1. Joiner " You're trying to tell the tradesmen what to do" yep that's what you're there for to do the job you were hired for. He just didn't lay the support battens because he knows best. 2. I ask for them to solder copper pipe. Tradesman. "can't I just use push fit". They don't tell you their soldering looks like bird droppings. If I wanted push fit I can do it my self I can even solder when I'm pushed so what do I need you for again? 3. Ask 10 detailed questions about a job then say "sorry I don't do screeding' If you can't screed don't waste my time. 4. I can't do your screeding but I will pop round next week and take some of your glued Particle board up so I can take a look. What do you want to look for numb nuts. Its a concrete slab underneath. I told you what was there, and you can't do the job anyway. 5. Me I need a shower... Him "I'll just chop through the thick pipes on your boiler and put a reducer in" . THOSE ARE THE HEATING PIPES ! 6. Gas 'engineer' big company who didn't bring any seals on a reseal job. Who I had to send to the shop and ring order and pay for them my self. "I've cross threaded your heat exchanger after removing all the nuts including the one which never gets removed. because you told me not to undo the nuts. You told me that because its a push fit which fits on with a clip. But I'm a twat. "here You need to by a new exchanger." I repaired the thread he bodges it again ps "I know the water is leaking ( pouring) out of your boiler it's just a small leak but I need to go home because it's getting late" .company tried to charge 40 quid for a descale I did my self while he went for the seals he should have brought. The dumb ass still put an o ring on Which just squashed out. 7. Gas 'engineer'. "You don't want to be conned by all that talk about cleaning your radiators out,". Translation. I can't be arsed and wonder if you're dumb enough to viod the warranty on the boiler. Should save me 3 hours I'll still pocket that 3+grand. Enough time for a pint after work eh 👍 8. Bricklayer" you do know your pond will only be 1meter by 2 metres don't YOU, and it will come up above the soil by a foot. Yep that's why I dug a hole 1x2x1m numb nuts. The fence and hard standing either side kinda give it away. Indonesian guys in flip flops build these outside their front doors on busy traffic streets and you're arguing about one in a private garden already dug for you. 9. Plumber 25+ stone who also didn't want to solder despite the company agreeing on a soldering job. 20mm wall cavity and a 3 inch wifi gap left water shut off. "I've run out of time, I have another customer waiting". Really? Do you really? 10. Plumber " You've put your radiator on in the wrong place". No numb nuts you're supposed to refit chromed copper pipe from the ceiling to the new rad. 'can't you use push fit' no I really can't. 'I haven't anything to solder with'. I have all the gear...... Second thoughts. Here's a tenner for comming out, no hard feelings eh. When you want the colour you picked on the wall and they think they know better. Bounus sexist round 11. Joiner " not a bad job for a girl" . 12. Plumber "Whoever did your tiling did a good job." Thanks it's my tiling. "no Im saying who ever did it did a good job" (repeat) frustrated Yer numb nuts that's right who ever did it was amazing. 🙄 He didn't get a call back from us. Failure to listen.
I'm a trained qualified time served bench fitter (General engineering which also gave an nvq for all three major trades.) Also been an Alevel lab technician phys chem and bio. I now make fine jewellery. Sexism is alive and well. Some supposedly qualified people are dangerous. Arogance narcissism and a lack of listening skills seem to be rife I'm at the end of my tether with a string of these people. They just delete the bad reviews on things like yell. That's how they get away with it. You need to prevent bad reviews being deleted. All the bad cowboys will then flag up pretty quickly because they get their mates and family to post positive reviews and delete neg ones. Untill this is addressed it's a loosing battle.
Electricians who ghost because they can't wire in a underfloor heating thermostat to the mains. Had two useless ones. 👻👻👻👻👻👻 Plenty of ghosters. Some even give a quote and then ghost. 👻🎃
With respect, please stop calling yourself an engineer, as you are an electrician and not an engineer. I am a qualified engineer and don't go round calling myself an electrician! Nice vid though, thanks for posting.
@@DanstheEngineer CEng? Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect mate. There are often times I wish I'd trained as an electrician rather than doing electrical/electronic/software engineering degree - I'd love to be able to work for myself for example.
100% with you on reputation. My colleague and I are mainly domestic but the positive reviews are what get us most of the work. Detailed quotes also. Yes. Definitely. Our uniform thing. Niceic t-shirt with company name and dark work trousers.
