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WWIND? Contractor

Our contractor is a close friend's dad, his 1 employee is said friends SO. The contractor always gives us a ginormous discount on labor, and he's already not that expensive. Also he always just charges us what he pays for materials.

We've told him before that he shouldn't give us that discount - we feel uncomfortable about it, we know he can't really afford to work for such low rates. Also we feel that because of the discount, we can't complain about things, or call him in to do stuff as often as we'd possibly want.

We'd made an appointment for him to come install our garbage disposal, fix some hardware on our front door (which is a safety issue) and do some other things around the house tomorrow, and when I called him to ask what time he'll be there (we scheduled this almost 2 weeks ago) he was all iffy and said that he'd be really late or would rather reschedule. I told him rescheduling wasn't possible as we leave on vacation  3 weeks this weekend. Now he said he would show up, just very late in the afternoon, and 'see what he gets done'.

This bugs me. He does this all the time. At the same time I know he hardly charges us and the reason he wants to reschedule is probably because he has a full-paying job lined up as well. (The reason it still bugs me is because we've told him time and time again we want to pay full price.)

WWIND? Would you call him out on this/tell him that rescheduling every time is unacceptable? 

Choosing a different contractor really isn't something we want to do, as he is meticulous in his work and we can actually trust him in our house while we're not there. 

My food blog

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What I'm looking forward to in 2012:

eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation.

Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation

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Re: WWIND? Contractor

  • You asked what we would do, and frankly, I would choose a different contractor. Since that is not an option for you I really don't have any advice. Sorry. :(
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  • Tell him that you appreciate the discount but would prefer to pay full price so that you can get things accomplished in a timely manner.  If he doesn't comply, tell him that you'll have to go with someone else because this stuff needs to get done and say thanks for your past service.


  • I wouldn't "call him out" I'd first tell him how much you like his work and know you can trust him to do a good job, but that you would appreciate being treated like any of his other clients. Then ask what you need to to to have that happen - that leaves him to give the answer. He may say you need to pay full price or he may have a different resolution. Either way he came up with the solution - people like to think that things were their idea...honey versus vinegar.
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  • Thanks you all. I guess I'll indeed just talk to him and tell him that we indeed (and it's true) LOVE his work, but that the constant changing of times and schedules is getting hard on me - and then ask for his solution.

    He knows full well that we're willing to pay full price, because we've told him that a zillion times (it started with us calling him saying that we thought he'd sent us the wrong bill because the amount was way way too low, that's when we learnt about the discount) so I hope he gets that it's completely okay to ask for that!

    Anyway, thanks, it's always great to get some IN perspective! 

    My food blog

    AlternaTickers - Cool, free Web tickers < br />

    What I'm looking forward to in 2012:

    eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation.

    Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation

    <a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
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