What Credit Crunch?

[LordThornber]

I'm getting heartily sick of hearing about it and not finding any actual evidence of it.

 

We are doing a full house "makeover" at present, painting, decorating, new gates, new bathroom etc etc.

 

Well we are until you go and try to find a tiler and or plasterer.

 

It's infuriating, one guy says he'll be round within 2 hours - 3 days ago. Another actually comes round, seems very professional, estimating etc and was here for over an hour. Then, nothing, diddly squat, zilch, no call off him or reply to my messages. Yes, I've had to ring HIM!! Honestly you couldn't make it up could you? Why waste your time & petrol coming in the first place?

 

Anyway it's looking good at the present with the next guy that came, fingers crossed..

 

Infuriated of Blackburn >:-(

[york brewery]

Its a very sad that people are losing there jobs, and fearfull of losing there homes.

but a lot of these people have taken on far too much debt to fuel

holidays,and live the high life.without any regard that all good things come to a end??.

I have always been brought up either to save for a item or ya dont get it.

I dont have any debt and the house is fully paid for,have made good provision for my pension, its been a hard slog to get to this position.

 

Tony

 

 

[J9withdogs]

I totally agree. When I bought my house, interest rates were 16%!

[york brewery]

I think all kids should be taught basic money management,at school.

and get away from if you cant afford it get a credit card?????

 

saw a report on tv,about local money lenders charging 60/70% interest,and people were flocking to them?????

 

Think that says it all!!!!!!

 

thats my rant over

 

Tony

[J9withdogs]

The TV adverts for finance companies annoy me, especially the ones that boast 'no credit checks'.

 

Guess which part of the population will take advantage of those? The ones that couldn't afford to repay their loans last time round.

[kelly58]

york brewery - 2008-11-09 8:54 AM Its a very sad that people are losing there jobs, and fearfull of losing there homes. but a lot of these people have taken on far too much debt to fuel holidays,and live the high life.without any regard that all good things come to a end??. I have always been brought up either to save for a item or ya dont get it. I dont have any debt and the house is fully paid for,have made good provision for my pension, its been a hard slog to get to this position. Tony [/quote

Your logic is the same as mine we always use two ways of looking at things 1 do we need it or 2  would we like it,there are a lot of things you would like to have but in reality do we really need it if more people used this logic they would save themselves a lot of money and not be in the position they are in now. Apart from a mortgage which we no longer have we have never borrowed a penny to buy what we could not afford , my mum used to say there is only one weeks spending in one weeks wages and to me that makes sense even if my reply doe's not.

We have worked hard saved hard and are now happily retired reaping the benefit.

[howie]

Credit crunch or not, nothing changes Martyn.

[David Dwight]

My grandmother always told me "Never a borrower or a lender be" pretty sound advice that or as Maggie Thatcher said "live within your means" We are quite happy with things as they are, despite the investments going down.

 

Oh and whats happened to Global Warming? the credit crunch got rid of it!!!!!

 

 

 

David

[Guest peter]

Ill be looking for a plasterer myself shortly. I hop I have more luck. If not I'll do what I usually do and do it myself.

[nightrider]

My old mammy used to say, you can eat in the street but you can't live in the street, always make sure your rent is paid.

[nightrider]

LordThornber - 2008-11-09 6:59 AM

 

I'm getting heartily sick of hearing about it and not finding any actual evidence of it.

 

We are doing a full house "makeover" at present, painting, decorating, new gates, new bathroom etc etc.

 

Well we are until you go and try to find a tiler and or plasterer.

 

It's infuriating, one guy says he'll be round within 2 hours - 3 days ago. Another actually comes round, seems very professional, estimating etc and was here for over an hour. Then, nothing, diddly squat, zilch, no call off him or reply to my messages. Yes, I've had to ring HIM!! Honestly you couldn't make it up could you? Why waste your time & petrol coming in the first place?

 

Anyway it's looking good at the present with the next guy that came, fingers crossed..

 

Infuriated of Blackburn >:-(

 

As a plumber and heating engineer by trade (and a good one) those of you who have been trying to find someone to come round and give you a price for a job this is what you are up against.

Either the customer wants a Rolls-Royce of a job for the price of a mini or the customers drives a hard bargain by beating the price down, a price may be agreed on, but when the tradesman (probably a sole trader) drives away from your house he has second thoughts on the job and decides against it. It may be that the man you have asked for a price is not suitably qualified or experienced enough to do the job but to save his face he gives a price which may be accepted but he has already made the decision not to do it., It may also be that the man is a chancer who calls to see the job to see if he is capable of doing it.

