Cross those people off your list. Find another electrician.

Typical these days, in just about every walk of life. If people want to be considered as "professionals", then they better start acting like it.

Your story is not unusual in my area. All of the good electricians stay booked out at least 10 working days. Most will not schedule an appointment, but will give an estimate of what day they "might be able to" show if pressed. If a previous job is delayed for whatever reason, you either (a) wait for them to show (b) get someone else. It doesn't make much difference to their bottom line if someone cancels, as it seems there is always a job waiting anyway. Most own nice homes and cars, so they must be on to something.

I see the situation as described by Wayne as being different. No definite promises involved. I have done that. But if one promises, they should show up or communicate in advance with explanation. The customer's time is valuable, too. In my area, I am told that prospective tenants and prospective home buyers fail to show for their appointments about 50% of the time. One necessary ability is "dependability".

I don't blame the guys at all for their approach to the business. If you do good work at a reasonable price, the majority of people will wait "in line" for you to show up. I once drove 250 miles round trip to keep one of those appointments, of course, the house was locked up tight on my arrival. I lost that customer when I billed him for a $35 call plus half the drive time. That was about the time I adopted a policy similar to that outlined above.

"If you do good work at a reasonable price, the majority of people will wait "in line" for you to show up."
Wayne440: What are you talking about? So, you don't show up when you said you would, and not even call to let them know and say sorry that this happenened? Come on, you are not even a good person, nor a good professional. I don't believe you can maintain a good business without a good heart.

Send him a bill for your time waiting on his no-show. If he doesnt pay after 90 days - Take the time to file the debt notice with the court system. Then you can take him to small claims court.
Tie up his time for a change, maybe a judge or arbitrator will have had the same problem and give you tripple damages when he doesnt bother to respond. Then you've got a lean on his business, with interest!

Thank you for illustrating my point. I did not advocate "making and breaking" an appointment anywhere in my post. I suggest that you read and comprehend the thread before posting further commentary.

There is a big difference in missing an appointment and simply declining to specify when you will be able to do a job. The latter is IMHO, a far better option than the former when work is plentiful and includes hidden variables that preclude advance scheduling.

Appointments are fine for doctors and hairdressers, but often are not practical for other trades.

Thanks all for the feedback. I appreciate your making the time.

If I'd been given a window (similar to the old joke about waiting for the cable guy) that would be fine, but in this instance, I was told a specific time (10.30am Monday) by the electrician in question.

If I'd been told "this is a really busy time for me so I can't give you a firm date / time, but it will probably be some time next week" then at least I would have had the option of saying "sure, this project isn't an emergency and even though I don't know you the referral said you're worth it." Or, I could have (and would have) said "actually, I need a firm commitment" and we could have parted ways then.

But he chose to make that firm appointment with me. He chose to not call. And he chose to neither apologize nor see that any of this was unprofessional and rude.

The person who stood wayne440 up was equally rude and disrespectful, and if I had been that customer I would have expected a bill. Your time is valuable and you made the effort, it appears in good faith, to do the work. Similarly, homeowners' time is valuable and we deserve the same consideration.

In truth, I think I'm a big sap because I always give a generous tip and I always pay right away -- I have never, ever made anyone wait for remuneration. I offer a drink and the use of our facilities, and with the more work we're doing (and the more tradespeople we have coming to our home) I can see that no good deed goes unpunished ....

I wish it were in my makeup to be a prima donna and treat people like disposable objects there to do my biding, but people like that make me cringe and deeply embarrassed for the human race. But at least if I could be like that then I wouldn't be ticked off (and disappointed) by this behavior. Oh well!

Thank you all again. Have a lovely weekend!

"I did not advocate "making and breaking" an appointment anywhere in my post. I suggest that you read and comprehend the thread before posting further commentary."

Well, I am afraid that you didn't read and comprehend the OP before posting your comment!

"There is a big difference in missing an appointment and simply declining to specify when you will be able to do a job."

We know that, but can you decline to specify when will you be able to do a job FOREVER!? Customers particularly those referred by your old patrons need to be treated with basic respect also. I respect your opinion, but have to disagree that this is a good business model.

annie-lee, you TOTALLY missed Wayne's point.

