Hi Mamas,
I recently contact a contractor to have some doors installed in the house. He was recommended by some acquaintance. He came for the estimate, gave a quote and after a couple of weeks of back and forth of email and phone call exchanges, we got agreed to have the job done. He seems knowing what he is doing, but very bad and follwing up. He apologizes each time but nothing get better. Last time I heard from him was that he had the doors ordered and would get back to me. Since then I left a couple of messages and haven't heard from him. I try to be polite and understanding but start to have doubt about him (if the doors had been ordered as he said). He sounds like he is very busy, that might be a good sign but neglecting following up with customer is never a good sign. What should I do?I almost told him that if he was too busy to do business with us, I would look somewhere else.
Thank you in advance!
Maybe he's too busy. You could ask him. Maybe he could recommend someone who be able to get to it faster.
Sorry-wish I could help you. I have been trying to get a landscaper and a painter for 6 months now! It is stunning really how they operate. Nobody will return your calls or get back to you. Either they are super lazy or super busy.-either way they obviously do not want or need the work. The bar is so darn low in contract services that I am amazed that more unemployed people don't go after jobs.
Always in negotiations, negotiate not only price, but timeframe for work to be done. Basically have something to the effect that for everyday after your deadline, he deducts $25 off the total etc... Then you get the job for the price you want and you have some sort of recourse if it isn't done in a timely matter. My husband does a/c work and we always try and follow up and with email, there is no reason for him not to be giving you some type of time frame. I would email him and and ask him to schedule the day he is coming and let him know that if that day is longer than 3 weeks away, then you need to settle up on the materials if the were special ordered for your job. Then start looking for a contractor that will do the job for labor only, but I warn you that this will be very hard to do and the other contractor probably gave you a flat rate and is going to jack up the materials cost. i'm afraid you are looking at small claims court (as long as costs are under $5,000) to get your money back if you did give him a deposit. Sorry you are going thru this, it happens often and sometimes you don't get return calls not because he's busy, but because he spent your money and he hasn't got your stuff yet and he's planning on buying your stuff with money from another job, but can't quite find one that is enough. Happens all the time with contractors that don't have any working capital!! Hope this helps you a little bit. You can make a complaint to his llicensure if he has one.
Did you put in a timeframe for your project to be completed?
That's always a must. What does your paperwork say...anything about the expected completion date?
Did you pay him already? Ask the friend about this nature. As well, look for any online reviews.
I agree with you.
Call him again and try to pin him down on the expected installation date (should have probably discussed this before giving the full go ahead on the order) and check the status of the order.
This is similar to a situation we had about 18 months ago. But ours was a $100,000 addition/renovation. Things were fine for the first little while, but then he started showing up for half a day or just a few hours as we got closer and closer. When we got to the point where my husband could just finish, we told the guy he was done. THAT'S when we got hit with his 'revised invoice' for $10,000 MORE in labor than we agreed upon. He was trying to charge us an hourly rate for those little bits he was coming in and out to finish. Yeah, didn't happen. We met with a lawyer who told us that we had a signed contract for X ammount and he couldn't do that. He tried threatening to take us to court, but once we told him we'd consulted a lawyer he dissapeared - GOOD RIDDANCE!!
Check your contract, it should spell everything out for you. If you didn't do a formal agreement, you may be screwed because then there's no proof of anything. Optimistically, special order materials take longer to come in. He may not be returning your calls because he has nothing new to tell you.
I would tell him that if he can't finish the job by X date then you'll be looking elsewhere.
If you haven't paid him or signed a contract I'd look elsewhere. If you have, call him again and tell him that you are noting the time, date, and subject of every message you leave so that you'll have good ammo in small claims court.
In my experiance with contractors this is normal. They are all really bad about getting back to people with "small jobs." they fit them in between the big jobs and often get neglectful with them. It's sadly status quo with contractors. I wouldn't switch at this point because you would be starting all over.
Sorry, i couldn't have happier advice.
Is he a member of BBB or some other similar organization? You might be able to look up info on him that way - if not just thru google!
Be patient and call him again. I have a business and sometimes I am the same way. I appreciate your post...I will try to do a much better job at keeping my clients in the loop about the process. He's probably very busy and as you said, that's a great sign that he is good at what he does. Try to get him to agree to have it done by a specific date. Sometimes that helps.