The most versatile building tradesman is the plumber, apart from plumbing he has to have a fair degree of skill in the ancillery trades in being able to make good any brickwork, plastering and joinery that might have to be dismantled in order to repair defective plumbing or to install new pipework, radiators etc etc, tradesman who specialise in their own field are not interested in small type repair jobs.

A couple of weeks ago on my local Freecycle group a young woman was asking had anyone got a surplus electric heater, her heating system had broken down and she had been quoted £800 to repair it from British gas who she paid £17 per month insurence to maintain the system, I got in touch with her and asked what the problem was and from what she told me I said they were trying to con her, via the computer I asked one or two relevent questions about the boiler and deduced what the problem was and again via the computer I instructed her husband what to do and within half an hour her heating system was up and running, 800 smackers saved, no problem.

[Mel B]

Nice one Malcolm! My hubby used to buy computers from car boot sales, eBay and the like, sort them out and then re-sell them at a very reasonable and fair price. He always said if anyone had a problem in the future to contact him. Quite a few have, not because the computer he'd sold had gone wrong per se, but because they'd acquired a virus via the internet, or had bought some hardware to add to it, or some new software. Only in extreme cases would he charge anything for his time, normally it he was spending a good few hours on it and even then it was normally only £10 if at all, often he'd refuse any offer of payment or say give it to charity. It did mean that he often got contacted by the person again in the future if their mate was looking for a PC as they knew they'd get one from a reliable and helpful source.

 

He had a visit from one family who had seen his advert for a PC as theirs was up the creek and were desparate to get another for their children to do their school work on. Whilst talking to them he was able to establish what was wrong with their PC and fixed it for them for nowt!

[Mel B]

Ah-hem, sorry, got distracted there!

 

I get fed up with a lot of people saying they are having a hard time through increase in prices etc, not the ones who have lost jobs etc, I really do feel sorry for them as through no fault of their own they are now in a horrible situation. No, I'm on about the ones who have always bought things when they want them, without a thought for how they will pay for it. You see them on the telly, sitting there is their nice posh homes, big flat-screen TVs, lovely leather suites, and loads of other kit and they have the cheek to say they are badly done by. Er, excuse me, how did you manage to get the bits and pieces you have???? They've either got it on the never, never, credit cards etc or have spent all their available cash on these nice to have things and never saved a penny for a rainy, or totally hissing down cats and dogs continually for a month, times! They then complain how badly done to they are ...

 

Yes, we could do the same, spend everyting we have on all of these nice shiny new things but then we'd be in the same boat as them and before anyone asks, yes we have a nice motorhome, bought and paid for by savings, built up to it gradually over the years, if we can't pay for it, or do so in a very short space of time (ie a few months maximum) then we don't get it. The only exception to this is the mortgage which is a necessary evil as there's no way we could've saved up that sort of money to buy a property without one.

 

Someone at work got married a couple of months back, had their "honeymoon" 3 months earlier as they couldn't wait for a holiday 8-), both just under 30, in their first home (for a few years now), would like something better but can't afford it ... why? Well, they buy every new toy they can, TVs, CD players, iPods, phones, etc, etc, you name it, they've have it. Only she drives as he can't, their car is quite old with over 100,000 on the clock, they need it to get to work as they live in a rural area a good distance away and it would take at least 2 buses to get to work each day. So what are they going to do? You've guessed it ... have another holiday instead ... £900 for a few days at Disneyland!!! Sheer madness!!!! When her car eventually breaks down no doubt Mummy and Daddy will help them out ... so who are the fools here?????

 

Sorry, off at a tangent I know, but it's about time some people had a reality check, its just a shame that others, through no fault of their own, are suffering in the process!

[colin]

Our plumber nipped in saterday afternoon to ensure I'd fitted a fume deflector properly, gf soon collared him with a list of jobs, think he was glad when he got away. He tells me he has plenty of work, but then he's a straight forward chap and gets a lot of work by recommendation.

[nightrider]

Mel,

Like you I cut my cloth according to my tailor I like to be able to sleep at night, my first VW campervan (£8.500) my second VW campervan (£24.000) were both paid for cash after a strict regime of saving and part exchange deals from Todds leisure in Preston, the pleasure of buying something on the knock soon wears off when the dawning of realisation hits you that you have the next 2, 3, or more years to pay off what you have borrowed.

