Is Good Service Dead?

[barney]

ok, so i've got a blocked sewer and i ring my mate who fixed it last time, but he's on his honeymoon in vietnam until the 4th of july.
so this morning i get the local paper and ring a "local" plumber. his ad said manly and suburbs, which is my area. it also said always on time and same day service.
so the guy on the other en of the phone quotes me something close to the cost of a packer wedding, which i sort of expected as that's what we charge to do an after hours job, and tells me that the plumber will be here between 12 and 4.
5 o'clock comes and still no plumber, not even a phone call to say he's held up. (that bit really gets up my nose, both myself at my work and my wife at hers would call if we were going to be 10 minutes late)
so i rang them and cancelled the call, deciding to wait until wednesday when my mate gets back.
at 20 minutes past 8, the plumber rings to tell me he's running a bit late and would it be ok if he came tomorrow.
and i also recognised the company name when he rang as one of the tennants in the same factory units as my work...in gladesville, which for those who don't know sydney is about 30-45 minutes away at this time of night.
how do these guys expect to keep a loyal customer base when they carry on like this. i suppose that's why they need to keep advertising.

[DiscoTDI]

Try living in or near a mining town, all of the tradies that dont work for the mines are booked out for a couple of months in advance and everyone that works in retail has a chip on their shoulder and believes that sales are owed to them and dont have to be earnt.

Car dealers dont need to haggle, if you do that you are wasting their time because the next bloke that walks in will be a miner with a lease deal at full price.

Around here we have **** all service and we are lucky if our phones work:mad:

[barney]

back in the early nineties i was working for myself as sparky in this area and the competition is pretty stiff, you'd think that for a company that has been around for as long as these guys (about 15yrs), that they would be trying to give good service to ensure their slice of the customer pie. price alone will not ensure an abundance of work, a lot of people are waking up to "cheaper is not always best", sure you will get the work, but customers will not ring you back if you don't do a good job or if you are unreliable.
sometimes you have to pay for quality

[Disco Steve]

OK HANG ON GUYS, I am a plumber by trade and would never do that to a customer. Not all tradies are the same, i cant always get there because some jobs take alot longer than expected, but doing that is ridiculous. how do they expect people to ever put up with that!

[Blknight.aus]

Not if I can help it.. well not on the mechanicing front anyway

[barney]

i'd believe you wouldn't steve. as i said, i'm a sparky and i'd like to believe most peole would have the decency to call and advise rather than wait 4 hrs before you tell the customer you are running late. these guys are just hopeless, no wonder trademen get a bad wrap.

[DiscoTDI]

Disco Steve read fully what has been written, he is not bagging the full trade what is eating him is that one the after hours callout did not turn up and then when he cancelled it the plumber called him later to see if he could turn up the next day. The issue is not that he could not make it, it is that he did not sort himself out and call the next job and say that he will be late. All the plumber had to do in this situation is call him and say I am running late will be there at .........! this is where the service nowdays sucks. Who has had pay T.V. installed and been told they will be there some time on tuesday next week? I mean what a crock that is.
In what I am saying is that there is not enough tradies in the area as most of them have been stolen by the mines.

The key is lack of communication is where most service fails today.

[willvine]

Dont eat so much curry and you wont need to call the plumber to fix the pipes .:D That service is crap I would be out of business if i did that.

[barney]

i have gone through a fair bit of bog roll in the last 2 weeks, had the backyard trotts going.
probably not so much the poo, but the paper that's got caught up in the tree roots.
BTW Will, you know the company i mean, they tend to take all of the parking spots at the office.

[Disco Steve]

this happens alot with big companys. the plumber probably let the office know he was running late and they never phoned you. that happened to me once before in my last job, and quite understandedbly the custemers are quite ****ed off when you finally get there:mad:

[DiscoTDI]

i have gone through a fair bit of bog roll in the last 2 weeks, had the backyard trotts going.
probably not so much the poo, but the paper that's got caught up in the tree roots.
BTW Will, you know the company i mean, they tend to take all of the parking spots at the office.

They wouldnt if they were out working;)

[George130]

2 years and I am still waiting for the guy who was supposed to do my drive. Spent the money anyway.

[crump]

is your toilet clogged or is sewage seeping out of your inspection hatch??If its a clogged dunny get a string mop that you dont want and stick it in the bowl, tip a bucket of water on top of it and use it like a giant plunger, you will be suprised what the suction -compression will shove thru further down the line. Otherwise try shoving a garden hose up or down the pipe from your inspection cap.Also if it is roots, you are going to have recurring problems until you get rid of the tree.No offence to plumbers, but it is all pretty basic stuff. Up here I can install a water main, hydrant whatever, do all the repairs for a small towns council services, run a chlorination plant etc.. but under the law i cant put in a sink tap or toilet cistern in a council building as I'm not a qualified plumber.We dont have a plumber in town, so you can guess who does all the work.

[barney]

no, it's not the crapper. it's the pipe. seeping out of the inpection hatch.there's another one down the front of the property above a vertical drop, that section is where the tree roots get in, it's in the garden fright beside a jackaranda

[DiscoTDI]

After you get it cleaned out, use rootox it works a treat:cool: