This post is written as I am left reeling by yet another encounter with those ephemeral, will o’ the wisps known as the Great British Tradesmen. I am obviously talking about the semi(?) skilled workers that build the UK infrastructure (such as bricklayers, plumbers, decorators, and such-like) but focussing in particular on those who ply their trade (?) preying on the unsuspecting great British public.
I have been (un)fortunate enough to have had to depend on their services several times in the past few years – and every experience has been a horror story – I’ll share just a couple here to avoid boring you all to death.
The first ‘incident’ involved remodelling our bathroom – the ‘tradesman’ in question quoted a fixed price for the work, then proceeded to drag out a job that should have taken two weeks at most to a three month ordeal, and on top of that he announced at the end that because of ‘extra work’ that he’d had to do – the price would double! So much for fixed price eh?
The second example happened just last week. We engaged a small local company to remodel our garden so we could ostensibly fit a bigger shed. All started well but then towards the end of the week it started becoming a rush job, and items I understood were part of the job got ‘descoped’ – or ‘that’ll cost you extra mate.’ So now I have (in my eyes) a half-finished job, no shed and looking at extra cost (again) to get to an acceptably finished job.
So my (simple) question is – is there any such thing as a quality British tradesman? My criteria would be:
- Reasonable estimate based on customer requirements (NOT gimme three grand and I’ll sort it chief – sort what, I ask myself? Probably clearing out my bank account 🙂 )
- Fixed price, letting the customer know beforehand of any additional, unexpected costs – and to discuss and agree on possible solutions with the customer as well
- Pride in their work – see a job to the end and finish it to a standard they would be proud of
Are those things too much to ask for? So far I have struggled to find a ‘tradesman’ who meets any one of the above criteria, let alone all three. I guess I’ll just have to keep looking …..
The problems seem to stem from three characteristics
Arrogance – the feeling that they know what you want so much better than you do; the reality is that they want to replicate a design or job they have done before because they know how to do it, and they think the idiot (i.e. customer) footing the bill won’t know any better; I have news for you dear tradesmen, just because we don’t have the skills/ time/ motivation to do the job ourselves doesn’t mean that we don’t know what we want – so don’t be so patronising, eh?
Estimating is an art – I’ve had people who have come to price a job who haven’t even bothered measuring up – they have just approximated and given me a price based on that. This type of engagement will invariably lead to either the outcome described above (extra cost due to ‘unforeseen’ additional work – i.e. bad estimating) or some form of law suite where the job is not finished for the same reason. Take some time, do a proper estimate and everyone will be happy.
Pride – once upon a time many British tradesmen were craftsmen who took pride in their job – and doing their job ‘right’ – i.e. to the best of their ability. Nowadays a job is just a stopgap to the next estimate and the next customer – no concept of quality, little expectation of repeat business. Just something to fill in the time and generate revenue – how many people are happy with work based on those principles?