Unreliable Trades People

[bradsbrew]

PFFFFFFFTTTT!!!!! In my day It took about 7 years to get a trade qualification. Hard work, long hours and night school 3 days a week which seemed to never end and not counting the 'block courses' that ran for two solid weeks every damn 6 months or there abouts. Four years is just wrong. Just about all new tradies are:

Year 1. I know everything and I am awesome. Saving for a ute.
Year 2. I know even more now and I am more awesome. Have shitbox ford ute now.
Year 3. Hmmm, faild exams. Try again or cheat and pass with 51% - get to year 4. Crashed shitbox ute 'fixing it up' with Dads and Mums help.
Year 4. I know everything and are so awesome. Passed exams at 52%. Fully qualified.

I deal with tradies almost every day ( being a qualified one myself and self employed for over 20 years ) I have two lists. A use list and a never call again list. The latter list is huge, with only four contacts on my 'use' list. One for each sector if you like. For every reason previously mentioned here plus more.

Time for my best IPA yet and get warmed up for the Rugby tonight.

I deal with apprentices in the construction trade on a daily basis. If you want to blame anyone for the lack of skills you can start with the government and their policy of reducing apprenticeship time. But the biggest thing IMHO is all these group apprenticeship companies that hire out apprentices. It ends up being labour hire for the apps and shows in there skills. They get shoved from roughy to roughy for a week here and there. Then the apps get the attitude that "I dont care if I am shit and you send me back I can go to someone else"
I could go on but I won't. There are good tradies but you will find they are busy and charge more than the fucktards. Goes back to you get what you pay for and you have to wait for quality. If you expect a tradie to rock up within an day or so to start your job, you have to wonder why they aren't booked out.

Cheers

 

[Bizier]

I will chime in that I am a DIY guy. While I would like to have the cash to commission a full sanitary SS microbrewery in my house and just brew on it, I enjoy the learning process and admittedly the journey, even if my contraptions go through multiple iterations at my expense.

I have to say that I have met a select few people who have shined in their respective trades, who I would trust to no end and would happily pay. I have also met a great many more who seem to know as much as me, or scarily less about a given job. I also rent, and I have had a succession of plumbers and a 'reticulation professional' to fix simple things around my house, and everything still leaks more than it ever has. I don't have that tap seating drill bit, but apart from that I can confidently say that if this were my property, she would be watertight, and sadly I have to pay for the leaking water after many complaints.

 

[DKS]

I deal with apprentices in the construction trade on a daily basis. If you want to blame anyone for the lack of skills you can start with the government and their policy of reducing apprenticeship time. But the biggest thing IMHO is all these group apprenticeship companies that hire out apprentices. It ends up being labour hire for the apps and shows in there skills. They get shoved from roughy to roughy for a week here and there. Then the apps get the attitude that "I dont care if I am shit and you send me back I can go to someone else"
I could go on but I won't. There are good tradies but you will find they are busy and charge more than the fucktards. Goes back to you get what you pay for and you have to wait for quality. If you expect a tradie to rock up within an day or so to start your job, you have to wonder why they aren't booked out.

Cheers

Totally agree here Brad. I would hate to be doing an apprenticeship nowdays.
The old rule still stands "When you find a good tradie, look after him. " Its just getting harder to find them now.
Service and quality when you need them is almost priceless.
Daz

 

[pk.sax]

Dont get me started about salespeople beit gas lights insurances funerals mortgages. They would sell sell your mother over quicker than us tradies.

I think I still get the odd prank call from some call centre guy that gave an earful to.
And while we're on the topic, f****** Jehovah's witnesses. Get the f*** out of my earshot.
oh, n f****** blond retards selling donations to amnesty. Stop f****** making me feel terrible for ignoring you.
Ah, and f****** foreign sounding people, I can't really understand wat the f*** you are saying, speak stine please.
And f****** Hare Krishna ppl, no, I don't want your f****** book, you numb headed ***** trash, and yes, the halwa was good.

Lets leave the lot outta this conversation, the guy was complaining about the abundance of retards in a particular occupation, no need to bring the whole population in.

 

[Silo Ted]

There are some Hare Krishna cookbooks that are very good. Dont be so hasty until you have looked through a Kurma Dasa book

 

[VBisGod]

Lets leave the lot outta this conversation, the guy was complaining about the abundance of retards in a particular occupation, no need to bring the whole population in.