[Usinmyknaus]

Trying to find a good tradesman in this area is a nightmare. I just want a good job done and I'll happily pay for quality. There still seems to be so much work around they can pick and choose. Recent example: 10 metres of scaffolding for painting barge boards and some roof work, at one gable for 3 weeks, moved to the other end of the house for a further 3 weeks total cost a little under £2,000. There are few companies that cover the area. One did not return my calls to quote and a second came out, had a cursory look around and then failed to submit a quote. The third company was hobson's choice for me as waiting for the other two had incurred a lot of delay and the work needed doing urgently by then.

 

I find that in this area costs are roughly twice to three times what similar jobs cost relatives "Up North". Recent quotes from 3 companies for replacement eaves, guttering and barge boards averaged £5,000 whereas a relative in Manchester had very similar work done for £1,800 and a cracking job it was too.

 

Quotes for block paviours on the driveway and a bit of landscaping were up to £14,000. Similar work in Manchester was done to a good standard for around £3,200.

 

Most jobs I can do myself if they are not too heavy but my heart sinks when I have to engage "professionals".

 

Bob

 

 

[Brian Kirby]

Funny one, this.  Looking at some of the posts above, there is a slightly discomforting whiff of smugness around.

A spell of very cold weather produces similar results.  Some of the poor and elderly die from the cold, while others notch their central heating up a bit, and stay indoors.

The problem, it seems to me, is that the latter does nothing to relieve the suffering of the former, and announcing where the thermostat is now set achieves even less.  All that can relieve the suffering, apart from acts of charity, is warmer weather.

Those who boast they are now turning up their financial central heating, had just better hope the gas supply holds out!

[Basil]

Usinmyknaus - 2008-11-11 9:30 AM

 

Trying to find a good tradesman in this area is a nightmare. I just want a good job done and I'll happily pay for quality. There still seems to be so much work around they can pick and choose. Recent example: 10 metres of scaffolding for painting barge boards and some roof work, at one gable for 3 weeks, moved to the other end of the house for a further 3 weeks total cost a little under £2,000. There are few companies that cover the area. One did not return my calls to quote and a second came out, had a cursory look around and then failed to submit a quote. The third company was hobson's choice for me as waiting for the other two had incurred a lot of delay and the work needed doing urgently by then.

 

I find that in this area costs are roughly twice to three times what similar jobs cost relatives "Up North". Recent quotes from 3 companies for replacement eaves, guttering and barge boards averaged £5,000 whereas a relative in Manchester had very similar work done for £1,800 and a cracking job it was too.

 

Quotes for block paviours on the driveway and a bit of landscaping were up to £14,000. Similar work in Manchester was done to a good standard for around £3,200.

 

Most jobs I can do myself if they are not too heavy but my heart sinks when I have to engage "professionals".

 

Bob

 

 

Whilst I can understand your frustration, the people that live in 'your' area have also got to make a living that allows them to live in your area, the cost of living in Surrey is considerably more than the cost of living in Manchester. People that live in the South have always had to pay a premium to live there, I have relatives who have moved North for that very reason to save money.

 

Bas

[Usinmyknaus]

Basil - 2008-11-11 2:58 PM

 

Usinmyknaus - 2008-11-11 9:30 AM

 

Trying to find a good tradesman in this area is a nightmare. I just want a good job done and I'll happily pay for quality. There still seems to be so much work around they can pick and choose. Recent example: 10 metres of scaffolding for painting barge boards and some roof work, at one gable for 3 weeks, moved to the other end of the house for a further 3 weeks total cost a little under £2,000. There are few companies that cover the area. One did not return my calls to quote and a second came out, had a cursory look around and then failed to submit a quote. The third company was hobson's choice for me as waiting for the other two had incurred a lot of delay and the work needed doing urgently by then.

 

I find that in this area costs are roughly twice to three times what similar jobs cost relatives "Up North". Recent quotes from 3 companies for replacement eaves, guttering and barge boards averaged £5,000 whereas a relative in Manchester had very similar work done for £1,800 and a cracking job it was too.

 

Quotes for block paviours on the driveway and a bit of landscaping were up to £14,000. Similar work in Manchester was done to a good standard for around £3,200.

 

Most jobs I can do myself if they are not too heavy but my heart sinks when I have to engage "professionals".

 

Bob

 

 

Whilst I can understand your frustration, the people that live in 'your' area have also got to make a living that allows them to live in your area, the cost of living in Surrey is considerably more than the cost of living in Manchester. People that live in the South have always had to pay a premium to live there, I have relatives who have moved North for that very reason to save money.

