TRADESMEN get a bad rap, and with good reason in a lot of cases; but what about their clients from hell? The ones whose calls they avoid like the plague?

The Jamaica Observer spoke with a few experts in the fields of plumbing, electrical supplies, and construction to get the real story.

Winston Neil, managing director, Jamaica Plumbing Supplies Ltd

He recalls what it was like when he was a practising plumber.

“I will come to your house and ask you for a glass of water and you draw for a plastic cup and give me. If you give me a disposable plastic cup, that’s fine. But no matter how thirsty I am, if you have a little plastic cup that you store and say, ‘This is for the plumber or the carpenter or the electrician, or the helper,’ no. And this is always obvious when they do it because sometimes, if you ask the helper, they have to go and search for that particular cup to give you a glass of water. I usually find a way to discreetly throw the water away, because I don’t embarrass people. But I’m not coming back to your house.

“In my house, if anybody asks you for a glass of water and you cannot give them the glass that I drink out of, I don’t want to use that glass. If the person even comes in with bad breath, you’re supposed to be able to wash the glass and get it clean. It’s easier to clean a drinking glass than plastic.

“The second thing: I’m sort of different. You don’t have to give me a tip, but pay me on time what I charge. That is very important.

“Sometimes people can be very unreasonable. If you have an issue with the price, don’t dictate to the tradesman, saying he overcharged and you’re not paying any more than X amount. If you do, they are definitely not coming back. Instead, you can just say, ‘This is a little too expensive, man. What you can do for me?’ It’s the way you approach the argument.

“Three: One of the things that customers don’t know is that I might come to your house or your business place and it takes me half an hour to do a job. But to find the material to do your job, it took me more than half day. It’s just since I created Jamaica Plumbing [Supplies Ltd] you can almost guarantee to come to any one place and get 99.9 per cent of the material you want to complete a job.

“I usually tell people that whenever I go anywhere and I buy something for $1, I’m going to charge you $1.25. I’m not hiding it from you. I have to charge that separately, for driving all over the place. It still doesn’t cover my time, but it offsets my gas bill.

“Sometimes they say the water was running all morning while they waited for me, but it was [my efforts to attend to] your thing why I was up and down. Most people don’t know these things. What I realise is that people don’t like to communicate.”

Cecil Foster, founder & managing director, FosRich Group of Companies

At the helm of the 31-year-old lighting and manufacturing company that now has nine locations across Jamaica, Foster has unique insight into the construction industry and its players.

“The fundamental thing that tradesmen complain about is that their clients wait for the last minute before they reach out to them. When they are already engaged in something, they cannot respond quickly enough to the needs of the client, and you may also have multiple people calling at the same time.

“Some individuals don’t understand that the electrical industry can hurt you. Electricians want their clients to understand that the project must not only be cost-effective, but they must look for the tradesman who is going to give them the right products and do the job the right way. It’s not like having a burst pipe that wets up your things and you can dry them out tomorrow. If there’s a fire, it can destroy your entire investment. Therefore, give them the time to do their work properly.”

Kinson Case, senior director, Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation

He is head of the ministry’s Technical Services, Projects, and Housing Branch and has years of expertise in the field of construction.

“There’s one horror story that I can remember. There was a particular tradesman who quoted a price for work and the client agreed. However, in executing the work the tradesman found out that the building was not constructed according to specifications – whoever built the structure used marl underneath the tiles and then used about two inches of mortar to build up the floor, because the flooring was incorrectly built. When the tradesman was trying to dig up the existing tiles to lay the new tiles, the entire floor started to cave in. The client refused to extend any sort of courtesy, refused to raise the price a bit to facilitate the variation on the project. The tradesman who took the job had to bear the cost of repairing that floor because the client was adamant that it was the tradesman’s fault – but really and truly, it was not. That, to me, is as horrific as you can get. As they say: ‘It’s the second man who touches the work who always gets the blame; not the first man.’ Not all clients are accommodating.”

Litroy Wallace, managing director, Lalace Engineering & Construction Ltd

The company focuses on expansions, renovations and new builds in the residential segment of the market.

“An indecisive client is one thing that can really harm a project. For example, the client chooses the tile and after you install it, instead of owning up to the fact that what he had in his head is not what the actual visual comes out to be, he casts the blame on the tiler. He may say the tiler isn’t good at his job and reject his work.

“Another problem that can arise if you don’t have the necessary documentation, such as a foolproof contract, is the client not keeping his end of the agreement. There may be a verbal agreement to pay the tradesman at a particular rate but, at the end of the day, the client doesn’t pay over the funds he committed to paying. The tradesman will rant and rave and say a lot of things, but the truth of the matter is there was no written agreement in place so it’s very, very, very tricky when it comes to bringing the matter to legal proceedings to try and recover damages.

“My advice to tradesmen or contractors out there is to ensure you have a contract in place – a contract you sign to, there’s a witness to it, and the client signs to what is expected to be done. This, I believe, will safeguard from the horror of not having the client be held responsible for paying you when the job is done.”

*Responses edited for clarity.

Read ‘Protect yourself’ in Design, Building & Construction magazine on Thursday, December 12 for more details on how tradesmen and homeowners can protect themselves during transactions.