What review system do you use? Regarding having branded t shirts with your CPS, I'm actually against that. You're paying to advertise them..... clients don't care who or what they are. Use the space on the t shirt to advertise your logo and website!
@@DanstheEngineer Couldn't reply till now, effing youtube. We use checkatrade (stop groaning). It works well for our situation which is kinda odd for the UK. We're based in a smallish town that's not readily accessible by road, (due to coastal geography) , so bigger concerns aren't interested (too much travel). Oddly the same problem keeps away most of the cowboys. The reason for the prominent use of the logo of a basically commercial operation, is 'going with the flow'. Being a small town, lots of our work is actually small commercial, rather than domestic. It pleases the authority to have a logo they recognize. It was a choice. I agree with almost all of your points in the video. The only difference is where we work, the lack of cowboys undercutting (the inaccessibility thing). Any cowboy operating locally WILL get noticed. Kitchen fitters are still a problem though :\
@@TheChipmunk2008 okay, I'm familiar with checkatrade. I don't agree they do enough to stop incompetence and it is misleading to the consumer for sure, but they should be highlighted by authorities that they are a review site and that's all they are. It used to work well for me. I lost a huge contract and it filled some gaps temporarily but actually there are others ways to use reviews to gain work. The problem with restricting yourself to checkatrade is that all you're going to get is a checkatrade customer.... If you have a niche in your area, great! I've always preferred commercial over domestic.
@@DanstheEngineer I'm the subbie for a one man band ... i call him my colleague because that's what it is, but hmrc don't need to know that. Joking aside... I too prefer commercial. The customers understand the way it is. Domestic customers are like 'it worked fine for 70 years, why do you need to damage my wall'..lol
@@TheChipmunk2008 sounds like a good gig and he is a colleague. Even when I had my team working for me and even some of my suppliers, I'd call them colleagues!
Hi Dan. Great advice mate. Im an Approved Contractor with NIC but really looking to get involved with fire alarm installation, i just dont have any exposure. Would you suggest taking a course and will that be sufficinet to start off with. And also any recommendations for the particular courses.
Cheers. I have many guys asking about getting into fire.... I may do a video on this topic as I love fire! Fire alarms are a completely separate trader to being an electrician. Electricians are some of the worst offenders of installing fire alarm system, mainly due to lack of knowledge. Sparks tend to wire them very well but the regulations need to be understood. Being and electrician just ticks one box on the road to competency of installing fire alarms. Firstly, buy BS5839-1. Read it. It isn't a big document and pretty straight forward. Then I recommend sitting the FIA UK courses. By far the leading organisations for fire alarm training. Certsure do shorter courses and cost less but I haven't sat them so can't really comment. The FIA courses are viewed as the minimum now in the industry, if you are trying to get a route in. They cost a far bit and are lengthy but it's for a good reason. The FIA are a great organisation for fire resource as well.
Great info Dan. It realy gets to me when I see dodgy workmanship, theres is no excuse for it. Especially when the customer is paying a lot of money for the work to be done. I'm a 3rd generation electrician and take a lot of pride and satisfaction in my work. I do charge a higher rate for myself as I know my customers are getting a 100% correct job done by myself, they are happy to pay that and are repeat customers.
I hate seeing poor value for money so totally relate. Repeat work is vital for business so every job should be treated as if they are a client for life.
To me it depends. There's not to regs, (diagonal wiring outside zones) and downright bloody lethal (1mm feeding a 7.2kw shower, yes i've seen it, yes i have pics) I am with you on pride in your work and kudos for charging accordingly. Well deserved :) but dodgy workmanship takes 2 forms: those who don't know what they're doing is bad, and those who know, and couldn't care less. Guess which i hate most
Let me know your experiences with coming up against the cow boys and if you have any issues you need to overcome!
1. Joiner " You're trying to tell the tradesmen what to do" yep that's what you're there for to do the job you were hired for. He just didn't lay the support battens because he knows best.
2. I ask for them to solder copper pipe. Tradesman. "can't I just use push fit". They don't tell you their soldering looks like bird droppings. If I wanted push fit I can do it my self I can even solder when I'm pushed so what do I need you for again?
3. Ask 10 detailed questions about a job then say "sorry I don't do screeding' If you can't screed don't waste my time.
4. I can't do your screeding but I will pop round next week and take some of your glued Particle board up so I can take a look. What do you want to look for numb nuts. Its a concrete slab underneath. I told you what was there, and you can't do the job anyway.
