Do businesses really want work.

[davieG]

What is wrong with businesses these days it's so hard to get them to do work for you.

 

I've been trying to get someone to cut back a dangerous tree in my garden, after several calls the guy came and gave me a quote £300 and said he'd ring on Sunday to say when he could do it - no call received !!!

 

I have a property that has been damaged by fire that needs cleaning up.

 

First company emailed and called. left message no reply, rang again spoke to a guy he promised he'd call me back at 9.30 the following morning - no further contact !!!!

 

Contacted another company, success the guy came and looked and promised us a prompt quote, 1 week later it finally arrives  £2700. Tried to contact him 3 times on the phone to give the go ahead been round the houses press 1, 2 etc etc, spoke to admin staff and other personnel been promised he'd ring back no - no call received!!!

 

So that's £3000 worth of business that doesn't seem to be wanted, I thought people were desperate for work!!!

 

Totally frustrated and pissed off!!!!!

 

 

Rant over, off to hopefully get a garage to do £200 worth of repairs on my car.

[pSinatra]

I would have done your tree for half that price 

[Zingari]

I would have done your tree for half that price 

Surely you can't make those sort of promises without knowing how dangerous the tree  it is first .

It might be heavily armed .

 

Seriously though you'd have to see the size of the tree and what sort it was first would't you?  it might be a 100 year old oak or something,    and aren't there laws about cutting some  trees down even in your own garden ?

[jgtuk]

I've just had three trees taken down in my garden. Tree surgeon priced for two of the trees last August in the dark with a torch ... I told him to come in daylight but he said he didn't need to.. After many texts and reminders he turned up last weekend and almost cried when he saw them - One is ~ 40ft tall but has 5 trunks, sort of an ornamental fir tree. the other was 60-70 ft tall conifer type, the sort you see in national trust land, covered in Ivy and really knarly.. He's spent 4 half days so far and still not clear.

I won't hold him to his original quote of course but just shows how inept some people are at pricing jobs. He is also incredibly busy since the storms a few weeks ago.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

I've called 3 plumbers about a problem with our boiler (electrical fault but could be caused by a leaking water pump), one said he wasn't that good with the boiler side of plumbing, 2 told me to call and electrician instead. Called two electricians, one said he was busy for a month (ie. "f*** off"), another has been totally ignoring my calls and texts - and that's a friend's relative

 

I'll pay you, just come and fix my c**ting boiler!!

 

 

 

Back to your "dangerous" tree DavieG.. is it a cactus?

[davieG]

Dangerous as in a bit rotten with branches likely to fall off 

 

anyway with the mood i'm now in I suspect i'm more dangerous than the tree. Aaaaaaaaaah      

[Jon the Hat]

I think i have then best plumber ./ gas fitter in the world.  When my boiler went, he and a couple of his guys worked the weekend, and he even got the sparks round on Sunday afternoon to check the wiring was ok.  Legend.  Based in Woking - sorry!

 

If you want good - try looking for Worcester Bosch registered installers.

[Out Foxed]

I've noticed this too.

[MooseBreath]

These skilled tradesmen can pick and choose their jobs at the moment. Absolutely loads of work for them and hardly any competition since labour convinced a generation of would-be tradesmen that a life of welfare dependency was the way to go.

[Raj]

davie ..pm if you need a tree surgeon...I've a mate who does that

[Zingari]

davie ..pm if you need a tree surgeon...I've a mate who does that

just cuz your mate went scrumpin' a few times , it don't make him a tree surgeon Raj 

[Guest MattP]

These skilled tradesmen can pick and choose their jobs at the moment. Absolutely loads of work for them and hardly any competition since labour convinced a generation of would-be tradesmen that a life of welfare dependency was the way to go.

 

This, it's a great time to be a tradesman now.

 

My friends who work in it are doing after hours and weekend work because they haven't got enough time to do all the jobs they can.

[Zingari]

i think it's more a case of youngsters not being trained in the traditional manual  trades for the last couple of decades .

it's a shortage of tradespeople , rather than a wealth of work 

 

flippin heck , i'm sounding like an old doom merchant these days 

[Guest MattP]

i think it's more a case of youngsters not being trained in the traditional manual  trades for the last couple of decades .

it's a shortage of tradespeople , rather than a wealth of work 

 

flippin heck , i'm sounding like an old doom merchant these days 

 

Well exactly, as Moose said, why learn a trade when you can be given a house by the government for knocking out a few kids with your partner?

 

I bet you places like James Turner Street were brimming with local tradesman 30 years ago.

[davieG]

If they don't want the work why do they lead you on pretending that they do, why not say up front they're too busy. Not exactly building potential customer relations for the future when they might actually need some customers.

 

Besides I don't believe this is the reason i just think they are badly run so many of the trades people both independent and chain business seem so poorly trained or even seem to care. They put so many obstacles in the way of customers reaching them that reduces their costs but adversely affects the customer service they offer. I've seen it happen where I've worked.

 

I've tried to contact BT this week after they messed up my phone extension, can I get to speak to a human being?

