Why can't I get someone to fix our fence?

When our house was built about 2+ years ago, we installed a chain link fence in the backyard. (Okay, we didn’t do it, but we paid someone to do it.)

The company has since folded. :rolleyes:

The gate is now hanging off kilter, and our darling Ember has found the loose areas at the bottom of the fence, the better to wiggle her furry little half chow/half shepherd ass out to explore the neighborhood. She takes great delight in laughing at us and running away as we chase after her.

So, now, we get to walk her on a leash in our own back yard so she can conduct her excretory business. Fenced In backyard, mind you.

So, responsible homeowner that I am, I start calling fence companies, asking that someone come out to give us an estimate on how much it would take to fix it.

“Ah,” one fence company owner said, “I know well of the company that installed your fence. Buncha crooks. We’ll be out later this week to take a look at it.”

The week comes to an end, no call, no nothing. This has happened twice. Ivylad calls the guy yesterday, and he says he’s too busy to come take a look. :rolleyes:

Ever optimistic, I call another fence company. Again, no return calls. I called for a third time, got a live person on the phone, and told them off about their lack of courtesy in not calling me back, even if it’s to say, “Shit, no, we won’t come near your fence even if it’s made out of solid gold” before slamming down the phone. Somehow, my explosion of temper got me a return phone call.

“Skip” apologized, saying he never got the previous messages, and he would come out Monday to look at the fence. I asked him to call when he was on his way, since Ivylad would be home and would be able to show him the weak areas of the fence.

I get home from work Monday. Skip never showed up. I called him to ask him what the deal was.

“Oh, I was there. I looked at your fence. I didn’t knock on the door because I didn’t think anyone was home.” (I guess the two cars in the driveway weren’t enough of a clue.) “You will need a tension wire and the fence restretched.” He then tells me he’s waiting on verification of prices to give me an estimate. Did I mention this happened Monday? Yep, boys and girls, it’s now TGIF and I haven’t heard back from the Skipmeister.

Look, people, I have the money. I realize it’s going to cost at least $300 to fix what someother fuckfoon fucked up. I want to be able to open the sliding glass door to let our darling Ember run without worrying that she’s planning an escape to terrorize the neighbor’s cat. I want to fix our fence. I’m not asking to win the lottery, lose 20 pounds, or even for World Peace. I just want someone to FIX OUR FENCE!

(ivylass collapses into uncontrollable weeping)

Maybe it’s just that the job’s too small…? (Not an excuse for not having the consideration to return a simple phone call)

Sometimes contractors prioritize according to the size of the job. They’ll sort of try to string along the smaller jobs, take care of the big-paying jobs, and hope the smaller ones will still be there when things are slow.

My neighbour had the same problem getting her porch done, and this was a $12,000 dollar job. Small potatoes to the type of contractors she needed to do the job, but unfortunately out of the smaller contractors’ league. She waited about 5 or 6 months to get it done, IIRC.

Very frustrating, but it does happen. I guess if you knew someone, a friend, someone’s brother, or what-have-you, you’d have tried that by now?

Good luck with it, anyhow. :slight_smile:

Personally, I’d tell Ivylad to get his ass to home depot.

-lv

Lord Vor, why should either of them get their ass to Home Depot? They’re trying to hire someone to fix it. I’m sure if Ivylass wanted to fix it herself, she would have already.

In a perfect world, in which contractors called back and put $300 jobs at the same level as $3000 jobs and get them done in less than a week, neither of them would have to go to home depot.

But she’s been trying to find such a contractor for weeks with no luck. This is causing her stress. This is causing disruption to their home life. This is causing her frustration. Therefore, assuming that he’s physically able, I’d consider it ivylad’s duty to buy a book on chain-link fence installation, buy or rent needed tools, and fix it himself, because he should want ivylass to not be stressed and frustrated, and this is likely to be the easiest path to that goal.

IOW, she can’t find anybody to fix it for what the job is reasonably worth. Therefore, her choices are to live with it being broken while searching for a contractor who may not exists, fixing it herself, or having him fix it. And if I was ivylad, I know what my wife would expect to happen.

-lv

One bit of advice from someone who owned two rapscallion dogs in the past – fixing the fence may not help much now.

Once Ember learns that the fence isn’t a permanent barrier, but rather one that can be circumvented, it’s hard to keep her (or any dog) fenced in. If they never know they can challenge the fence, they’ll happily frolic in the backyard without giving it another thought. If they know they can roam the neighborhood just by getting past that chain-link, they’ll do almost anything to go beyond it.

