Are you the victim of bad builders?

[BBCpilot]

A new BBC television programme is looking for people whose lives and properties are currently being disrupted by ‘cowboy’ workmen across the UK.

This is your chance to get the job finished properly – and call to account the dodgy builders, plumbers, electricians or joiners who are causing the problem.

 

[toasty]

Good old BBC!!

Really original. Mike Holmes (Holmes on Homes) has been doing it for years.

 

[Shytalkz]

Funny how they never seem to do programmes on shyster clients who don't pay...

 

[imamartian]

yeah but take that argument to it's extreme... any business-person who has 20per cent of it's client base as "non-payers", will increase it's price by 25% (not sure of the maths) to compensate... admittedly, supply and demand and competitors controls that to a degree....

The point is, how many builders prey on the elderly or needy? whereas, how many customers prey on elderly or needy builders?

There's a definite balance of power which these programs are trying to re-dress...... i am glad for what they do !

 

[Shytalkz]

Oh come on, there are all sorts of customers out there who, through a combination of any or all of malice, ignorance, compensation culture and sheer bloody-mindeness scab builders out of money that is rightfully theirs; and I would hazard a guess and state that the percentage of shysters on either side of the fence is roughly equal.

But they are not in the majority.

The point is, these programmes, as ever, concentrate only on the most extreme examples and make those with no brain assume that all builders are like that.

Why not redress the balance and do a programme on customers who are entirely satisfied with the work and charges from their builder? Oh, that'll be because it doesn't make for "rivetting tv", whatever that may be...

 

[imamartian]

Shytalkz, i can't disagree with anything you said. There is the scum element throughout every aspect of life.

My point was just to say that in the builder/customer relationship, then there are, i believe, far more vulnerable people as customers than as builders.

And i'm sure the Beeb could come up with a format where it followed a few builders, secretly filmed them working, then exposed the customers who didn't pay, and did the 'reveal' on their newly block-paved drive (or whatever).

 

[Softus]

A new BBC television programme is looking for people whose lives and properties are currently being disrupted by ‘cowboy’ workmen across the UK.

Go away. Your attempt to create entertainment out of people's livelihoods is not welcome here.

 

[imamartian]

Softus, are you suggesting that the 'livelihoods' of cowboy workmen are as valid as the livelihoods of good, decent, honest workmen/women?

 

[Softus]

I was making no such comparison, nor any other comparison about any potentially comparable things.

My point was about the creating of entertainment, using funds that could be put to far better use. The argument that naming and shaming discourages cowboys is clearly a vacuous truth, since in a recent episode a previously exposed rogue trader was seen still to be roguishly trading.

This is a DIY site, where people without experience can find help from people with experience, not a research tool and marketplace for TV producers.

 

[Shytalkz]

...a previously exposed rogue trader was seen still to be roguishly trading...

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

 

[Softus]

Bien sur! Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop...

 

[Shytalkz]

Bien sur! Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop...

And Babelfish said...Well on! Drive out the naturalness, it returns au.galop

 

[ModernMaterials]

An honest tradesman/woman has nothing to fear when it comes to these 'Holmes on Homes' type programmes.

 

[Softus]

I don't know were fear comes into it. A Freudian revelation, perchance?

 

[andywatson]

I can understand how tradesmen would have a natural aversion to these programmes. I am a teacher, and every now and again there is some grand expose on classroom behaviour/standards that I would never recognise from my experience, and feels it reflects in the entire profession. Since the professionals on here freely give up their own time/experience to help others I imagine you feel the same.

Having said that these programs do serve a useful purpose. Mike Holmes was mentioned above- and his program always contains some information on what a customer should do to avoid getting into the situation- checking references etc. Since, and I generalise here, I would imagine most "cowboy" builders offer quotes less than more respectable tradesmen in order to get the work, then you should have nothing to worry about from a program like this. I think it is also worth bearing in mind that with any program like this they are very selective about what they show. There will be some applicants whose problem is not deemed viewable enough, but there will presumably be a lot who will have to be told that the builder did a perfectly good job in the first place!

At the end of the day, I would prefer the BBC to be paying my licence fee to a gang of builders & related tradesmen fixing up deserving peoples homes than giving it to reality TV contestents. I would also prefer to watch the final program.