Value for money

eddiej

Hi all,

There is a common vibe around at the mo regards value for money / gettin a cheaper price for the "same" job (blame a certain Eddie Hobbs)

The camp seems to be split down two sides (shoulda been a football pundit) those payin for the job sayin we are been ripped off and those in the business sayin no no no these jobs require skills expertise and a cheap job is a bad one etc.

I'm puttin it out there that there seems to be a large proportion of "tradesmen" who are chargin what they like aint prepared to be honest at what they are providin and blame everythin that goes wrong on the employer so you have to fork out more. To be honest it would be better if the buildin boom slowed down a little and these guys had to do a really good job for the money they are chargin rather than just feck off and leave you high and dry.

Hunger as the say is a great sauce.

ctrl-alt-delete

i think its the luck of the draw,

you could get a crap job done for cheap, a crap job done thats expensive, a great job for cheap, a great job expensively and so on.

rooferPete

Hi Eddie,

Believe it or not I agree with the majority of your post, customer service is something that looks good on the advertisement or website, try finding that very often elusive department.

What might surprise you is there are a lot of good tradesmen who are finding it hard to balance the books let alone show a profit, I think that is where some of the new service providers is getting the attitude problem from.

What many people seem to forget is a home with an income exceeding fifty thousand euro is more the norm than the exception today, granted they are two incomes, but we see and hear the same story all the time, they need more money.

If you take a small business, wife is the Secretary / Home Maker, husband is a jobbing tradesman with all the extra expenses that incurs, in business it's called overhead but in real life it's bills that must be paid.

Should the tradesman's or woman's household income and day to day running costs be less than the rest of the citisens of Rip Off Ireland ?

The service provider be they construction, retail.... is unless by some fantastic feat of management a consumer as well, we all pay the same toll on the M 50, our road tax and insurances are the same or similar and a kilo of sugar costs all shoppers the same amount in the supermarket.

Personally I would love a Serious Slowdown because then I might get back to my pro-rata earnings of 1997, I saw this very same situation in London before the crash in the 80's as bad and hard as things were here a small service company could make a respectable profit for the work put in while over there they limping from pay cheque to pay cheque.

My 4 bed semi wouldn't make the thirty grand I had paid for it in '84 but it was a decent house compared to what people I know had paid over one hundred thousand sterling for, they drove a van while I had both a van and a private car.

My point is the responsibility of being self employed and an employer actually paid pre tiger, whereas today the small contractor is dictated to by the employees about hours they will work, how much the want and Monday off to recover is AOK.

Sorry for such a long reply.

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eddiej

Hi Pete,

Take the point you make and have to say if i need some roofin done will give you guys a call but the attitude of the employees that shag it I'll get some other work some where else sucks for those of us who are payin them. I'm not for an instant begrudgin anyone a decent wage just wish we could get good jobs for the money we pay. maybe I'm gettin old before my time

Eddie

rooferPete

Hi Eddie,

Thank you for your display of confidence in the services I provide, I am lucky in that I am usually booked well in advance.

I see your point and it is the view of a large number of people who use service providers, they do not want part skilled or beginners providing what is the work of skilled tradesmen, when the very service they bought and are paying for is the time, skill and labour of a skilled tradesman.

I am between middle age and when life began ( again ) so maybe we are both old before our time .

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