Contractors--Help Me Out

"glemon" (glemon) 06/16/2020 at 20:02 • Filed to: None

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I don’t know if it is just around here, but it is definitely not just me. If you try to get a contractor around here, drywall, bricklaying, tree trimming, build a deck, various home improvement type things, you get a call back about a third of the time. Of those that call back, about half will actually give you an estimate. Of those that flake out, they pretty much always ghost you.

I have never been a contractor, I have had my own business. Never been so busy I could blow off customers.

Is it just sort of a macho non- cummu nicative culture? I get it that you can be busy or not interested in the job. How hard is it to type out the sentence, “love to do the work, but we are six weeks out and in scheduling” or “thanks for the interest not the kind of work we do” “we don’t do that, but here is some body who does”

The no response at all is frustrating, but what is worse is the tease , where they promise an estimate or the job, you are trying to get something done, and they never come back. I realize I am of much less interest than some general contractor who will provide work on a regular basis, but still, my money spends like anybody else's.

Thought maybe I have a picky customer or cheapskate vibe, but just talked to some friends who wanted to have a deck done. Same story.

And much of this is pre-covid, so that is not it either.

Any insight appreciated.

Note also, contacts have been made through referrals from others who have used the contractor, general web searches, running into guys with signs on their trucks at big box stores. Doesn’t seem to matter, the referalls may be a little more likely to talk to you before blowing you off I guess.

DipodomysDeserti > glemon 06/16/2020 at 20:35

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Contractors here are notoriously shitty as well.

You’re best bet in the Southwest is to be recommended a reliable guy who has enough family members/friends to get jobs done in a prompt manner. Then you stick with that guy forever, and recommend him to friends and family.  Speaking Spanish helps (sorry, white nationalists!). 

ShrimpHappens, née WJalopy > glemon 06/16/2020 at 20:37

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It is the exact same where I live.

Monkey B > glemon 06/16/2020 at 20:57

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that’s why so many larger outfits employ sales people . Good craftsman are often times bad at business. Unfortunately they can be lumped in with the many that are just bad contractors out to rip people off. I’ve found most of the issue is timing, if they are a small outfit it’s easy to get overwhelmed with just a few jobs as everyone wants things done around the same time.

GLiddy > glemon 06/16/2020 at 21:00

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Construction w orkmen are shit. I had a bricklayer who was supposed to repair a damaged fence and he kept tormenting me for checks at each step of the job. When we got to the last part, he begged for a check and then he was a ghost. Never finished the job and disconnected his phone.

Then I had a contractor do my basement and he would always try to get away with doing a half-ass job.  Drop ceiling wasn’t level.  He wanted to overcharge me for the floor (I did it myself to save $2000).  I was always going behind him to fix stuff he didn’t do right.

AestheticsInMotion > glemon 06/16/2020 at 21:16

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A lot of it is miscommunication, and poor organization. Take a rapidly growing company, with new employees joining left and right, new services being added, new areas being serviced, and even with the best of intentions, potential business falls through the cracks. Sales manager thought the roofer called the customer back, roofer thought that after handing an estimate to the sales team that he was done with it, company owner took charge of the entire sale then got side tracked by a bigger issue... Etc.

On the flip side, with good enough marketing a lot of these contractors are literally swimming in work and can be very picky about what they take. At least pre-covid, I have no idea what things look like right now. 

BigBlock440 > glemon 06/16/2020 at 21:27

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Not just you, I tried a few (maybe 2?) years ago figuring I’d do the grown-up professional thing and pay somebody to do some things I wasn’t in the best position to at the time (tree removal and bulk delivery), I even agreed on price, no haggle, just let me know when you’re coming and I’ll make sure nothing’s in your way. One of them was even standing in my driveway after giving me the price, easy just drop the tree and don’t hit anything, no clean-up even.  Neither called back. That was the year I gave up on ever hiring anybody to do anything for me, and I did them both myself anyway.

ttyymmnn > glemon 06/16/2020 at 21:43

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We hired a guy to remodel our kitchen, and later our bathroom. He came highly recommended, and for good reason. Not only was he very good, but he only takes one job at a time. He won’t start another til he finishes the one he’s on. And that was precisely the case when he did our kitchen, though he did check out for two days while he subbed out the tape and float of the drywall. He was expensive, but it was worth the cost. 

ranwhenparked > glemon 06/16/2020 at 22:29

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A lot of it is down to them working both in the field and having to run their business, just because someone is good at carpentry or paperwork doesnt mean they have the skills to do bookkeeping and organize a schedule, a small contracting business with one or a couple guys may not have anyone at the office minding the shop, or even any office at all. The tasks they don't naturally like to do, like following up with customers, slip through the cracks.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > glemon 06/16/2020 at 22:30

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It's no different here in Australia...

