OT How to find a reliable tradesman

[Bill Wright]

To a certain extent you can do that, by which time you've probably wasted an hour.

In the case of the

All that shows is that you intend to have the job done, or do it yourself. It doesn't reassure the tradesman at all that he will get the work.

Very little it appears, and the saving in time and overheads is enormous. If it loses one genuine job and saves four time-wasters it is well worth while, and I'm sure it does better than that. The object of being in business is to make money, not do a lot a of work. A firm that employs low-paid salesmen and wants to expand might find it worthwhile to have guys running around issuing quotes. It isn't worth while when the man having his time wasted charges time on site out at £70 per hour on paid jobs, and when you have no desire to expand the amount of work at the expense of the quality of the service offered.

As I said before we'll happily quote over the phone for simple jobs, and we'll stick to it even if it turns out we've underquoted.

Bill

[Mark]

No wonder it's so difficult to find tradesmen if they have this attitude.

[Bill Wright]

Having someone call out to talk a load of bullshit does not guarantee that the job will be done properly. Someone has to pay for all this running about issuing 'free' quotes and it has to be the customers.

It might be common practice, but so is shop lifting. Anyone who steals my intellectual property is taking a serious risk.

Bill

[Nightjar]

You should be able to filter out most very quickly on the phone.

Getting the work is part of the skill of giving quotes, not a god-given right just because you quote. Not getting it is part of the normal risks of running a business.

How do you measure that? I wouldn't even come to you if I knew you charged for quotes, so you would not know you had lost my business.

Your approach may work if you get more work than you can handle, but I consider it a poor business model.

Colin Bignell

[Mark]

Agreed. However without giving out free estimates/quotes I am surprised you can get any work. And none of this helps the OP except to confirm it is virtually impossible to get a tradesmen.

So sue them.

[Bill Wright]

Some of them are very cunning.

And like all risks has to be minimised. So we don't waste our time on time wasters.

That's the attitude we try to filter out.

It's kept me well off for a lifetime, so it can't be that bad.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

As I said I'll quote on the phone for a domestic job, and stick to it. But site visits are chargeable. Don't you worry, them that mean to have it done don't mind paying a bit up front. Remember, a lot of our bigger jobs don't start off needing a quote, they start off with the customer needing us to spend time discussing the options, and also probably walking around the building planning the locations of equipment, etc. I can that as consultancy, not quote giving.

Not normally. There are other, cleverer ways.

Bill

[Mark]

I wouldn't ask anyone to do this. Many people can't describe the job well enough and there may be difficult access to make the job harder. You could always quote high to cover this but you may price yourself out of the job.

I doubt anyone would be willing to pay up front unless they were 100% sure they would use you. Otherwise they could be throwing money away. Do you not have any competition?

I wouldn't be happy paying up front to a company where I had never met anyone of their employees. And I would never ask for a quote if I wasn't serious. What would anyone do this - it wastes everyone's time.

fairy nuff. But if the customer does actually know what they want and does not need any 'consultancy'?

What?

[Broadback]

I understand why peeps have a reluctance to visit for a quote. However looking at it from the customers point of view if I don't get more than one quote how can I gauge if it is rip off quote or under quoted so that the job quality suffers?

[Nightjar]

...

The way to minimise the risk is to get your quoting right. I have been involved in quotes that required a team of people to spend a week or more working on them and nobody ever dreamed of charging to quote.

Colin Bignell

[ARW]

An address and google streetwiew?

[ARW]

We have two people employed full time working out quotes. Their wages are for paid by the jobs we "win".

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite. It never has been easy to 'find' a very good one.

Or like I said, the most desperate.

[Bill Wright]

It has been known for us to use Streetview, yes. Always interesting when the location is city centre and the customers says you can park 'nearby'.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

And was this for a £100 TV aerial?

Bill

[Bill Wright]

"What's the address?" (customer gives address) "Oh yes, I know it. Are you in one of the bungalows or one of the detached houses further up?" "We're in a bungalow." "Yes, well there are no particular problems with TV reception in that area so it should straightforward."

Not much, because the quality of our work is high, and most work is by word of mouth.

I don't know why, but they do. Sometimes they're wondering if they can afford it.

I'd judge each one on its merits.

Can't tell you that.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

You can't tell that by getting quotes. You would need to specify every item used for one thing, and you can't do that. Suppose you get a quote for a simple domestic job described as 'a high gain digital aerial'. Is the aerial a good quality benchmarked one, appropriate for the reception area, or is it a contract type? Is the mast strong enough? Is the mast steel or aluminium? Are the fixings adequate? Are the fixings galvanised? What kind of cable is it? Does the bloke know what he's doing? Is proper test equipment used? Does he have public liability insurance? You could get two quotes, one double the other and they'd both be valid in their own way.

People who ring round getting prices are generally wasting their own time and everyone else's. If you need a job doing get a recommendation from someone you can trust and then let the bloke do his job.

Bill

[tim.....]

how is someone who doesn't use your services because they are too expensive, a time waster?

tim

[tim.....]

I can see how that works for Bill, but how can *you* tell how good a house's wiring is this way?

tim

[ARW]

It tells me nothing about the wiring:-). It does however give me a good idea of what route I would use to lay a new cable for say a new shower. I will, in most cases, have worked in an "identical" house.