Tradespeople fight back against ‘cowboy customers'

Times

4 hours ago

The cowboy tradesman is a well-known public enemy: the plumber who insists on a new boiler, the builder who concludes a new ceiling is vital, the electrician who installs a whole new fuse board. The unfortunate customer is then left to foot an extortionate bill, in return for work that will fall apart in months. Thanks to the likes of Taskrabbit and social media, dubious workmen are increasingly held to account.
But what about cowboy customers — the nightmare client who refuses to pay, or hotly disputes whether what has been delivered is up to scratch? Now it is the workers' turn to fight back: as we report, a Facebook group entitled 'nightmare customers and non-payers' has gathered a vast membership of 250,000, full of horror stories about people who are as much of a nightmare as the very worst builders. In this group, workers share the names of customers out to scam or who prove impossible to deal with.
• Crooks and cowboys exploit Wild West of trading standards
Some of the tales do make the heart sink, such as the advert for a house rewiring that offered £120 a day. Or the customer looking for a room to be wallpapered in under an hour, for £20. One of the worst was the request for a gardener to be paid £3 an hour, with the note that 'your main reward will be in what you create'. Builders must be exasperated at the offer of free decking which turned out to be an invitation to dismantle it for free.
Some will see this as just deserts for an industry long scorned for the poor quality of its work. But it poses a question about who is worse, the rogue customer or builder? With more transparency than ever about tradespeople and those who ­employ them, there is nowhere to hide for subpar behaviour. Workmen need to do what they promise and customers must pay in timely fashion. Both must be honest. Otherwise, the public grapevine means their reputations will suffer.