Exactly my thoughts

 

[Peteoz77]

We saw these Pergolas at a home and leisure show and really liked them so I rang the local number. No one was available, so I left a message. Nothing happened for a week, so I rang again and left a message. I also logged onto their web site and left an inquiry. Another week passes, so I ring the Sydney number and immediately get the guy that owns the company. I tell him that I have been waiting 2 weeks for a return phone call and that I had left 2 messages and an email. Less than 10 minutes later, I get a phone call from the local bloke. He halfheartedly apologises for not getting back to me. I shrug it off and say "No worries mate, if you are too busy, just say so, and we can wait, or I'll go somewhere else". He reassures me that he has time and will be over in 3 days. Of course he doesn't show up, but I give him a week, then try calling him again. Again, no answer, and I leave a message.. twice. He rings me nearly two weeks from the date he said he was going to come over and apologises again saying he's "Really Busy" I again say "No Worries mate, if you are too busy, we can get someone else" He says he will be there in 2 days.. and this time he shows up.

He was polite, courteous, and gave me a a quote for over $9,000. I asked him to give me a little bit of time to get back to him, so I could talk it over with the wife. He did say that if we accepted, they would come around and do a final measurement, then it would be about 2 weeks before it was installed. We agreed it was expensive, but we were happy with his promptness, and how professional he acted, so I rang him up the next day to accept the quote. Yeah, it goes the same way.. no answer and I leave a message.. no reply. I wait 5 days and leave another message... 2 more days with no reply. So now that is has been nearly a month since we saw these fancy pergolas, I still don;t have an answers and no measurements have been taken.

I finally get the shits and ring the owner in Sydney again. I explain the entire scenario with exact dates ( I wrote them down as this was progressing). He is most apologetic and says the guy will DEFINITELY be there on Friday to measure up. So, on the following Tuesday, after no contact from the company I ring him back.. politely asking why his guy did not show up on Friday to measure. He tells me.. "Umm, I'm sorry but we won't be supplying you with a pergola" I ask "Why? I agreed to pay the quoted amount" He says "The guy is pissed off that you called me and has refused to deal with you.. I don't have any other option.. Sorry!"

All the lazy prick had to do was answer his phone ONCE, or at least return a call ONCE, and everything would have been fine, but after a month of bullshit, he's now mad at ME, and refuses to build a pergola for the quoted amount.

So, a mate and I built a bigger, better one for $3500, and I couldn't be happier (It's 11M X 4.6M.. HUGE!)

I have a lot of other stories, but this is by far the most expensive one... and the most frustrating.

 

[DJR]

I have a lot of other stories, but this is by far the most expensive one... and the most frustrating.

That's classic.

All because the guy had no idea about business.

Customers pay your bills and deserver to be treated like they are actually customers not annoyances!

We have gone through some local tradies lately trying to get some roof windows installed - most of them were pretty prompt, but some of them really left a sour impession. The first guy was a bit slow but was really busy, took a lot of time to outline the options and go over how he'd build it etc, saying plaster was better than MDF. A couple of other guys just said "Customwood" they'd use and I said "oh, MDF" and they looked at me like i knew some sorta secret that Customwood=MDF and is a bad material for the job as it swells when wet and doesn't look as sharp when put in, but they can charge almost as much...

The one place that we will probably go with came promptly, was around EXACTLY when he said he would be, ran us through the options, gave us an itemised quote, which was slightly more expensive but I can understand why (he runs a business and factors in the overhead of doing it properly) and left us with a much better impression.

A good read in this area is the e-Myth - it gets a little franchise-heavy at times but has a very good overview of how to impress customers, keep them and build a business - and a couple of the top rules are around keeping good communication and being consistent in what you do so each and every customer always has the same experience

 

[VBisGod]

We saw these Pergolas at a home and leisure show and really liked them so I rang the local number. No one was available, so I left a message. Nothing happened for a week, so I rang again and left a message. I also logged onto their web site and left an inquiry. Another week passes, so I ring the Sydney number and immediately get the guy that owns the company. I tell him that I have been waiting 2 weeks for a return phone call and that I had left 2 messages and an email. Less than 10 minutes later, I get a phone call from the local bloke. He halfheartedly apologises for not getting back to me. I shrug it off and say "No worries mate, if you are too busy, just say so, and we can wait, or I'll go somewhere else". He reassures me that he has time and will be over in 3 days. Of course he doesn't show up, but I give him a week, then try calling him again. Again, no answer, and I leave a message.. twice. He rings me nearly two weeks from the date he said he was going to come over and apologises again saying he's "Really Busy" I again say "No Worries mate, if you are too busy, we can get someone else" He says he will be there in 2 days.. and this time he shows up.

