The grumpy old man in me wants to blame the Internet. There is always something to distract and entertain you so no one gives a shit about what is right in front of them anymore.
I have a guy working on a project at my house that was supposed to be a 2 1/2 day job. We’re on day 12. Combined with his excessive desire to talk anyone near him up, showing up after half the day is already over, getting drunk most days, smoking or on the phone about half the time he’s at the house, and generally just being an all around lazy ass it’s not a wonder it’s taken him this long. Fortunately, he’s not getting paid by the hour, and it’s not a critical repair, but an upgrade, that I personally don’t have a time preference on. But seriously how does this guy expect to make a living doing it this way? This guys probably mid-40’s.
I think people have always been flaky, dishonest and unreliable. Otherwise, why would there be such emphasis placed on being true, honest, trustworthy and men of their words, and what-not by prior generations and societies?
If that kind of thing was commonplace, nobody would have ever mentioned it, except in the breach.
But yeah, I do get tired of being the “adult” and having to ride herd on people, especially at work, to do what they said they’d do, when they say they’ll do it, and making sure they don’t do it half-assed in the bargain.
I went to LensCrafters for eyeglasses, and the brand I wanted was in extensive supply with dozens of models, but not the particular model of frames that I wanted. I placed an order and they said they’d call me when the frames arrived. Weeks later, I was going to be in town again, so I called them back, and they apologized for not having the frames in, but said they’d be sure to contact me when the frames arrived. Well, I guess they didn’t want my money because they never called me back, which is too bad for me because their price quote, while not cheap, was a few hundred less than closer competitors.
I have a sort of guess.
Standing someone up is rude, and apologizing to someone you’ve been rude to is uncomfortable. It’s more comfortable to just not respond. Since they’re not actual people you run into, oh well.
And the further you get into not responding, the harder it is to break the silence. The other person is more frustrated than they were initially, so the emotional burden of dealing with it is even higher.
Craigslist flakiness is legendary.
Yeah, Craigslist is a whole other area. I can’t count the number of exchanges I’ve had as either buyer or seller that have ended abruptly for no reason at all:
“Hey, is this thing for sale?”
“Sure is. You want it?”
“Yeah! Can I come look at it?”
“Sure. How about tomorrow?”
“OK, I’ll be there!”
Crickets
Craigslist people are the worst.
When we had our kitchen remodeled this year I had half a dozen contractors come to give me a bid. It was a painful process twisting arms to get them to stop by in the first place then painful to get them to submit a bid.
When I finally picked one the guy asked me why I decided to go with him. Price? Quality of work?
I told him “Your price is a bit higher than average and your quality of work looks excellent however so did the other guys I talked to. I chose you because you were the only one who actually seemed enthused about doing the job and actually called me back several times asking for the work. And any questions I had for you, you promptly answered or returned my calls.”
I’ve run into a few people over the years who haven’t been dependable, but for the most part, the people I deal with have followed through and done what they said they’d do. As far as businesses go, if they give me a hard time once, I hire someone else.
I’m sorry things haven’t been working out for you.
There was a tiny little privately owned pharmacy that a pharmacist opened in a strip mall next to a coffee shop I frequented. I thought “wow, that’s pretty bold going up against the biggies like Walgreens, CVS, Target, Walmart that are all in the same area. I hope she can find a customer base.”
Sometime during the first year she was open I saw a sign on the door “Sorry, closed, family emergency, please see our other location (20 miles away).”
The sign was up for over a week.
The place was closed by the end of the year.
I would argue the exact opposite.
Kimberly-Clark first introduced their brand of adult diaper in 1984 and have since grown it to a 30.4% market share, the largest in the industry. With the rise in Baby Boomers getting older and reaching retirement age, I’d say that more people today than ever before have the potential to be Dependable.
I got tired of friends who don’t follow through, who blow you off, never show up, can’t even be bothered to text. So I was the adult and left them alone. Trouble is, as a result, I only have one friend left!
I have had trouble with businesses not even returning calls for a job. I tried to hire a lawyer for a simple estate problem and he wouldn’t even say that he didn’t want the job. He wouldn’t say yes, but he wouldn’t say no, either. He just hemmed and hawed until I got mad and left. Heck of an example to your profession, dude!
