Posted by MarkB_MI on April 15, 2014 at 03:33:35 from (198.208.251.24):
Three years ago we bought a condo in Florida. The bathroom needed the tile redone, so we asked a long-time tenant and former manager of the building for recommendations. One of his recommendations was a husband and wife team who gave us an estimate a couple of months ago. We told them up front that we had tenants in the unit, so they would need to start on April 2nd. We also wanted the job finished before we arrived here April 13th. They assured us this would be no problem. They gave us a list of materials to order from Home Depot which they would pick up. We would only pay them for their labor, which was quite reasonable.
We stayed in contact with them and I started ordering materials a month ago, telling them exactly what we were ordering and when they could pick it up. We were dealing with the wife, who seemed to handle the business side of things. Everything seemed peachy. A week before they were to start, I got a request from the wife for a complete list of everything they needed to pick up from HD. I'd already sent her all the order information, but I went ahead and resent it. Still no problem, although she said they wouldn't start until the fifth (a Saturday). We offered to send them a deposit, but she insisted that wasn't necessary.
Early last week, one of my wife's friends swung by the condo to check things out. Nothing had been done; no sign that anyone had been there at all. Meanwhile I'm continuing to get pickup reminders from HD. So my wife calls the former manager who made the recommendation and is a friend of the couple, to see if maybe he had heard or seen something. He calls them up and reads them the riot act. The husband then calls my wife, apologizing and saying that his wife was in tears over the deal. He said if we still wanted them to do the job, he would be there 8 am Monday. We agreed to have them go ahead, even though it meant they would be working on the bathroom while we were there. (Unit has two baths, so not a big problem so much as an inconvenience.) I sent an email to the wife, saying to go ahead, but stipulating that they pick up the materials ASAP, because I was getting tired of the reminders from Home Depot. She replies immediately that she'll pick the stuff up Friday.
We get down here Sunday night. Monday morning nobody shows. My wife calls them. They don't answer or return her call. By ten a.m. it's clear they are not coming. So we go down to Home Depot. The materials have not been picked up. On to Plan B. HD will deliver everything to the condo and another contractor recommended by the former manager is giving us a quote this week. This guy lives right downstairs, so I'm pretty confident he'll finish the job as long as we're not in a hurry.
It's pretty obvious what probably happened: Business was slow a couple of months ago and they gave us a lowball quote. Now they're busy and don't need our job. They could have just told us "we're sorry, but we can't do your job now." Instead they flat-out lied, probably because they wanted to keep us on the hook in case another job fell through.
I think contractors are pretty much the same all over, but I've never had one give such a bald-faced lie before. Folks down here say "it's Florida, don't expect contractors to show up when they say they will." Is this really how business is done in Florida?
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