 

Well it seems only after going through several automated phone systems where you have to choose one key number after another, when I eventually got through they denied it could have been them that messed it up even though they're the only people that could have. I'm now left with a phone extension with a wire hanging that I'm going to have to buy a tool to fix myself.

[Zingari]

Well exactly, as Moose said, why learn a trade when you can be given a house by the government for knocking out a few kids with your partner?

 

I bet you places like James Turner Street were brimming with local tradesman 30 years ago.

So what changed these people from industrious respectable civilians? Did they just decide em-masse to choose to be on the dole rather than have a trade ?

 The opportunity hasn't really been there to learn the trades really . You can't just keep blaming the individuals , successive governments of all shades have been at least partly responsible 

Thatcher made sure whole communities were left without the traditions of their forebears.Or would you rather believe that generation just stopped wanting to work ?

The apprenticeship scemes that were around when i left school were pretty damn good really.

[Zingari]

Why don't you cut the tree down yourself Davie?

Make sure someone's filming it though , just in case it crashes through your roof and  you could get 250 quid from YBF 

[Guest MattP]

So what changed these people from industrious respectable civilians? Did they just decide em-masse to choose to be on the dole rather than have a trade ?

 The opportunity hasn't really been there to learn the trades really . You can't just keep blaming the individuals , successive governments of all shades have been at least partly responsible 

Thatcher made sure whole communities were left without the traditions of their forebears.Or would you rather believe that generation just stopped wanting to work ?

The apprenticeship scemes that were around when i left school were pretty damn good really.

 

Well no they didn't decide, it wasn't really a choice until welfare became a big vote winner, we moved from a time where instead of it paying to go to work it started to pay to not go work, how it happened I have no idea, one thing is for sure though, only one political party encouraged it and actively used it to try and get people to vote for them.

 

Thatcher closed down businesses because it was costing the country money, it destroyed communities and sometimes wasn't right, but would you lumber the taxpayer with a bill to prop up a failing project?

[davieG]

During the 80s and 90s companies just stopped employing apprentices. I did a survey of a number of engineering companies on behalf of the EEF and they all admitted that they no longer went down the apprentice route they just took people from other companies.

 

Brush at Loughboro used to employ 100 or so apprentices every year. Some companies actually ended up with most of their engineers in the age group of 40 to 60 and were having to encourage over 65s to stay on I know that the business had declined but at the time of the review they didn't employ and hadn't employed any for 10 years or more.

 

One small engineering company had given up because the last apprentice they employed found he could earn more at McDonald and without going to college to get qualifications, a short-term get a bit extra pay now rather than more later view that seemed to be normal amongst a number of young people.

[Zingari]

Well no they didn't decide, it wasn't really a choice until welfare became a big vote winner, we moved from a time where instead of it paying to go to work it started to pay to not go work, how it happened I have no idea, one thing is for sure though, only one political party encouraged it and actively used it to try and get people to vote for them.

 

Thatcher closed down businesses because it was costing the country money, it destroyed communities and sometimes wasn't right, but would you lumber the taxpayer with a bill to prop up a failing project?

The world price of coal was low due to many other countries subsidising it to a much greater level than we were prepared to do at the time.

Some of the pits closed were said at the time to be amongst the most productive per head in the world , and it's a sad fact that these pits will not ever be viable again and it's another source of power that we are not now self sufficient  . and must rely on imports at whatever the going rate is.

 

I believe the pits were closed for political . not financial reasons 

but that's another long old drawn out argument 

[l444ry]

Very few decently trained tradesman these days, certainly in the construction industry. I've always struggled to find quality people in the past and decent window fitters/glaziers even today. Usually want silly money for their talents so very little profit in it for me, or end up putting things right myself even at my age.  

[Guest MattP]

I believe the pits were closed for political . not financial reasons 

but that's another long old drawn out argument 

 

You seriously think Wilson and Thatcher would have closed the pits had they been making a profit for the country?

 

Come on Zing, even for you that's a conspiracy theory too far!

[Jon the Hat]

My plumber was saying he is considering hiring Polish guys and training them up as Gas Safe becuase his English lads dont want to work evenings or weekends, and expect lots of money and a van they can drive all the time.  Again it seems the youngsters are not willing to put the effort in to get the longer term reward. Why would your boss stump up thousands to get you qualified if you are then going to refuse on call and extra work?

[Zingari]

We keep hearing this being trotted out over and over again.  The Poles are just the latest in a long line of saviours of UK industry  from all corners of the world.

 

Throughout my life I've heard of about half the world of immigrants who come here to do the jobs the British won't/can't do and for half the price.

 

What I never seem to find out is where these other immigrants have all gone to in these short years and why they too seem not to want to do the jobs anymore.

It won't be long before another group of workers from somewhere else will be hailed as the ones who'll do the jobs no-one else wants , and presumably the Poles will then no longer want to do them either .

[The Year Of The Fox]

Speaking for ourselves we're just too busy at the moment. We literally don't have enough plumbers- we could do with about 5.

The construction industry is on the up finally