Thisismydisplayname > GLiddy 06/16/2020 at 23:02

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Yeah rule one is never prepay.  If they can’t front the costs to complete the job up front, or at least in stages, then run.  

Thisismydisplayname > glemon 06/16/2020 at 23:04

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Angies list has been decent for getting call backs, and homeadvisor, or something like that, is pretty decent too, because they pay for the lead so they are motivated to work a deal with you for the job.

But never pay up front, if they need money up front, run.  

shop-teacher > glemon 06/16/2020 at 23:20

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If I have time to sit at a real computer, I will type up a diatribe about the reasons why this is so common. For now let me just say it's not just you, and it's not just your area.

LastFirstMI is my name > glemon 06/16/2020 at 23:44

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I know there are exceptions, but I figure contracting attracts people who aren’t organized enough or have the people skills to work for somebody else. 

glemon > Monkey B 06/17/2020 at 01:01

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True, I do have a contact for siding and gutters.  After a couple jobs I realized he doesn't do any of the work, just facilitates.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > glemon 06/17/2020 at 01:02

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Time spent quoting isn’t paying bills. And there are some people who will just robocall (in the old days) every plumber in the yellow pages. Also annoyed when people try to get free plans out of a contractor. I f the customer is wishywashy in what they want its a red flag, showing multiple plans, more time quoting .  

P rojects and margins are often larger on commercial work, so that will often take a priority.

glemon > BigBlock440 06/17/2020 at 01:07

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Have been through that too, we did major remodel work on our house, much of it ourselves. Many times when I was tired or running way behind my wife would ask why I didn’t just hire somebody. By the time you find somebody, explain what you need done, hope they show up for the estimate, hope they provide an estimate, get  them scheduled, make sure they do the job right, you might as well do it yourself.

glemon > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 06/17/2020 at 01:11

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I do understand not wanting to provide plans for free, most everything I was trying to get done involved simple labor, or skills, or tools I don’t have.

jeepoftheseus > glemon 06/17/2020 at 08:41

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I ran into this getting hail damage fixed on my house. No one wants to paint just one side of a house and I can’t say I blame them. Ended up having to sweeten the deal by adding in a deck I was going to stain and a barn that badly needs painting.

I laid tile for a fella for a few months when I first relocated and was looking for a full time job. We did both commercial and residential. Normally a couple of residential jobs at a time, alternating days at each site depending on when we could get in the house to work. He liked overlapping his jobs for this reason and that homeowners can be difficult to collect payment from so it’s best to have a few lines in the water so to speak.

When he picked up a commercial job we were at the mercy of the project manager. Floor is level now get in here, wait, no the ceiling grid guys are here you can’t tile. It was a nightmare. Mix in some residential jobs and you’re in a house one morning but end up going to the commercial site at lunch to fix tile that someone cracked because they didn’t wait long enough before putting equipment on it (it was a cafeteria in a plant) and you end up there for eight hours. I don’t think that he took many commercial jobs for this reason... just to get a big check every so often.

Once I got the hang of it he offered to hand off work to me so I could start my own tile business but I declined. I like my knees to work to much for that to be my life . But as others have mentioned... good tradesmen are rarely good businessmen and the good ones are typically  one or two man operations that are strictly word of mouth. I believe that this is true for nearly all trades and I do not think that it is limited to any one area.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > glemon 06/17/2020 at 09:10

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potentially if it is described as a simple job, they start thinking this is only going to take an hour, with 1./2 hour quoting/talking and 2 1/2 hour commutes. At which point their 75.00 rate starts sounding crazy and will loose a bid versus some guy on craigslist.  

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > glemon 06/20/2020 at 10:53

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Even up here in the Toronto area, I had to get my front por ch redone. I called two contractors recommended by friends, both contractors gave me cheap quotes and then ghosted me.

I ended up going with a contractor that I never met before, cost more, but actually showed up when he said he’d show up, got the job done and did it well.