Cowboy Tradesmen

[matelot]

Lol, I was up at my parents. Seemingly one of the neighbours had a new monoblock driveway put in a few weeks back when it was cold. The "tradesmen" had excavated the driveway and got a tipper load of sub base for the foundation. The tipper went up but the sub base was frozen solid to the side of the tipper and stayed put... They then poured petrol over the sub base in the tipper to thaw it out...

 

When it did come out they compacted it... Ffs, compacting frozen sub base is bound to give a nice solid foundation for monoblocks... 

[dig-dug-dan]

I despair at the idiots round my way. Firm starts up employing foreign nationals, flood the place with leaflets and get all the driveway work, not one conforms to suds regs, no terram used, no one can compete on price. They will then move on to another town. 

[matelot]

5 minutes ago, dig-dug-dan said:

I despair at the idiots round my way. Firm starts up employing foreign nationals, flood the place with leaflets and get all the driveway work, not one conforms to suds regs, no terram used, no one can compete on price. They will then move on to another town. 

Yeah, seemingly they worked until 9:30pm... One of them had a piss against the hedge... I'd guess they were gypsies or £4 an hour EU'ers.

[Mortimer Firewood]

We compete with them if a Cliant is only interested in the price I'm walking. 

A few of our elderly friends have had jobs done usually by been sweet talked into it and I've made sure we're there when they pick the cheque up. 

[dig-dug-dan]

One of my customers, who I had previously extended his block paved drive, had them in to rip up the old blocks, and replace with new. Simple job, but they managed to cock that up. Did not mix the blocks up, the cutting in was appalling, with some gaps up to an inch, just filled in with lion dried sand.

I asked why he did not get me to do it, and he said he didn't want it done, they kept coming back with a cheaper price, he couldn't resist. It's now got to be redone again, so he hasn't saved anything.

[tony_t3d]

I was on a job and the customer who was a family friend asked if there was any jobs a friend of his could do on the weekends to help him out with a few quid (he was paying him not me). So I dugout the areas for 2 patios and a path to join them and asked him to dump 9 ton of hardcore into areas not worrying about levels.

He done this so I went on and layed the first patio. The path to join them I hadn't done to follow the contours of the lawn as I was relaying that in the future I had leveled it from one patio to the other. I would then use this as a guide for the new lawn.

In the evening his friend come back to "take a look at my work" already this offended me but I bit my tongue. But he then went on to say I didn't have a clue what I was doing and that he could finish it quicker, cheaper and properly. I instantly took him up on his offer and packed up my tools and billed him for my time up until that point.

I got a phone call a week later asking me to come back....

Moral of the story?? Cheaper and faster isn't always better.

Pay peanuts get monkeys. [emoji87]