Ways in Which Tradespersons Like Plumbers, Carpenters, Masons, Contractors, etc. Can Cheat You

 

Tradespersons like plumbers, carpenters, masons, contractors, etc. work in the ‘unorganized sector’. They do not work under any structured law; they do not always give you money receipts and they do not give any income taxes to the government too. Most of such unorganized worker class come under a shadow economy leading to “black money” circulations (No wonder such workers were most impacted by Indian government’s ‘demonetization of a few currency notes in the year 2016). But there is a worst problem while dealing with them – they can cheat you!

There are several ways such workmen can cheat you because they do not work for you under any written terms or a contract. There is no law guiding their working hours or the wages. They can simply go back on their words and turn your plans upside down. And believe me, when it comes to arguing, or fighting, you will never be able to match them. So, in a way, you should be fully prepared for a “messy situation” if you start any such work.

So, what are the ways in which vendors like plumbers, carpenters, masons, contractors can cheat home owners?

1. Quote high: They can simply quote a higher price from you in case they sense that you are giving work to them based on trust or because of a personal reference. Basically, if they sense that they are under “monopoly” situation, they would charge you more. Therefore, it is always necessary to consult multiple vendors before giving work to anyone,
2. Revising the quote: They can give you a lower quote to get the work and later on near the end of the work, they can claim some cost-over runs or some increase in scope of work and insist that you must pay them higher. This is a trick which allows them win the work contract, because their quote would appear cheapest at the stage where you would be comparing the quote with other vendors. And they can inflate the bill later on, citing n number of reasons.
3. Over-promise and under deliver: They can make high promises about work to get to start the work and later on they can cite many excuses why the promises can not be met. To avoid this scenario, you need to go into details before awarding the work to them, to judge if they are making false promises. This will of course be a hassle especially if you are not experienced with such kind of work.
4. Delay the work due to picking up other work: They can promise a timeline and later breach it because they would have grabbed some other work in between. They may do the other work by making breaks into your work, or they can even work simultaneously by cutting your working hours.
5. Inflate material cost: If you are giving them the responsibility to bring material too apart from execution of the work, they may inflate the bill with a huge margin by either plain cheating, or by buying materials of higher prices/margins from their preferred suppliers.
6. Slow work under daily wage: If you hire the workmen on daily wages, they may start the work fine so that your initial impression is good and gradually they can just choose to reduce the pace of work in order to do the same work in longer duration and hence earn more wages at your expense.
7. Stop the work: They can simply stop working especially near the end of the work if you have already given large part of their wages to them in advance and they may come back to finish the work as per their convenience after a break. They would have taken up some other work or personal things in between while keeping you in dark.
8. Quarrel game: They can simply go back on their promises and pick up a fight with you with aggressive gestures if they get to feel that you won’t be able to fight back or if they feel they can get away bullying you. Although it would feel that this scenario is unlikely, but if you think, there would many such instances; e.g. rickshaw-wallahs pick up even physical fights with passengers very often.

Due to all these hassles, getting work done through such vendors may be a too risky job, unless you are a ‘tough nut’ yourself.

Due to such hassles, a demand has arisen for professional services providers who do the work under written terms and conditions. They have a website, written policies, would work under written terms and they run a registered company. But, as of now such companies are few and far between. Plus, they charge almost the double for the same work. It is still cheapest and simplest option to directly call the workmen and get the job done. But all you need is someone you can “trust”. If you have found such workmen you can “trust”, you are lucky. Personally, I have come across several such workmen who work under strict work ethics and they never try to cheat you. Perhaps for such people the phrase “work is worship” was coined.

Until the time professional service providers match the expectations of customers, home owners will remain at the mercy of the tribesmen like carpenters and masons. And we can be sure that there will be plenty of breaches of trust and conflict situations under the carpet of our national economy for a long time to come. All we can do is to avoid some and fight some. There is no other way.

- Rahul Tiwary