Trouble with Worker from Airtasker (Installing Kitchen Wall Tiles)

oliman on 20/10/2017 - 10:59

Hi,

I have been using Airtasker for last 12 months and had good experience with some of the property related repair work. My colleague, who is renovating the whole kitchen in his property, wanted some skilled worker to install the tiles in the kitchen. I told him he could try Airtasker and select someone for his job based on the worker's reviews and profile.

My colleague followed my advice and found a worker with 4.9/5 rating in 23 reviews on Airtasker, who had the required skills. The worker and my colleague agreed to commence the work this Monday, which the worker did. When my colleague reviewed the work after returning home from work, he was shocked to see the work as it was messy, tiles not placed uniform and didn't looked like a professional work at all (See the photos links below).

https://ibb.co/gDCct6
https://ibb.co/eWLVD6
https://ibb.co/hgyHt6

My colleague then called the worker next day to discuss it. The worker showed up the next day and upon questioning the quality of the work, he said this is how it is and that is fine. My colleague also felt that he was not stable and probably was on drugs or alcohol. After the worker's denial to accept the mistake and work out a solution, my colleague asked him to leave the property.

My colleague have requested to cancel the task ($250), but the worker is sending messages on Airtasker claiming that he left his tools in the property and ($250) should be compensation for that. I know my colleague for 5 years, and I can say for sure that worker's claim of leaving and loosing the tools in nothing but a blunt lie and attempt to grab the money form Airtasker for that work.

Now the real problem where I would appreciate any advice for my colleague…

My colleague called another tiling expert from a company, to estimate the effort for fixing the tiling work. The estimate came around $1200 to retract and re-apply the (new) tiles in correct way.

What are the possibilities to claim the compensation of fixing the wrong work done by the Airtasker worker? Can it be claimed against his public liability, as this was pretty much a damage rather than a renovation that was done by him?

Please advice and Thank you for reading a long post.

Home & Garden

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Comments

  • 87percent on 20/10/2017 - 11:03

    "probably on drugs or alcohol"… interesting assumption and he didn't think he was on "drugs or alcohol" before he started the work?

    • oliman on 20/10/2017 - 11:05

      My colleague was not there at the property when he commenced the work. His family attended the worker so he could do the work.

      • garetz on 20/10/2017 - 15:28

        You trust someone you never met to do the work based on anonymous reviews on a website ? Sounds like your asking for trouble.

  • mskeggs on 20/10/2017 - 11:04
    +27

    Who would have thought getting an amateur off airtasker to do a tradesmen's job could go wrong?
    I guess this will be a lesson to all of us contemplating getting our heart surgery done by a deliveroo rep or our electrical wiring inspected by an uber driver.

    • oliman on 20/10/2017 - 11:07
      +2

      So you are concluding Airtasker is the wrong platform to find any tradesmen?

      • mskeggs on 20/10/2017 - 11:49
        +12

        Correct, I don't think airtasker is the right place to look for a qualified tradesperson.
        You might find one, but there would be few tradies that would choose that avenue (where they are competing against unqualified competitors in a race to the bottom on costs), but there are alternatives to find quality, qualified workers.

        • oliman on 20/10/2017 - 13:45
          -3

          I dont agree with you.

          I have hired a few trades man for in last 12 months and they all did a wonderful job. Of course I made sure they have good rating on related work and asked a few questions on their past experience on similar work and their proposed approach for my job.

          I am sure Airtasker is giving the overpriced trade worker and companies a good competition, and from sound of your criticism, I feel like you hate that competition too.

        • mskeggs on 20/10/2017 - 14:20
          +17

          @oliman:

          I don't have a horse in this race, except to point out the results you posted from a "tiler" hired on airtasker.
          But I stand by the comment that few tradies will want to compete against cut price amateurs on a market place that takes a big cut.

          I'm not a tradesman, but can produce adequate wall tiling on a smooth surface. I don't think that makes me a good candidate to offer my services on airtasker, yet others apparently come to a different conclusion.
          The system of apprenticeships and trade accreditation, not to mention builders licensing and insurance schemes provides a level of reliability and accountability that is not offered by an amateur.
          In the case of your friends tiles, it looks like the "tiler" had never worked with mortar as a bed for wall tiles before. It takes skill and practice, and a qualified tradesperson will have received that training and experience under the eye of an experienced mentor. And if they are any good they will get plenty of work without having to use airtasker and pay its hefty cut.