5. Me I need a shower... Him "I'll just chop through the thick pipes on your boiler and put a reducer in" . THOSE ARE THE HEATING PIPES !
6. Gas 'engineer' big company who didn't bring any seals on a reseal job. Who I had to send to the shop and ring order and pay for them my self. "I've cross threaded your heat exchanger after removing all the nuts including the one which never gets removed. because you told me not to undo the nuts. You told me that because its a push fit which fits on with a clip. But I'm a twat. "here You need to by a new exchanger." I repaired the thread he bodges it again ps "I know the water is leaking ( pouring) out of your boiler it's just a small leak but I need to go home because it's getting late" .company tried to charge 40 quid for a descale I did my self while he went for the seals he should have brought. The dumb ass still put an o ring on Which just squashed out.
7. Gas 'engineer'. "You don't want to be conned by all that talk about cleaning your radiators out,". Translation. I can't be arsed and wonder if you're dumb enough to viod the warranty on the boiler. Should save me 3 hours I'll still pocket that 3+grand. Enough time for a pint after work eh 👍
8. Bricklayer" you do know your pond will only be 1meter by 2 metres don't YOU, and it will come up above the soil by a foot. Yep that's why I dug a hole 1x2x1m numb nuts. The fence and hard standing either side kinda give it away. Indonesian guys in flip flops build these outside their front doors on busy traffic streets and you're arguing about one in a private garden already dug for you.
9. Plumber 25+ stone who also didn't want to solder despite the company agreeing on a soldering job. 20mm wall cavity and a 3 inch wifi gap left water shut off. "I've run out of time, I have another customer waiting". Really? Do you really?
10. Plumber " You've put your radiator on in the wrong place". No numb nuts you're supposed to refit chromed copper pipe from the ceiling to the new rad. 'can't you use push fit' no I really can't. 'I haven't anything to solder with'. I have all the gear...... Second thoughts. Here's a tenner for comming out, no hard feelings eh.
When you want the colour you picked on the wall and they think they know better.
Bounus sexist round 11. Joiner " not a bad job for a girl" .
12. Plumber "Whoever did your tiling did a good job." Thanks it's my tiling. "no Im saying who ever did it did a good job" (repeat) frustrated Yer numb nuts that's right who ever did it was amazing. 🙄 He didn't get a call back from us. Failure to listen.
I'm a trained qualified time served bench fitter (General engineering which also gave an nvq for all three major trades.) Also been an Alevel lab technician phys chem and bio. I now make fine jewellery. Sexism is alive and well. Some supposedly qualified people are dangerous. Arogance narcissism and a lack of listening skills seem to be rife I'm at the end of my tether with a string of these people. They just delete the bad reviews on things like yell. That's how they get away with it. You need to prevent bad reviews being deleted. All the bad cowboys will then flag up pretty quickly because they get their mates and family to post positive reviews and delete neg ones. Untill this is addressed it's a loosing battle.
Electricians who ghost because they can't wire in a underfloor heating thermostat to the mains. Had two useless ones. 👻👻👻👻👻👻 Plenty of ghosters. Some even give a quote and then ghost. 👻🎃
You scruffy sod 😂👍
I know right..... I used to turn up to tender meetings on £500k projects like this....
Untill you can prevent tradesmen from deleting negative reviews on sites. you will have to put up with them.
With respect, please stop calling yourself an engineer, as you are an electrician and not an engineer. I am a qualified engineer and don't go round calling myself an electrician! Nice vid though, thanks for posting.
I'm a professionally registered engineer.
@@DanstheEngineer CEng? Don't get me wrong, I mean no disrespect mate. There are often times I wish I'd trained as an electrician rather than doing electrical/electronic/software engineering degree - I'd love to be able to work for myself for example.
Well said Jim. Plenty of engineers I wouldn't trust with a blunt rake.
100% with you on reputation.
My colleague and I are mainly domestic but the positive reviews are what get us most of the work.
Detailed quotes also. Yes. Definitely.
Our uniform thing. Niceic t-shirt with company name and dark work trousers.
What review system do you use? Regarding having branded t shirts with your CPS, I'm actually against that. You're paying to advertise them..... clients don't care who or what they are. Use the space on the t shirt to advertise your logo and website!
