separated by one half-day of work. Not bad, except I actually wanted to get stuff done the past two days. But yesterday I felt like road-kill - just unbelievably tired, given that I had just gotten 9 hours of sleep. And today, I was waiting for one of the contractors to show up.
Big mistake.
I'm always a bit curious about how contractors expect customers to trust them with something like, say, installing a heating system, when they can't demonstrate that they can handle, say, dialing the damn phone when you aren't going to make your appointment. D had to call them - 2 hours after the scheduled time - and find out that, "They're running a bit late." No estimate of what time they might actually get here. So I had to take another whole day off.
D is getting the next one of these wait-for-the-guy-to-show-up assignments. I did the last two.
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2 comments:
Sweetheart,
the contractor's men didn't show up and he didn't call, he knew about it and he didn't call. He is disorganized and not reliable. What if they take the heating system apart and promise to be back the next day? You may be in for several cold days and a court date. As far as payment goes, 1/3 when he starts, 1/3 when he is half donw, and 1/3 when he is done to your satisfaction. You have to be very careful when dealing with contractors around the holidays. Your money could go for Christmas presents and parties and leave you with having to come up with more. You have to be especially careful around the first of the month when their child support is due. Get everything in writing. "I'm going to do this and I will do that" is a bunch of baloney, they will never do it. Get it in writing or you have no recourse at all if it is not done. Remember, most of the guys that work for themselves or work by themselves do so because no one else will hire them. This is true of almost all contractors except for the Asian ones They are extremely reliable and meticulous in their work. Only use a contractor that specializes in that field. The others are like lawyers. "Can you go this?" "Yes" "Can you do that?" "Yes" "Can you build a space shuttle?" "Yes".
Remember, no money just before or after the first of the month and no money the week before Christmas. They will promise anything just to get their hands on the money. Then the pressure is off of them and on you. Any work that is complicated should be done between 9 AM and noon time. Any work that is done between 8AM and Nine AM is suspect because they still have the shakes from the night before. Any work that is done from 1PM to 5PM is suspect because they probably went to a bar for lunch and got a snootfull,
been there, done that, daddy
Beware, here there are dragons!
This guy actually came highly recommended by Drew's mom.... so I don't know what kind of message we're sending that makes it okay. And, the people who were really good about the estimate initially (different company) haven't called to give us a number yet. This is a big job... I just don't get how they don't want to actually make ~ 10k. And how do these people actually stay in business?
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