Sucky Businesses in which I'm the potential customer

[crinklestein]

I have been having flooding issues in my back yard due to an improperly graded yard. So I am in the process of finding contractors that can properly grade it to my needs. I went through Home Advisor to find a contractor and they set up the appointment with him for last Tuesday at 9am.
Tuesday comes and by 9:30 there's no contractor so I called the contractor directly and politely asked him what the status of our 9am appointment was. He sounded confused. I informed him that I made the appointment through Home Advisor and he said they never contacted him about that. (Lie #1) But he said he'd be happy to give me an estimate and that he could do it on Saturday and he'd call me on Thursday with the time.
Thursday came and went with no phone call. (Lie #2) I called on Friday to confirm the Saturday appointment and he said he'd be down between 7-8 am on Saturday.
Saturday at 7:30 am he texts me and says he had "equipment troubles" that he needed to take care of so he had to push out our appointment. I said that was fine and asked around when he's be by. No response. I asked again a few hours later. No response. He texts me at 1pm and said he can't make it at all but didn't tell me a new day or time. So I said, "That's fine. If you are interested in rescheduling, let me know." No response all day Saturday.
I texted him again on Sunday stating "I am not going to chase you for your business. You'll either reschedule because you want my business or you won't. But so far it's not looking good because you are 0-3 in keeping your appointments. At least I found this out about you during the estimate process instead of in the middle of the project as I see, by your reviews, others have done. If you want business, you'll call. If not then so be it."
He called and left me a nasty voicemail stating, "First off, stuff happens that's out of my control. Second off, I sure as hell am not coming out on a Sunday to evaluate your SMALL PROJECT. Find yourself someone else to do the work and lots of luck."
Needless to say, Home Advisor got a call about this and they'll note his account of unacceptable behavior.

[Crai]

Wow..... im just... wow.

[Crossbow]

That's an impressive amount of dickishness for someone that needs good word of mouth to survive.

[April]

What a jerk. Now I want to see his reviews.....

[XCashier]

That's an impressive amount of dickishness for someone that needs good word of mouth to survive.

No kidding. The economy is still weak in many areas, it's not a good idea to drive away business by being an ass to potential customers. Crinklestein, I sure hope you find a good contractor who values your business and keeps appointments.

[notalwaysright]

My parents company tried to work through Service Magic (now Home Advisor) and we would not recommend them at all. I would ask neighbors or friends to recommend someone, I bet their recommendation is better than this joker was.

[An Haddock]

My parents company tried to work through Service Magic (now Home Advisor) and we would not recommend them at all. I would ask neighbors or friends to recommend someone, I bet their recommendation is better than this joker was.

We have a couple of local Facebook pages for town residents. You can usually trust recommendations from there.

That being said, if the contractor wasn't interested in a "small" job then he should have just said so from the beginning. Or even lied and said he was too swamped to take on any new business at that time.

It's possible Home Advisor really didn't email him or maybe it went to a junk/spam folder but his failure to follow up after the first call is not excusable.

[eltf177]

That's an impressive amount of dickishness for someone that needs good word of mouth to survive.

100% agreed. You really dodged a bullet here...

[workerbee222]

I had an interesting encounter with a workman a few year ago. I called a friend who'd previously done that kind of work and asked if ----s mostly drank a lot. He sighed and same sometimes, but if they drank too much for too long they end up in [somewhat related industry].

Last summer I had to hire a [related industry] contractor. One was frustrated that I couldn't meet with him -that week- but said he'd come by and email an estimate. I never received one. A second came, after housemate called and reminded him he was scheduled for an appointment. The third wouldn't install the product we wanted. (He came highly recommended, but didn't work with the product we'd chosen) The fourth showed up when he said he would, footed the ladder when his employee headed up it, gave me an estimate, and the only downside was that he was so busy he didn't get to the project until two months later than he'd thought he would, but you can't do this work in the rain. He was balls to the walls busy.

[wordgirl]

Without some forensic poking around, it's hard to say definitively, but I know Home Advisor can be on the sloppy side when it comes to matching and (at least in the past) communication. This might not all be on the contractor, though he does sound like a jerk.

I have a friend who's a plumber. He used to do residential work, but he now focuses on large-scale commercial new construction - his rep is good enough, and there's enough going on in this area, that he can afford to specialize. But he's still getting matched by HomeAdvisor and Angie's List to small residential jobs in some geographic areas. He's grumbled about it before ... he's a nice enough guy that he feels guilty saying "no."

Maybe your jackass is in a similar situation?

[sirwired]

I don't know what it is about home improvement, but it seems to be infested with a higher-than-usual number of REALLY poor and disorganized businessmen with poor time and money-management skills.

[Racket_Man]

100% agreed. You really dodged a bullet here...

On that note

Potential contractor ---- foot meet gun/bullet

[greek_jester]

The fourth showed up when he said he would, footed the ladder when his employee headed up it, gave me an estimate, and the only downside was that he was so busy he didn't get to the project until two months later than he'd thought he would, but you can't do this work in the rain. He was balls to the walls busy.

I think I can see why he's so busy. Someone who's prompt and doesn't cut corners, even when quoting, is someone worth keeping the number for.