Things that tradespeople do that REALLY upset you?

S

ScottyB

Folks,

I have been a member for a few months now, i have actively used the services of some great people on this site like Scott@depreciator and am a great believer in giving back where i can.

I am starting a new company in Perth and will NOT openly flaunt the name etc as that is not how i work but i would love some input from members.

It will be an all trades service company both residential and commercial including providing services to investors like ourselves e.g. Electricians, Painters, Chippies etc and i am now in my marketing phase gathering info on the things Tradies do that really turn customers off so that i can take it into consideration when building the business.

I ran a successful business in the UK of the same model and sold it before moving to Australia 2 years ago. I had a clause that prevented me doing something similar for 2 years and that time is now up so i am good to go again.

I suspect that the challenges faced by customers here are very similar to the UK but i would prefer open honest feedback, so here goes with an example.

People often complain tradies NEVER answer the phone or when the bigger ones do it is an "Offshore Call centre" where the staff speak poor English so my business will have a 24/7, 365 days a year Australian based Call Centre with a proper escalation process direct to the right person e.g. On call Electrical Engineer etc. Yeah this is far more expensive but it is worth it to provide contact and the right image when customers need to contact us.

Would love to hear your pet hates about tradies and better still what you would like to see as a potential customer to prevent these issues.

Nothing is off topic so please fire away.

Regards

ScottyB
 
Last edited:
Two incidents from my past 24 hours.

1. Swearing in front of our 2 year old child
2. Lighting up a smoke next to my heavily pregnant (and asthmatic) wife

Regards,

Jason
 
When I talk down to them I expect to be treated with respect.

When I demand something I expect them to be obliging.

When I try to screw them down on price I expect them to give me a 'cheap' price - I'm not a money pit expected to prop up their lifestyle.

I don't care if they're busy, or if they don't quote on weekends, I expect them to do what suits me, when it suits me, if they want the job.

;)

I say play it by ear.

Always treat the good customers well because they're the one's you want repeat business from.
 
depreciator said:
If they could just show up on time as promised, that would half the problem solved.
Click to expand...

Or at least ring/txt if they're going to be early/late. No excuse not to with mobiles nowadays

However - my team of tradies have been trained to do such - and I can't fault them on anything else really. I am privelged
 
I used a roofer a few years ago. Found him online - he had a good site.
One man band.
He showed up right on time to quote - was early, actually, and sat in his car.
He was wearing a clean shirt with his name on it - that day must have been quoting day.
He was very switched-on. Looked at the job, then went out to his ute (which was immaculate) and emailed me a quote before he drove off.
He was just as good when he came back to do the job.
Then when I went to find him again the following year, he had disappeared. Pity.
 
my pet hate is when you get someone referred for installing a (not cheap) featuree ceiling fan, they put a pair of apprentices on it who fit the thing incorrectly using self tapping tek screws and dont fix it to the ceiling properly so it hums so loud at anything above minimum speed that you can hear it outside.

if you are referred - YOU do the job.
 
Or when a tradie brings along an apprentice and charges you more per hour because there are two people on the job but the job takes longer because the tradie is teaching the apprentice stuff.
A bloke round the corner from where I live had that scenario last week with a plumber.
 
Here's a few to get your started:
1) Being late or not showing up with no explanation or warning
2) Smoking inside the house (or as they call it 'job')
3) Leaving food rubbish and smoke butts around
4) Parking right in the middle of the driveway, then arguing with other tradies about where the utes are
5) Telling you right up until the point where both time and money are about to run out that "everything's fine mate" only to then announce that the job has run over in both cost and time.
 
I had one who spent most of the time on his phone. He didn't do much work.

And another one who turned up at 4pm on Christmas Eve just as we were about to go out. What the?
 
We've had some good experiences e.g. tradies on time, efficient on the job, explaining work entailed in the job clearly.

Less positive experiences include:
1) saying they will turn up sometime between 9 - 12, then arriving late without explanation or apology
2) saying they will send a quote within a week and not doing so within that timeframe or at all
This seems to happen where they are good at their trade, swamped with business and lack sufficient admin support.
3) lack of courtesy/consideration e.g. interrupting conversation to take extended mobile call with another client, treating your property as part of the job site when working on a neighbouring property, loud swearing etc
 
How about a report at the end of the job with some photos to prove exactly what was done. This would be ideal for rentals when neither owner or pm veiw completed work.

Cheers
 
eXc said:
This is a joke, right?
Click to expand...


Just pointing out that if we treat tradies right they're more likely to do the right thing back.

Like someone else said, they try and suss you and the job out while on the phone.

That's not to say a bad impression warrants saying you'll turn up and you don't however.

And I'm not saying everyone that's had a tradie not turn up is a time waster or PITA either.
 
As a group; shocking.

There are a few decent ones of course who can actually empathize with their customer about wanting to see them turn up on time, to call ahead if they are unable to get there when they say they would, to do the work in a timely manner, to do it properly, to return promptly to fix up what they didn't do correctly in the first place and without truculence or attitude....and to clean up their mess.

Nearly as bad as us mechanics, but never as bad as real estate agents or lawyers. ;)
 
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