He was polite, courteous, and gave me a a quote for over $9,000. I asked him to give me a little bit of time to get back to him, so I could talk it over with the wife. He did say that if we accepted, they would come around and do a final measurement, then it would be about 2 weeks before it was installed. We agreed it was expensive, but we were happy with his promptness, and how professional he acted, so I rang him up the next day to accept the quote. Yeah, it goes the same way.. no answer and I leave a message.. no reply. I wait 5 days and leave another message... 2 more days with no reply. So now that is has been nearly a month since we saw these fancy pergolas, I still don;t have an answers and no measurements have been taken.

I finally get the shits and ring the owner in Sydney again. I explain the entire scenario with exact dates ( I wrote them down as this was progressing). He is most apologetic and says the guy will DEFINITELY be there on Friday to measure up. So, on the following Tuesday, after no contact from the company I ring him back.. politely asking why his guy did not show up on Friday to measure. He tells me.. "Umm, I'm sorry but we won't be supplying you with a pergola" I ask "Why? I agreed to pay the quoted amount" He says "The guy is pissed off that you called me and has refused to deal with you.. I don't have any other option.. Sorry!"

All the lazy prick had to do was answer his phone ONCE, or at least return a call ONCE, and everything would have been fine, but after a month of bullshit, he's now mad at ME, and refuses to build a pergola for the quoted amount.

So, a mate and I built a bigger, better one for $3500, and I couldn't be happier (It's 11M X 4.6M.. HUGE!)

I have a lot of other stories, but this is by far the most expensive one... and the most frustrating.

There you go, i wouldnt give them a second chance,
glad it worked it out.
I once ordered a shed from STARTACO we will call them, the missus and I didnt have a lot of money, I was busy with my business which isnt concreting and erecting sheds. Shed never turned up, was never manufactured and we are sorry.................screw you, I want my money back now, and we took another month or btwo to get the job done. Now? I have a great shed. For me it was never a tradie it was a a half ass BHP company called whats their feckin name again? blueheeler bluesomething

 

[Dave70]

Hi all.
Just want to have a bitch at another totally useless trades person in my area.
I have been working on my brew build for over 15 months now & the uphill battle continues as yet another unreliable tradesman decided to not show up after me arranging a time for him to be at my house. I had organized a plumber to plumb up my LPG gas lines this afternoon & he asked for my phone number & address & confirmed he would be there. I waited all bloody afternoon & not even a phone call to say he wouldn't make it or he's running late, nothing. The amount of useless dick heads in my home town is astonishing. Here are some of the problems I have faced & been subject to so far:

Plumber 1: Re-bent my immersion chiller to suit my tall kegs, snapped the chiller & never came back. Called him repeatedly to no avail, seems he couldn't give a shit.
Plumber 2: Asked to coil 5m copper for my Herms, after him having it for a month, I told him to shove it & went else where.
Plumber 3: Tried to bend my copper coil & split it after farting around with it for an hour, I gave up on him eventually. It seems bending annealed copper is too hard for plumbers in my area.
Plumber 4: Arranged to install LPG gas lines, no show, no phone call, jack shit.
Engineer 1: Drill a 2" hole in the bottom of my Herms & install 2 x 1/2" nipples, tig weld. Said to come back in 5 days to pick it up. 5 weeks later still not done & says I will do it this week. Waited till end of week, not done again. Another dick head that wastes everyones time. Told him to get stuffed. Abandoned the Herms altogether as it seems the local engineer in my town is only interested in $5,000.00 jobs only.
Plumber 5: Will be here next Wednesday to install my LPG gas lines, we'll see.

My last job will be wiring my control box & I have totally lost faith in any of these qualified people.

Electrician 1: Can you wire up my control box & install some controllers in the box for me.
Um, ah you can install them & I will wire it all up for you. Forget it dick head.
Electrician 2: Will come round & check out what you need done. I chose him.

I work in retail & hear on a daily basis how bad the economy is & how people are moving away from the area as the work is so scarce.
If these dick heads actually done the work, showed up when expected or gave a shit about the bread & butter cash jobs, maybe they wouldn't be out of work & griping about how quiet the area is.

