Dec 11 2008
Is it me, or are contractors all jerks?
My parents just put the finishing touches on a kitchen renovation that went disastrously wrong. Their contractor continued to order wrong pieces. He and his crew rarely showed up when they said they would. They made mistakes. And then, just when it was time to add the last few details on the project, he went out of business and never told anyone.
Thing is, my parents are from unique in swearing off renovation projects forever. It seems that everyone who deals with contractors ends up hating them by the time the project is over.
About five years ago, we remodeled an existing bedroom in our old house. Part of the job called for the installation of a ceiling fan in a master bathroom. An easy job, right? Well our genius of a contractor installed the fan so that, once it turned on, its blades would smack into our shower stall wall. It was a fairly easy problem to correct, but it was only one example of how sloppy this contractor was. He also finished our job three months later than he originally promised.
Today, I’m waiting on a plumber to fix the pipes in our slow-draining kitchen sink. This same plumber promised to show up Saturday and never did. When we asked, he gave us an obvious lie, saying that he knocked on our door at noon and no on answered. Now, we were all here at noon, getting ready for a holiday party later that day. If the plumber knocked, believe me, our noisy dog would have alerted us immediately. Also, the plumber had our phone number. He could have called, right?
No, our plumber is just like every contractor I’ve ever had the misfortune to hire: unreliable, shiftless and always looking for a better job to bump the ones he’s already lined up. In few other industries — air travel comes to mind — can you get away with having absolutely no customer service.
It makes you pray that nothing in your home ever goes wrong.
2 Responses to “Is it me, or are contractors all jerks?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Not A Member? Register for Free!
I hate to admit it and I am generalizing but you are right. They basically do what they want, when they want. Years ago I had a contractor who was supposedly going to put new tile in my shower which he said would only take about a week. Long story short, it took a little over a month. He didn’t show up when he said he would etc… One day I came home from work and my front door was wide open. I walked in thinking he was still there but no he had gone home and left my door opened. I was furious and after that threatened a lawsuit. Within a couple of days after that he finished the job. I hate dealing with those people.
Thanks, Jodapoet, for your comments. It’s too bad that so many people have experiences just like yours when it comes to contractors.
Dan
http://community.enormo.com/blog
www.careersearch.contentquake.com