Knowledge Centre

It can be hard to find reliable tradie and even harder to determine their reliability before you start a job with them. Our clients often ask us for referrals for other tradie and we have to be careful who we refer, as not everyone holds the same customer service standards as Bluegum.

So what should you look out for? Here are five warning signs to be aware of when looking for reliable tradies.

1. State of vehicle and tools

Dirt is one thing, but looking professional is another. We pride ourselves on our professionalism and part of that is having a clean trade vehicle. However that alone is not going to tell you whether you’ve found a reliable tradesperson – is the vehicle suitable for the trade or tasks at hand? If a plumber rocks up in a family people mover, it’s unlikely his going to have the right stock and tools to get your job done properly. Each trade demands different things of their vehicles and different tools. Not everyone needs a shiny new van, but consider if their vehicle is suitable and appears to be well-stocked and organised. You don’t want to be paying an hourly rate for them to find stock or tools in a pile of rubbish, or for them to spend all their time driving back and forth from the wholesaler.

2. Empty promises

Not returning calls within a reasonable timeframe, or promising to call you back and never doing it. There’s nothing worse than having a half-finished job and the tradesperson not answering their phone for days on end, or never bothering to return your calls. If you have to chase them from the start it’s unlikely that will change over the course of the job.

3. Bad online reviews

Sometimes there’s always one person who will complain regardless of what the tradesperson does. However more than one negative review and a lack of reassurance in positive reviews should be a warning sign to stay away! You can look for reviews of tradie at a variety of places including Google, True Local, Facebook, Yellow Pages and many more.

4. Licence not listed on advertising

If you can’t see their licence number of a tradie, you may want to ask for it, and do a quick google to check it’s still valid. Any disqualification’s or fines should be listed on the trades governing body’s website.

5. Doesn’t show for a scheduled appointment, with no phone call or apology

Not acceptable! Tradespeople may occasionally run late or have to reschedule, however not showing up without any communication, or even worse not answering the phone is not on. I would be looking for another tradie pronto!