I must say that I have never really come across any problems here with electricians, plumbers, plasterers, carpenters etc.
But, on the other hand if someone's working in the house I do prefer to just put anything i would be worried about .. e.g. cash, credit cards, car keys into my office and lock the door.
Most trades people trade on their reputation so i don't think they could afford to damage this by doing something completely stupid in someone's house!
I think a lot of the TV programmes highlighting "cowboys" are damaging real trades people but it's up to the real trades people to do something about making sure that they are recognisable as different from these guys. Organisations need to start squeezing these guys out thru registration, ID cards etc etc... whatever it takes.
I mean can you imagine what would happen if you had a lot of cowboys posing as dentists ... you'd suddenly have consumers taking all sorts of precautions.
I wouldn't blame the media coverage I would blame the trades organisations for failing to establish sufficient barriers to entry!
(and by barriers to entry I don't mean the anti-compeditive trade barrier stuff ...)
[This message has been edited by djk (edited 11-30-2003).]
