

[geoffw]

I seem to get shafted even though I've said or done no wrong

I've used no agression, sarcasm or any thing that could be taken as negative
The only thing that I suspect I might do is I come across as too easy going, and I give them too much control of the Reno

Weg was responding to a post which was unduly harsh against another member. Nobody should have felt shafted, least of all yourself.