Home improvement contractors

[gunguru]

I on the edge of losing my calm with home improver... are act if the customer is a big pile of [...]

We needed an electrician, we called like 10 of them, none move their [...] to give us at least an evaluation... and they gave us lazy excuses... like "it's not my work area"... but his office is like 2 miles away; like "this job is too small for me", wow this one can do telepathy as he can tell this by phone, and if you don't want residential work, why do you advertise as "Home electricity emergencies and repairs"

We needed a plumber, almost the same thing.

We get a painter, he leave the house so dirty than he took us more time to clean than if we painted by ourself, and he had to came back 2 times to do some touch up ( if we can call a touch up the entire wall behind a door or a whole ward robe)...

We just had a window changed, after post poning the installation a few times, came in to install the window, and guess what, he forgot the aluminium wall trim, and after one week he didn't came back, even if I called him a few time.

And beleive me, I'm absolutly not a bad customer, I just want to get the job done as i pay for it.

Thanks for listening me...

[Tiny Warrior]

Mike Holmes' saying of "Make it right" doesn't apply to all contractors....unfortunately

[EkuJustice]

My parents had a complete remodel done on their house well in the process of it and have over half of it done. The upstairs, had missed spots on the painting, the nail holes in the trim not set correctly, the new stairs not braced well at all, cracking around the window trim a couple months after done and a thief on the job site as well as other problems. They eventually had it fixed and the guy in charge of the project was a total idiot and will not be overseeing the rest of the project which is done in phases. You would have thought he would have nitpicked more as he KNEW my father was very ocd and was planning on going over everything with a fine tooth comb as it was far from a budget job. Upstairs alone involved gutting alot of the upstairs and redesigning to the tune of about 110K. Some people have no pride in a job well done

[JimmyZip]

I am an electrician, working in residential, commercial, and light manufacturing/industrial. I am constantly, almost daily, blown away/tickled/shocked by what I an assigned to fix, or remodel behind. When I hear of an electrical fire in a home, regardless of size or price, I am not surprised at all.

We clean up, after ourselves. I bring a set of drop cloths, and a vacuum with me to all finished homes. I even drag a can with me on wiring and make-up during new construction. We get so many requests because of our work, and our appearance, that you would not even know that there is a recession with our company. Just amazing in this economy really. How can you afford to turn work down?

Too bad we are so far apart. I would come by and take care of your issues. Any job is just money waiting to be made. Every customer is the one that deserves my attention at that time. No job is too small, I've made our basic $50.00 service minimum just showing people what switches what in a home.

Good luck!

[Piney]

It always suprises me that someone in a service industry position isn't concerned about their business reputation. Sure-- business may be good-- at the moment. They'll be wishing they had a customer base to draw on at some point.

[Ted Murphy]

I used to have a residential contracting business. Now with the exception of a few customers, I only do commercial work.

When I went on an estimate, I was auditioning customers as they were auditioning me. Sometimes, if I thought they looked like problems, acted too weirdly, thought they knew more than me, or I had concerns about their ability to pay, I'd drop the estimate like a vegan with a cheesesteak.

I prefer commercial work. I hate dealing with architects but my checks clear.

Not all contractors are bums. You usually don't stay in business for long if you are.

There are differences between the low end guys and the expensive contractors. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and often the lowest bid has hidden costs.

Good luck,

Ted

Edited April 22, 2012 by Ted Murphy

[Flatland Shooter]

Must not be much of a recession here.

Scheduled several contractors to bid on a new roof. Not one of them came by or called to cancel. I selected them because they have the best reputation. I guess its time for me to lower my standards.

Bill

[retarmyaviator]

Only one thing I hate worse than trial lawyers - contractors. Never show up on time, never do what they say they are going to do. Learned to do the work myself so I could tell them all to go to hell.

[392heminut]

Learned to do the work myself so I could tell them all to go to hell.

That's exactly what I've done. I live in a small enough town that I know the building inspector personally and he comes over and signs off on each phase of my work and gives me advice. I'm pretty picky about my stuff and have found that if I do it myself then I know it was done to my satisfaction. Guess that's why I build my own competition guns too!