Stupid Pet Peeves
- Thread starter Hartsock
- Start date
Mate of mine is weeks ahead on his reno but in general its a nest of douchebags.
Beer
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I'll show up at the house and painting, electric, plumbing, or whatever will supposed to be there knocking things out. No one will show up though, or answer their phones, then will just sporadically show up whenever. So their tardiness will make the next guy have to wait, and so on and it just snowballs.
Being the resident electrician I can tell you that no one has enough employees. I could use a guy, but I’m literally not even actively looking because I know it would be a waste of my time.
What happens at your place of employment when there is triple the amount of work than there are employees? Are you able to get it done on time? Does that mean you suck ***?
But hey, go ahead and be a dickhead about it.
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LogGrad98
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Yeah but there's a big difference between having a lot of work and letting your customers know it will be delayed and just plain not showing up and not telling anyone.
Beer
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At my place of work if I say I'm going to do a job in a certain amount of time I don't miss that deadline by weeks or even months. But hey, that's just me.
Or if tell someone I will do a job for say, $2,500 I don't take 10 days longer than I said I would and then send a bill for $6,000. But hey that's me.
Or if I say I'm going to be at work Monday I don't show up end of day Wednesday. But thats me.
I'm sure you are one of the good ones. But literally 100% of people I have talked to the last few months that have been dealing with construction have these same exact stories to tell. Every single one of them. So you might be great, but the other 95% of your industry sucks.
I get they suck because they can, they are so busy that pissing someone off or losing a client isn't an issue because there will be someone else around the corner. But it is ****** for the person depending on them to keep their word.
LogGrad98
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Like any profession or job, there are good contractors and bad ones, and many in between. The big difference is with contractors it hits very very close to home, as in it is often disruptive to our lives while they do the job they have been paid to do, so when they do not communicate, don't finish on time, get things wrong, or do damage or whatever, it just jumps out at you.
We had a contractor, highly recommended from a family friend, who we hired to put in a concrete patio. He did most everything wrong, including doing severe damage to our front yard, breaking part of our fence, putting a hole in our siding, not showing up, leaving it half-finished (all dug up, no concrete) for nearly 6 weeks, and then tried to up the amount of the job, more than once. We found out later he was unable to get the concrete because he hadn't paid for it on other jobs, either at all or at least on time. We also found out he was trying to get us to pay more money so he could finish a different job. So I paid for the concrete directly, and I had paid about 1/3 of his fee up front, so when he was done, I had documented everything with pictures, and I invited him to sue me for the rest of the money. I never heard from him again. When we get these kinds of scenarios it is easy to apply it to the entire industry, as that is the piece of it we see, and when we get this more often than not (which has been my experience, although this one has been the worst one), we begin to feel that is just the norm.
But when you can find a good one, who is responsive, reasonably priced, easy to work with, etc. well that is the guy I call back again and again.
And the concrete guy? Later we found out he had ordered the wrong mix of concrete, so it began to crumble within a year. We re-did it the next summer with help from a guy in our ward who built houses. That one was great.
I would say you get what you pay for, but that guy wasn't the cheapest quote. He was just below the top quote. Sometimes you just get ****, but that **** can leave a bad taste in your mouth that is for sure.
We had a contractor, highly recommended from a family friend, who we hired to put in a concrete patio. He did most everything wrong, including doing severe damage to our front yard, breaking part of our fence, putting a hole in our siding, not showing up, leaving it half-finished (all dug up, no concrete) for nearly 6 weeks, and then tried to up the amount of the job, more than once. We found out later he was unable to get the concrete because he hadn't paid for it on other jobs, either at all or at least on time. We also found out he was trying to get us to pay more money so he could finish a different job. So I paid for the concrete directly, and I had paid about 1/3 of his fee up front, so when he was done, I had documented everything with pictures, and I invited him to sue me for the rest of the money. I never heard from him again. When we get these kinds of scenarios it is easy to apply it to the entire industry, as that is the piece of it we see, and when we get this more often than not (which has been my experience, although this one has been the worst one), we begin to feel that is just the norm.
But when you can find a good one, who is responsive, reasonably priced, easy to work with, etc. well that is the guy I call back again and again.
And the concrete guy? Later we found out he had ordered the wrong mix of concrete, so it began to crumble within a year. We re-did it the next summer with help from a guy in our ward who built houses. That one was great.
I would say you get what you pay for, but that guy wasn't the cheapest quote. He was just below the top quote. Sometimes you just get ****, but that **** can leave a bad taste in your mouth that is for sure.
Beer
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I apply it to the entire industry because I have never ever ever spoken to someone on the topic of construction that doesn't have these stories to tell. So, this is not an isolated issue, it is a majority.
Plumber came out to our place and was doing some work. We get an itemized bill. Total is like $4,700 but then when I add up the itemized list it only adds up to $2,900. Weird. So I call and they're like "Ummmm, uhhh, that's weird we'll take a look at it" Like it was a total accident. Bull ****. I guarantee it was because that plumber was dealing with my wife and thought he could just pull a fast one on her.
I remember when I was a kid my dad paying for a basic cinder block garage to be built, the guy put up the walls and bailed. Kept the $$. No roof, no door, just 4 walls. Then I was golfing with a random 3 days ago and he told me the exact same thing happened to him. Literally the exact same thing.
Plus my FIL is in the concrete business and he is the scum of the earth, so are all his friends who are also in the construction business.
I hope all these horrible construction guys stay away from people in honest professions, like Dentistry, or Used Car Sales, or Lawyers, or Politicians, or Auto Mechanics, or Priests, or Sales, or Consulting, or Cable TV, or Policing.
Beer
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I can't even pretend to argue with any one of those examples. I'm in the thick of shady construction right now though.
Never call me to do work for you. I like to think I am an honest stand up guy, but I never want to work with you. Your attitude alone makes it sound like it would be a living hell.
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Beer
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Lol. What an ******* I am. I just expect the person to do the job they say they will do, in the time frame they say they will do it, for they price they tell me. I'm obviously the worst.