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appointment no-show's | Pad Patter 3.15.2019

bellbird

bellbird

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Pollywog
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So last week, DH talked to 2 different local tilers & arranged for them to come and give us a quote for some work we decided not to attempt ourselves. They both had ad's that said no job too big or too small and were fairly non committal and said it'd be Thurs or Fri afternoon when they could pop round; well it's Saturday here now and we didn't see or hear back from either of them.
Is this the norm now? Has anyone had similar experiences? (or really a lack of!)
Should we expect them to just show up on some random Thurs or Friday in like a months time?? And would this no-show experience put you off hiring them to actually do the job?
 
Yuck, that stinks. It's been awhile since we had to hire anyone but I always tied them down to an actual appointment - Who has time for a drop in whenever you feel like it? I'd try to narrow it down to at least a 2 hours window and a firm commitment on the date. It sounds like they left it up in the air a bit with you .... but you'd think they'd call you late on Fri to apologize or reschedule. Maybe move on to some other tilers? I wish you luck !
 
Happens all of the time around here! I would maybe call them once, and if they don't show again move onto someone else...but then again, that is what is expected around here.
 
It happens here too. A guy from Lowe's was supposed to come by and measure for new granite counter tops in the kitchen and he never showed up. There have been a couple of others, but what gets me is somebody has an appointment time and they just show up on the same day but at some random time. My husband was ticked off one time and told the guy he'd have to come back that we were busy.
 
I would definitely not hire them. If you don't have responsibility in something little, you aren't going to have it on the bigger things that would come with the job.

I would also get a definite date and time for future contractors so you're not wasting your time waiting!
 
In my area, it's super common not to hear back from any type of contractor, unfortunately ... but if you connect with one, it's uncommon for them not to follow through on an appointment. It took us months to find an electrician to do some simple work because no one wanted to take a small job. I would recommend going with a bigger, well known company, they are more responsive because they are more concerned with their reputation. Good luck!
 
Yep here too- I think because our new construction market is booming right now- no one wants to do a basement remodel! We tried 'doing it ourselves' as far as finding contractors for the framing, the electrical, the floors but could NOT for the life find a plumber to even call me back. The crazy thing is everything was already roughed in by our builder so it wasn't even that much plumbing to do! Ugh. Thankfully we got a name for a contractor from a friend who is letting us pick out/buy/keep track of everything & he's mostly just our laborer! They just finished tape/texture yesterday & will start with paint on monday!

Anywho... not to hijack your post! ;) We'll all commiserate with you! lol!
 
amien1 said:
Yep here too- I think because our new construction market is booming right now- no one wants to do a basement remodel! We tried 'doing it ourselves' as far as finding contractors for the framing, the electrical, the floors but could NOT for the life find a plumber to even call me back. The crazy thing is everything was already roughed in by our builder so it wasn't even that much plumbing to do! Ugh. Thankfully we got a name for a contractor from a friend who is letting us pick out/buy/keep track of everything & he's mostly just our laborer! They just finished tape/texture yesterday & will start with paint on monday!

Anywho... not to hijack your post! ;) We'll all commiserate with you! lol!
Click to expand...
We're just starting our basement remodel (put the retainer down last month) and it took us FOREVER to find someone who would do it. We ended up going with a referral of a friend and they just happened to have an opening in their schedule for a "smaller project" (it's "only" 1,000 sq ft, lol) in April. There definitely wasn't a bunch of bid comparison, it was the other way around! It's crazy how different things are when the construction business is booming. In 2012 when we first moved in, we had contractors reaching out to trying to win our business.
 
We're facing something similar where I work as we're trying to renovate a part of the building. Contractors are too busy to bother with such a "small" (one-room) project so... they don't. Luckily someone who attends the church is a big-deal bank guy who has managed to work his connections to get people to show up.

I would never hire anyone who didn't show up for an appointment that they verbally committed to but I'm #petty like that.
 
I had a contractor not even return a call. The least they could do is call and say they are too busy to take on a small job. He was recommended to me by someone I trust as well and I told the secretary that when I talked to her. I actually stopped in to their office to make my request.

I had arranged one time for a sales person to come see me about new doors. I told them it had to be after a certain time as I would be at a class. I allowed myself extra time in case class ran over and/or traffic coming home was bad. Sales person pulled into my driveway before I was even out of my car! I told him he was lucky I was even home. I wasn't very impressed with him either and after we talked, I told him I would think about what he said and call if I wanted them to do the work. I ended up getting my cousin to do it for a much cheaper price although I did have to wait 6 months. But I'm happen with his work.

I'm glad that my neighbor that mows my grass is also a house flipper as a side hustle. He and his friend that do that had no house to work on this winter so I asked if they would consider gutting my basement. They took it on and did a great job. They even redid some of the electric for me so it is now up to code. The friend does home inspections so he knows what he is doing. Once they finished I had the cable company come out to check out the wiring. Thankfully I am with a local company that cares about their customers. The guy that came could have done it but made the suggestion to have his girlfriend's son do it instead. Nick had worked summers for the cable company and knew how to run wire. Nick also happens to be the son of my neighbor and at one time, mowed my grass when he was in high school. Nick happened to be on spring break this past week and at his dad's when cable guy was here. So he came over and between the 2 of them, they determined what needed to be done. Nick said he'd do it today. It is done now and I saved over $100 by having Nick do it... and as a college student, he can use the money!

