Fixing Someone Else's Work: Posting Without Slagging Them Off

# Fixing Someone Else's Work: Posting Without Slagging Them Off

Picture this. You've been called out to a bathroom that was finished four months ago by somebody else. The customer is embarrassed, a bit angry, and keen to tell you exactly how much they paid for it. You lift the bath panel and there it is: a waste pipe running gently uphill, a joint held together with hope and silicone, and a tide mark on the floorboards that tells you how long it's been leaking.

You know the drill from here. You'll put it right, the customer will be delighted, and somewhere between the tea and the invoice you'll think: this would make a cracking post.

It would. Remedial work is some of the most persuasive content a service business can share, because it shows what you know rather than telling people you know it. But it's also the easiest post in the world to get wrong, and the wrong version costs you more than it earns.

Why the tempting version backfires

The tempting version goes something like: "Look at the state of this. Whoever did it wants shooting. Cowboys everywhere. Always use a proper tradesperson!" Add a photo of the horror, a couple of angry emojis, and hit post.

Here's the problem. The people reading it aren't scoring you against the previous plumber. They're working out what it would be like to have you in their house. And what they've just learned is that you photograph your customers' bad decisions and put them online with a sneer.

Because that's what the customer did: they made a bad decision, or an unlucky one. Maybe they went cheap. Maybe the original fitter was a mate's cousin. Maybe he was perfectly decent and had a bad week. The person reading your post is thinking about the time they cut a corner themselves, and wondering whether you'd have mocked them too.

There's also the small matter that your town is smaller than you think. Whoever did the original work has a name, a family and probably a few of the same followers. Local trades know each other. You'll run into them at the merchants. And every other tradesperson watching your feed has just filed you under "the one who slags people off in public", which matters when you want recommendations from the electrician or the kitchen fitter who's on site before you.

What the post is actually about

The good version of this post isn't about the other person at all. It's about the problem and what you did with it.

Try a simple shift: describe the fault, not the culprit. "This waste pipe had a slight fall the wrong way, so water sat in it and eventually found a way out." That one sentence teaches your followers something. It makes you sound like someone who understands how bathrooms work. And it doesn't need a villain.

Then show the fix and, crucially, why it's a fix. "Re-run with a proper fall, solvent-welded joints, and a flood test before the panel went back on." Now the reader knows what good looks like, which means they know what to ask for next time, which means they're more likely to ask you.

Notice what's missing. No "whoever did this". No "some people shouldn't be allowed near a spanner". No photo of the old business card left stuck to the boiler.

A few rules of thumb

Anonymise properly. No names, no company logos in shot, no "the firm with the blue vans". If your area is small enough that people could work it out from the street, crop tighter or skip the wide shot.

Get the customer's OK. It's their bathroom you're showing. Most say yes, especially once you explain the post is about the fix. Some would rather not have their mistake on Facebook, and that's fair enough.

Give the benefit of the doubt in writing. "Things can shift after a few months" or "hard to tell without seeing what was there before" costs you nothing and reads as generous. Generous sells.

Let the before photo do the work. A calm, well-lit picture of the leak is more damning than any caption. If you feel the urge to add commentary, that's your cue to say less.

Skip the moral. You don't need to finish with "always use a reputable tradesperson". If the post is any good, that's what people conclude on their own. Spelling it out turns a useful story into an advert.

When it's genuinely dangerous

There's one exception worth naming. If what you've found could hurt someone (gas, live wires, a structural bodge), say so plainly, because the point of that post is to get other people to check theirs. Even then, the target is the fault, not the fitter. "If your consumer unit looks like this, get it looked at" is a public service. "Some clown nearly burned this house down" is a grudge.

The quiet payoff

Do this consistently and something useful happens. You become the person people call when they're not sure whether a job was done right. That's a very good reputation to have, because it puts you in the house before the next job comes up, talking to a customer who already trusts your judgement.

And you get there without making a single enemy. The previous fitter never knows, the customer never feels judged, and your followers learn something every time you post. Not bad for a photo of a pipe.

If you run these posts through something like Aunty Social, it's worth nudging the tone settings towards calm and explanatory rather than punchy. The fix is the story. Let it be.