Aja on 21/10/2006 at 05:38

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I worked for a general contractor all summer. My boss had a degree in education, and was one of the most intelligent people I've met. All of us put in 45-50 hour weeks, he himself probably closer to 70. Every estimate we did took hours, included all forseeable costs, and was, of course, in writing and diagrams. Damaging customer property would've resulted in a reprimand to whomever did it , but the customer would unquestionably be compensated.

Did I magically stumble upon the single honest contracting company in existence?

Here's a tip - don't go with the lowest quote, because lowest often means laziest. Our quotes were usually higher than the competition, but we could justify every dollar. Finally, NEVER hire a contractor unless they've been recommended to you by someone who's already dealt with them.

Obvious, maybe, but you wouldn't be in this mess.

henke on 21/10/2006 at 11:01

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I can understand how, from a new user's point of view, it may seem like this place is filled with a bunch of assholes(and pussies, and dicks). And it is. I suggest you lay low and go chillax in the Morrowind forums instead. CommChat has a tendency of bringing out the worst in people, or bringing out the worst people maybe.

edit: actually, fuckit, I'm gonna post this quote from Team America before anyone else does:

See, there's three kinds of people: dicks, pussies, and assholes. Pussies think everyone can get along, and dicks just want to fuck all the time without thinking it through. But then you got your assholes, Chuck. And all the assholes want is to shit all over everything! So, pussies may get mad at dicks once in a while, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes, Chuck. And if they didn't fuck the assholes, you know what you'd get? You'd get your dick and your pussy all covered in shit!

So I guess it's pretty good we have people like RBJ after all. :)

The inscrutable po on 21/10/2006 at 17:07

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I got my information from a book at the library called, "outwitting contractors". In it it clearly says that you shouldn't expect your contractor to treat your possessions with any respect. They're likely to wipe their hands on expensive tapesestries and so forth rather than ask for a towel. It further says that contractors have walled up pets (by accident), have caused marriages to end because of the stress they induce, often have sex with the wife. The book makes them sound like pigs. That's a simply a fact.

Read the book if you don't believe me.

(http://www.amazon.com/Outwitting-Contractors-Surviving-Apartment-Renovation/dp/1585742724/sr=1-1/qid=1161450220/ref=sr_1_1/104-5598790-4563932?ie=UTF8&s=books)

My attitude towards contractors is the result of having to deal with them over the years. I've never had one of them give me a thorough estimate. A lot of them show up unequipped to climb on the roof. They expect me to know all about what's on the roof and in the attic even though I clearly tell them I haven't been up either one, even though I clearly tell them they need to get up on the roof and have a look around. Seems to me they resent having to look things over. After all they've put in a long hard day and they think of estimating as relaxation time.

Every time they've come by unforseen problems develop and the job costs a lot more. They never allow for this in their estimates because they know the other contractors won't allow for it either because they're all trying to put in a low bid.

I do not go looking for the lowest bid. The lowest bid was 400 on this job and the highest was 4000. I picked the guy who said he could do it for 1500.

When they give me the estimate I can see in their face that they expect me to give them the job right away and I'll usually tell them I want to get a few more estimates but that's a bad thing to say to a contractor. I can see it all over their face that they hate that I don't "completely trust" the cunts.

None of them has any kind of presentation telling me about the benefits and wisdom of taking expensive steps. None of them can draw to illustrate their ideas. The guy I hired spelled "joists" "joices". The man's an idiot. he works with this stuff every day for 25 years and yet he has never learned the correct spelling of joists and he's not the biggest bonehead I've run into. I've had some of the biggest names around send me a guy who would not talk. Would not come off the roof when I was yelling at him from the ground.

Home Depot is the only one that has a presentation. Supposedly it takes an hour and a half. From my experience with this kind of thing, there's going to be a lot of pressure to sign and the presentation is going to be heavy on brain washing. He's going to go on and on and not allow questions til the end. He himself has never done any kind of work. He's just trained to give presentations. It's the most boring shit in the world. The man from Home Depot said in advance that I could count on his prices being at least twice as much as any estimate by locals. I further had Home Depot install a washer. I asked them to check the installation and they said it was fine. They wanted to leave. "We're done." but I knew it wasn't fine. New washers pump out water much faster than old washers. The drains in the house were never updated. The guy from HD actually blocked my path in my house to prevent me from looking closely at the drain. He said he didn't have time to watch it go through a whole cycle. I had to set the washer to fill pretty deep and then set it pump the water out myself. I had to push past this clown (who they said was one of their best guys) and the end result was that water was flowing out this drain at a phenomenal rate and spraying on the walls. Left like this it would have been a disaster but he told me it was fine. Customer service said it was fine too. They refused to admit the guy lied and tried to trick me.

So there you go. That's my case that all these contractors, installers and repairmen are total selfish assholes. You might not have problems with them, but maybe you have a house built in the last twenty years. That's what they expect. They have no patience for older homes and their problems and they expect you to be able to run around the roof and climb ladders like you're twenty years old.

I'm sure you cunts don't appreciate my ranting, but that's what you get when one after another all of you come in picking out your least favorite lines of my stuff and calling me a pussy. Too fucking bad if you don't like it. I know your only goal is annoying me, you smug little cunts with nothing better to do than irritate someone who wants to talk about some problem.

Jeshibu on 21/10/2006 at 17:16

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"It's true because it's in a book" is only slightly more valid than "it's true because it's on the internet".

Malygris on 21/10/2006 at 17:23

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This has got to be a joke. In fact, after reading this, I can only think that this entire thread has been a joke. Right?

Right?