Householders waste two weeks of their lives waiting for trades folk who fail to turn up.

Website www.thebestof.co.uk found that plumbers head the list of most unreliable operatives, with builders coming a near second, as 18 million home owners said that they had waited in for trades people who didn’t appear.

Electricians were high on the list, coming in fourth worst at letting clients down in the survey that saw Newcastle named as the place in which you are most likely to have to wait. Neighbour Sunderland came second but it wasn’t just the north east suffering – Plymouth recorded the third highest amount of people complaining, Aberdeen came fifth and London eighth.

Nigel Botterill, founder of the website said: “The results are shocking. It is a terrible way to treat customers.”

A third of people also said they believed that they had been charged for work that didn’t need doing, while 23% said they thought new parts had been fitted unnecessarily.

“We exist to find the best firms,” said Botterill, “and we will continue to ask our customers to review the level of service they receive. That way we know the firms that we list are reliable.”

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor