Bilboblue said:
Thenumber1blue said:
What is up with these people,why cant they do the job properly ,whilst not trying to rip you off.Just had one back to re-do a couple of small things which were faulty only after 2-3 months of paying him good money the first time.At the end of his 10 minute visit,the cheeky fuck asked me for another £40.
Do you do YOUR job perfectly EVERY time?
If not, stop fkn whingeing and next time, do it yourself you moany fucker.
Correct mate. Sometimes they'll make mistakes and problems may happen, it's just the way it is. Some people forget this and all of a sudden "tradesmen" are out to rip you all off because that piece of wallpaper peeled a bit a few months later or the new plug socket came lose after a few months.
I'm a gardener, so classed as a tradesman. Sometimes things don't always go to plan. Someone might pay me to spray a load of weedkiller, and sometimes for whatever reason, all the weeds don't all die. Not my fault, most of them did, but not all did. Suddenly the customer could turn round and say I ripped them off. I did the job in good faith, did everything right, but especially in my job when dealing with nature, not all goes as it should do. This has never happened to me by the way, as far as I know, all my customers have been happy.
I find myself constantly having to prove that I'm not a dodgy tradesmen all the time to new customers. However, I am lucky in that most of my work comes from recommendations.
Trouble with me is that I'm a bit TOO nice and kind for people. I've spent most this week dealing with non-gardening problems for customers and it's got to the point where some of them are taking advantage of me!!! Can't win sometimes.
And whilst we're on the subject, can I just say, if you ever have any tradespeople in to do some work, here's a few tips:
- Offer them a brew first off. Helps break the ice. Don't be snide with the biscuits either, gets you off to a good start.
- Don't feel you have to hang around to supervise them. I'm good at what I do, do a good job, but there's nothing worse than a customer who's staring out the window at you, or comments "Oh yeah, I saw you were having difficulty get the tree stump out, but 5 minutes later that big plant came out no problem"....you tend you think that they've been keeping an eye on you.
- Don't think you can sneak stuff onto the job you've agreed. One guy asked me to cut a lawn, but when I finished he said "oh, and any chance you could cut down that tree whilst you're here? I'll pay extra of course". OK he was paying, but come on, say so at the beginning, I'd have allotted extra time for it and maybe got some proper gear in to do it.
- Don't try and be clever and barter a discount if you pay cash instead of a cheque.
- Nothing worse than a late payer. If they send an invoice, pay the thing as soon as you can. If you can't pay straight away (say if it's for a lot and you're waiting for a loan to come through) tell them. I hate people who intentionally withold money, or pay me 30 days after an invoice to get the most out of the payment terms. My best customers are the ones who pay straight away, and if I have a backlog because of bad weather, first customers to go to the back of the queue are persistent late payers or people who owe me money.
Tradesman have a difficult time enough without people being arsey with them. Imagine if you're doing a tough job and all you get is people not trusting you to be honest, which 99% of tradespeople are. Make their lives that little bit easier, make their day enjoyable, you'll get a better job out of them.
