Thread: Tradies you gotta love them

I actually wonder if the tradie members should boycott offering advice to members who continually bag tradies

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Would you still have purchased this item for $100 more? If not then you should be able to return it and get your money back.

I think Big Shed is on the money here. To ask for more money (understandably in this case to cover a mistake), effectively asks me to to void the original agreement and reopens the negotiation process. I'd ask them how much they are prepared to sell me the items for. I'd, in turn, reserve the right to retract from the deal altogether (i.e. money back).

Question to Calm, did you know you were being undercharged at the time? Did the seller say something like "I'll give you $100 discount" or did they say something like "I'll do the lot for $824"?

Maybe I've just had a good run. I've not often had queries about the quality of a tradie's work. The ones that have been running late or whatever have called to let me know that they are late and why. As a result, I would happily do business with them again. I have had a few come and measure up and then never send the quotes (even after a few calls). They just don't get the work - their choice I guess. A pain that they wasted my time turning up and measuring, but then they miss the work and someone else got it - and friends looking to get similar work done are warned not to bother with said company.

Peter

Originally Posted by chrisp

Question to Calm, did you know you were being undercharged at the time? Did the seller say something like "I'll give you $100 discount" or did they say something like "I'll do the lot for $824"?

Daughters did the deal and just worked on the total amount. When i told them about the phone call and checked the receipts, they said that compared to where else they had checked, it was a good price and with the $100 on it would be about the same.

From a legal point of view
- i am entitled to make them stick to the amount paid.
- the sale can only be cancelled with my consent (obviously they would agree)
- to pay the extra $100 is totally my decision.
- The salesman was not a kid there were actually 3 employees doing the talking/showing/calulating, they were all experienced people.

I would pay the amount negotiated and not a penny more. It is not my responsibility if the staff made an error my way and I would hold them to it.

Further if they tried to cancel the order I would sue them for any loss I might have in purchasing elsewhere.

Anyway knowing the mark up on furniture the shop is not losing money on this deal, they are just not making as much profit as they would otherwise.


Peter.

Assuming that you shopped around beforehand, if I could get exactly the same items cheaper elsewhere, I'd point this out to them and ask them to match the next cheapest price. If the closest other price was over $100 more I'd pay them the $100.

At the same time I'd be somewhat concerned as to the profitability of that outfit if they can't wear a one-off $100 mistake, and also a little concerned that three salespeople cannot produce the correct figure in the first place! I'd be a little worried they'll muck up the rest of the order too.

Originally Posted by echnidna

I actually wonder if the tradie members should boycott offering advice to members who continually bag tradies

Why? I appreciate good tradies who give advice to others. I point out bad tradies who do sub-standard jobs. 2 separate issues here

Originally Posted by Groggy

Maybe the question is - would the shop call him if they had overcharged him?

Probably not, although I have had precisely that happen to me.
The one who will be out of money would most likely the one to make the call.

Different scenario:
Our local IGA employ a lot of highschool kids, not because they want child labour but because there are a lot of financially disadvantaged families here and they are very community minded.
My next door neighbour's daughter is 14, she was teaching another 14 years old girl the ins and outs of the check-out.
She had to go and check the price of a mug that the customer disputed the price on.
In the meantime the customer finalised the transaction and asked for $30 cash-out on her plastic. The young kid mistakenly gave her $300 instead of $30.
The customer walked away without saying a word and, because the girl next door was the one signed in on the register, she got the blame. Fortunately for her, the video was on and could prove that she was away when it happened but the young trainee had to pay that mistake out of her wages.
I know where MY synpaties lie her and it is NOT with the customer.
Wolffie

You are a hard man Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

I would pay the amount negotiated and not a penny more. It is not my responsibility if the staff made an error my way and I would hold them to it.
Peter.

I have got to agree with Peter on this one.

I have been following this thread and please don't get me wrong, as I can definitely see both sides to the argument.

At the risk of sounding harsh and heartless towards the salesperson here, for whatever reason he/she made the mistake, he/she still had a job to do and do it right.

After having to 'wear' mistakes, mis-quotes (if that's a word??) myself, it got to a point with me that I was just fed up with 'excuses'.

