I know, I know, they are all busy.

How hard is it to simply return a phone call?

I need an outside service entrance replaced. Not emergent but needs to be done SOON. Called the last electrician we used a couple years ago. Left a voicemail. No call back from days ago. Called another that my store manager had do a similar job a couple years back. Left VM, no call back. So since they are personal friends going back to HS, my manager emailed them. Still no call back.

My store is open 6 days a week. VM is on 24/7/365. We return calls within an hour of opening. Why is this so hard?

I'm 2 weeks out on new service appointments. it took 3 months wait for my annual eye exam. My dental hygienist books 6 months in advance. I get it. But in all 3 of these examples, there are regular business hours and someone answers the phone. And even if they are tied up and it goes to VM, they call back before the end of the business day.

I feel better now.

Return a phone call and maybe call to say they will be late or not show up. Maybe give a firm date on performing the work. This past month we had 5 separate contractors painting house trim, pouring 15x25 concrete slab, replacing two outside doors, removing popcorn ceilings in 4 rooms, and demolishing brick fence while putting up a rock wall. Coordinating all this while my wife was undergoing ostomy reconnection was nerve racking and made me appreciate retirement. It’s all done as of las week. Have 4 more rooms to remove popcorn ceiling and 2 swamp coolers to replace with roof repair being done before coolers put in but can relax for a couple months.

When I was a service manager for a fire protection company over 25 years ago, my rule was, call back within 24 hours or less.
Most calls were returned same day.

Morning calls were returned at the end of the day when I got back to the office.

Late late afternoon calls were returned next morning.

Late Friday afternoon calls were returned first thing Monday morning before I went out on the road.

This of course was long before everyone had cell phones.
Back then we had beepers and that was usually for the office or the night service to get InTouch with me.

Short staffing in order to make ends meet?

It absolutely pisses me off when this happens. I work for an excavating/marine construction contractor and even my company is guilty of this and knowing many of the local people we work for I get hear it all the time, “ hey I’ve been trying to reach your office, we have some work for you guys but they don’t return calls” . I’ve been with the company over 40 yrs and 3 owners and this is not how we grew that company. Just don’t understand people in business not returning calls anymore. I’d feel better if at least it was a quick reach out saying sorry we are swamped, can’t do it or sometimes we are booked out as much as a year for jobs, just tell them them call back in 6 months if you’d really prefer we do the job for fucks sakes

I've had to fire four people in the past few years for this. Two plumbers, a general contractor, and a handyman. The general guy said he'd call me back the next day. Two weeks later I finally got ahold of him and he was very dismissive.

I was talking about him one day after that with a fella at the local hardware store. He said that the guy was busy and that probably explains it. I told him that it would have taken less than 30 seconds out of his "busy" day to give me a call and tell me that. Instead, he lost me as customer and those that I've told about him.

"I hate rude behavior in a man. Won't tolerate it." - Woodrow F. Call

Contractors are terrible at communication, we’ve only had one GC that was good at it, and we hired him to do our kitchen 2 years ago. All the rest of them you have to chase down and play games with.

They seem to be good at their craft but suck at the business side of it which includes timely response times and good communication.

Please refrain from putting profanity in your thread titles

"And that includes stuff like "f&$k" or m0%$#*&^@r" or "Contractors"..."

Try this one for a horrible story.

Wife wants a full (down to studs) remodel of Master Bath and Closet.

Find a GC who had done some good work for a friend. We interview him and him us. Seems like a good fit.

Next step get his "designer" to draw up plans. She rolls to house with him and we give her the design/plan we want - exact. We agreed to $2k for plans. One month later we finally get plans to "review". Three different drawings.... NONE look like the plan we gave her!!!

GC back to house to look at our plan again. Says no problem.

Plan start is Jan 2025... should be 3-4 months for completion.

Mid Nov he brings several sub trades to house to look at space and plans. Right after that we get email communication that hes not going to take the job. And sends an invoice for the plans.

Wife calmly goes ballistic. Sends email back tells him to pound sand on the invoice as she's wasted 2 months of her time on him.

Glad he flaked out before the first hammer swing. Guess he found a better or bigger job to replace ours.

I'm in Memphis area... if anyone wants to know his name to avoid... send me a message.

