mild rant, contractors and repair folks

[winnietrey]

Having run. what I feel is a successful business, for 40 plus years.
We have always called folks back. And showed up when we said we would.
On occasion, where something came up, we always call or e-mail.

Perhaps I am just an old out of date, curmudgeon, but it seems to me that has gone by the wayside.

We have struggled of late with both contractors and repair folks, in terms of getting them to show up or call back.

I understand, surf is up, they have lots of work. What I think they miss is, the tide will turn as it always does. The will be begging for work, but because they blew out any referrals they will never get it. Even if they did great work, how can I refer someone to them, If had to call and call to get the job done?

[Grit_dog]

News flash... There's good contractors and bad contractors. And there's good customers and bad customers.
Awesome garage door story though. Busted another door spring. Torsion spring last month. Have to dang near have a contractor install one to even purchase one. Apparently too many lawsuits from homeowners who don't understand stored energy, lol.
So wife finds a guy who'll sell her a spring. (Btw, there's only a couple places in the entire south Sound area that will even sell a homeowner a door spring)
She has to bring the spring and sign a waiver, his spring, his rules. Means another day goes by because I have to take it apart at 9pm when I get home from work so she can have the privlege of buying a new one....
I tell her what dia, length and wind but she has the spring with her, so no issue matching it. Guy sells her the opposite wind of what we brought to him. I come home, fark, wrong wind. Guy argues with me about it. This re-Todd argued twice over the phone with me about how he's been a door guy for 37 years and I'm wrong. Finally couldn't be nice anymore and had to rip his ass and threaten him just to get the right spring.

[CFerguson]

I understand that things happen but in today's age of cell phones theres no excuse for not calling when you know you cant make it or will be late.

I called out a small local garage door outfit to give them a chance once when a spring broke. Family company- father and 2 adult sons (30 somethings) show up. Did fine job, very personable. We talked a bit about my old and noisy garage door opener. I have put them in myself and family for decades but they had one in stock that I liked and we agreed on a price. This was a Friday afternoon. They said son will be here tomorrow to switch the openers out. I said no need, Monday is fine. No, he'll be here tomorrow. Really, this one works albeit noisy and Monday is fine. No No we insist on tomorrow. OK then, tomorrow it is.

So I sat around all Saturday with no worker, no call, nothing. Saturday night I went to HomeD and bought a superquiet unit and installed it. Monday NIGHT daddy calls me to apologize. No prob, job is done, thanks for the call. I could tell he was going to ream the son after he got off the phone with me.

[Hammerboy]

allen8106 wrote:
In 2001 we had a large addition put on our old farm house. In 2017 we had some major storm damage to the inside and outside of the house. Contractor that did the addition told me "we don't do insurance claims, we are only doing new construction or new additions".

They lost my business and referral forever.

Really? Are you not going to refer a plumber because he doesn't want to do your electrical work? Yes I know it's not quite the same but insurance work can be a entirely different animal and there are companies that specialize in that type of work. You cannot penalize some for not wanting do it.

Dan

[WTP-GC]

4x4van wrote:


I have no problem being told no. I DO have a problem being ignored, or worse, being told that you will show up at a certain time and then you don't bother. Newsflash, my time is just as important as yours, if not more so.

That statement shows a strong sense of entitlement. You don't like being ignored? Well, how does your rights of attention trump my rights of not being bothered? In this case, the customer calls the contractor, not the other way around. Should I feel a required to respond to something that I didn't request? That's really no different than a spam call or junk mail. Your time is absolutely not important than my time...and vice versa.

There seems to be a common theme in this thread that when the economy turns, somehow those people who didn't return calls will be hurting. However, when the economy turns, it effects everyone...contractor and customer. During these times, the customer's budget will also be looking for the most competitive price. Money has a funny way of convincing people to do things that they once said they wouldn't do on an Internet forum.

Depsite all the back and forth, it should be noted that there is a plethora of contractor types, from those who do only service work to those who only work when they are selected through a dog and pony show. Not everyone is on call 24/7 and not everyone relies on referrals, word of mouth, or websites testimonials for work. I do a lot of work for clients that have never heard of me, but I pursued them and their work and put on a good showing. I've never made a house call or sent a service truck to fix a problem. So my line of work is somewhat unique...which is why I don't entertain cold calls.

[down_home]

BillyBob Jim wrote:

down home wrote:
Wife delted his nme from phone but if I find it I will post it all over Southern Michigan where 80% of the people are wife's relatives.

ROFLMAO...

I bet he's shaking in his boots since your wife has about 7.5 million relatives :B

Never know. Her family goes back to the 1500s in Ontario, and in the Northeast and two lines 1620 on the Mayflower. Several graveyards f, i guess what you would say the family of clan in northern Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and beyond. Just how many there are we don't know. Not many show for reunions but her emails runneth over. And in the Coldwater Michigan area including Jonesbille or Jonesboro(I don't remember which) she is related to a lot of people, that has not just moved in in the last three decades.

[Chum_lee]

4x4van wrote:
I have a hard time believing that any business is SO busy that they can't return calls from potential customers, even if it is to say, sorry I can't/don't/won't do your requested project. It takes all of 30 seconds to do so, and while you may consider it wasted time, it may very well be the difference between staying in business and going bankrupt 2-5-8 years down the road when the economy changes (which it always does) and you are scraping for work.

As current business slows down, contractors usually start returning calls more frequently. I'm not saying its right, IMO, it's just what happens.

"Newsflash, my time is just as important as yours, if not more so."

Now if I could get everybody else to believe that, (and act that way) I'd be all set.

