Slow tradesmen

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

What is the longest a tradesman has taken to complete a job for you? We signed a contract with a plumber/electrician in April 2006 and still to date the work has not been completed! In fact I've done some of it myself. So that's 18 months so far. Can anyone beat that?

R.

[Just Katie]

My husband? 

Well he decided to give the bathroom a makeover and I have been without tiles and a sink for 2 years.

Mind you, he is not really a workman as I dont pay him. 

It gets a bit miserable cleaning your teeth over the bath.

[Framboise]

I waited 7 years for a gutter on the extension OH built.  And he is a builder.

He doesn't get paid either Katie!

Best way I found to get him to do things is to make some feeble attempt at it myself then he grabs the screwdriver/painbrush/whatever from me,  tutting loudly, then does the job.  Works every time [:D]

[Jinty]

Works every time, wonder when they will catch on..[:P]

 

[Poppy]

We waited six years for an electrician to put some lights in the cave. He died before he did the work.

[Panda]

[quote user="Poppy"]We waited six years for an electrician to put some lights in the cave. He died before he did the work.[/quote]

LOL, what a b*st*rd, some people will go to extraordinary lengths to get out of a bit of work won't they!

[Panda]

I've had a thought about this, do you think that women plumbers and the other trades are as bad at not turning up.  I just can't believe that if I rang a woman and said please come and finish, the kids are sat in the bath in the lounge etc. etc. I just don't think they would ignore it like men can.

I know that sexist but what do you think?

[Deimos]

[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]What is the longest a tradesman has taken to complete a job for you? We signed a contract with a plumber/electrician in April 2006 and still to date the work has not been completed! In fact I've done some of it myself. So that's 18 months so far. Can anyone beat that?

R.

[/quote]

I think it important to distinguish between the wait for an artisan to start the job and then how long beyond that to actually finish the job.

for example, I was quoted 6 months before my local plumber could start work replacing a gas boiler flue.  He eventually got round to starting after only 18 months - which was impressive.  It was only a 1 day job but it actually took 3 months to complete.  All in all pretty quick for French artisans.

Ian

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Our plumber started reasonably quickly, within a couple of weeks. Then he promised everything would be done by Xmas (2006) and we've seen him a couple of times this year. He did some work for our neighbours a few months back, and hasn't even returned with the final bill. Must be doing well.

[Deimos]

You do get some "typical" ones and some good ones.  I had a plumber arrive same day, do the work there an then and then change only 60€ for a full afternoon's work.  No problems with the work either.  I've had a Charpente need a little push after a week for a devis, but then devis next day and work done two days later.  Really well done, reasonable price (30€ per hour), no complaints what so ever.

I think there are good artisans out there, just not easy to find.  For larger jobs I expect there would be a longer wait.

People often say that if somebody does not have a large back order book then they are probably not very good (either too expensive or bad work - so most people would be avoiding then thus no wait).  I have found examples where this is not the case and I suspect that it might depend on the types of work the person likes to do.  Whatever the reason some are good, some not so good same as I found in the UK.

Ian

[LEO]

[quote user="Poppy"]We waited six years for an electrician to put some lights in the cave. He died before he did the work.[/quote]

So his lights went out !

before yours went in!