New house, new user

[Mary Fisher]

Not the idea of the tag user though, in this case.

[Owain]

If Mary used sigs they would be individually handcrafted for the recipient in wrot iron and yew, lovingly packed in a willow basket (which could also be used as an eco-coffin) and taken to the post office on the back of the scooter so it could be posted with licky-on stamps.

Owain

[Mary Fisher]

Mary relies on her own words to get across a message :-)

I've never wrot an iron in all my life!

Mary

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you think the 'other cases' are all my own work you're even more stupid than you sometimes appear.

[The Medway Handyman]

What a load of cobblers. All tradesmen need to attract new business. Recommendation is simply part of a marketing package.

Even more cobblers.

[Mark]

most definitely not all, see below

Of all the self employed tradesmen I know and use, bricklayers, plasterers carpenters, none advertise at all or have sign written vans, the exception are the plumber and electrician and they only have the accredited trade logos on their vans. Firms like Pimlico plumbing need the van/yell advertising to attract new punters who have not been bitten yet. My brother who has run his own building firm for 40 years has signwritten vans because his clients seem to expect it but he had to remove the contact details 20 years ago, all of his work comes from personal recommendation and he has to turn away 90% of enquires.

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[Andy Hall]

There are gas fitters and heating engineers as well.

That may be true, but it is not reasonable to say that every firm that sign writes its vehicles is fly by night.

There are some types of business that work with short jobs with little repeat business and they have to be constantly looking for new opportunities. That does not equate necessarily to the person being bad.

I wouldn't take that as a measure of quality, but rather of business ineptitude. If he is *that* good, he should be looking to expand his business, not throwing it away.

[Mary Fisher]

In your opinion. My experience is the same as Mark's.

Mary

[manatbandq]

Then *he* most likely wouldn't be doing the work.

MBQ

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd not expect a general builder to have a posh looking vehicle. Because of the use it will get. However, there's no reason why a general handyman shouldn't keep his van clean and tidy.

[Mark]

Yes but this is specifically about building trades, not pet grooming carpet cleaning or fish mongers With a firm like Pimlico plumbers you are at the mercy of how good the bod that shows up at the door, but you will undoubtedly be paying OTT for his smart vans and advertising bill, how about two men and £900 to fit two taps ?

>> > My brother who has run his own building firm for 40 years has signwritten

The amount of work that he can handle is entirely governed by the number of suitably experienced and skilled tradesmen he can find to employ. He's not exactly in the budget extension business.

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[Andy Hall]

True.

all people with sign written vans in the building trade as charlatans.

So he turns work away because the enquiries are from people who have no clue about what things cost, are time wasters and don't want to pay for a quality production? If he's doing that, then I applaud. However, he could still perhaps get a finders fee for a referral.

[Mark]

Im not, I don't know every single tradesmen in the country but the fact is that established and quality tradesmen are in very very short supply, and mostly booked for weeks/ mouths/years in advance. If they are not busy and need to advertise heavily like Pimlico, Dolphin, and Everest I would have to ask Why

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