How patient should I be?

[Gaz]

Long story I'm afraid

We're having a new bathroom fitted, for the first time ever we've paid somebody to do it. He's a local one man band who came highly recommended

He quoted 2 weeks to complete the job and we're now starting week 5 and it's not finished yet, he still has to lay the underfloor heating, tile the floor and fit the toilet.

He started a day late, then missed 2 days as his daughter was ill, then another day for "personal reasons" he has also messed about with not having the materials, disappeared at lunchtimes and not come back etc, then forgot to order the underfloor heating, then didn't have enough floor tiles.

Today he didn't turn up so I called him at 10.30 asking where he was, he tells me his son (21) has gone missing, didn't turn up for work yesterday and hasn't been to his girlfriends.

Now I've been more than patient up to now but am now really losing the plot that a 2 week job has taken 5 and still isn't finished. However if his son really is missing I'd be a total James Hunt to start ranting at him and insisting he finishes my bathroom.

What would you do?

[struth]

Could be true i guess, but he seems to either have a bastard of a life or he is a chancer. Also it wouldnt hurt to have let you know... Im siding with the chancer.
I was self employed for years and would never have treated a client that way.

[hifinutt]

wow , what a nightmare . on sunday i found out my favourite bathroom and kitchen guy was retiring after many years . really gutted . he was slow but he worked like a slave and was a total perfectionist .

things did go wrong sometimes like the day he spent a whole day almost trying to connect steel pipes to copper !!

this guy was highly recommended , sounds like he is having a real bad time personally especially if his son is missing . that really screws your mind . You just have to be firm but fair . try and be understanding and lets hope and pray things improve as its very frustrating

[walpurgis]

Sounds like the guy is spinning yarns to me.

If it was me, I'd tell him to get stuck in immediately and finish it, advising him that any nonsense will result in him being booted from the job and a competitor brought in to inspect and report on the work and then finish it. Telling him any additional cost or price of remedial work will be claimed via small claims court.

[hifinutt]

trouble is finding a competitor , any decent tradesmen round here you have to wait for weeks to get them , sometimes months . i had to book my bathroom guy at least 4 months in advance .

[Stryder5]

Hope you didn't pay in advance, if you havn't paid him tell him he has a specific time to finish or he won't get paid.

Sorry but if you paid up front, you were asking for just this.

Your already more patient than me.

Gary

[Pigmy Pony]

There'll be a simple explanation for the missing son - they were working together on a job, son was working under the floor, dad forgot he was there and nailed floorboards down, then left. Now he can't remember were he last saw him. This fella sounds like a real space cadet, and I'd be tempted to give him a bit more time, and see how much more creative he can get with the excuses :)

[mikeyb]

Both my daughters are self employed and they both work on the principle that no matter how crap things are at home or wherever, you make sure your client doesn't suffer because of it.

And they expect the same from people they deal with too.

Seems fair to me

[jollyfix]

2 weeks for a bathroom fit out? Even floor to ceiling tiles, underfloor heating and all the prep work ( prep work especially for tiles takes time). 2 weeks far too long I'd say.

[spm]

I think this is fairly common based on my recent experience and experience of colleagues at work. Small builders don't like turning work down so end up spinning plates keeping different jobs going. We recently had bathroom and en-suite done. Was told 7-10 days each and would do one followed by the other straight away. We were given a start date of end of September last year but it ended up being an end of October start - fair enough you can get problems on jobs that delay the start. It was finished 10 weeks later, admittedly that included Christmas. They wouldn't be around at all some weeks, often only one or two days a week. Lots of no shows where they said they would be there and they weren't. They only requested payment once each bathroom was done but I understand some request part payment up front, I would have been more annoyed if I had paid anything up front.

It was frustrating but the main thing is getting a reasonable job done.

[Gaz]

I paid him 25% upfront so he isn't getting another penny until its completed.

They annoying part is that I could have done the whole job myself EXCEPT the underfloor heating which requires an part p electrician as there's currently no spur to connect it to.

Annoying.


He's contacted me now to say he'll be here tomorrow and promises it will be finished Thursday at the latest

[struth]

hope so

[Mikeandvan]

I think its bang out of order and there should be law against it. You need your bathroom back!! Remember you can leave him a bad review somewhere on the internet, that really affects small businesses. He's obviously juggling jobs, pressure him, as I'm sure his other customers are doing.

[hifinutt]

yes and if there are any snags to fix , he will not come back to fix them !!

[jollyfix]

Any update on this Gary? I hope now completed, and to your satisfaction...
More details on the UFH, and all prep work. Most tile jobs fail due to bad prep. Most builders dont know how to prep correctly. The amount of time i have seen wrong size tiles used, wrong adhesive for tile size, poor floor prep for tiling let alone UFH. Even builders laying quartz tiles on UFH etc.

[Minstrel SE]

Nah my gut feeling is that he is a proper chancer with all the excuses under the sun. Hes juggling jobs IMO and doesnt seem to have the pro work ethic...to many tradesmen like that so where are all the good ones

You have to weigh up whether anything is being done right and if its a case of started so will probably have to finish. You will need some leeway but it sounds as though he is well past that using all the excuses that you dare not question.

The transalation is that he is probably having a ciggy down the bookies for the afternoon or on another priority job

Dont be scared though...you may have to bring someone else in for the work and get a report on what has been done. Im too soft but my dad will threaten legal action if he sees shoddy work like a kinked pipe

[alphaGT]

Whether or not his son is missing isn’t the point. If it hadn’t been for all his other absences, it wouldn’t even be a big deal. I don’t think putting your foot down is wrong either, he’s way over his estimates, being a few percent off is one thing, but 300% is a bit much. At least you aren’t into him for any money, surely you’ve gotten your 25% worth by now?

But it’s worth waiting it out. Even if you have to ride him like a rented mule, changing contractors at this time would be a big hassle. On big jobs, when they go over the deadline they begin liquidated damages, and the contractor is fined a certain amount each day until the job is finished. It definitely motivates contractors to finish on time! So, perhaps you’ve got to wait another week, once it’s over you’ll be that much wiser for it. And know better than to hire that guy again!

Russell

[Gaz]

He finally finished at the end of the 5th week and to be fair did a good job.
It was finished on the Friday afternoon, that evening I got a text asking for the payment, which I ignored, got another Saturday afternoon to which I replied telling him I had to go to a branch to transfer the funds, Monday evening another text, at this point I lost my shit and told him we'd been patiently listening to his excuses for 5 weeks so one working day isn't unreasonable for him to wait for his money. I paid him on the Thursday lol

[hifinutt]

glad it got sorted , i guess you wont be using him again though !!!!

[Pigmy Pony]

Glad you finally got it sorted. Not being funny, but you were getting a bit smelly :ner: