Tradesmen : Do you trust them?

chippy81 wrote: »

Your in a minority then as I've found that most people worry about price as nuclear anything. I've also found that if you tell someone that a repair will cost say 200 but fix it properly or replacement will cost 2000 they go for cheaper option

Some customers make you feel like your trying to rip them off if you say it costs 2000 to do it right

If one guy is telling 200 and another is telling you 2000, then it's a sure bet that both are lying to you.

Tony EH wrote: »

If one guy is telling 200 and another is telling you 2000, then it's a sure bet that both are lying to you.

How
Could it not be that a patch up to last a few months or a year can cost 200 and todo it right costs 2000 I.e strip back and redo from scratch
They were figures off top of my head by the way

The talkers usually get more work than the quiet ones regardless of their skills and ability. I find some talkers frighten people by saying it could cost 10grand to fix then give them a price of 8000 when in reality job probably costs about 5000 but people are relieved its not 10000.

Ush1 wrote: »

If there was some other way I could find out a tradesmen was good or knew what he was doing without actually communicating with him I would do it, but I don't see any other option.

Tradesmens best friend/worst enemy is word of mouth. Ask someone who had a job done well

Tony EH wrote: »

It's way too much of a discrepency. The real cost is more than likely in between somewhere.

I know the figs are off the top of your head and I'm going on what I've experienced myself TBH. I've had some truly wild quotes offered to me in my time. Once I was quoted 5000 for a boiler replacement by one lad and then another said it would cost me 600. I settied with another fella who did a great job for around 1100.

Quotes are so off the rails sometimes, it's no wonder that some people are bamboozled. The guy who said 5000 later said he was expecting me to haggle. FFS :rolleyes:

It's my experience that some tradesmen give quotes like selling a car start high to get price you want if people don't haggle then he's onto a winner and others just give straight up price and if people do start to haggle he can't move and sometimes loses the work

Tony EH wrote: »

It's way too much of a discrepency. The real cost is more than likely in between somewhere.

I know the figs are off the top of your head and I'm going on what I've experienced myself TBH. I've had some truly wild quotes offered to me in my time. Once I was quoted 5000 for a boiler replacement by one lad and then another said it would cost me 600. I settied with another fella who did a great job for around 1100.

Quotes are so off the rails sometimes, it's no wonder that some people are bamboozled. The guy who said 5000 later said he was expecting me to haggle. FFS :rolleyes:

Example:
Flat roof leaking.
Patch
Roll of felt, gas, couple hours work patching a few areas keep it going for a
while 200

Redo
Strip roof, skip, 4 rolls of underlay and felt, plywood, insulation, couple days work maybe depending on size 2000

I have ways found plumbers to be the most unreliable, dishonest, laziest and devious shower of bastards on the planet. Even when you get one on a recommendation they will try something on or hide a mess which should be fixed.

After learning from hard experience I never pay any tradesman in full until I'm completely satisfied the job is finished to the standard promised when I took them on. Holding back half the money is the only way to get something done properly in this country. It really saddens me sometimes that everyone in Ireland is always on the lookout for the short cut or easy route and there's little pride taken in doing anything correctly.

Tony EH wrote: »

Unfortunately though, there are way too many who don't care about that as there's usually some work to be found.

Irish builders have an appaling reputaion and it's one that is richly deserved in my opinion. There are far too many horror stories by people who've been stung by Irish builders for it to simply a minority make the rest look bad.

The reality is that it's the majority of cowboys that make the few honest lads lives difficult.

Far too subjective,I might say that Irish tradesmen have a great reputation,as there are many stories of satisfied customers.And I got my numbers from the exact same place as yourself.
We produce top quality apprentices in this country,the standards are high and one need only look at Irelands participation in the world skills championships to confirm this,FAS actually do very good in this regard.

Where we fall down is afterwards,if one wishes to become a builder,surely it would make sense to have certificates available before such a licence can be given?No sir....not here,I have had the misfortune to be placed alongside chefs,factory workers and farmers and god knows what else on jobs.

Not once ever in Ireland was I asked to produce documentation to prove that I was capable to work at a minimum standard.Such a situation alows for the proliferation of duds/mullachers/mushrooms,but,to call these men tradesmen is to err.

A good few jobs I did in the last year, people were extremely slow to pay ( I'll pay you next week) or some don't pay at all. People think because its a recession, they can take advantage of you because your just 'glad to have work'. .[/quote]

+1

I've twenty years experience as a tradesman working for contractors and myself , I dont work as self employed simply because there were too many chancers passing themselves off as tradesmen.

I gave up about five years ago after being ripped off by people doing usual of not answering phones , saying they'll pay next week , haggling after the job was complete.When I started a job , I always used to say a third up front , a third half way there and the final payment on completion.The amount times I had trouble with the last third was amazing.I deliberately priced high with some potential clients assuming Id only get two thirds of the quote.

I also made available all my exams , certs , insurance etc available for any client to see , never was asked for them either.I particularly hated the clowns who asked for a cash quote or said was that my best quote.

A suggestion I would make to anyone getting any work done particularly in a domestic situation would be to ask to see any previous work done by the contractor , not to rely solely on someone else's recommendation especially extensions, attic conversions etc.No contractor worth his salt would not be proud to show off his previous jobs.

Coming into AH and commenting about tradesmen is pointless , go speak to RGI, RECI , ECCSA , SIMI or give a visit to a solicitor.

Im a professional gardener, and seen some of those landscape gardeners jobs.....

Let's just say they're right cowboys, planting scheme's all over the place.

Small plants in the back, big plant's in front of medium plant's. ..

Oak tree's in containers. ....