Is this phenomena widespread I ask?

[Evans Electric]

Something I have become reticent to do is to recommend other tradesmen  when people ask ........not because of their standard of work ...but mostly they are so busy they can't fit anything else in or the just don't respond the customer ..or they may give a quote but never follow up .

Plumbers ..forget it ..they seem to have work booked in to the next century.

Plasterers....yeah well ..

Good carpenters ......just fully booked up .

Gas Safeers...also fully rammed ...might fit you in "on the way home" 

Strange how Sparkies seem to be able to fit in a first fix before plastering though , 'aint it ?

 

[binky]

lots of work, not enough tradesmen to do it! My prices have since been put up and I have even been payed £200 + VAT a day for some subby work.

I have also started avoiding jobs involving other trades - just can't get people!

 

[rapparee]

If it's anything like Ireland they're all in Canada or Australia.

 

[Tony S]

I was involved in our last quest for two industrial electricians. I was getting to the stage of despair and desperation sat reading CV’s from 5WW’s.

 

[Evans Electric]

And there seems to be a lot of people who , say ,  have a puncture ,  they call the AA  who come out and fit the spare .  Now surely a bloke could manage that .  

Also a lot of people without any practical skills it would seem. 
 

 

[pewter]

We should all put our prices up.

 

[Sharpend]

We should all put our prices up.

Well that's the most significant post you've ever made Pewter :Salute

 

[binky]

We should all put our prices up.

already have

 

[Richard-the-Ninth]

And there seems to be a lot of people who , say ,  have a puncture ,  they call the AA  who come out and fit the spare .  Now surely a bloke could manage that .  

Also a lot of people without any practical skills it would seem. 
 

Some one I know  who is a company car driver is now not allowed to change a flat tyre on his company vehicle, he has to call the AA

 

[Evans Electric]

Don't tell me ...'elf 'n' safety ?

 

[rapparee]

Don't tell me ...'elf 'n' safety ?

He must drive a Renault

 

 

[phil d]

And there seems to be a lot of people who , say ,  have a puncture ,  they call the AA  who come out and fit the spare .  Now surely a bloke could manage that .  

Also a lot of people without any practical skills it would seem. 
 

Now not wishing to appear sexist, I've stopped many times and helped a woman change a wheel, one young lady asked me not to change it, merely to instruct her how to, apparently she'd asked her dad but he said it wasn't a woman's job! I think a woman could have difficulty with jacks and those stupid small wheelbraces, plus it's not always practical trying to reach under a car wearing a skirt, so there you go. As a bloke however there'd have to be something seriously wrong for me to call out a mechanic to change a wheel, I mean you just wouldn't would you? not unless you had say a health problem, it just isn't a bloke thing, "sorry mr RAC man, I'd have changed the wheel but was frightened of chipping a nail". lol

 

[Kurt]

Due to my hobby , I have probably changed wheels over a thousand times but when putting my winters on I managed to hurt my foot standing on the wheelbrace and ended up in hospital, could not walk or work. I am sure wheelnuts have got tighter as I have got older. Quite frankly I think many people male or female will struggle now with the modern car, their wheelnuts and the wheelbrace that comes in the tool kit. You need a 2ft bar at least... lol

 

[phil d]

Due to my hobby , I have probably changed wheels over a thousand times but when putting my winters on I managed to hurt my foot standing on the wheelbrace and ended up in hospital, could not walk or work. I am sure wheelnuts have got tighter as I have got older. Quite frankly I think many people male or female will struggle now with the modern car, their wheelnuts and the wheelbrace that comes in the tool kit. You need a 2ft bar at least... lol

those wheelbraces are stupid, too long on the bit that fits the nut and too short on the lever, they naturally slip off, modern jacks are downright dangerous too. I always carry a long breaker bar, socket set and trolley jack in my car, I've even got an impact gun and a set of those sockets for removing locking wheel nuts, be prepared!

Incidentally some years ago I stopped to help an old guy change a wheel, he just couldn't do it, (arthritis) anyway he tried to pay me, I refused to accept it. Then as I was getting into the car his daughter came running over, she was a little younger than me ( I was about 35 at the time) she gave me a big hug, whispered her phone number in my ear, stuck her hand in my pocket and groped me! as I was driving off I felt something in my pocket, stuck my hand in and there was a £20 note. I never did ring her up but every time I hear that Dire Straights song I laugh to myself, you know the one, Tunnel of Love, the line goes " she put her hand in my pocket, I got a keepsake and a kiss"

 

[roys]

Have stopped to help people change wheels.  Pretty pointless trying to do my own now though as the idiots at Mazda decided not to supply a spare. When I asked at the stealership where the spare was they said for H&S reasons they don't supply a spare as you might hurt yourself changing it, yeah right!!!!

 

[ruston]

More like the saving on a hundred or two thousand wheels and tyres, not to mention the jack kits.

 A lot of cars have run flat tyres now though.

Top of the range Range Rovers do not have spare wheels , it's a free call out to get you home .

 

[phil d]

Bit like that stupid liquid you get these days, pump it in to fix a puncture instead of a spare, on 2 occasions I've seen women stranded roadside, one late at night on a country road, both had rips in the tyre. What good is a can of goo then eh? If I was paying the amount they charge for some of these cars I'd be insisting on a proper spare wheel, and I don't mean one of them pram wheels either.

 

[UNG]

Problem with changing wheels these days is the windie gun at the tyre fitters seen so many over torqued nuts / bolts made even more laughable when they put a torque wrench on to check that they are over torqued

Stopped to help a woman who had a puncture a few years back and it was quite obvious that the wheel bolts were beyond tight when trying to use the car wheel brace ended up using a long breaker bar and a short length of scaff tube that I carry to remove them fitted the spare and suggested she got some new wheel bolts before she got the tyre refitted

 

[ruston]

Yes, I had a mate who was a bus driver, he said it was quite common for the nuts to snap off like machine gun bullets on a lock on a hanging bend; due to over tightening.

 I think I saw the the yellow alignment indicators on buses first , if I remember correctly.

 

[Tony S]

We hired our vans from Kennings when they were still going. They seemed to have an aversion to tightening front wheel nuts. I was the first to find out when the steering started wildly vibrating. I hit the brakes, the van dropped on the nearside, the wheel carried on. The 2nd episode happened about 20 yards from Kennings garage. The wheel rolled off down the road, across the main shopping street, bounced on the kerb and went through the butchers shop window.