Just annoyed - sorry for the rant! - TilersForums.com

[Verona]

Hi mates!

This is the first time I have been this annoyed with tradesmen...
A plumber we have been doing works for in the past had two jobs we quoted for a long while ago. The one job was finally ready to start 29th but got a text very late (11pm) Sunday night (only after chasing him since Friday 26th) saying the job wasn't ready until Thursday!

Needless to say it was too late to arrange another job for start Monday morning, so emailed another customer saying that the job we had booked in later the week could start already Tuesday. So far so good, other than this customer wasn't ready and then went ahead to book another tiler! So two jobs down... as in lost!

The plumber's job supposing to start 2nd July was again delayed one day, to start Friday 3rd! Again late night Thursday a text informed that the job wouldn't be ready until Saturday AFTERNOON! Who are to start a job at that time may I ask? :incazzato:

Well, started the job Monday morning 6th July - one week delayed without other jobs booked in the time wasted due to poor information from this plumber guy!

The kitchen splashback and floor was suppose to take 2-2.5 days max. It developed into taking a FULL week, finishing grouting Saturday mid day!!! :yikes: It turned out that when starting on tiling the splashback the worktop not entirely installed, so this would only be finish 5 days later on Saturday.
All of a sudden the hallway was to be tiled as well (not a problem as underfloor heating in kitchen wasn't installed as promised). Was told late Tuesday when requesting an update that this would be done Wednesday, so leaving us with another wasted day without enough notice given to take on another job. :juggle2:

The underfloor heating was then suppose to be in place to start tiling in the morning of Thursday - went on site only to find the house locked and the plumber not arriving until 9.30 starting to lay the underfloor heating!!!
Assisted laying the UFH as nothing else to do. Started tiling at noon! Went back Friday to finish floor and grout the hallway. Only to having to return Saturday to finish the splashback as worktop then installed.

Original quote accepted was £320. Was told by the plumber to charge extra as the 3 sq meter hallway wasn't included in quote. Did so and added a bit extra for assisting laying the underfloor heating, in total £120 extra (with a reminder to the plumber that the job had been delayed a week and taken twice the time).

Now I have just received this email from him saying:
"Extra costs of £130 i find to be a little excessive for the extra few hours
that the job went over. I am willing to pay extra £80 bringing total to
£400"

I am speechless - this is clearly a guy who should know the day rate of any tradesman and then been treated like this.
For me it isn't just only a few hours extra as it is time wasted not being notified to secure other jobs (as clearly knowing the job was delayed to start with), extra time spend going forth and back for 6 days rather than 3 (outside city), not to mention cut in day rate to less than National Minimum Wage for this guy!:7:

Sorry for the rant...
Has any of you experienced this? How did you react to it?
Was £120 really too much to ask for? :huh2:

Cheers,
Stina (not the tiler I have to say)

 

[faithhealer]

Only the first time you've been annoyed!! You are doing well
Give him a bill for lost time and tell him he's getting off lightly or he'll do it to you again

 

[Verona]

Only the first time you've been annoyed!! You are doing well
Give him a bill for lost time and tell him he's getting off lightly or he'll do it to you again

Cheers Faithhealer,
Well, first time being THIS annoyed. Needless to say that this will be the last job done for him. Not even bothered about the other job! He has even stated that our prices are very fair when asking him a year ago.

I thought I was pointing out the fact that time was indeed lost and that £130 extra was being extremely fair to begin with.

How much would you charge for lost time in this case - and how would you point it out any clearer?

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

i finished tiling a kitchen floor on friday which i had booked in a month ago and was then postponed due to "problems" with the kitchen fitters? quoted for ceramic tiles grey 30 x 30 as this was what the customer was supplying. arrived at the job to find they had bought travertine floor tiles 50 x 40 with no word about the change from the customer. explained to customer that we had agreed on ceramics and that extra costs would be incurred for the new tiles as they needed to be treated differently ie different adhesive,sealed etc. oh said the customer the should that sold us them didnt say that but ok then.
and btw can we have a different grout colour as we dont want the original colour as the tile colour has changed. anyway when i had finished the job 10sqm floor originally quoted £350.00 new bill came to £380.00 as i had the sealer in the van and my supplier exchanged the addy and grout for me(just payed the difference). when they paid me they handed me a envelope with cash inside. Counted out £280.00 explained that they were £100.00 short of the bill, no they said you originally qouted £250.00 to tile the floor and that is what we are paying plus the extra. sorry i said but my orininal quote was for £350.00 which we agreed on and showed them the copy i had with me and asked for theirs to confirm. oh we seem to have mis-placed ours but you said £250.00 and that is what we are paying so take it or leave it?:yikes:

phoned the kitchen fitters that had cause the delay to discover that the "problems" were that the customer had added extras on but did not want to pay and then payed short and argued over bill.

 

[DHTiling]

So you lost another job down to this plumber...?...i wouldn't have put the job off..if the job could not be pulled forward i would have let it be and told the plumber to wait on his job...after all the delay was not your fault..
Does my nut in when other trades have no consideration for following trades.....But at least not all are like this and 99% of the time it is fine...but is very annoying when you lose for because of it.