We have a largish house. That’s not a bragging thing, thats just by way of explaining the size of the pergola/awning/what-ever-you-call-it-in-other-countries (veranda?) we want built.
The house is a C shape basically, and we pretty much want to fill in the ‘C’, plus a bit more, with this roofed structure that we can sit out under in the summer, and freeze our body parts off under in winter and as our fingers slowly drop off, we can declare loudly how glad fucking we are to have it and wasn’t it a grand idea…
So it’s all good, until we realise we need quotes. Oh. My. God. The quoting thing. I hate it. MOTH hates it.
Why? Because all the tradeys we have had around our place for various quotes over the last couple of years have pretty much been dickheads. Idiots. Asshats. You call to book them to quote? They don’t turn up. They don’t ring back, they don’t DO…anything. It’s SO hard to give them work and PAY them for it! If they do a job, you can bet they leave a godawful mess behind.
But we want our pergola, so we finally get 3 dudes to quote.
Dude 1. Nice guy from large company, measures up, provides computer generated drawings, spends time deciding on stuff with us in his showroom. But…..we expect him to be pricey due to the overheads large companies have - but it ends up being competitive. The dog likes him too - this is important.
Dude 2. Local company. Measures up, quotes on the spot. HAS THE CHEAPEST PRICE - booyah!!!!!! And? The dog likes him.
Dude 3. Larger company. Didn’t like him when I rang to ask for a quote. Jumped down my throat on the phone saying “I don’t come out of hours, you know!” Screw you bud, I didn’t ask you to.
So, he turns up anyway. The dog doesn’t like him, and his quote ends up being $5,000 more than Dude 2, and $4,000 more than Dude 1. Holy hell. How does THAT work?
Dude 3 called me yesterday (at 8.00 freakin’ am!) to see how we found his quote. I told him he’s way out of the ballpark in comparison to everyone else. He asked who the other quoters were. I wouldn’t tell him and said “I don’t think that’s either relevant, or any of your business. Shouldn’t you be more concerned with your pricing structure given it is so out of whack with everyone else?”.
Note: Never call me in the morning. I am NOT nice before at least 10.00am and generally don’t like anyone. Ask my kids.
Anyway, he pretty much hung up on me. I chuckled and thought see you dickhead.
I knew the dog was a good judge of character. She pretty much likes everyone. But if she doesn’t like a person, you can pretty much bet it’s with good reason.
Had any good experiences with tradesmen? Got an insight into their asshatty behaviours?
11 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Why is it so hard to give money away to some people? Ahhh. yes, they might have to actually WORK for it!
Mrs. Schmitty: That’s just it - they mustn’t want the money!
S
By Mrs. Schmitty on 06.27.08 10:28 am | Permalink
Sorry, I got nuthin good for you. The last lot of tradeys we had out, either quoted us and then sent a letter to say they were WAY too busy to accomadate us, or didn’t show up or when they came, did a half arsed job of it. They’re buggers.
Tiff: Buggers sums most of them up really well - they drive me nuts
S
By tiff on 06.27.08 11:39 am | Permalink
Contractors can be a real pain in the ass. If asshat number three shows back up, sic the dog on him. That should do the trick.
Evyl: I couldn’t sic our dog on anyone! Aside from a bit of a growl and a bark? She’s a big baby!
S
By Evyl on 06.27.08 4:25 pm | Permalink
The guy who did our driveway was my favourite … not
If I asked him a question, when he answered he’d look over my head and answer to my husband.
And when I was disputing the bill at the end (as it was more than he quoted), it turned into me yelling at him, when he said to me that before he was in the driveway business he was in an IT company in a “much higher position than you’ll ever be”
Fleat: Oh charming aren’t they? Was he feeling inadequate much?
S
By Fleat on 06.27.08 8:53 pm | Permalink
the dog always knows!
lmao
We are still waiting for the tradesmen to finish a few things from our kitchen fire repairs………. six months ago! I’ve given up.
Bettina: Six months! How can you stand it???
S
By Bettina on 06.27.08 9:56 pm | Permalink
I would have just told him that the dog didn’t like him. Arsehat. How do people like that stay in business?
Kelley: Dunno, but they shouldn’t. Asshats
S
By Kelley on 06.28.08 6:13 pm | Permalink
That’s why we try to do the work ourself.
Red: Yeah, we’d like to, but have a combination of being time poor, and chronically lazy - take your pick
S
By Red on 06.29.08 1:10 am | Permalink
What an ass!
Maria: You’re not wrong!
S
By Maria on 06.29.08 9:02 am | Permalink
Tradespeople usually do have very poor customer service skills. I’ve got my son’s career all mapped out. He’s going to be a tradey and I’ll be his manager - not saying he’ll be an asshole tradey but if I’m his manager he can concentrate on doing the actual work. This may never happen - he’s only 7.
Jen: I want one of my sons to be a dentist, and the other a builder. I think that’d just about cover most things. They on the other hand, are refusing to cooperate - oddly enough for teenagers!
S
By jen on 06.30.08 4:03 pm | Permalink
The best experience I had was with the guys who installed the gutters. They misquoted the price in the contract. They quoted for gutters for just the back of the house, when we were getting gutters on both the front and back. After rereading our contract a few says later, I called and was told, it was their mistake and they would honor the contract as it was written!
They did a beautiful job. This experience stands out because it was so unusual.
And our dog like them also.
Carol: See the good ones really stand out because the rest are SO crap!
S
By carol on 07.01.08 1:46 am | Permalink
We rely on our Maremma sheepdog (pics on my blog) to select our tradesmen. He hated two of the electricians that came out to quote recently. The third he thought was fantastic. Turned out the third quote was HALF the first two. He did a great job, too.
fejkat: Maremmas are beautiful! I don’t know what it is dogs pick up on with people, but ours is usually right.
S
By fejkat on 07.01.08 3:55 pm | Permalink
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>