Handymen… Sometimes they come in really… handy! 😉
But some can be a minor PITA. And then I am not even talking about the way they do their work, but about the way they try to sell themselves.
I had already noticed that one of my neighbours is getting his roof fixed by some Polish people which come and go by a truck with English license plates. Today one of the people, a bloke called James, came to our door. Whether we’re interested in getting our driveway redone… He could give us a very good price… We weren’t too sure on it, but since we didn’t say ‘heck, no!’ straight away, he took it as a ‘maybe’ and started measuring our driveway… He then said it would normally cost NOK 35000, but they could do it for NOK 25000 (almost 30% discount!), but we would have to decide right then and there…
Does this begin to smell a little fishy yet? 😉
We of course said we’d like to think about it. I asked him for an email address or phone number where we could contact them. That he did not give me, but he then said we could think about it until tomorrow. He’d come back then to hear our decision.
Less than an hour later the doorbell rang again: James was back… He had spoken to his boss and if we were interested they could take out the current asphalt tomorrow already (no mention of when the new stones would arrive though). We repeated what we had already told him: come back tomorrow and we will let you know, but this 2nd visit increased the smell of fish…
Well, James, if you happen to read this before tomorrow afternoon: Don’t bother coming by. The answer is… NO! 😎
Someone who is unwilling to leave any contact info, who most likely has no mesterbrev (trade or journeymans certificate) and who will be long gone in case we need them for warranty (Yup, they promised us a written 7-year warranty… :wink:) is not the kind of person I do business with…
I think when and if we do decide to get our driveway redone, I will check with http://mittanbud.no/ for someone who actually has some references, a postal address, and preferably a mesterbrev… 😎
Addendum: James did indeed return the next day, albeit 2 hours later than mentioned. When I told him ‘no’, he enquired about my reasons, and was wondering whether it was a financial issue. If so he could go even lower: NOK 20000 (so another NOK 5000 less) 😉
Again, perhaps we are missing out on the deal of the century here… I have no way to be sure.
But if James & co. are indeed honest, skilled, hard-working labourers I’d like to recommend to them to change their MO. Trying to get customers the way they do it now there will (hopefully!) be too many people who turn them down…