My cousin is having her house remodeled by 2 guys that do this during the winter. One is a guy I graduated with and she has lived near for over 30 years. He does this when he can't farm during the cold months. They are moving along great and had it set up for some outside guys they have worked with before to come in to do some work. They were supposed to be there Wednesday. No show on Wed and as of noon on Thursday still had not showed up. The 2 guys can't go any further until this work is done. She is living in her basement and is getting frustrated. She just finished week 8 of living in the chilly basement.

It is great that the economy is booming and these type of workers are in high demand, but a little common courtesy goes a long way!
 
My parents had trouble with something like this... they wanted to go from all wood heat in their house to adding electric heaters and they couldn't get anyone to come to the house even to give them a quote. Most of them at least told them they didn't have time to come give them a quote and I think it was more that they didn't want the small job in a 150 year old farmhouse. :giggle

I would be leery on hiring anyone who didn't show up. Maybe with the next places you call, ask for a specific time so you don't have to be waiting around for open-ended days at a time!
 
So years ago we had damage to the side of our house. The insurance would not cover it. They said it was our fault. The previous owners installed their own gutters and didn’t do it right. So basically water was pouring into the wall whenever it rained. One day I was in the guest room and notified a bubble in the paint. Needless to say I pushed on it and my hand pushed into the wall!!!!

The whole side of the house needed to be replaced!!! It was crazy! We hired a guy and he was very hit and miss. He finally pulled out all the drywall and installation. It was late fall. He was hospitalized. He came back to work on it some more. At this point my house is timbers with siding. Now it is winter. And I am in Michigan. And the guy never came back. Like literally never came back. We called we emailed, we called somemore.

To be honest I don’t know whatever happened to him. And then we had to hire someone else. So the entire winter that side of my house was just siding.

And we had to hire someone else and no one wanted to do it. It finally did get fixed but what a pain in the butt! Being a homeowner is so much fun!!!
 
We had that and he ended up calling the next day with some lame excuse... he actually slept through his alarm lol anyway, we figured if he cannot get up on time to come out on a Saturday morning for an estimate on a job that the job would go the same way so nope .. we told him don't bother.. He tried again, calling back an hour later (it was going to be a big job too!) and my husband told him sorry. You lost your chance.

Sad things aren't the way they used to be.
 
That's really frustrating and terrible customer service!! They should at least be giving you a call to say, we were busy and weren't able to make it out. Ug! I'd try to find someone else. We haven't had the exact problem, but I've heard of lots of people experiencing similar things with all kinds of contractors around here too.
 
Very unprofessional for sure. I haven't had any experience with contractors, but with running a home daycare I've had many interviews. In my experience anyone who doesn't show/constantly reschedules isn't very reliable and when it comes to contract/home repair work you'll want someone who is reliable.
 
I just stumbled upon this thread and I was so surprised, but this is also the norm for me. I want quality work as well but it just doesn't seem to exist. I called some landscapers a few weeks ago. One literally blew me off every time I tried to call. I knew the recommendation that the owner was great but I couldn't reach him. Finally I got his wife, who said his sister answered the calls and she went on to blast me for my opinion on the poor telephone service for a potential new client. Finally I just said I am not your client. I expect professionalism and quality. End of story.

I re-hired our last lawn mowing guy too, mistake for sure. I asked what day he could come to get started this week and he replied "he'd be by this week"... I just don't think that works for me anymore. I am a planner and I need to make sure the yard is picked up and the dogs are well potty'd before he comes.

Our pest control guy is good but I haven't had ANY luck finding a contractor for random jobs. I also need someone to come and hang multiple curtain rods and install a new doorbell and a couple of screen doors. But yep, no one to be found. I'm willing to pay well for the right person but no one appears to want to even answer the phone much less schedule appointments.

It's just shocking.
 
Fortunately, and I do mean that with all my heart, we have a retired friend who does all kinds of odd jobs for us. He does charge but not what he could and I tend to think it just keeps him busy and out of his wife's hair. Another friend just let me know about a woman near us who has done a lot of home handiwork etc and has got herself licensed for many specialties. They love her! and I suspect we'll be using her too in the future as our friend Tom feels his age a lot more.
 
That sucks. You have to wonder about some people's worth ethics. We had a terrible experience a few yrs ago with a landscape company, the owner gave us an estimate a little lower than a few others so we went with him, he got a few days' work done and then disappeared. Cell phone always went to voice mail and didn't answer any emails. We had paid deposit and cost of materials already. So when he didn't show up after a few wks we went ahead and hired someone else, telling them what had happened and they gave us a bit of a discount so we didn't really lose much money and thankfully they did a great job. The other guy showed up months later, wanting to resume or get the supplies back. eHe said he had a family emergency (I'm sure that was bull). We told him how we handled it and if he had a problem we could go to court. The materials had been used by the other company so we were willing to let him walk away, no reimbursement of refund and no materials refunded back to him. We've always been skeptical since that happened.
 
Sadly this can be our experience too.
Hubby says they obviously don't need the work. We emailed and called a company to get a security system installed, as there had been a series of break-ins in our immediate neighbourhood. That was three weeks ago and we are still waiting.
 
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