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Contractor ghosted on me -- but AFTER completing the work

#21
Cool story. Haven't heard anything quite like it...but for the sake of germane entertainment, check this out:

3 years ago we hired a contractor to do a total kitchen renovation. They did a *fabulous* job, we were super happy. And we paid them in full, on time.

Then 2 years ago we moved to a new place...which has a crappy kitchen. So we called the same contractor, asked him to come by, check out the space, and give us a quote for another new kitchen.

He came by. Spent a nice long time inspecting & measuring the space. Took a ton of notes. Said he'd get back to us shortly with a quote.

That was 10 months ago!!!

We've called him 3 or 4 times since then, each time saying essentially "TAKE MY MONEY!!!" We want to give him the work, we're trying to give him the work, but he just never gets back to us!





Maybe my breath stinks?
 
#22
Update: I finally got a call, not from the dude, but from his accountant. I explained the situation and finally got the boss on the phone. We had a big long discussion to resolve the matter. He turned out to be of slightly better character than I had originally estimated, but still wore me out in the negotiation. I earned a sizable discount and put the matter to rest. I don't know how they stay in business with that level of disorganization.
 
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#23
A contractor of "slightly better character" is probably in extremely high demand and may not be organized well enough to avoid problems like this while simultaneously handling a crushing workload. Everyone makes mistakes, I usually allow people to correct and redeem themselves. If they do, all is forgiven. How do they stay in business? Again, if they're any good and of reasonable character, they're probably turning down work right and left. At least around here.
 
#24
We hired a recommended guy to lay tile and carpet in our house. He did the tile downstairs and I paid him. When he did the carpet upstairs he accidentally cracked the base of the toilet (yes, my wife wanted carpet in the bathroom-white, no less). I was at work when he finished. He called to tell me and said he would discount his work to cover it. The toilet was 70's avocado green so it would have been difficult to find a replacement without replacing all the fixtures.

Turned out to be a small crack that wasn't noticeable and didn't affect function so I told him to either send me the bill or come by and collect. He never got back with me. I left him several messages before giving up. That was 16 years ago. So 3 bedrooms, hall and 2 baths carpet install for the price of a small crack.
 
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#25
ChrisB2 said:
A contractor of "slightly better character" is probably in extremely high demand and may not be organized well enough to avoid problems like this while simultaneously handling a crushing workload. Everyone makes mistakes, I usually allow people to correct and redeem themselves. If they do, all is forgiven. How do they stay in business? Again, if they're any good and of reasonable character, they're probably turning down work right and left. At least around here.
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I'm just relieved to be done with contractors for a while. Given the scope of our project, I can't believe we only ran into a couple of snags and those were relatively minor.
 
#26
nutdog said:
We hired a recommended guy to lay tile and carpet in our house. He did the tile downstairs and I paid him. When he did the carpet upstairs he accidentally cracked the base of the toilet (yes, my wife wanted carpet in the bathroom-white, no less). I was at work when he finished. He called to tell me and said he would discount his work to cover it. The toilet was 70's avocado green so it would have been difficult to find a replacement without replacing all the fixtures.

Turned out to be a small crack that wasn't noticeable and didn't affect function so I told him to either send me the bill or come by and collect. He never got back with me. I left him several messages before giving up. That was 16 years ago. So 3 bedrooms, hall and 2 baths carpet install for the price of a small crack.
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That has to be in the top 10 craziest things I have seen posted on the internet and I've been to 4Chan...
 
#27
DiabolusInMusic said:
That has to be in the top 10 craziest things I have seen posted on the internet and I've been to 4Chan...
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Tried to talk her out of that one but her mama had built a house with white carpet in the bath and she thought it was wonderful at the time. Three kids later, lesson learned.

In her defense she's got a great eye for decorating and has done wonders with our fixer upper on a budget. If anyone deserves better in this relationship it's her.

5689_1083811421325_1407552346_203079_2515928_n2.jpg
 
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#31
bolophonic said:
This was a first for me, but I've been unsurprised to hear similar stories since this happened.

In November of this year: I purchased an expensive wood stove and agreed to let the dealer install the thing...Has anyone else ever had a contractor walk away from a completed job...

Moral of the story: always go over your bill.
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Once hooked my dad up with a drummer I know who did home improvements. Guy went out and gave pop an estimate, got the job, came right out and did the job, told my dad he'd send him a bill, and left. Several months go by and I run into my drummer buddy and in the course of conversation he mentioned my dad never paid him for the job he did. I called and pop told me he never got a bill. I relayed that info, and my pal called his office and found out there was no record of the job ever passing through billing. Someone forgot to drop off papers, they got shuffled, whatever, but a bill never got sent to my dad. Of course pop paid as soon as he was billed, and the guy was very understanding and not worried about it at all. A few months later he left town ahead of a warrant for some kind of fraud involving not doing a bunch of work he got prepaid to do.

I've seen a stucco guy bid a job, get it half done start a bigger job and just walk away from the partial job to take the new one. He promised to keep a couple guys on the original job but that never happened. It took almost 2 years of back and forth to get the guy to come finish the first job.

I know this is not as common as it used to be, but I've known a lot of good tradesmen who couldn't read or write, they had wives, mothers, or brothers looking after their business for them. They just got up every day and went to work and left everything else up to their "manager", so the installer could be clean and just doing what they were told to do, and "leave the billing to me, junior".

Sounds like you were being set up for a hosing though. Good catch. Could be the guy is simply too ashamed to look you in the eye after being caught red handed. Let us know how it goes.
 

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