Par for the course Central Coast in New south Wales.

We have an 18 meter fence which separates our property from our neighbours which needs replacing. Soooo, I turned to the Yellow Pages, as you do, to let my fingers do the walking. I decided to ring five contractors to obtain various quotes.
One said it was too far, [30 minutes drive,] I left my name and number on two answering machines, and still waiting for a reply after four days, one didn't return my call as promised. Only one out of five, called made the appointgment, turned up on time, and of course got the order. The job, I thought was worth about $2,500, that's $500 for materials,and $2000 for roughly a days work!! In the event, our neighbour has decided to extend her part of the fence, which is roughly another $500, and a friend needs two fences on her property, say roughly about $5000 worth of business which four of the people I called have missed out on. Why in God's name would you spend money on expensive advertisng in the Yellow Pages, and then not return phone calls. Makes no sense to me, and apart from anything else, it is grossly bad manners and shows complete lack of professional courtesy. But it does seem this cavalier attitude is very common on the Central Coast.A number of friends have complained about the same thing, tradesmen who advertise then simply do not return calls. If they ever turn up, in most cases they are late arriving with the same excuse, 'I got held up'. Use your mobile you bloody cretin.

I now have a short list of tradesmen I have used, who return calls, turn up on time, do the job for a price I'm happy to pay, and now refuse to use the Yellow Pages or the local paper in a search for tradesmen. A complete bloody waste of time and phone calls.

Caz