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Do mechanics, electricians, plumbers, etc. tend to take advantage of women?
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message 1:
by
Scout
(new)
Jul 04, 2022 11:16PM
I know we have females and males in this group, and I'd like your opinions. I recently hired a plumber to install a toilet, and when it was installed, I found that it wasn't the tall one I'd asked for. When I let him know that it wasn't what I asked for, he told me to find one I liked and he would install it. No offer to find and install the right one, which I think would have been the right thing to do. I feel that he was trying to intimidate me into accepting his mistake. But I found the one I wanted, and it took him 3 weeks to send guys out to remove the wrong one and install the right one. In the meantime, I had two large boxes sitting in my kitchen. I felt that he tried to intimidate me, but maybe I'm wrong. Would I have been treated differently if I'd been a man? Any women who've had a similar experience?
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Some dudes just try to take any possible advantage, of male, female and anything in between, others - try to be fair
I always take a male friend with me to buy a car. I have had honest trades people do great work and not rip me off and I have had some that did try to take advantage of me. Most recently one male realtor was very straight with me about the property I was looking at, while another never gave me a straight answer. I think as women in America we generally are taken advantage of in those areas the provider thinks we don't know much. Generally, showing I am informed works, but not always, such as the realtor or a mechanic who thinks I can't hear something wrong with my car. Scout, I think the most difficult part is I hate confrontation but I believe as women we have to be somewhat agressive to show we will not be taken advantage of.
Had a guy come out to fix the dryer belt. Took him 15 minutes, and charged $220.
Sounds expensive. How much is the new dryer in your area?
Scout wrote: "Had a guy come out to fix the dryer belt. Took him 15 minutes, and charged $220."Wow. I bought my dryer used in 2006 for $250 (and it hasn't broken once).
I always get an estimate, depending on if there is a fee to get that, and the price for parts before hiring. If working by the hour, their hourly rate and how long they think the job will take. I am ok with a range on the hours as you can't predict what some things will be. I always call my old landlord, who was in lamaze class with me when I had my first child and also used to be the Little Debbie guy and then ran Big Lots store, for recommendation. I think that helps on keeping most of them honest as if word got back to him that I was overcharged it would get around quickly.
Sometimes I think they all have the same idea. When the city was paying us $100 to replace toilets with low-water use ones a few years ago, the first 3 plumbers all estimate the same labor price - $100.
Sadly, too many think that women and home repairs or vehicles equals taking advantage of us.
My advice on that is to try to get advice from friends on who is honest and a fair worker, Tradespeople here range from rip-off artists to good guys, and the problem is the rip-off artists are often the easiest to find because they have more spare time. But we all need a plumber or an electrician at some stage so some of yo0ur friends should know someone who does a good job.
Yeah, I asked around and was referred to this guy. I let him repair the dryer because I wasn't ready to buy a new one and needed to dry my clothes. Necessity is the mother of overpaying.
Yeah, sometimes you don't have choice, especially if you need something fixed quickly. My biggest disastern with plumbers was when something went wrong at 6 pm on a Christmas Eve. That cost, but you can't go without water for half a week.
Is hanging laundry outside completely out of fashion?:)
Not very practical here at the moment as it is seemingly always raining. You do get free rinsing, though.
Nik, I have been thinking of putting up a clothesline like my mom had, but I wouldn't want to rely on it exclusively. I can remember her rushing out to take the sheets off the line when it started to rain, then having to hang them out again. But boy did they smell good when I climbed into bed at night :-)
We have 300+ sunny days a year, leaves very little room for the weather to surprise 🌧
In the next day or so, the West Coast of the Sth Island is expected to get about half a meter of rain. I gather some parts of Europe with water shortages would probably like to trade for some.
I feel I am sometimes taken advantage of. I am a single, 74 year old retiree. I try to plan ahead but have lately felt that some of the workers I hire have abused my trust. I had a tree service that I used for years and trusted. I recently called and they came and gave me an estimate which seemed fair. When I called to agree to the estimate they said it was actually $500 more. I felt this tree service would not cheat me and then found out that the service had been sold to someone else but went by the same name. I had a similar event with my fence. I know it is my fault for agreeing but I feel that this will happen no matter who I hire as this seems to be how things are going in this world.
