Running around to get odd jobs done

Even if you are a local resident or have moved into the city from another State, hiring an electrician to set right a damaged fuse can get challenging. Nine out of ten people face difficulties looking for a carpenter to mend a broken piece of furniture.

Challenges range from communication problems to excessive charges to running behind the servicemen for getting the work completed efficiently. To do odd jobs that may not take much time, finding a person could be equally daunting. Here are a few instances of these issues, faced by Bengalureans across the City...

Case 1: Thirty-year-old Saubhagya moved into the city three years ago from Mumbai after her husband took a new job in an IT firm in Whitefield. Initially, the couple lived in HSR Layout in a one-BHK flat and before they knew it, their ordeal had begun. 

Recalls Saubhagya, “It was a nightmare for us in the the initial few months. Every time there was a need for an odd job, we had to either ask our Mumbai friends who were living in this city before us, to help us with the “right man” or had to request the house owner to send someone.”

But even after they found a person, the issue did not get resolved in a hurry. “He would either drag the work for days or demand more money to finish the job. This continued till we shifted to an apartment in a gated community, where the servicemen were easily available, but of course at a much higher price,” says Saubhagya.

Case 2: For 40-year-old Ramesh, a bank employee, his school teacher wife and a teenage daughter, moving to a city from their hometown in Bhopal was a difficult step. But what made it worse was to get the little repairs done in the house that the bank had leased out for the family. The family was soon caught up in a vicious circle of calls to carpenters and contractors to carry out the minor works, which eventually took months to complete. Finally, the family took to online portals run by various startups to get the work done.

To get the odd jobs done in peace, one needs to be either living in a gated community where the servicemen for these jobs are usually empanelled by the housing society or the executive committee of residents.

The once disorganised service sector is now being organised thanks to a handful of startups which have taken up upon themselves to bring the servicemen under one umbrella so that you do not have to run after each of the servicemen.

However, the servicemen under startups come at a price slightly higher than what your traditional plumber or electrician next door may demand. But a majority of the residents do not mind as long as they get quality service efficiently and on time.