Unscrupulous Contractors? but what about Unscrupulous customers?!

The fact that there are unscrupulous contractors is a sad reality.

Doesn't look nice on the kitchen ceiling!

What brings this to mind is today I was at one of my local home improvement centers, and while I was walking through the store, a woman stopped me to ask if I do plumbing. I explained to her that I was a general contractor and I also installed the Pelican™ whole house water systems, so I knew plumbing well. She explained to me that she hired a plumber to fix a leak, and he claimed that he did, but two days after the pipe from the upstairs bathroom had not only leaked again, but this time it overflowed into the kitchen ceiling. The guy came back, charged her again, and took the damaged sheetrock down, and left the hole. He told her to purchase a plastic access door to put in the ceiling. I have an appointment to meet with her on Monday.
As I continued on to the "pro desk" to check out, there was a woman there who was complaining about her current contractor, and what a crook he was. Yes.....I was eavesdropping, and I stealth-fully took out my wallet and handed her my business card. She gave me a funny look and started telling me about the nightmare she was currently living through. Seems she hired a contractor to put an addition on her house, and she angrily proceeded to tell me how shoddy the work was, and how this guy would not show up for days on end, yet she had no shingles on her roof. She told me that he hasn't passed one inspection yet, and all the things that went wrong with this contractor, so much so, that she asked him to leave, but he refused, and she ended up having the police escort him off of her property. She said to me.....

"What makes you any different from these other stupid dishonest contractors? I've lost all of my faith that any contractor will be honest and do good work!"

I explained to her that I pride myself in my work and my work ethics, and she hesitantly took my card, and said she "may" call me.

Through the years in business I've heard many horror stories about bad contractors, 

and that infuriates me because it pretty much gives all contractors a bad rap. It makes it almost impossible to convince someone who's been burnt to trust another contractor. Luckily for me, I believe when I start a job, my customer might be a little shaky with their trust, but after a few days, I'm sure that they believe that they had made the right choice, and that's very important to me!
But the funny thing is.....people will be people. And just like anything else there are all kinds. I have personally run into unscrupulous customers a few times. There is one about "Ralphy", but I'm saving that one for Christmas.....it's that good! There was a guy that tried to squeeze me into siding his whole Garage, because he claimed that the new siding was a slightly different shade to his fifteen year old vinyl siding, even though I mentioned in his proposal that the new siding would be slightly different. Then there was a guy who wanted me to start his job without a down payment, again a deposit was stated on his proposal. He expected me to bring over eight thousand dollars of material to his house with out giving me a penny....I told him to find someone else to do his work.

This brings to mind a time I did a job for someone, and he decided that he was just not going to pay me.

I was hired by these seemingly very nice people to build them a fireplace....where there was none. There was, of course a payment plan that was agreed upon between myself and the couple. I got my deposit the day I had the material delivered, and we went ahead and started this job. A fireplace is not a small job, and it takes tons of material.....literally, and it's extremely labor intensive, not to mention that you have to have the knowledge of the workings of a fireplace.
We excavated six feet below grade for the base, and poured the concrete footing. Next we built up the base, which is solid masonry. We had to cut an opening in the exterior wall to open up the room for the firebox. This was time for my second payment, which took about a week to get, but I did get it and all was fine. I continually got compliments of how beautiful the work was from the woman, who was home most of the time, and she was the ideal customer.

I finished the fireplace, cleaned up the property, and removed all of my equipment. The last payment was now due. This last payment was mostly what I was going to make on the job. Oddly the day we cleaned up, no one was home. I went back the next day.....again, no one answered the door. I phoned them, left messages, but I never got a call back. I started to think that this was going to be a problem, as it was the holiday season and that job was going to be my Christmas shopping money.
Another week passed, and still no answers or call backs. By the forth week I started to panic and now my messages were more angry, and I asked "Just call me if there's a problem"  Still I received no response from this couple. It was now a week before Christmas and I figured that I had nothing to lose, so I left them a message that I would be by their house the following Monday, and I expected a check for the full amount or we were going to have issues. I hoped that I would finally get a call over the weekend, but I got no such call.
Monday morning my men arrived at my shop. I instructed them to load up my scaffold in my truck, and to make sure that there was at least two sledge hammers. I explained to them what I was planning, and as much as they stood behind me faithfully, they thought that I had gone off the deep end. Really though I just wanted to scare the homeowners into maybe paying me. I pulled up to the house with my truck bursting over the sides with equipment, and instructed my men to set up the scaffold......they did. I went to the door and rang the doorbell.......no answer. Two of my men where at the steady with the sledgehammers....just waiting for me to give them the go ahead. I told them secretly to hold off.......not just yet. I looked into the garage window and noticed that both the cars were parked in there! Both of these people were home!!

Get off that scaffold, or I'm gonna shoot!

Just as I was going to give the go ahead to start knocking down my work of art, three police cars screeched up to the property. Five policemen came running across the lawn with their guns drawn, screaming to my men to "put down those hammers!" Two of the policemen rushed over to me, and at first I thought I was either gonna get shot or arrested. I explained my situation to these two policemen, and they became a little more empathetic of my dilemma. Just then like a miracle, the front door opens up and both the husband and wife come out!!! The husband is screaming to the police to have me arrested for trespassing!! I MUST be dreaming!! The police calm him down and explain to the man that he should pay me, and if not, then why. The guy unbelievably claimed that he didn't have the money to pay me and he was afraid to tell me because he thought that I was going to hurt him! One of the policemen came over to me, and told me to "just take this a## hole to court, and he promised to testify about what the guy said. Then he tells me that I HAVE to take my equipment off of the guys property, and absolutely do not touch the fireplace, because once the material is on the owners property it is no longer yours. I complied but wasn't happy, as this guy stood out there the whole time and watched us remove the equipment. I did take him to court, ....won and  FINALLY got my money.....almost a year later. 

TIP OF THE DAY: 

Scaffold......

Again, hoping spring finally arrives we want to spruce up our houses for the summer, so that we can lay back and enjoy our hard work.  But there are a few projects that require us to either use a ladder or another type of elevating device. Such things may include....painting or repairing the ceiling on our porch, or fixing a section of gutter, or painting the fascia boards. Sure you can use a ladder, but ladders can be dangerous. In the United States more than 500,000 people a year are treated for ladder-related injuries, and that number does not include people who suffered injuries but did not go to a medical care provider for treatment. About 300 people in this country die from ladder-related injuries annually. 

The solution is to rent a section of scaffold! These can be rented at almost any rental establishment that carries construction equipment. They even rent scaffold at the major home improvement stores. The reason that I prefer scaffolding is mostly it has four legs, and you can span a few planks across the top, and have a movable platform, and if properly placed you will feel more confident while working, and even get the job done much quicker. 

Just make sure that you don't set up your scaffold on next to that guys fireplace!

See you next time......from beyond.........