Have any of you tradies turn down a job because of

babcorp, Dec 2, 12:48pm
other peoples habits!
A mate asked me to do a bit of work at a lady friendsof his who is a chain smoker. When I entered the house the stench of smoke had me gagging so much I walked out and said sorry I can't do it as I'm an ex smoker.
I felt quite embarrassed.
nanca, Dec 2, 4:00pm
Your call I suppose! Depends how much you want the work.
kaddiew, Dec 2, 4:49pm
I'm not a tradie but the smell of cigarette smoke, especially ingrained stale nicotine pong, makes me ill -so I can understand your position. If you can't work in a foul environment like that,I'd say it's totally your right to turn down the job.
russ18, Dec 2, 5:58pm
Yep, crazy cat man, so much cat cr@p inside and the smell was more than I could take, nearly lost my lunch, had to leave.
krames, Dec 2, 6:06pm
yea turn down repeat work because the client was forever trying to help and non-stop watching/getting in the road.
it was actually quicker without his help.
when you were thinking or trying to work something out he would he staring straight at you and trying to come up with a solution.
jkp58, Dec 2, 7:34pm
Price it high if you get job send the boy
lythande1, Dec 3, 5:04am
Habits! No.
Attitude, yes.
tammiraven, Dec 3, 5:31am
Do what you feel is right there will always be other jobs
ksam, Dec 3, 6:20am
MMmm, hourly rate $45.00, you want to watch $55.00, you want to help $65.00
studio1, Dec 3, 10:00am
Never had to turn a job down for habits or attitude yet - so I must have had a good run. Had a few jobs where the homeowner has flirted with me or openly come on to me, also a few where they've "accidentally" walked out of the shower and dropped the towel etc. Some eye-openers there I tell ya.
Had the usual compliment of people wanting to help/watch/talk/tell me which part is faulty etc - and they can be quite frustrating to deal with.
Seen some really disgusting houses, the usual 'cat people' who have 200 cats (or dogs, or both) all pissing and sh*tting inside everywhere, and some things that just don't bear mentioning here!.
bluecat1529, Dec 3, 4:38pm
Us too. We don't turn much down. You want us to work behind your filthy toilet on a hot day and we dry retch with the stench of course we can do it. But man are you gonna pay. Some places I go to are so filthy I won't even use the loo let alone have a coffee or something if its offered. We can always scrub the tools with turps and go home and scrub ourselves in the shower. But if a customer wants to stand behind me all day making sure that in their opinion I'm doing a good job or that I'm not pinching the family silver or telling me how they used to do this for a living or if they want to help! Nah Sorry too busy
lythande1, Dec 4, 5:01am
LOL.
Husband was called to install a loo. Loo was from the tip, still covered in a brown substance. It was also the wrong one. Owner of rental was insisting it could be put in anyway (S bend versus P bend)
Meanwhile the carpet cleaner had just finished and was asking for $40. Owner was arguing about this terrible price.
Husband declined the job.
He doesn't like the ones where it is more involved than first looks, and owners are saying its only a 10 min job, and should cost $XX and be easy.
Sure, why don't they do it themselves then.
elect70, Dec 4, 2:14pm
So long as theyhave the $$I dont care . I seen it allfilth , catspeecockroachesrats ,spiders, 1 place ,rented bya certainMP wws so badbuilder called in commercial cleaners before touching anything .
studio1, Dec 4, 6:00pm
Here's a good one. Had a word of mouth referral so I go to see this guy and he wants a caravan socket outside so he can hook his caravan up when it's parked on the back lawn.
No worries. I price the job up and then he says to me "ok, give me a list of the parts I need and I'll get them".
I said to him "there's no way you can get them any cheaper than I can" but he was insistent that he would get them.
Actually, if he'd bothered to ask me, I already had most of what was needed in my van - but customer knows better so I left him to it, and as far as I know, he still hasn't got it sorted.
jezabeel, Dec 4, 6:13pm
MMmm, hourly rate $45.00, you want to watch $55.00, you want to help $65.00

HAHA classic i might try that
elect70, Dec 5, 3:14pm
Wired house for guy on labour only, cost him morethanmy qoutematerialsinclusive .Charged him $50hr while I sat arounde had to go back & get rightbits& more cable
brightlights60, Dec 4, 9:02pm
Funny about that. I was speaking to a painter who was doing the EQC work next door. Big two storied house, complete paint job inside, every wall. People have had it around 4 years, before that we knew the elderlies that had it. It used to be immaculate, beautifully kept.Anyway the painter was outside and I just asked how it was going. She said it was revolting. I asked why (the ex owner was a heavy smoker, but she used to smoke outside and I know she actually repainted the whole inside herself so it was lovely) and the painter said, it stunk and they had to get a commercial cleaner in before the painters would touch it. That they even had to get the carpet cleaned before they would enter. Ingrained food in the carpet, filthy walls etc. She said tsk tsk, the way some people treat their rentals. I said, "they own it", and the previous owner would be rolling around in her grave. Yuck. The way some people choose to live. I am a tradie and some houses revolt me.