Lesson Learned: Use The Big Well Established Company!
* Lesson Learned: Use The Big Well Established Company!
Real fast story,
Jeff Eats is “readying” his home for sale…as a result- sundry items had to be “fixed” and “cleaned-up” for prospective buyers.
To make a long story short, a good friend of mine- who will go nameless here- recommended several “contractors” to do work in my home. This friend swore by each contractor and said that they were dirt-cheap and did a great job. Interesting to note, every one of the contractors was a 1-2 man operation.
Anyway,
1. Jeff Eats hired 1 contractor to paint, repair toilets, install lights, pressure clean, general fix-up work.
2. Jeff Eats hired 1 contractor to replace an AC unit and to fully service other units.
3. Jeff Eats hired 1 contractor to fix all roof leaks.
To- the contractor, about 1 or so month after finishing the job, most of the work had to be redone. For sure, when all 3-contractors left everything seemed in-order…but like I just said, within a month or so…the new AC unit failed, 3 toilets required work, the roof leaked, paint peeled.
The worse part of the story is-that not one of the contractors stood by “their” work…talk about bs-stories and not returning telephone calls. In the case of contractor #1, 2 phone call messages left, none returned. In the case of contractor #2, 5 phone call messages left, none returned. In the case of contractor #3, 2 phone call messages left, none returned.
As Jeff Eats types, calls are out to NEW CONTRACTORS to do the work-that I thought had “already” been done and paid for.
Lesson Learned:
Use a Big Well Established Company to do needed work. For sure its prices are going to be higher than the “small” guy– but the Big Well Established Company will get the job done RIGHT!…even if there is a problem, the Big Well Established Company will respond to your complaints because it doesn’t want WORD OF MOUTH to destroy its Big Well Established Business. Just thinking logically, the Big Well Established Company didn’t get big and well established because its work was no-good!
There is an old Vietnamese saying, “You get what you pay for.” There is also an old Norweigan saying, “Cheap is cheap.”
Use -The Big Well Establised Company!
Jeff,
Florida is known for flight by night contractors. Half of the people you hire don’t even show up to start the job on time. A ton of losers down here.
Years ago I figured out what you have written about. My lesson was learned when I hired a small roofing contractor to put on a new roof for me. What a disaster. I also learned the lesson using a small garage door company to replace my garage doors. Another disaster.
Today, I only use the big guns. Never ever had a problem with BROTEN for my garage. Never had a problem with Air Around The Clock for my AC.
The small guy cuts corners and he also juggles jobs. He works for you and has to come and go to keep other customers happy.
Stick with the big guns and you’ll always get what you pay for. Keep in mind they don’t want to lose their good reputations.
I never use small guys.
Spend the extra few cents and use the big guys.
No matter what, when something goes wrong the Big Guys will get you straight when the little guy won’t even return your call.
JEFF –
Go on Judge Judy and sue the bums –
I’ll be your expert witness!
Not realistic.
These guys got nothing so you can’t collect and you can’t find them in the first place to even serve them.
Jeff
Everybody wants a bargain.
The problem is that when it comes to repairmen you can’t tell if they were good or bad until after they have been paid. At least with a big company there is someone you can complain to if you have future problems with the work.
I used Overhead Doors to replace my garage doors and this huge company made so many mistakes that it was a horror show. But because they are a huge company I finally got to a Senior VP who hired a GC to correct everything. You are right a big company at least gives the customer a shot of getting things done right;
Comcast is a huge company. So not what do you have to say?
There is an exception to every rule .
Jeff
Good lesson.
I learned it years ago after i got sick and tired chasing after these mom and pop guys. Now I use big guys who have big businesses and lots of employees who stand behind their work. I call and someone always answers the phone.