The two mutts I had years ago learned they could dig under the chain-link fence surrounding our backyard. So I invested around $800 in wooden crossties to place along the edge of the fence. The dogs then learned to push their bodies between the crosstie and the chain-link so they could force themselves out. So I spent another $100 staking the chain-link to the ground.

Then the dogs learned to climb the chain-link.

Just resign yourself to getting this sort of treatment. For whatever reason, that’s the way the contracting business is. Everyone, from the small jobs to the big jobs (though small jobs get it the worst) seems to get ignored, I don’t know why, it just is…

Think of it as a game, ivylass vs. The Contractor

Actually, I think you’re doing pretty well, I mean he actually looked at your fence! :eek:

You have won Round 1, we move on to Round 2… The Quote

Ivylad has a screwed up back and can’t get around without a walker. He can’t even lift the toilet seat to pee, much less fix a fence.

I hearby retract any and all statements about ivylad’s ass. I did put ‘assuming physically able’ in my follow-up, but I should have qualified myself sooner.

-lv

I have a friend in the business, but he’s in suburban Chicago. So that doesn’t help you at all. Another thought might be hiring a handyman. They know how to do a multitude of household miracles. And they usually do a pretty good job, or they wouldn’t be able to stay in business. Just a thought.

Are they under handyman in the phone book?

No problem, LV. I’m typically very careful with money, so if there is a way Ivylad could do this after a visit to Home Depot, we would do so. I’m not happy spending $300+ to fix a fence, especially since I can’t go after the idjits who didn’t put it in right to begin with.

You know, if a job is small enough then people can bid on it without a contractor’s license. Usually, there are people who work for a contractor because they either don’t have enough experience to get their own license or aren’t able to take the test, who would be more than willing to do a small job on the side to make a little extra money for themselves.

So it might still be beneficial to go to home depot on a saturday morning, stalk the fencing isle until somebody comes along a buys a bunch, and then bribing that person to come and fix your fence. Or you could get a stun gun and kidnap him, depending on your level of desperation.

-lv

I found 100 listings in the Yahoo yellow pages for the suburban Chicago area under “Handyman”. Everything from “Maintenance Tech” to “Better Call Bob”. Heh. Better Call Bob.

Thanks for the help, guys. Sorry I wasn’t more profane in my rant. I promise to do better.

Sometimes places like Home Depot and Lowes have spots where contractors and handymen place their business cards.

Is it simple enough that a neighbor could do it? Someone from your church?

Installing a a tension wire isn’t hard. All you need is the wire and some clamps, as well as a fence stretcher.

Good thinking, Kalhooun. If you can do it in Chicago, maybe ivylass can do it in Orlando.

On second thought, so as not to be snarky, I did it myself. I got 24 listings for handyman in Orlando proper, and over 100 in the “Beyond Orlando” heading.

Here they are.

Another option is to get to Home Depot early in the morning. At least in my neck of the woods (Southern California), you can often find some day laborers hanging out in the parking lot.

But you gotta know whether you need a right handed or left handed fence stretcher.

And an estimate as to how many yards of shoreline.

Howzabout an Orlando(ish) Dopefest and fence stretching party?

Good luck, ivy. Hope you find a good handyman/general contractor, and treat him as well as the lad will let you. Tough to find, but good as gold.

I wonder…are handymen required to have licenses like contractors? I’m thinking of those men with shifty eyes who come up to you in the parking lot, offering to fix the dent in your car for $50…

And Dinsdale, if you want to come to Orlando(ish) and fix my fence, give me a call :wink:

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Cheesesteak *
**Just resign yourself to getting this sort of treatment. For whatever reason, that’s the way the contracting business is. Everyone, from the small jobs to the big jobs (though small jobs get it the worst) seems to get ignored, I don’t know why, it just is…[B/]

Sorry that your experiences have been like that, Cheesesteak. I own and operate a construction firm and take pride in 0% customer upset. If I’m notified of a problem, it will be resolved at no cost to the customer, obvious abuse situations excepted. Please don’t slam all contractors and characterise us as scam artists. I teach a remodeling/household repair class at the local community college to empower single parents about performing simple repairs. We’re not all buggers.

Dances, I never meant to say that contractors were scam artists, my cousin is one and he wouldn’t scam anyone. However, even with him, scheduling his time is an absolute nightmare, a lot of people want him to do work. Once he’s in your house, the work is fine, getting him to your house is the difficult part. I don’t think they intend to be mean or unprofessional, but around here, the vast majority of contractors are tough to deal with when it comes to scheduling their time.

If you, as a customer, somewhat accept that this is the norm in the industry, (here, at least) it is a bit less stressful when trying to schedule jobs.