Anyone else suffering the ongoing torture I am facing?

Hey Crusty.
My folks have got a place up on Palmers Island we normally hit around Christmas time. I'm a plumber and so is a mate who's coming up for few days.
If you're still staring at a bunch of loose wires and broken pipes by then, I'm sure we can straighten you out.

Yes, there are some indolent, unreliable bucket heads about, but we're not all like that. You'll probably find guys up that way have to travel to places like Ballina or Grafton to find work, and don't be surprised if their not lining up round the block to **** around with some left of field one-off in your garage.
There's no excuse for lack of communication or poor workmanship, but 'bread & butter' equals un blocking shit choked pipes, hooking up kitchens and changing tap washers. Working on some blokes DIY brewery more than likley a time consuming pain in the ass, and the customer nearly always comes away feeling ripped off.

Anyway, the offers open.
We can sit around, knock a few back, even take our shirts off and wrestle on your lawn if you like.
How's that sound?

 

[petesbrew]

Ah yeah, we've got a fence guy who has failed to turn up for a quote for the 3rd time now.
One of the quoters actually said halfway through the quote "I'm not really up to speed on the current regulations". Haha, instant knockback!

 

[Crusty]

Hey Crusty.
My folks have got a place up on Palmers Island we normally hit around Christmas time. I'm a plumber and so is a mate who's coming up for few days.
If you're still staring at a bunch of loose wires and broken pipes by then, I'm sure we can straighten you out.

Yes, there are some indolent, unreliable bucket heads about, but we're not all like that. You'll probably find guys up that way have to travel to places like Ballina or Grafton to find work, and don't be surprised if their not lining up round the block to **** around with some left of field one-off in your garage.
There's no excuse for lack of communication or poor workmanship, but 'bread & butter' equals un blocking shit choked pipes, hooking up kitchens and changing tap washers. Working on some blokes DIY brewery more than likley a time consuming pain in the ass, and the customer nearly always comes away feeling ripped off.

Anyway, the offers open.
We can sit around, knock a few back, even take our shirts off and wrestle on your lawn if you like.
How's that sound?

Thanks Dave for the offer.
If you are here around christmas time, by all means look us up for sure. Would be great to meet you guys & sink a few coldies.
I'm pretty scary without a shirt on but my 6yr old son said he'll take you on for sure.

 

[Dave70]

Thanks Dave for the offer.
If you are here around christmas time, by all means look us up for sure. Would be great to meet you guys & sink a few coldies.
I'm pretty scary without a shirt on but my 6yr old son said he'll take you on for sure.

That sounds tops. I'll look you up for sure.

No ring-in's with the wrestling though. Kids today get their moves from the WWE and think nothing of jumping off sulo bins and dropping an elbow into your throat..

 

[komodo]

Tradies arent to blame.
Lack of skills being taught by TAFEs is the big issue.

And dont get me started on "industry groups" - uni educated **** wits with no clue on how industry actually works. Watching a discovery program on the construction industry doesnt make you a building expert dick knob.

Kids these days arent inspired to go into manufacturing because at school its drummed into them that everything is automated and computerised.
Want to know something - no its really not. Yes many things are - but I'm actually noticing a shift - people are realising that computers and machines are highly limited - give them something "outside the box" and its too costly to reprogram a machine to do the task so one off jobs still require manual input.

A good tradesman is a craftsman and an artist.
Many "tradies" are just instruction followers. These guys arent tradies at all they are labourers with a certificate.

Unfortunately because we've become so regimented with everyone needing a certificate to even fart there really other than word of mouth and experiance is no way to tell one from the other.

Then to top it off everyone wants to be a subbie so guys with NFI about business are running around with an ABN

 

[MarkBastard]

Tradies arent to blame.
Lack of skills being taught by TAFEs is the big issue.

What skills? Keeping appointments? How to dial someone on a phone? Courtesy? Unselfishness?

Did these used to be taught and now they're not?

Or is it more the fact that these wankers get by either way so they never learn?

 

[argon]

What skills? Keeping appointments? How to dial someone on a phone? Courtesy? Unselfishness?

Did these used to be taught and now they're not?

Or is it more the fact that these wankers get by either way so they never learn?

Tradie's aren't exclusively at fault here... as you pointed out, generally people have very poor communication and social skills. Tradie's are just an easy target as they are dealing with the public all the time, which means they should actually be good at it, as they're livelihood partly depends on it.