Andrew

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
Short staffing in order to make ends meet?

If you’re any type of contractor and you’re having a hard time making ends meet you’re probably terrible at your job. There’s a Cuba short supply of all the trades that come out to your house that it’s a matter of when you can get them to come out. Let’s not even talk about price gouging.

Well the fourth guy I tried not only answered his phone, he apologized that he couldn't come out until tomorrow. First two never called after repeated attempts on my part to contact them. The third apologized that they currently had all assets tied up on a large project and were not accepting any new work.

Now if he actually shows up.

This is a direct result of telling kids that college and not the trades were the way to go for 25+ years now

Hopefully we can turn this around but it’s going to take a long time and a whole lot of expertise and knowledge is going to retire away and not get passed on.

^^^^^^^^^
I disagrree. It is a function of poor parenting combined with a lack of skills. It is a fundamental fact that you show up on time and do the work at the agreed upon price. I learned that at eight years of age shoveling snow. I did not see many men with a snow shovel shoveling snow. The message was clear.

You can add lawn service companies to that list, seems to follow the trade, maybe because many are sole owner companies where the owner is also part of the crew... So no office staff to run phones.

It’s pretty much everyone everywhere. I contacted three different local sellers on Facebook that have storage totes for sale.
One had 98 for sale I told him I would take them all… When and where? A full week later he finally replied. Are you still interested? I immediately replied… Yes, when and where? After about another week, he replied Anytime... So I replied, So where? No response and it has been three over weeks.

Tried two other sellers with similar results. Days to reply. I was never able to complete a buy due to no or useless replies.

I have a solid long-term Facebook account and no bad reviews. I don’t understand it. Are you selling or not? Why post something for sale if you’re not even gonna reply to a buyer?

I’ve been trying to get a repair tech out to a customer’s house for over a month now. Warranty repair of a SxS UTV. When they finally contacted the customer it was an email saying, “We’ll be there in an hour.” Despite the short notice, the customer got back home in time…to wait 3 hours for a no show. At 9:30pm, an email that only said, “Traffic issue, can’t make it. Will reschedule.”

I contacted the vendor rep and ripped her a new one over the unprofessional behavior of her service techs (while still maintaining my professionalism). I’ve yet to receive any response, not even a “fuck off.”

Not many men are capable at their trade, self disciplined and also capable as businessmen, so many of the self-employed are not qualified to run their businesses, but they do anyway. A General Contractor once told me that "the self-employed are unemployable". Many people are not capable of putting themselves in the other guy's boots so to speak, therefore are incapable of understanding that saying "no" or "I can't" is much less of an inconvenience to the caller that not calling back.
There are guys who are born with people skills, communication skills and organization, but they generally do not find themselves working in the trades because they can make an easier living moving their lips.
And there are guys who always tell people what they want to hear, then proceed to do as they damn well please....and many of them are contractors.
But I wouldn't be too harsh on them because at least they work hard, which is more than we can say for the rest of the population.
Anyone who wants build their own custom home and has little experience engaging in commerce is leaving a lot up to chance.

I wanted a new deck. Contractor A shows up, spends five minutes, and quotes $53K for a new deck (trex, all new aluminum frame, etc.). Hmmm. Contractor B shows up, remembers that he built this deck, and asks our budget. He then quotes over that budget, and reduces the deck size 40% for that sum.

Contractor C, who installed my TV, ran wiring for it, etc. some three years ago didn't return my calls or e-mails to come by and quote running antenna coax. But, on a chance encounter where his dog charged my dog while we were on a walk, and he was packing his $80K Jeep Wrangler for a trip, he finally remembered that I had asked for a quote. Maybe next month he'll come by and run the coax.

Needless to say, I am doing a deck renovation myself. Contractors are NOT actually working for the common man.

Most of you know that I run a lawn care business. You would not believe how many calls that i get where the first words of the caller are “oh, you actually answer your phone” or if they left a voice mail they’d say “you’re the first person that’s called me back”. Then when I schedule an estimate for the same day, they just seem flabbergasted.

My theory is that a lot of contractors are contractors because they can’t handle working a job that requires any form of adulting. Like their mom would have to schedule their jobs and wake them up with Cinnamon Toast Crunch to get them going every day.