          For jobs where skill and qualifications are unnecessary, airtasker is fine, assuming the customer recognises the risk that they are just getting an amateur.

          As for whether I hate competition? I think ebay fees are way too high, and I am sure Uber will do the same when they have killed taxis, and AirBNB will up their's as well when they have dominance. If airtasker gets the same level of dominance, they will do the same. And the result will be destruction of pricing power for local labour, reduced tax collection for local governments, and enriched airtasker equity owners. On balance, I don't think that is particularly good, even if it allows you to get some odd jobs done cheaper.

        • Donaldhump on 20/10/2017 - 15:26
          +5

          @oliman: agree with mskeggs here. i could go on airtasker and get a few fellow mates to write fake reviews.

          that tiling picture is terrible, i could lay tiles better than that and i am a computer programmer.

          if you want a job done properly, use a registered company.

        • PVA on 20/10/2017 - 21:25
          +1

          @oliman:
          Not really overpriced when you need to pay good money to correct the poor work.
          And the tiles they have chosen are bloody hard to do.

          Trades are a skill, not someone that thinks they can do the work, as you found out.

          I could find someone that can do your job for half the price than what you are paid, doesn't mean they do a good job or that you are overpriced.

      • PVA on 20/10/2017 - 21:20

        Yes, pay tradesmen the correct amount and get quality..
        Try to get it for half the normal price by a handyman and you get what you pay for.

    • 87percent on 20/10/2017 - 11:10
      +5

      I get my heart surgery done via Gumtree

      • onetwothreefour on 20/10/2017 - 11:25
        +3

        It's cheaper on ebay and you can PayPal charge back if it goes wrong

      • pais on 20/10/2017 - 11:36
        +3

        If it was Gumtree, you'd get a message telling you that you're scheduled for a 9am surgery, but nobody would ever show up and the surgeon would disappear from the face of the earth.

        • skillet on 21/10/2017 - 09:39
          +1

          Can't be that bad, I used Gt to clear my whole apartment in 3 days. The people I dealt with were mostly new to the country and quite okay.

    • R-Man on 20/10/2017 - 11:38
      +2

      I wouldn't blame airtasker, its just another market place like gumtree or yellow pages, could be experienced tradies or amateur idiots in either of them. It's up to the buyer to ensure they're hiring the right person and never pay upfront.

      We have used gumtree and hipages to source most of our tradies for home building tasks including tiling. If airtasker was around we would try that too.

      This has kept our expenses low and the outcomes have been fine. Sometimes you get guys who "reckon I could do it, she'll be right" but you also get the actual professionals looking for different ways to source work. Buyers should always be diligent on choosing the provider and also pay later to avoid the problem above.

      • iseenya on 20/10/2017 - 16:39
        +2

        Paying later isn't the problem in OP's friend's case. AirTasker acts as an intermediary, charging the agreed funds against the user's credit card, but not releasing payment to the worker until the user has given approval to do so, via the AT website. Hence, the worker's bogus attempt to get the money from AT by claiming that their tools were left on the premises.

        • R-Man on 20/10/2017 - 19:13

          ah okay didnt know that. So indeed there is an added risk of using Airtasker then :(

  • thord on 20/10/2017 - 11:17
    +5

    That's one of the worst tiling jobs I have ever seen. Actually no. It is the worst tiling jobs I have ever seen. I literally could do better if I was drunk.

    I don't know what kind of recourse you have with airtasker. You're probably better off just ripping up the tiles as soon as possible to prevent them really cementing in, and then seeing if any are salvaged, buy some replacements, and get someone who knows what they're doing to re-do the job.

    I am super shocked at the shittiness of that. HoWEVER, $250.00 to complete tiling seems very cheap. If they were there for say, 4 hours, and all material and tile glue were provided for them, they'd only be charging $62/hour. I suppose that's reasonable for a tiler in this circumstance, but it's a shitty job, you won't get many people wanting to take a job like that for under $400 because with the travel time it's often just not worth it.