@@DanstheEngineer Couldn't reply till now, effing youtube. We use checkatrade (stop groaning). It works well for our situation which is kinda odd for the UK.
We're based in a smallish town that's not readily accessible by road, (due to coastal geography) , so bigger concerns aren't interested (too much travel).
Oddly the same problem keeps away most of the cowboys.
The reason for the prominent use of the logo of a basically commercial operation, is 'going with the flow'. Being a small town, lots of our work is actually small commercial, rather than domestic. It pleases the authority to have a logo they recognize. It was a choice.
I agree with almost all of your points in the video. The only difference is where we work, the lack of cowboys undercutting (the inaccessibility thing). Any cowboy operating locally WILL get noticed. Kitchen fitters are still a problem though :\
@@TheChipmunk2008 okay, I'm familiar with checkatrade. I don't agree they do enough to stop incompetence and it is misleading to the consumer for sure, but they should be highlighted by authorities that they are a review site and that's all they are.
It used to work well for me. I lost a huge contract and it filled some gaps temporarily but actually there are others ways to use reviews to gain work. The problem with restricting yourself to checkatrade is that all you're going to get is a checkatrade customer....
If you have a niche in your area, great!
I've always preferred commercial over domestic.
@@DanstheEngineer I'm the subbie for a one man band ... i call him my colleague because that's what it is, but hmrc don't need to know that.
Joking aside... I too prefer commercial. The customers understand the way it is. Domestic customers are like 'it worked fine for 70 years, why do you need to damage my wall'..lol
@@TheChipmunk2008 sounds like a good gig and he is a colleague. Even when I had my team working for me and even some of my suppliers, I'd call them colleagues!
Passionate Plumber here, your right on the mark. Trade in my area is being made a joke of too. thanks for your inspiring words
Thanks Shane!
Hi Dan. Great advice mate. Im an Approved Contractor with NIC but really looking to get involved with fire alarm installation, i just dont have any exposure. Would you suggest taking a course and will that be sufficinet to start off with. And also any recommendations for the particular courses.
Cheers. I have many guys asking about getting into fire.... I may do a video on this topic as I love fire!
Fire alarms are a completely separate trader to being an electrician. Electricians are some of the worst offenders of installing fire alarm system, mainly due to lack of knowledge. Sparks tend to wire them very well but the regulations need to be understood.
Being and electrician just ticks one box on the road to competency of installing fire alarms.
Firstly, buy BS5839-1. Read it. It isn't a big document and pretty straight forward.
Then I recommend sitting the FIA UK courses. By far the leading organisations for fire alarm training. Certsure do shorter courses and cost less but I haven't sat them so can't really comment. The FIA courses are viewed as the minimum now in the industry, if you are trying to get a route in. They cost a far bit and are lengthy but it's for a good reason. The FIA are a great organisation for fire resource as well.
Oh and why do you advertise the NICEIC on your work wear? I don't understand it??
Is this guy an Electrician or an Electrical Engineer?
I'm a time served electrician
Great video Dan. Some brilliant points for me to take forward
@@pumpkinsquidge9542 thanks very much!
Brilliant video Dan, really useful information for running a successful business.
Cheers Alvin. Hope you are well mate.
Great info Dan.
It realy gets to me when I see dodgy workmanship, theres is no excuse for it. Especially when the customer is paying a lot of money for the work to be done. I'm a 3rd generation electrician and take a lot of pride and satisfaction in my work. I do charge a higher rate for myself as I know my customers are getting a 100% correct job done by myself, they are happy to pay that and are repeat customers.
I hate seeing poor value for money so totally relate. Repeat work is vital for business so every job should be treated as if they are a client for life.
To me it depends. There's not to regs, (diagonal wiring outside zones) and downright bloody lethal (1mm feeding a 7.2kw shower, yes i've seen it, yes i have pics)
I am with you on pride in your work and kudos for charging accordingly. Well deserved :)
but dodgy workmanship takes 2 forms: those who don't know what they're doing is bad, and those who know, and couldn't care less. Guess which i hate most
@@TheChipmunk2008 of course, you have the unconscious incompetent and the conscious incompetent.
I've been looking at fire alarm courses, is there any that you would reccomend?
The FIA UK is the best place for UK fire alarm courses.
Dans the Engineer thank you. I will have a look. Really good video.
@@enriquedmu1 no worries. Give me a shout if you have any more queries about fire
Thanks for the advice 👍