Cowboy Trap and their ilk

[Deleted member 37751]

Having a morning off, I have come across the Cowboy Trap on BBC1.
Being a Carpenter, these programmes really only fan the flames about 'Cowboy Builders' and get people paranoid.
How about starting a programme about
'Customers who don't pay on time' or
'Customers that want everything doing for free' or
'Customers that change their mind halfway through a job and expect you to pay for it'
Sorry but I just needed to get that off my chest.

 

[Shude]

"Customers who think bespoke items should be cheaper than off-the-shelf". Yes, these people exist!

 

[camerafodder]

I no longer deal with private clients. They can be an absolute nightmare. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice people out there but hells teeth the bad ones can make your life a misery.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Don't watch Daytime TV, but I had a recent and trying example of when builders got it wrong, in this case the sealant on two renovated bathrooms in the flat above not being applied properly or being from a bad batch. First they flooded my sitting room and the only way to fix it was to cut a big hole in my ceiling and repair from underneath (by this stage the bathrooms upstairs had been covered in thick marble), and then the same in my bathroom.

They were intensely apologetic, promised to get it properly repaired and when I returned from a ten day trip they had completely restored both rooms (including areas unaffected) and did a superb job, plus I got a very nice bottle of port from the guy. While this may sound oddly masochistic, so well did they recover from a bad situation that when I have refurbishments done next year they will be on the list to quote to do the job.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I no longer deal with private clients. They can be an absolute nightmare. Don't get me wrong, there are some nice people out there but hells teeth the bad ones can make your life a misery.

Part of my problem used to be that I would 'come to the rescue' of people that had had their leg lifted and would be on the defensive.
Example of my last job before getting out of the trade-
Kitchen been fitted to a poor standard, half finished.
I come in and tell the customer the price and it is that way because I am literally going to have to rip it out and start again.
I then get the poverty story 'the last carpenter had all my money so I'm on a very tight budget' So they want me to work for next to nothing because of their bad choice in tradesmen!
Against my better judgement, I took the job on out of pity.
Needless to say, you can imagine the rest.....

 

[camerafodder]

Part of my problem used to be that I would 'come to the rescue' of people that had had their leg lifted and would be on the defensive.

This can also lead to what I call 'inherited problems' where you somehow seem to become embroiled in and take responsibility for problems with the original job that you did not cause and end up fixing them for nothing and receiving no thanks either.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

This can also lead to what I call 'inherited problems' where you somehow seem to become embroiled in and take responsibility for problems with the original job that you did not cause and end up fixing them for nothing and receiving no thanks either.

I finished fitting the kitchen after doing two 12 hour days and she said 'it would have been nice if you could have finished the skirting and architrave, but nevermind'
I had even given her a written qoutation to sort the kitchen ONLY!
I'm glad to be out of the trade, to be honest.....

 

[EDZ649]

You might find this site interesting.....

Welcome to Roguecustomer.com

 

[pipmk]

How about a program called "Not all people behave well all the time" and leave it at that.

 

[Mr E]

Customers like this was the main reason I gave up photography as a job and moved into what I do now.

Some people were never pleased whatever you did, and life was too short.

 

[BlackC55]

You want to try fixing cars for a living.

 

[finisterre]

I'm glad to be out of the trade, to be honest.....

#

I was a jobbing builder, kitchen fitter for a few years, I too am glad not to be working for people that want a good job at bad job prices.

I couldn't make that pay.

 

[finisterre]

You want to try fixing cars for a living.

Sounds okay, the last lady i worked for had me doing the school run.

 

[Mike Walker]

Situation is no different anywhere IMHO. I work for a National Main Contractor and Clients still try and turn you over, pay late, don't pay, change things without variations to the Contract etc etc. Our motto is 'head down and finish the job' because not doing so will cost you even more in the long term.

 

[Darrell]

You all want to try to work in the holiday business.

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

Against my better judgement, I took the job on out of pity.
Needless to say, you can imagine the rest.....

If anything learn from this one

 

[davidjpowell]

I well remember, back in the early 90's, when the house prices were dropping, someone coming into the office, carrying the Sun. "It says here that house prices have increased in the North - put my house price up". Two weeks later, was being asked why it was not selling.......

There are some people, in my experience who you can never ever please.

I had one as a client earlier this year, who was hospital passed to me. He knew what he wanted, but was not very good at communicating that. On top of that he had high expectations of his projects, but very low expectation in terms of pay, which meant odd job men level. We agreed that I would rather not work for him!

 

[rossyl]

It's not just in "the trade" but any service industry, from carpentry to accountancy and everything in between.

You give a quote, the client asks you to look at other things - when it comes to the bill, they want a reduction.

The difference however is that with builders, plumbers, etc...you are letting them into your home, your private space, your place of solitude. You cannot get away from issues created in your home, you are more protective of your home and you are also forced to trust someone far too early in your working relationship - i.e its a stressful experience and the builder etc is put in a position of responisbility and power.

Ripping you off is easier and seen worse.

I've had my fingers burnt - and that always makes you weary. However, I always try and find decent people - and always pay...even when I do have reservations.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Situation is no different anywhere IMHO. I work for a National Main Contractor and Clients still try and turn you over, pay late, don't pay, change things without variations to the Contract etc etc. Our motto is 'head down and finish the job' because not doing so will cost you even more in the long term.

When the floods came three years ago, I had a contract to repair the flood damaged houses and getting paid from the main contractors was an absolute joke.
I took the work on to be paid by a thirty day invoice but it didn't work out like that in their mind e.g. their payment took four days to go through, which they processed after the thirty days to the nearest Friday and then if the thirty days dropped on a saturday, they would start the process the Friday after. So in effect, I could be looking at getting paid on 43 days!
All the while, I had to pay wages, buy materials etc

 

[Deleted member 37751]

If anything learn from this one

This is why I am in the process of getting out!