Chum lee (not currently holding my breath)

[S_Davis]

As a contractor your customer is your biggest asset, you don't throw them away. Returning calls and being on time for appointments is a must, if I am going to be late more than five minutes I will call. If I am too busy I will at least call you back to see if you can wait on my schedule or not.

[4x4van]

I have a hard time believing that any business is SO busy that they can't return calls from potential customers, even if it is to say, sorry I can't/don't/won't do your requested project. It takes all of 30 seconds to do so, and while you may consider it wasted time, it may very well be the difference between staying in business and going bankrupt 2-5-8 years down the road when the economy changes (which it always does) and you are scraping for work.

In 2005, we had a room addition done to our house. Unfortunately, the economy was booming and housing developments were going on everywhere. Out of 10 contractors that I called (whose ads specifically included "room additions"), 7 didn't even bother to return my call/message. The 3 that did were honest about the fact that they were working on large developments and either couldn't help me or that they would have to fit me in when they could. No problem, I understood, and I ended up hiring one of them. Fast forward a few years when the economy crashed, and most of those 7 that ignored me are no longer around. The 3 that returned my calls? They survived and are still in business today. Coincidence? No, the simple result of customer service.

I have no problem being told no. I DO have a problem being ignored, or worse, being told that you will show up at a certain time and then you don't bother. Newsflash, my time is just as important as yours, if not more so.

[JAC1982]

allen8106 wrote:
In 2001 we had a large addition put on our old farm house. In 2017 we had some major storm damage to the inside and outside of the house. Contractor that did the addition told me "we don't do insurance claims, we are only doing new construction or new additions".

They lost my business and referral forever.

Why would you want a contractor working your insurance claim that doesn't normally do them? Navigating insurance claim work is a big job for a contractor, and if they don't have a resource to handle the insurance company, then that's a lot of extra time for them. I'd rather have someone working on my claim that knows how to navigate that end of things.

[allen8106]

In 2001 we had a large addition put on our old farm house. In 2017 we had some major storm damage to the inside and outside of the house. Contractor that did the addition told me "we don't do insurance claims, we are only doing new construction or new additions".

They lost my business and referral forever.

[sayoung]

I was a hvac service contractor and did do new construction but my main focus was service. During the extreme heat or cold when I got a call it was because potential customer was out of service. You return the call no matter how busy you were.
I had some people call when it's 100+ and demand I come right now even tho they had never contacted my company before, sorry but you must get in line. I also had folks that if they called for service a 2nd time even if I hadn't had a call in a week, my 1st opening was latter part of next week :R. I valued my customers and tried my best to meet their expectations but some no matter you just can't make happy. When I sold & retired I had customers that are grandkids of my earliest customers, that's from doing the job.

[monkey44]

Call backs to new folks - sometimes good, bad or odd ...

Once got a call from a woman who needed and exterior door repaired. Had a good crew and we were building a new home ... SO, I picked a day later in the week, and left the crew working, went over and looked, told her $150. But then got into a lot of wood rot on the framing, and ended up repairing it, plus a new door - she bought the door - and spent all day, and part of next day. Not a good paycheck, in fact.

Two years later, her San Francisco attorney daughter calls, and we built a 3000 sqft ski cabin up in Bear Valley Ca for her ... paybacks are great !! Sometimes

I always tried to at least respond to all calls, and do it if I could manage it. Got lots of referrals later on ... never can tell what a call will bring now, or later 🙂

[winnietrey]

Op here.
Having been in business a long time, trust me, I get it about cheap customers, being to busy for new ones, all that stuff.

But what I don't get is this. I believe there are two parts to a new job. What you make on the initial job. And the backend which is future work from the same customer and referrals form them. The back end is often of way more value.

As a example, recently hired a house painter, did not beat him up on the bid. Paid 1/2 of front etc. So I think we were a good customer.

He said he would complete the job in two weeks, it took him over two months, and that with numerous where are you calls from me.

Do I think he is a bad guy? not at all, on the contrary I think he is probably a good guy, good family man and so on. And I have no complaints about the quality of his work. But I think he is a not so great business man. He blew us out on any future work and referrals.

Way to much stress for us on getting him to show up

So when times slow down if all he gets is front end work, he will be in for a bit of a slog

[valhalla360]

philh wrote:

That sword plays both ways, just because you're super busy, don't waste my time by quoting 3x the cost of the job because you're busy, or you think I can pay that much.

That's not wasting your time and has nothing to do with how much he thinks you can pay.

He's already booked up. He may have to pay overtime or contact another customer and push out the date on that work...If you are willing (of your own free will) to pay 3X as much, it may be worth the hassle for him. If you are expecting absolute low bid 2% profit margins, it's probably not. He gave you an option.

[JRscooby]

p220sigman wrote:
Supply and demand in play. Locally, we had some impact from a little storm named Michael, so plenty of roof work to go around. To the west of us, A LOT of roof work to go around. Talking with a roofing contractor friend, he has had an entire crew hired away from him over lunch. He went to lunch, crew was working on the roof. He came back, no crew. He called his crew foreman and found out that another roofing contractor from the area west of here, stopped by and made the crew an offer they felt they couldn't refuse to quit and go to work for him. Just like that, he is behind.

But I agree that it is very frustrating to have someone say they will show up and then just not show. Typically, they one get one chance after that. Fortunately, we are still small enough around here, that word of mouth still helps/hurts in many cases.

Back in my teens I worked at a factory 40 hrs a week. The father of one of my friends had crews building houses. That friend, another guy and I would roof a house on the weekend, paid by square. Monday morning the Dad would inspect, and pay in cash. My split of the money for 2 long days was real close to my "take home" for a week at the factory. I later found out I was scab.
Back in the days of strong unions doing the same job paid the same.