Ahhh the elusive Weymouth Handyman. Or should that be elusive tradesman (or tradesperson)?
If you have reached out to any trade (or even window cleaner or gardener) since about 2020 you may have experienced a common problem – zero availability!
Doing a quick check of the market would suggest Weymouth has a fair number of Handyman Businesses. For example, there’s RCD Contracts (South West) who come across as a fair-sized family team offering a large number of services.
Then there’s Handyman Solutions (Andy, if you’re reading, I think your website is down or the link from Yell.com is broken?) with his distinctive silver signs – love them!
Finally, in Dorchester is Handyman Hardy who has a great shiny website and looks similar to Handyman Solutions – a one-man band in a distinctive van.
Something that is immediately apparent is that some of these fellow businesses mention their prices and in one way or another imply that they are economical or cheap. This brings us to the title of the Blog – put your hands up if you have (at some point or other in your life) made the mistake of buying cheap 2-ply toilet paper… Yes, we’ve all done it. The roll is about half the size of a “normal” one, with less sheets, and its 2 ply not 3 ply which means you need more (unless you want to risk ‘catastrophic material failure’, in layman’s terms – breakthrough!)…..
It is a false economy.
This is the reason to be cautious of enticingly low hourly rates – is the person or company reliable, will they turn up when they said they would or be 3 hours late, how fast are they, is the quality good, do they have good quality tools that make the job easier and quicker? Now this is not to say that any of the businesses mentioned in this Blog aren’t good – far from it! It is simply to highlight that when comparing different quotes - price - should not be the only deciding factor. After all, someone with the right tools and experience will be very efficient and easily complete in an hour what someone else may achieve in 2 or 3 – you’re paying for their knowledge and years of experience.
Story time –
Not so long ago a potential customer openly discussed the handyman he had “employed” to build some flat-pack furniture, the customer wanted to gauge if Upcycle Interiors Ltd would be interested to take over any future work … the current rate they were paying their handyman was something ludicrously cheap like £100 cash for a day. But after a few prying questions it transpired that they didn’t arrive until 9/10am, immediately took a tea break, worked very inefficiently and slowly (the customer was fully aware of this!), had an hour break for lunch, disappeared for hours on end to get materials without communicating, took more tea breaks and finished at 3pm to do the school run! Upcycle Interiors Ltd can never compete with that price – but in terms of output and results surely it's plain to see that the handyman they currently had on the job was not right for them?
Needless to say, UIL did not go on to work for this customer and we can only assume they’re happy paying cheap prices for slow work which will actually be more expensive in the end…
To look at the other side of the spectrum and with UIL’s roots in London we should take a look at Silver Saints. At £108 for the first hour and then £60 per hour after that, I think we can all agree this is eye-wateringly expensive (however, it is not a “Rip Off”, if you follow UIL on Tik Tok you will see the video explaining why).
Bringing us slightly back down to earth is The Handy Squad. These guys were actually one of the first specialist Handyman businesses in town and their pricing is very fair (For London rates) - £78 for the first hour and then £54 thereafter.
Understandably these rates are for the South East – and the Capital city, but it raises a point about value. Will they offer a great quality easy online booking service, act professionally, with amazing online reviews, work efficiently, and turn up on time? At those prices you can be sure they will!
The final anecdotal story to share is about motor vehicles – if you had an intermittent problem with your car (that you rely on for work) would you rather seek out the cheapest garage that will fire a “parts cannon” at it? The result is you’re back at the garage every month with the original issue still unsolved and your wallet/purse rapidly getting lighter…
Or, seek out a specialist – and wave enough money in front of them to grab their attention! The specialist will charge handsomely for his/her time (and experience), know exactly where to tap their little hammer and replace an £8 part?...
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