A classic example of "customer relations" gone wrong. Maybe my post was too technical...

Petey Racer, you TOTALLY missed my point.
Hey, this means a lot to everyone, couldn't you get it!!!!

We are usually booked out two weeks or so. We pretty much know how long a job will take and we schedule work accordingly. When we say we are going to be at a job site we will try our best to be there. If we get a little behind we will call the customer to tell them we will be a day late. Often a customer will take a day from work to meet us at their job site. Now, if we are on a job for which we have allotted a day and the customer wants us to come back the next day for additional unscheduled work, we tell them we have another job and we can rescheduled them for the additional work when we have an open date. In other words, we bend over backwards to be where we are supposed to be when we are committed to be there.

Here in kansas city we wait at the house or shop each day for the cell phone to ring. Then we go to the job lol :) I don't know what it is but not much electrical work is being done around here. I just lost a bid of putting in 16 can lights in a basement finish at $40 per can to another electrical company. Maybe it's time to move or something lol.

annie-lee, please post you number so that if for some reason you ever call me instead of waiting 2 weeks to call you back I can just ignore you totally.

You tell Wayne he is "not a good person" over that post? (which you misunderstood BTW)
You DO NOT even know him, nor do I, so how can you say this???

With an attitude like yours I'm surprised anyone will work for you!

annie-lee...you are off base here. Wayne isn't missing appointments...because he isn't making any. I do agree with you that's a very poor way of doing things from a customer's point of view. We have schedules too...and mine at least or much more rigid than Wayne's seem to be. But if he doesn't give a firm appointment, he has never broken one! I am willing to bet that as the time gets closer to your service call, he indeed gives you a call and firms things up a bit. It would be ludicrous for him to just show up after not speaking to you for about 2 weeks. Nobody would be at your home. In this line of work, there is no way on God's green earth you can schedule exactly how long a job will take...on old construction in particular. In my own home for example I had to drop a line down a stud cavity. Imagine my surprise when I found the cavity blocked off about half way down...yet tapping on the wall and using a stud sensor didn't detect it. It tripled the amount of time to do the job. You can't predict that. I think their practice of doing things is just fine...as long as they keep in touch with their scheduled customers and let them know where they are with their time. I'm sure Wayne does that.

Re Spencer's post, we are finding large commercial firms bidding on work they would not normally do such as residential upgrades and yes,light installations. They have a lot of crews they need to keep busy especially since new construction is off so much.

"You tell Wayne he is "not a good person" over that post? (which you misunderstood BTW)
You DO NOT even know him, nor do I, so how can you say this???"

Talk about "missing the point", or "off base"! When I said "you are not a good person", the "you" meant the person who did what the OP described: missed appointment like nothing had happened, etc, etc. Of course "you" doesn't meant Wayne unless he happened to also behave like that (which he denied). Hey you don't need to be a English Major to get this point and you said I TOTALLY missed the point. Come on!!!

>>Wayne440: What are you talking about? So, you don't show up when you said you would, and not even call to let them know and say sorry that this happenened? Come on, you are not even a good person, nor a good professional. I don't believe you can maintain a good business without a good heart.

>Of course "you" doesn't meant Wayne

Sorry, annie-lee, I have to agree with the others--I see no indication of a transition from first to third person, syntactically or semantically, in your earlier statement. Your inflammatory tone, not to mention the multiple you-you-you's, make it very difficult to interpret it as anything but a castigation directed at Wayne440.

Your best bet at this point is concede that it was poorly worded, rather than taking a defensive posture and lashing out at those who were merely chiding you.

Think about this mess the next time you are asked for an "appointment". We have all had customers to "go off" for unexplained reasons before. Sometimes it is best to just pick up your tools and move on to the next (presumably more sane) patron. If the above had happened to me in reality, I would already be happily on my way to the next job. I respectfully suggest that we abandon this thread as a lost cause and go on the "next job".

Agree! Let's move on. Tomorrow is another day, not all electrician are alike, get a different electrician, or better yet, become one yourself. Nothing is impossible, and you will be proud of yourself for the rest of your life. Have a great day!