Do people really want to work?

[happyscooter]

DH and I are in the process of doing home repairs/improvements.  You would not believe the lack of interest from workers when we contact people.  They make appts then never show up, give prices sssooo high that they know we aren't going to hire them, never return phone calls, etc...

Why bother advertising or having business cards?

[busymom]

I've been seeing that myself, Happy.  I don't know if it's because demand for services is up, because of the improving economy, or if independent contractors are just lazier.  I just got the black dirt & seed put down last week that I'd ordered a month ago. 

[Deleted]

We are so busy right now that realistically I can't fit much more in for the rest of the season, so if you want it done this year, well.... I know husband just finished a proposal that should have been done two weeks ago, which is not like us. We do return phone calls, but sometimes its only to say call back in two weeks and we should be closer to giving you a solid start date. 

Honestly, depending on what kind of job it is, you should be calling in February,March, not July, August. 

Just a different perspective.

[happyscooter]

We started the middle of April getting estimates to begin the middle of June. 

[wvugurl26]

I'd believe it. That's my current opinion about some of them. I bought a storm door and installation from Lowe's for my dad in June. The contractor was nothing but trouble. The guy never made a single contact without me involving Lowe's customer service and the store manager. The door should have been installed yesterday. The guy called with some blah blah excuse and asked to do it today. It was finally installed today.

If your business outside of Lowe's is too busy to fulfill what Lowe's gives you, then you should end your contract with them. That's my 2 cents. I did not appreciate having to call a manager every single time this guy was supposed to do something. And if he'd have at least picked up the phone and said he was busy, we could have worked with him. Blowing me off when I've paid good money for a service is a sure fire way to piss me off.

[Sum Dum Gai]

I've seen it a bit here, but I think what happened based on the couple guys I know in the trades so take it as you will, is that when the construction market tanked it left a bunch of skilled guys out of work.  A LOT of them tried to start their own businesses.  They've been struggling along, doing whatever they could, through the downturn.  Now that the market turned around and there's work to go around again, the good ones are super busy and the bad ones are in the process of getting weeded out.  Give it a couple years and the really bad ones should be out of businesses and back to working for other people where they belong since they have the trade skills but are horrible at customer service, managing an office/employees, and getting paperwork (bids, permits, etc.) done on time.

When the economy was in the crapper they had so little work that they could muddle through.  Once they're busy and unorganized their businesses are coming off the rails.

[genericname]

We just had a small job done around our house with no problems. Our contractor from our basement finish uses a small cadre of people to do the finish work like we needed, so we used his guy, who had been the painter on our basement job. It probably helped to be known to the guy, and more importantly to be a fast payer with no complaining about the work or the price last time. Our contractor is super busy with the building boom going on around here, so that could be part of the problem with getting good people out quickly, they are just swamped like crazy. Being good friends with a high quality contractor is a good thing.

[happyscooter]

Called someone on Monday to schedule an apt to get an estimate.  According to the other estimate we got, this is a big job $$$.  Called the guys cell phone.  Haven't heard from him.  IF he calls, it will be too late as we have already gotten 2 other people out here.

[Deleted]

I've had several large contractors call this week... Not just shoot off a form email, but call to ask us about bidding for subcontracted masonry... Large jobs with a September start date... Yeah, I'm book till November at least. 

Not sure exactly what that means/contributes to this conversation...

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2013 6:27:46 GMT -5 happyscooter said:

Called someone on Monday to schedule an apt to get an estimate.  According to the other estimate we got, this is a big job $$$.  Called the guys cell phone.  Haven't heard from him.  IF he calls, it will be too late as we have already gotten 2 other people out here.

What do you consider a big job$$$ ? Just curious.

[happyscooter]

Over $10k.  we were quoted less than 1/2 of that 3 years ago.

[Deleted]

Wow. That's a jump in price. If I had to guess though, I'd bet the majority of increase is materials related. And so while it represents a significantly higher payout to you, the profit to the contractor might still be less significant. And that is what the contractor is going by, what they will make, not what you will pay.

In perspective, 10k is a nice enough job, depending on the materials involved, but not what I from a contractor position consider big money. Husband is currently on a job that is over 50k... Yes,it's for a single homeowner, not a subcontract or government gig. That makes it into a three $$$ job category for us. 

[Deleted]

To be clear, I am not trying to excuse bad manners or unprofessional behavior. I think phone calls should be returned and I believe in being upfront and explaining if there are scheduling conflicts which could delay estimates or start dates. 

Im just offering a different perspective from 'don't the lazy bums want to work? Here I am ready to pay them 10 whole thousand...' ( not that that is necessarily your tone... That's reading into it some for effect.) 

Anyway. 

[Opti]

I must admit mis-leading thread titles kind of tick me off. This thread really isn't about
do people really want to work, but why don't contractors want to work for you?

My guess is contractors are like a lot of employers right now. They only contact those people
they think they have time to work for just like employers rarely contact applicants unless they
plan to interview them. They probably are working. They just aren't working for you.


I've noticed overall construction is up this year. Many big projects start before April, so you
may have called after most of these people had their calendars booked through June. I'd recommend
not taking it personally and seeing it as a sign these people don't have time to work for *you*.
That's it. You don't need to diss them, just understand how things are working now. Construction
is affected by personnel availability and weather conditions. Also planning bad or good. I'm going
on three weeks of having missing sidewalks and dirt, rocks, mud and or water in its place depending
on whether its storming or not. I could complain, but its really not going to accomplish anything or
make me feel better. The owner of the complex made the decision and I'm hoping they at least get most
of the sidewalks done by me before the end of August. I had hopes for the end of July, but so it goes.

What you really learned is calling this year in April for a June job wasn't early enough to get
responses like you expected in your area. Either you'll get the work done this year or you won't.
But if you don't, you may want to call in January or February when they are probably mostly booking jobs instead of working. My guess is April is a prime working month.