Saturday, September 24, 2011

Bell's going to ring Hear the alarms

They tell us that the economy's in a state, that jobs are at risk and that we should all do all we can to help avoid a double-dip recession. That's all well and good, but what can you do when tradesmen can't be bothered to accept a large job?

Our house needs rewiring; that's quite a big job, and will earn an electrician several thousand pounds, so you'd think people would be keen to take it on. We're always told to get at least three quotes, so we asked our friends for recommendations and also looked in the phone book. We generally prefer to use local independent businesses rather than franchises, and five out of the six companies I called were just that.

We were very surprised that three of them never returned my calls (I rang several times over the course of a month in case they were on holiday), and of the three that came to survey the job only one has submitted an estimate, despite the other two both saying they'd "put it in the post on Monday" when we chased them after waiting a week to hear from them. The only one who seems to want the work is the electrician from the franchise, so the job's his.

The electricians who lied to us and wasted our time are N.J.P. Electrics and M.G.F. Electrical. Don't offer them work - they're not interested.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This happened to us when we had the whole house's double-glazing replaced, frames and all. We went to local companies only and several didn't even turn up when they said they would, for the survey! One of these then called us a week later to reschedule a survey and when mum said that we'd chosen someone else who HAD bothered, they got aggressive! Err, not sure that's how you get customers!

Morty x

Trouty said...

Jan, we haven't heard from you for ages.
How about a quickie, just to let us know that you and Ned are well?