There is a basic understanding that the best writing is that which makes the reader nod with empathy. If the reader says, “no kidding, ain’t that the truth,” the writer has succeeded in pushing that magical button of ultimate communication — by binding the reader and writer into a single collective that nods with understanding and appreciation. This happened to me recently. I read a business-related article that I could connect with on many levels. It is the topic of that article that I write about here.
The article I’m referring to was titled “Are You Known for Your Service?” and was written by John Mini, a reputable interiorscape contractor. The article appeared in the regular “Biz Know-How” feature of Interiorscape Magazine (Sept/Oct ‘07 issue).
In the article Mr. Mini regaled a few tales of a week of dealing with service companies that he had hired or contracted to do work for him. He pointed out some of the issues and contractor inadequacies he encountered along the way, and it made him think of the experience he may give others (his clients) — which was his reason for authoring the piece I would guess.
It was a terrific article in my eyes. When I read it I nodded in agreement the whole time, having suffered some of the same hassles from contractors. So, in hopes of sending the same message as Mr. Mini, here are a couple of my own stories, based on events of this past Spring… needlessly extended into Summer and Fall:
The Chimney Guy
Next year my wife and I plan to install a good-size garden pond and wanted to get any maintenance done on that end of the house before the pond went in. Our chimney is on that end and it was 30 years old so we decided to replace it. To do this we hired a New Hampshire masonry contractor who promised us it was a one-day job with tear down and build up of the new chimney. (This was in April. The pond was supposed to happen this year.) We figure it’d take two to three days, but who are we to argue with an expert. Regardless, it sounded good to us (plus getting other contractors to even bother calling us back was an exercise in futility). We paid a deposit and waited. And waited. After two weeks or so the job was started. It wasn’t finished in a day, though. All that was done in a day was the tear down of the old chimney. Then we waited some more as our oil furnace exhaust poured out near ground level.
We continued to wait. We placed a few phone calls to find out when he’d be back out to finish his one day job. The calls went unanswered. Then one day, much to our surprise, they came back and started working on our chimney. They got it mostly done that day, but not completely. Just 98%. After that all that was left was to place backer bricks to fill the gap between the self-supporting chimney and the house wall — it was tabbed. A cosmetic thing. It was supposed to happen the next day. But they didn’t let the minor detail of the job not being fully done stop them from asking for the balance. They stated that they didn’t get enough money from the deposit to pay for all of the materials used. They sounded so sad, and they were coming back the next day. Like fools, we paid the balance.
A month went by before anyone showed up. We’re not sure if it was good business on their part that made them come back to finish, or whether it was the myriad pleading phone calls, or maybe it was when we finally threatened to bring them to court or expose them on the web. Anyway, they finally finished the job.
But this is just part of it. We also experienced the following disappointments during the process:
- We were promised by the owner that he was going to submit the bill to our insurance company for us as he said he could help us recoup some if not all of our costs. It never happened, even though he repeatedly boasted how he’d do right by us.
- We were told by the owner that he would give us some scrap rebar and an old edging trowel for a generator pad we were going to pour. It never happened, even though we were promised this repeatedly. It delayed our generator installation project significantly.
- The owner asked us to report to him by phone (not even toll-free) when his employees arrived and left. They would cheat him he said so he wanted us to be his eyes and ears — so he didn’t get ripped off. We declined.
- His employees (two sub-contractors he hired regularly actually) didn’t get paid as they were supposed to and complained to us repeatedly about this and what a scumbag their employer was. Not what we wanted to hear.
- They did damage to our landscape (crushing some shrubs by accidentally running over them with a truck), and promised to give us a check to cover our costs. Never happened (though we later learned the owner did indeed hold back some wages for the shrubs but kept the money for himself).
I’m not sure if they care, but we will never hire this contractor again. We will warn others when and if the opportunity to do so comes up (I was tempted to post names here), and I will never, ever pay a contract’s balance until 100% complete, not 98%. I don’t care if they cry big tears and the most heart-wrenching of stories.
Okay, one more example — the saga continues…
Continuation Pages: 1 » 2 » »
David Zemens responds:
Posted: November 11th, 2007 at 8:26 pm →
I thought the only place it was hard to find contractors, or service workers, or other “for hire” employees was in Michigan! I guess it is a universal problem.
I think we have all learned the lesson of paying in full before completion. It’s never a good situation. In fact, another lesson I learned was if the contractor needs your deposit to buy materials, that means that he has no credit. Needless to say, that is not a good indicator of his work ethic or his bill paying.
It’s hard to get that reputation back. Most of us try and keep it intact so we never have to scramble to regain it. It sounds like your contractor doesn’t even care about trying to polish his reputation.
Doing Business Unto Others… - Beast-Blog.com responds:
Posted: November 12th, 2007 at 1:24 am →
[…] Inspired by a print magazine article I could relate to closely, I wrote another similar article on my company’s Bug Blog called “What Business Experience Do You Give?” In a nutshell it offers a couple of customer-business relationship experiences — with me being the customer — that went bad, why they went bad, and a little advice to prevent it happening with your business. After all, creating ill-will isn’t that good for a business’s long-term future. Moreover, it just isn’t right. (Read the aforementioned article to get the full details.) […]