In my experience, most people are generally quite inarticulate and somewhat inconsiderate. Even very well educated and intelligent professionals i deal with every day, lack a sense of foresight and empathy. Unfortunately it's all too commonly acceptable to not be considerate of others.

Simple informal communication often avoids alot of stress and anger. People just need to understand that their own actions impact others.

 

[bradsbrew]

Tradies arent to blame.
Lack of skills being taught by TAFEs is the big issue.

What a load of shit!
Schools are now pumping out SBA's (school based apprenticeships) where it is expected that the apprentice will finish with at least 25% of their offsite training completed when they complete grade 12. This usually done in the form of cert I or II at school. This sets them off as a 2nd year apprentice with **** all onsite experience.
TAFE is there to assess and fine tune the skills and pass on any tips they may not get on site. Obviously the UOC's that they are not likely to perform on the job are trained in detail and fully simulated activity would be expected to be acheived to industry standard. Their training blocks probably take up 2.5 months of a 3.5 year apprenticeship. It is upto the employer to invest their time into their busines and train the apprentice. Unfortunately when it comes to companies like Alltrades they dont give a shit about their product as long as the income and turnover is good.

Some RTO's out there are in it for the dollar and some trainers are either to old or under skilled themselves to be in the job.

And dont get me started on "industry groups" - uni educated **** wits with no clue on how industry actually works. Watching a discovery program on the construction industry doesnt make you a building expert dick knob.

Kids these days arent inspired to go into manufacturing because at school its drummed into them that everything is automated and computerised.
Want to know something - no its really not. Yes many things are - but I'm actually noticing a shift - people are realising that computers and machines are highly limited - give them something "outside the box" and its too costly to reprogram a machine to do the task so one off jobs still require manual input.

A good tradesman is a craftsman and an artist.

Agree totally. A good tradie knows how to solve problems and why they are doing something not just how to do it. Which is what they should be learning on the block releases!
Many "tradies" are just instruction followers. These guys arent tradies at all they are labourers with a certificate.

Unfortunately because we've become so regimented with everyone needing a certificate to even fart there really other than word of mouth and experiance is no way to tell one from the other.

Its always been that way, go for the company that doesn't have to advertise and has a reasonable size business. I remember paying out shit tradies when I was a 2nd year apprentice running jobs for the boss.

Then to top it off everyone wants to be a subbie so guys with NFI about business are running around with an ABN

One good thing about the QBSA is you have to have a Cert III and do a small business course to get a contractors license in QLD, still doesn't help with the problem solving skill level and hand skills of the contractor though.

Got to disagree on a couple of points there Komodo!

Cheers

 

[MarkBastard]

Tradie's aren't exclusively at fault here... as you pointed out, generally people have very poor communication and social skills. Tradie's are just an easy target as they are dealing with the public all the time, which means they should actually be good at it, as they're livelihood partly depends on it.

In my experience, most people are generally quite inarticulate and somewhat inconsiderate. Even very well educated and intelligent professionals i deal with every day, lack a sense of foresight and empathy. Unfortunately it's all too commonly acceptable to not be considerate of others.

Simple informal communication often avoids alot of stress and anger. People just need to understand that their own actions impact others.

I agree, it's not just tradies.

 

[browndog]

Regarding the whole slack training of apprentices thing, in my 15yrs in the aviation game, invariably the guys who became instructors were absolutely shit on the tools. I'm not saying this is commonplace everywhere or knocking anyone here, it is just what I saw. Apparently you don't need to be able to carry out a task to train someone to do it.

-Browndog

 

[Crusty]

I was so shocked today that I didn't get a phone call from Plumber 5 to tell me he will be here tomorrow.
Phoned his office, Friday 23/9, & spoke to secretary ( Wifey, partner in crime ) to book him in for Wednesday afternoon & she tells me that she will call me back today, Tuesday 27/9 to confirm Wednesday's appointment. :angry:
No ******* phone call, jack ******* shit. It's easier to buy a blow torch & some copper tube & solder the ******* thing myself. I'm beyond pissed. I'm going to call his office tomorrow & tell him to get rooted. :angry:
Seems the good old Yamba lifestyle is too easy for some of these guys. They would rather smoke bongs & go surfing than to do any work.
Maybe I'm asking a bit much that somebody could possibly have the decency to call me back when they say they will or show up when they say they will.
God damn ARSE HOLES.