RE: Flushing money down the toilet - Do you 'cash grab' or relationship build?
I think your area can play a role in how they treat you. Do you happen to know if these tradesmen have high or low competition for business in the area? How often would craftsmen in your area expect to be called to fix an issue in your house?
My own personal examples of two very different experiences
Our garage door broke. The ONLY craftsman in their area to fix it that we could find lived 30 minutes away. We had to wait over a week for him to even come out. Needless to say, he charged an outrages fee for his time. He also spent an “hour” to fix what was wrong with the motor. He took a few breaks including a lunch break. He also “only” accepted cash. We never want to see him again but he's also the only one that lives anywhere near here that can fix it. I’m sure he never expects to see us again as our garage door has only broken once in 15 years.
Where I live with our heat and humidity when your AC breaks you more or less are willing to pay, and expect a huge bill when it's summer. The guy came out within an hour of being called and fixed the issue in 15 or 20 minutes. Told us he's seen our type of issue a lot. Ants got in and caused some damage to the wiring. He gave us some solutions to try and prevent them from getting in, and also showed us what he had done to try and solve the issue from reoccurring. The guy was nice and we didn't feel he over charged us at all. Since then our AC has broken 2 other times and the repair guy is rather good at getting out to us on the day we call it in. If it's after 5 pm he will let us know ahead of time that he charges an after hours surcharge fee; otherwise, we would be one of the first people he would see the next day. Needless to say, we like doing business with the guy and feel he's a professional. Our only complaint is it takes him 3 or 4 weeks to cash a check so we just pay him in cash now.