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Mark 'expert' Lawrenson

New fence quote

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I've always thought we should have a sticky thread on here where members with their own businesses can sell business and receive reviews in return. Not sure if that would appeal to self employed members or not?

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I've come to the conclusion that professionalism, care and standards don't actually exist in any trades now. Stick your finger in the yellow pages / local magazine and pick anyone, they'll either not turn up in the first place to quote. Won't turn up on the day you've booked them in for, won't finish the job before vanishing off to start another job or will leave your house and garden looking like a bomb site with a half arsed shoddy job.

Edited by Babylon
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41 minutes ago, toddybad said:

I've always thought we should have a sticky thread on here where members with their own businesses can sell business and receive reviews in return. Not sure if that would appeal to self employed members or not?

We had one it didn't last very long through lack of use, disappeared into the ether.

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19 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I've come to the conclusion that professionalism, care and standards actually exist in any trades now. Stick your finger in the yellow pages / local magazine and pick anyone, they'll either not turn up in the first place to quote. Won't turn up on the day you've booked them in for, won't finish the job before vanishing off to start another job or will leave your house and garden looking like a bomb site with a half arsed shoddy job.

 

I presume that should read "don't actually exist"

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45 minutes ago, Babylon said:

I've come to the conclusion that professionalism, care and standards don't actually exist in any trades now. Stick your finger in the yellow pages / local magazine and pick anyone, they'll either not turn up in the first place to quote. Won't turn up on the day you've booked them in for, won't finish the job before vanishing off to start another job or will leave your house and garden looking like a bomb site with a half arsed shoddy job.

 

I must admit, I'd never just get someone out of the Yellow Pages. Always get a recommendation, even if it means waiting.

 

Here's a lovely true story for you - a friend of mine's elderly parents got a 'plumber' out of the YP to change a shower head (yes, literally all that was needed was a new one from B&Q and the old one unscrewed and replaced), and to cut a long story short, he ended up leaving them with their front garden all dug up, no running water and NINE GRAND worse off. Needless to say, never seen again.

 

The moral of this story is that at the first sign of your decision making not quite being what it was, get a Power of Attorney.

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2 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

I must admit, I'd never just get someone out of the Yellow Pages. Always get a recommendation, even if it means waiting.

 

Here's a lovely true story for you - a friend of mine's elderly parents got a 'plumber' out of the YP to change a shower head (yes, literally all that was needed was a new one from B&Q and the old one unscrewed and replaced), and to cut a long story short, he ended up leaving them with their front garden all dug up, no running water and NINE GRAND worse off. Needless to say, never seen again.

 

The moral of this story is that at the first sign of your decision making not quite being what it was, get a Power of Attorney.

Trust me I go with recommendation if I can... the same shoddyness seems inherent, no matter where they come from.

 

I got my gutters, soffits etc done recently and it too about 10 calls to different firms to actually get someone to turn up and quote. People obviously have so much business they don't actually give a shit.

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29 minutes ago, Babylon said:

Trust me I go with recommendation if I can... the same shoddyness seems inherent, no matter where they come from.

 

I got my gutters, soffits etc done recently and it too about 10 calls to different firms to actually get someone to turn up and quote. People obviously have so much business they don't actually give a shit.

It's been like that as long as I can remember. All this stuff about BLOODY POLES coming and taking all the work doesn't seem to have ever happened in Leicester, if the tradesmen I've used are anything to go by. To be honest, if someone is available and can come and do anything other than a very small job at short notice, I get suspicious

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I wouldn't put too much faith in checkatrade or trustedtradesman or any of those firms. A customer of mine found a plasterer from one of those sites and it was the worst I've ever seen. He had good write ups on there, but they are easy enough to fake. Always go on recommendations from people you know.

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Quite easy to mess it up on your own. Simple in premise - take the old stuff out, messure up and set a line you want them to line up against, dig holes and plop grandfather posts in them every 4 meters or so, pour some quickset cement in there to hold it in straight and then install the panels.

 

Just the digging through older concrete/tarmac/gravel, making sure its all properly lined up and level. Yeah, should probably get a professional

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58 minutes ago, Webbo said:

I wouldn't put too much faith in checkatrade or trustedtradesman or any of those firms. A customer of mine found a plasterer from one of those sites and it was the worst I've ever seen. He had good write ups on there, but they are easy enough to fake. Always go on recommendations from people you know.

I agree, I had work done by someone on these sites. Glowing reviews, he ended up not being paid due to the crap job he did for me. 

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17 minutes ago, glenny_fox said:

I always use small firms out of the local mags you get. never had any problems with any of them.

 

I've always found that smaller (one man bands) rely mainly on good recommendations so are more likely to do a decent job. 

I agree with this (depending on the size of the job obviously).

It can make such a difference to these kinds of operators to pick up jobs in their local area rather than a big company who'll swallow up your money to pay their admin staff,

You get cowboys in both but usually actual recommendations are the way they operate and can be reliable (rather than faceless customer comments on a website from God knows who).

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I would normally agree with going with small firms but we had a guy come around recently, one man band as it were, straight forward job but we never heard back from him. Not bothered TBH. Believe me; it is a straight forward replacement for an existing fence, no access problems, co operative neighbours, was very tempted to do it myself - still might actually. This fella though was suggesting all sorts of potential difficulties and then he started criticising some nearby neighbour's fences, assuring me ours will be better than those...... blah ..............blah...... blah. He then said he would need to go home and work-out a quote! Cobblers. They count the panels needed and times it by £100 - at least that's what the other quotes have done.

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On 30/07/2018 at 12:13, Babylon said:

Trust me I go with recommendation if I can... the same shoddyness seems inherent, no matter where they come from.

 

I got my gutters, soffits etc done recently and it too about 10 calls to different firms to actually get someone to turn up and quote. People obviously have so much business they don't actually give a shit.

Absolutely this.

unfortunately for us this situation isn’t going to change.

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