It's a fact that people who live and work in big cities are spoilt for choice when it comes to booking independent tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, locksmiths etc but what about people who live in more rural areas, such as parts of Cumbria or Scotland for example where your nearest neighbour can be miles way?

I once lived in the city, I lived and worked in central Manchester for over 10 years and when you needed an emergency tradesman such as a Locksmith, Electrician or Plumber and you searched Google you literally had dozens of tradesmen to choose from, now this may sound like a good thing, but it wasn’t because out of those dozens of tradesmen there were quite a few rogue traders that you wanted to avoid?

What is the definition of a Rogue Trader?

The term Rogue Trader actually comes for the financial sector and refers to a stockbroker who secretly loses a large amount of their employer’s money after making bad or illegal investments. Think of Nick Leeson who whose unchecked risk-taking and drive for success caused the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995.

However, the term rogue trader has since been adopted by tradesmen such as plumbers, locksmiths and electricians to signify someone who is either untrained or out to purposely rip off customers with bait and switch pricing and over the top billing.

Why Rural Areas have Fewer Rogue Traders

Rogue Traders seem to operate in urban areas and big cities where they can go undetected due to the high number of other tradesmen in the area. Many of these crooks will constantly change their mobile numbers and their business name to avoid any bad press and can continue to rip off customer for years.

In rural areas it’s more difficult to go under the radar and after a bad experience people will talk and its not people saying who not to use, its people saying who is safe to use and this is why good tradesmen do extremely well in rural areas even though jobs are fewer and far between and the distances the tradesman is willing to travel is much greater.

Rural and Urban Pricing

Pricing for emergency call out tradesmen such as Locksmiths, Plumbers, Electricians etc varies a great deal depending on whether you live in an urban location or a more rural one. In cities and urban areas the advertised price for an emergency locksmith for example seems very cheap, however if you have had the misfortune to book a rogue locksmiths then this will NOT be the price you’ll end up paying, it will be a from price and the locksmith will include a number of ridiculous extras to bump up the bill, adding things like fuel costs, night rate and some even charge extra for having to drill a lock out.

It’s different in rural areas and the costs of an emergency locksmith in Renfrewshire for example will be higher than that of a locksmith based in Manchester but in rural areas people do expect this because the locksmith is usually travelling further and covering a larger area.

However, the price quoted will be the price you’ll pay because locksmiths operating in rural areas want to build up a reputation of being trustworthy and professional because and unlike their urban counterparts they can’t simple rip people off and then change their name and telephone number, people would know and word would spread.

In Summary

If you live in a rural area then you are very fortunate and it’s extremely rare to get ripped off by a rouge tradesmen.