 

Bas

 

Sorry Bas, I did not post to rant about cost, it is the lack of availability of reliable tradespeople that is at issue. (I thought that's what Martyn alluded to, that despite the credit crunch availability had not improved.)

 

I don't mind paying for a good job and of course it will cost more here than in the North. I mentioned the comparative costs to illustrate that even paying good rates I find that a number of builders in this area still seem to have so much work that quotes are not sent, appointments missed or the best ones are not surprisingly still booked for months ahead.

 

Bob

[Usinmyknaus]

Brian Kirby - 2008-11-11 12:25 PM

Funny one, this.  Looking at some of the posts above, there is a slightly discomforting whiff of smugness around.

A spell of very cold weather produces similar results.  Some of the poor and elderly die from the cold, while others notch their central heating up a bit, and stay indoors.

The problem, it seems to me, is that the latter does nothing to relieve the suffering of the former, and announcing where the thermostat is now set achieves even less.  All that can relieve the suffering, apart from acts of charity, is warmer weather.

Those who boast they are now turning up their financial central heating, had just better hope the gas supply holds out!

Brian I was posting a response to Martyn's point about availability of tradespeople. I intended no offence to those struggling with any form of financial crisis.Bob

[Brian Kirby]

Noooooo, Bob, no personal implication intended at all.  My observations (for which I fully expect to be lynched!), were prompted by my reaction to the tenor of the whole string, and just happened to follow your post.  It was just the randomness of chaos, that's all!

[Usinmyknaus]

Brian Kirby - 2008-11-11 4:19 PM

 

Noooooo, Bob, no personal implication intended at all.  My observations (for which I fully expect to be lynched!), were prompted by my reaction to the tenor of the whole string, and just happened to follow your post.  It was just the randomness of chaos, that's all!

 

Phew, thanks. I thought I had offended the Sage of the Forum. I was sharpening the sword ready to fall on it.

 

Bob

 

PS Memo to self. I must stop this posting without thinking about the context of the thread, pehaps I'll go back to just posting on Follow on Word the Same 3.

[Guest Tracker]

Usinmyknaus - 2008-11-11 4:30 PM

I thought I had offended the Sage of the Forum. I was sharpening the sword ready to fall on it.

.

 

You know what happens to sage don't you?

 

It gets added to onion and st.........................................................!

 

Sorry Brian - couldn't resist it!

[nightrider]

I think I have mentioned the fact that I am a plumber and heating engineer by trade so I know what I am talking about.

A lot of household work such as roofline work, gutters, facia boards, barge boards and roofing have to be done using scaffolding due to health and safety legislation whereas in my day these jobs were done using a ladder suitably lashed up, the use of scaffolding obviously escalates the total cost.

A couple of years ago we were on the Camping and Caravanning Club site at Slapton sands, I called in the local shop for a newspaper, the woman being served in front of me was bemoaning the fact that the nearest plumber was booked up solid and couldn't do anything for her and wanted to know if the shopkeeper knew of any other plumbers?

I jokingly stepped in and told her that I was a plumber and asked what her problem was? to which she said her toilet cistern was constantly overflowing, a minor problem that could be overcome by either fitting a new washer or renewing the ballvalve complete, a ten minute job, she asked if I would do it for her and I said yes if there is a local B&Q or a plumbers merchant handy, I did the job and she willing slapped £60 in my hand for ten minutes work plus the time taken in finding a plumbers merchant, I think I should rent a static caravan down south and make a fortune?

 

 

 

[Basil]

Usinmyknaus - 2008-11-11 4:05 PM

 

Sorry Bas, I did not post to rant about cost, it is the lack of availability of reliable tradespeople that is at issue. (I thought that's what Martyn alluded to, that despite the credit crunch availability had not improved.)

 

I don't mind paying for a good job and of course it will cost more here than in the North. I mentioned the comparative costs to illustrate that even paying good rates I find that a number of builders in this area still seem to have so much work that quotes are not sent, appointments missed or the best ones are not surprisingly still booked for months ahead.

 

Bob

 

Hi Bob, didn't think you were, I was just trying to broaden the discussion on reasons for quoted prices, no offence meant. I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about poor 'Customer Service' in terms of quotations, reliability and back up. This seems to be endemic in this country where all we seem to get is 'lip service'.

Interesting last night on Watchdog, BA was voted to be the best airline and Ryanair the worst, why, all down to good customer service basically. A lot of companies should learn from that, it did not matter how bad they were at some things their good customer service put it right and exceeded their customers expectations.

Companies don't seem to understand this phenomenon and the poorest quality company can only get away with it when they don't have to compete for work.

 

Bas