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Can we talk for a minute about hiring D&R work out?
I am curious if my experiences this spring are the norm.
Usually we're big DIY'ers. Until this spring, the list of things we had professionals do was really short: install a fence, install carpet in two rooms, and delivery of a few appliances. All of those went pretty smoothly and unremarkably.
This spring we had a couple projects that needed to be hired out. And it has been a freaking nightmare!
The electrical work, which took about 2 days and for which we provided all materials, took almost 2 months to schedule and actually get done. We're still waiting on tree removal. We've had a lot of experiences with people just not returning calls. Some it's early on in the process, so we just move on. But with others, they'll come, do an estimate, and then when it comes to scheduling, then we get the blow-off. I've considered that our jobs might be too small to get attention, but when you do residential work, I'd imagine that they're pretty normal-sized.
We got an estimate maybe 1.5 month ago for the tree work - about $1k worth, to take part of a day. The form says the estimate's good for 10 days, and to accept, sign and return. He also told us verbally that that was the deal. We signed & returned within the week. And now it's been a month. We call regularly, and just get vm. We've gotten ONE call returned in that month, two weeks ago. At that point he said "maybe the end of this week, more likely early next, I'll call when I know." Obviously he never called.
I've asked Calvin to call daily now, to leave messages every day, and now, I'm thinking telling him that if the work isn't done by next Friday we're no longer interested in his services. We have other parts of the landscaping (plants in pots on the deck) that I can't plant until these trees come down.
Is hiring work out always this much frustration? If I were talking about a complicated addition or something, I'd be prepared for delays, etc., but these are simple projects that we just can't seem to get guys in to do. It makes me glad we're usually pretty self sufficient.
Re: Can we talk for a minute about hiring D&R work out?
That is very frustrating. In my limited experience, communication is often a little slow with these types of services since they aren't by the phone/computer all day. But I've not had someone just not show up! That would infuriate me.
Is Angie's List an option? I hear good things about using that to find service professionals. We have family in construction so we have mostly been using their referrals.
***Nestie Bestie w/ TheDeatons***
***Nestie Bestie w/ TheDeatons***
This is our back fence line. If you number the tree trunks inside the fence from L to R as 1-4, trees #1 and #4 (poplar growing at an angle) are coming out. #2 needs removal of a woody vine that goes quite a ways up that would be unhealthy for the tree in the long run, and tree #3 is an oak that needs a few dead limbs removed about 2 stories up. All the trees are 2+ stories tall.
We took a maple down in the front yard ourselves, but these we just can't do.
Yuuuup. As far as our home stuff - we hadn't had any problems because we have used the same subcontractor over and over.
We have started to gather information to get some yard stuff done and....good grief. We have called multiple people about having some tress cut down and no one will even call us back. We had a guy scheduled to give us an estimate on installing a sprinkler....he didn't show up. DH called him and he finally showed up five hours later - waiting on him wasted an entire Saturday. Weeks ago, we paid a guy $150 to give us a "plan" for our backyard, what to plant and what not, he spent a good two hours with us in our backyard and..we haven't heard from him since (and we were given multiple recommendations on how great he is, too). I have given up. Apparently, it is meant to be that our yard look awful.
Good luck to you!
H and I bought a house and have hired out almost every bit of remodeling we've done. (We're horrible at DIY stuff.) My angieslist subscription has already paid for itself with all the great vendors I've hired using them (and also the Groupon-like deals I've bought through them). I also got quite a few contractor's names from coworkers. I'm really impatient, so if they don't call me back within a day or two, I write them off and contact someone else.
Come to think of it though, I did recently contact about 5 different landscaping companies for a bid on something for our backyard and not one of them got back to me. But my mother-in-law and I ended up doing it ourselves that weekend, so I'm actually quite glad at how that worked out.
Small jobs tend to go to the bottom of the pile - They want the $ from the BIG jobs and thus cater to them first.
Also - it is spring and work picks up.
I usually only lurk on D&R but I had to comment on this post
DH & I want to be DIY'ers but we're not cut out for it. At least right now. Every project we have tried has resulted in blood, sweat, & tears. Seriously.
We wanted to do some work in the nursery (trim & paint) and decided to hire out. We have a friend who does this type of work but he was booked until July. He said he could fit us in but we decided try to find someone else. We called one company 3 times and finally got a call back. He said he would come by that weekend and nada. After that we called at least 3 other people and never even got calls back.
We ended up having our friend do it and we told him how hard it was to find someone to do the job. He is renovating his house right now and he said he can't even find people to do work. He also knows many contractors and they all complain they don't have any work yet he knows they never return calls. It's crazy but it actually made me feel better that someone in that line of work had the same problem.
Bug Meets World
That doesn't excuse them from not communicating with clients/prospective clients.
It is just good business to take a few minutes to send an email, text or call someone to say that you can't do the job right now or that you are running late to a meeting, etc., and make sure that you don't wind up with bad reviews for no shows and ignoring people.
I am afraid that this behavior is widespread. I hear the same complaints from friends and family all the time.
My mother has been having a heck of time with work on her house, first, just getting them to come give her a bid, and then it seems like no one has what is necessary to finish the job, then. They do most of the job, need something else to finish, but by then it has taken longer than expected, (doesn't anyone know how to estimate time correctly?), so they then have to 'fit it in', since they have moved on to the next (bigger, better) job already.
I confess I was surprised at how expensive tree work is when we got the quote. Damn. I mean, it's worth it to me to get someone fully insured, and I understand it's difficult work, but I still had a little sticker shock.
In better news, Calvin called after I wrote the OP and left the first "if we don't hear from you by X we understand that you're busy, but we'll need to find someone else" voicemail. Just like magic we got a call back and an appointment for next Wed. AM. I will be so thrilled when this job is done!
***Nestie Bestie w/ TheDeatons***