As a guy that works for himself, I’m convinced that most people that work for themselves are otherwise unemployable. It goes beyond lack of integrity but that’s involved. I think many of these contractors, the ones with the way to good prices and impossible promises, couldn’t get the square peg into the square hole as a kid.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
As a guy that works for himself, I’m convinced that most people that work for themselves are otherwise unemployable. It goes beyond lack of integrity but that’s involved. I think many of these contractors, the ones with the way to good prices and impossible promises, couldn’t get the square peg into the square hole as a kid.

I agree 100%! Good work is never cheap and cheap work is never good.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Your experience is my fear of contractors.
It is why I do as much of any work myself as I can.
So sorry.

Same. I’ve been pretty successful in the past at vetting contractors for most anything on the house but have been burned a couple of times. The major one was a pool remodel. I hate the fucking thing but it had to be done. The OP’s description was much the same as I experienced. I had to get a lawyer and push. The original crew the contractor sent. I won’t go into it in detail. Let’s just say I was surprised I didn’t have to pickup used needles because I sure as shit picked up every other kind of trash. It worked out in the end but not after a great deal of expense on my end, threatening litigation and them having to bother with shutting their company down, filing Ch.11, and opening up their same business under another name. That happens so frequently you wouldn’t believe it. It’s like Fight Club where it’s cheaper to pay out to dead people’s families than fix the problem. These crooks figure if they can take a few people, the profit in that is more than it takes for them to reincorporate under another name.

This is reason #20 I want to move to the rural land I purchased. People live and die by word of mouth there so getting ripped off, screwed, is a fraction of living in a burb or near a major city. One bad job, word of mouth spreads in the country, and that person or crew is DOA.

For the most part, Common Courtesy has left this planet. Even simple gestures of "thank you" when you are kind to another are disappearing at an all-time rate. It's sickening. My Captain and I were discussing this very topic this morning on our flight from SFO.