I think buisnesses have always been bad, but we never noticed it. otherwise, we wouldn’t have this old joke:
A man went into a shoe repair store in his hometown that he had not been in for almost twenty years. He found everything just the way he remembered it. He went up to the counter and asked the man about a pair of shoes that he had left there for heel repair almost 20 years ago.
[INDENT]“One minute. I’ll check.” replied the man. A few minutes later, the repair man came back.
“Well…” asked the man “They’ll be ready Tuesday.”[/INDENT]
That’s pretty good reasoning. I am sure it’s 100% true for Craigslist. My group is made up of people who are all “networked” somehow by being friends-of-friends, and living in a relatively small area. You would think that the “actual people you MIGHT into” bit would make them less likely to be so fucking rude but…nope.
I haven’t really had a problem with service professionals, but it’s probably because I use Angie’s List. They’re screened for flakiness for me.
We hired a painter to do the exterior of our house and detached garage. He wrote a contract where I agreed to his labor cost and to furnish supplies (this was a side job for him) while he furnished all the paint. He had someone cancel on him after they had already purchased the paint, didn’t want it back (death, foreclosure, something) and it happened to be exactly what my wife was looking for. He pressure washed the house, and I paid him for that. He got supplies and I immediately reimbursed him. He got 99% done with the house and 50% done with the garage and ran out of paint. He began constantly harassing my wife via text and phone, ranting that we had to buy the extra paint. I referred him to his written contract that said he would supply all paint - we’re talking only an additional 2-3 gallons. I told him “I have $900 waiting for you when you finish the job. You can either get the paint, finish as the contract states and receive the money or you can walk away”. He chose to walk away. I still haven’t figured that one out.
I’ve had trouble getting bids out of tradesmen too. Even during economic slumps when you’d think they’d be dying to get paid, it was hard to get anybody to come take a look at my job and bid on it.
In my corporate life, follow up is a pet peeve. People might complete the task you ask them for, but they don’t tell you so. It makes me grind my teeth to nubs when I have to chase people down, corner them in a room with only one door and no windows and throw a net over them in order to get a status on a task. And I’m not even a manager, just the person downstream of them waiting for their thing to be done so I can do my thing.
A similar peeve are people who don’t reply to emails when they either don’t understand my question or it’s a dumb question. I’m very sorry and embarrassed when I ask a dumb question but does it really take so long to reply and say “you should know this, it’s…”? Is it really so hard to reply back and say “I don’t understand what you’re asking, can you come by or call me”? There have been times when I email, email again a week later, and finally go corner the person in a room with one door and a net in order to find out they didn’t understand what I wanted. :mad:
I don’t know. 30 years ago my office mate was building a house. He had an electrician’s license in NY, so knew his stuff, but had to be on the site every day to make sure the builder didn’t screw up, and it was delayed a lot anyhow.
Do you guys check references? When we redid our house our handyman who did most of the work was great. The floor guys were great. The carpet guys were great. The window guys were great. All done on time and within budget.
On the other hand in this connected world people get extra busy. I suspect people who suddenly don’t respond on Craigslist got a better offer somewhere. I’ve had people drop out of volunteer jobs due to lack of time. Often it is easier to not respond at all than to find the time to write an apology.
Most self-pubbed books don’t sell very well - in fact most don’t sell at all. And this info comes from a guy who does a self-publishing business. The local writers group is full of people who put stuff out there to deafening silence. If he got it done, don’t blame him for it not selling.
Think I can explain this one: (His perspective) I sure showed that Doctor Jackson! Thought I’d take orders, huh? :rolleyes:
One-guy-and-a-truck companies are that size because the one guy can’t/won’t manage more guys and also can’t/won’t be managed. The resulting “business” is simply the guy’s personality writ large.
My bro is such a guy. He’s actually in very high demand in his specialty and local area. His work is highly prized. But …
His manifest unreliability stems entirely from taking too many emergency rush jobs while having promised the regular customers delivery schedules based on there not being any emergency jobs. Which has never once been true in the 30 years he’s been in the trade. He just can’t resist saving a customer with a crisis.
He was that way as a kid too. He’s now 55 and that habit isn’t going to change now.
He’d be rich instead of poor if he simply charged extra for emergencies. But that would violate his morals.
My issue hasn’t been with companies but with individuals doing work who have no boss but themselves.
My issue wasn’t with passive sales. He was supposed to sell the book as well through his consulting work, which he did less of and with less enthusiasm.