  • pais on 20/10/2017 - 11:42
    +1

    Probably a really egregious example that if you're paying unders, that's what you get.

  • CLoSeR on 20/10/2017 - 11:50
    +4

    You can't use a service like Airtasker then complain when the result is poor. I'm assuming this clown is not a licensed tiler/tradesperson.

    Public liability insurance has nothing to do with this.

  • Diji1 on 20/10/2017 - 11:51
    -3

    colleague also felt that he was not stable and probably was on drugs or alcohol.

    If your colleague thought that then he clearly has spent zero times around people on drugs or alcohol. And alcohol is a drug.

    For example drunk people and stoned people behave very differently and you wouldn't even know half the time with drugs - and using one term to cover all drugs is also problematic. So he sounds like he's just attempting to slur the person's character by inventing crap.

  • Gronk on 20/10/2017 - 11:51
    +8

    Your friend truly believed they were going to get a 'professional' job for $250?

    Granted, it's a terrible job, pretty sure I could do better myself after necking a bottle of Vodka, but this is what you get if you don't use qualified tradies and confirm their credentials.

  • angusngon9 on 20/10/2017 - 12:03

    Seems like it's time for me to find some tiling work on airtasker!

    Since I'm at it maybe I can do the plumbing, electric works and ah- I'll do timber decking and asbestos removals as well. All for $1000, how's that?

  • big1964 on 20/10/2017 - 12:04
    +5

    you pay for what you get

  • Yttrium on 20/10/2017 - 15:08
    -1

    You got scammed

  • garetz on 20/10/2017 - 15:30
    +2

    That has got to be the worst tiling i have ever seen in my life, even someone who just learned to tile on youtube could do a better job than that but for $250 what do you expect. Even the new quote of $1200+ is cheap when you take the repair work required into consideration.

    https://www.airtasker.com/users/brad-j-5026544/

    has to be the guy, looking at his profile his work looks ok, but his completion % is abit worrying.

  • MrTweek on 20/10/2017 - 16:48
    +1

    He shouldn't pay him and move on.

    Can it be claimed against his public liability

    He probably won't have any, so I doubt you can get anything from him, or the hassle won't be worth it.

    he left his tools in the property and ($250) should be compensation for that

    Yeah sure. Even if that was true, it would be his own fault that he forgot them. Can't claim compensation for your own mistakes.

    • garetz on 20/10/2017 - 17:00

      Actually if you are asked to leave the property, and he claims he left his tools of his trade on site, then he can claim compensation through fair trading. However i dont see how airtasker can be the arbitrator in this case and still give him the $250.

  • Findo on 20/10/2017 - 21:14
    +2

    Airtasker is the new scumtree, almost everyone that’s bid for jobs claim they’re an expert in whatever field. Yeah right, if you’re an expert why would you want to work for my paltry pay?

  • hm on 21/10/2017 - 00:39

    You get what you paid your $250 for, sounds reasonable to me considering your quoted price to rectify is $1,200, so thats $600 to take off and $600 to re-apply as opposed to the $250 you spent for the job you got, lesson learnt?

  • JIMB0 on 21/10/2017 - 08:25

    Could you do a credit card charge back?

  • skillet on 21/10/2017 - 09:41

    Tiling is a profession and requires quite a bit of experience to get it right. Don't believe the 2 min DIY video Bunnings. How about Airtasker to cut your hair.

  • smux on 21/10/2017 - 16:31

    Standard of work here is worse than unskilled labour in a developing country. This worker should not be allowed anywhere near tiles in the future

  • NotCheap on 25/10/2017 - 14:10
    +1

    funnynotfunny worst tiling job ever.

    I could have tiled better using taco's instead of tiles!

    I suspect by tools, they mean the unopened pack of spacers they forgot to use.

    I'd be pursuing air tasker for recovery of losses due to having to replace the tiles; and return the wall to a condition suitable to re-tile.

    Whoever fixes that up; get them to split the bill (removal of existing tiles, and prep of wall) and the install of new tiles. Then see about air-tasker paying for rectification work.

    Goodluck.

  • Evansville on 18/11/2018 - 07:56

    I have to admire a guy that "gives it a go",and likes to try new things. Maybe the name "airtasker" is appropriate after all….

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