Personally, I think that people need to take responsibility for their mistakes. We all make them at one stage or another (myself included), but what you do about it, is what counts. Whether that's accepting your screw up and learning from it or compromising to fix it.

I had a similar conversation with a tradie this morning regarding wrongly scheduled appointments. My beef was not with him, he was just the poor b*stard who was in the middle. My beef was with his Office who screwed it up in the first place.

I work with tradies and I am very mindful that they may not necessarily be the one at fault when it comes to these types of screw ups.

At least I was able to commend him on calling me prior to the visit.

Then I get to work and find that the bank has charged me an 'over charge' fee on my credit card.

When I rang to query it, the bank rep very kindly apologised and advised that it would be credited back, as it was an error on their part. One I am sure I would have paid for if I didn't pick it up??? (apologies for my lack of trust in humanity).

If the salesperson gave Calm's daughters a total price for the 'package deal', and he/she made a mistake, then I think in this particular case, the store should wear the error, not the customer.

(Kind of ties in with a recent thread on customer service of late).

And to Wolffie's original note, I also have to agree with you. I just don't see why it is so hard for people to make a call if they are unable to make it and that applies to the customer as well..

(now I will hop off the fence I have been sitting on... and continue to watch this thread..)

Originally Posted by Calm

Not a tradie - a business - but here is an actual event that happened on Saturday.

My 2 daughters and SIL went to a bed shop to buy a new bed & mattress for another daughter who will be 21 on thursday.

They found a bed "unit" they liked but thought the mattress was not good enough so they changed the mattress to a better/dearer one (pillowtop), didn't want the doona and pillows.

The bed was $475 and the mattress was $499 and they negotiated $824 for the lot (mattress $349) and paid on my credit card.

While at Erns turnfest in Melbourne the shop rang and a very embarrassed salesman told me he had made a mistake in the calcs and it was $100 short. the mattress should have been $449 ($50 off). He asked me if i could pay the extra $100 as he would get into trouble big time. I said to him that it was their mistake and i wasn't obligated to do anything.

After some more discussion i made a proposal.............i'll finish this later


WHAT WOULD YOU DO.

Originally Posted by Calm

Daughters did the deal and just worked on the total amount. When i told them about the phone call and checked the receipts, they said that compared to where else they had checked, it was a good price and with the $100 on it would be about the same.

From a legal point of view
- i am entitled to make them stick to the amount paid.
- the sale can only be cancelled with my consent (obviously they would agree)
- to pay the extra $100 is totally my decision.
- The salesman was not a kid there were actually 3 employees doing the talking/showing/calulating, they were all experienced people.

I am sure the mistake was that the discount was calculated on $399 not $499. The company would have worn the mistake i am sure.

I said to them that it was their mistake and i would meet them half way.

Today i went in and paid the $50 on my credit card.

The manager thanked me and said the bed would be delivered on Thursday between 2 & 4 as previously arranged.

I thought that was a fair deal and one i would be happy with if i was the shop owner.

Well done Calm!
(You are more forgiving than me... )

Glad it worked out for you to a point that you were happy with.

You could have said no but didn't .

How often do tradies suffer financially? Not very often I would say.

There is very good reason for a lack of subcontractor trades these days.

That is because in the past more so in the last decade that many trades were financially screwed. Many have left.

Now theres advertising on the television paid for by government tax dollars to attempt to rectify the issue. There is good reason why there is such a large shortage of housing for people to live in. Australia doesn't have the trades to build them.

Some building trades have over a 50% drop out apprentice rate. (50% apprentices quitting prior to completion). Its not because its easy work. People forget that in their false enviable comments created mostly by the media.

The issue is the media always publish the good period which ran in the past 1 year for every 6 years of poor stagflation in the construction industry.

With ten years of low interest rates and an overheated economy built on equity stacking many more trades will leave for better jobs when they have only work for 3 days a week and the rates they are paid falls 30%+.

It is a supply and demand industry. 6 years of oversupply to 1 year of demand in the past. Trades were driven into the ground. The old boys would say, what else do I do. The new younger generation saw the lack of loyalty and don't hesitate to shift jobs when they can. There is more secure better jobs about. Thats what happened in the past, this is where it ended up. You too can have the anxiety of where your next job is next week if you like. A bit like the old Egyptian economy.