You contact a business about having some work done. A representative shows up, asks questions, makes notes, takes pictures, whatever, then says he’ll get back to you in 2 or 3 days, next week, some specified time. The deadline passes, and then some. What do you do?
Call them back to see what’s the delay
Decide they’re too unprofessional and contact someone else
Third comical option that I’m not clever enough to create at the moment.
About 10 days ago, I had a landscaper come over to give me an estimate on a good bit of work we want done. And by a good bit, we anticipated somewhere in the $5-6K neighborhood. Possibly more but that’s what we were hoping for. Anyway, he said I’d hear back in 3-5 days. Even allowing for the weekend, it’s now the 7th day. No call, no text, no email. I’m thinking if this is just for an estimate, I worry what getting the actual job done will be. My inclination is to ask someone else - goodness knows this county doesn’t lack for landscapers.
Were I 20 years younger, I’d be doing the work myself, but things I could do at 51 are worth paying for at 71.
I’ve had this happen a few times, and I always move on without reaching out again. (assuming there is no chance they messed up my contact info). Whatever their reason (too busy, too flakey, or whatever) it’s not someone I want to hire.
Home improvement professionals are notorious for not being diligent about following up. I can’t say it makes them bad at the job, just that busy professionals are busy doing jobs not busy trying to drum up more jobs.
I’d give them one followup call. I’d also attempt to get 2-3 estimates on the job. I’d also try to be there while they do it. I don’t trust them further than I can throw them.
Speaking as someone who just finished soliciting 4 bids for some in-house electrical work, I was lucky enough that they all did a decent job of following up with me (hungry for the business!). I did note that of the 4, two were new/up-and-coming businesses who were either totally solo (master electrician that spun up their own business) or was a husband and wife partnership (husband did all the work, wife handled all the followups, scheduling, phone stuff) and was also something of a startup. And those were the two that gave the lowest prices.
So in my experience, if they don’t follow up they either aren’t that hungry for the business, or they don’t have the staff to follow up quickly/effectively. The first category may well be overpriced and can let the work go by if they’ve got something more profitable going, and the second can have things fall through the cracks.
If you have a reason for using that specific company (referral, discount, favors owed) I’d absolutely reach out to them one more time, but otherwise, companies that ghost me don’t get further efforts - if that’s how they treat me when offering their services, how are they going to respond if something goes wrong under their watch?!
…for the future. Independent tradespeople are often just not good at juggling scheduling or accurately predicting their availability. What nobody is good at is walking away from a paying client, even when you have already spread yourself too thin.
Welcome to My Life. I had to leave messages with 5 roofers. Not a single one called back. Had to use a ‘contact’ to get one to give me an estimate. That earned him two complete roofing jobs. Now I used him (since I paid him on time, cash) to hook me up with a painter. The first guy came out, spent 45 minutes looking around, and never heard from him again.
I hate dealing with these people. One important thing I learned was “Not a PENNY till the work is done to my satisfaction”. Cromulant business shouldn’t require deposits or prepayment. Had to take the last joker to court over a garage door he said needed “Special Order”. Right.
This guy isn’t a businessman, and I wouldn’t hire him on a bet. You shouldn’t have to beg him to let you give him money. If he can’t even call back with an estimate, he’ll likely stiff you on the work. Move on.
I think so. If a contractor can’t pony up for reasonable materials up front, after you sign a contract for them to do the work, I wouldn’t hire them.
The roofer showed up with a truckload of shingles and all the stuff to do the job. I paid him when he was done.
The Garage door ShitHook used my ‘deposit’ to fund some other job, and then couldn’t do my place till he Ponzi’ed someone else. Had to take him to court to get my money back. The reputable company I got to do the job installed the door in the color I wanted, and was paid when it was done.
I’ve had this happen a lot. Probably the majority of contractors who have promised to give me estimates just ghosted me. I would not bother to contact them and ask what’s going on. My view is, if they’re this flakey before they even have the job, when they’re presumably trying to make a good impression, I don’t want to see what they’re like after I’ve signed a contract.
However, that being said, I don’t think that what the OP describes qualifies for disqualifying the contractor quite yet. A promise of 3-5 days and no contact after 7 (working) days is still borderline acceptable in my book. Unexpected things happen, and yes it would be better if they could predict their availability to write up the estimate a little better, but if they got me the estimate in the next few days I would excuse the delay. But after another week, they’re off my list. For a $5-6K job, I will be getting at least three estimates anyway.
I will be getting a couple more estimates for certain. Life has been shall we say, bat-crap crazy of late, so I haven’t made any other calls yet. And I do figure on waiting till next week till I declare him persona-non-grata.
We recently went thru several iterations of this for a project on our boat. My husband had a couple of companies tell him flat-out they weren’t interested in bidding - fine, they were busy and couldn’t help us. A third accepted and started the job, made one totally unacceptable part, then ghosted us. Fortunately, no money had changed hands. In the end, tho, we found a guy who did outstanding work for an incredibly reasonable price and didn’t want a deposit or anything (despite the tariff on aluminum hitting the material cost.) He delivered last week and we couldn’t be happier, so I guess it all worked out in the end, albeit several months later than we’d hoped.
Earlier this year, we called for quotes to remove and replace some deck boards. One guy came, looked, promised a call, and… nothing. The other came back with an insane quote - almost enough to build a deck from scratch. So the deck sits undone, but there’s an Amish guy not to far from here who does decks - we need to drop in on him.
I think this post gets to my take on your OP: what’s the market like for contractors in your area?
If demand outstrips supply, then it’s a sellers’ (contractors’) market, and you take the table scraps you can get … within reason. To me, “reason,” in this situation, implies that you’re a bit more patient than you’d ordinarily prefer to be with the right contractor with an excellent reputation.
It’s a cyclical business, and they get what they can while the gettin’s good.
In a buyers’ market, where the work is scarce and the tradespeople take what they can get, and gladly, my expectations would be slightly different.
If you don’t already know what kind of market you’re in, it’s worth asking around to friends, neighbors, or even the local supply houses whose customers are the tradespeople. Sometimes, even the big box home improvement store (Manager) can help you get your finger on the pulse of this one.
Getting several bids is always wise, as can be … checking references. Again, though: depends on the kind of market you’re in.
Somewhere, a contractor who’s been burned too often from the other direction is giving the advice ‘never bring out your equipment till the deposit has cleared.’
We’ve had experience with several contractors/businesses saying they’d give us estimates and then ghosting us.
Sometimes it’s major projects (still haven’t found anyone to renovate our old barn), occasionally small stuff like fixing/replacing some door locks in the house.
If the representative(s) seemed interested and otherwise professional, I might well give them one callback if the delay on providing an estimate/scheduling work goes beyond a few days. After that, cross ‘em off. Unprofessional behavior in that regard is likely to spill over into actual work.
On a related note, I’ve hardly ever had any good experiences using a business’ website to send them a message expressing interest in a job. These online notes are almost universally ignored, so I try to do business by phone.*
*if the business phone is answered by a person dully saying “Hullo?” or it goes to a full mailbox, that’s a subtle sign that you might do better somewhere else.
Yes, but the asymmetry in risk is huge. Eventually the homeowner must clear the lien. Trying to collect on a $6000 judgement against a business that doesn’t own real estate and may not even have vehicles or heavy equipment titled in their name is throwing good money after bad.
