is it just me or do contractors hate us. most of the contractors ive dealt with, res or com, act like im crazy when they get my price and then even crazier when they call me back to clean up after the jackasses they hire for half, or even less then half what i quoted. this does not include all contractors. some call me back repeatedly, but it seems like our relationships started out rocky.
Most contractors think they are the bees knees and are the only ones who should be highly paid. I have only done a few ccu jobs. (4). 1st one was a nightmare, contractor refused to walk the building with me for the quote. I wanted to point out to him some of the potential issues with his clean. He was stuffing his face with lunch. I have a few friends who are contractors so it was easy to deal with him. At least for me it was. My comment to him was simple “When you are done eating, give me a call. I don’t have time to deal with people who are more interested in eating then doing business. I thought you were a serious business man but I guess your just like every other hammer swinger. Have a good one.” I figured he would not call me back. I made it back home and litteryly once my foot hit the ground from exiting my truck he called. He said he was sorry and really would like me to come back and quote the job. I told him I had to go to lunch and would call him back. I did not call him back. 3 days later he called again, left a message. I never returned the call. He calls back again on a Sunday. Once again he said he was sorry and he was having an issue getting quotes from others in the area. They either did not show or they did not answer the phone. I went back the next day. Barely spoke a word to him. Handed over the estimate and he got sticker shock. Asked me how come it cost so much. My comment back to him was “You are paying for me to show up, you are paying for me to return your calls. You are not paying for me to eat while on the job. Just like you I am a professionial and that’s what you are paying for. If you want a hack just make one of your illegals clean them.” And I walked away. I got the job. I have not heard from the guy since. I’m cool with that. Heres the low down on contractors. Most are uneducated (why do you think you see Marine stickers on the back of most of their trucks). Most get one or two large jobs after a few years in business, start making money and then think they are Buffet. Think they are high powered businessmen. But fact is most are more along the lines of high school drop outs.
I had another contractor whom told me he needed a job completed in two days. Major PITA, don’t remember the count but the house had a S(&^ Load of french pains and I remember the quote was over 6 grand. He passed, hired one of his illegals, they did a crappy job. He called me back asking if I could come and reclean them. I told him “yeah for double the price. I’m not a repairman. I’m a window cleaner” He also did not call back.
Treat them like they are scum cause most of them are.
i hate doing work for contractors period
I’m very happy to report that I have had very positive interactions with the contractors in my service area.
thats good to hear.
it might also be that we are some of the last people on the job and the poor bastards are ready to get it done and get on to the next one and crap rolls down hill, but it doesnt mean its acceptable.
Personally, I hate being on site with contractors. They all think they are tough guys and try to tell me and our guys what to do. Especially when I was younger, I was just “some kid” on their job site cleaning the windows. I almost walked off a job one time… One of my guys was on a 24’ ladder inside cleaning a large palladium. And the head dude on site yelled up at him that he was taking $200 off the bill for every scratch he put in the wall. The ladder was 100% protected and wouldnt do any damage. The guy was still burnt because the “kid” (me,19 at the time) had just two hours earlier given him a revised price of something like $2,000.
I have dealt with a few decent contractors but the majority are typical Jersey tough guys.
I have tried to remain out of this thread…
My reserve fails here.
I fought day in and day out with builders, painter, electricians, painters etc…on 90% of the jobs we did. Not just the contractors…all of the labor at one point or another.
Often, they had hangovers…suffering from recent divorces (go figure) our were just egomaniacs.
My final clean involved a supper who verbally assaulted me and I almost shot the bastard.
I have better clients to serve.
I did enjoy the [B]work [/B]though.
I spent 10 years as a general contractor and suprisingly I’d have to agree w/ most of the posts on this subject. I tried hard to be a good contractor and reasonable w/ people and subs. I quickly found I was an exception to the rule in my area. That being said I have found in this area that there are good contractors. Usually I can tell just by the way they treat me when I show up for the bid. If they treat me like dirt I walk.
Do you think a raeason why contractors might be stingy is that they get contracts, and bid too low for them, so they can’t pay subcontractors a reasonable rate?
I think I could buy that. And from what I have heard from some people that are in that field, a lot of underbidding goes on.
Who says they can’t?
Absolutely Mike! I’ll add that when I had similar situations ie not being able to afford a subs price I’d tell them up front I just couldn’t afford it. After all it’s not their fault I didn’t check the market prices on their services before I bid the job.
i don’t know. That’s why I put the question out there.
Oh how true how true. I think all anyone has to do at lunch and after 4pm in their town is drive by some local bars and check out all the roof racks. If not for contractors bars would not open till 6pm.
I got taken on by a new construction company( mostly high end homes 30-50m) about 4 years ago, a referral from another construction co. After the pricing stage where I met the foreman and a few of the subbies, I came back to start the job,
On the way in I saw an old guy sweeping the sawdust around the driveway, i paid no attention to him and carried on ,met the super and started the job,
The windows had european hinges,so they swung into the room, I placed a 4ft wide piece of carpet under the window and set to it
the old guy appeared and started ranting about the cost of the carpet and drips etc, (having done a lot of CCU, theres always one dogsbody who, when he sees the window cleaner figures that he finally has someone to boss around, If you don’t put them in their place the job can be a nightmare)
I not so politely explained to him that I had a lot of experience with expensive carpets and maybe he should stick to his own job
He came back a few minutes later with a huge drop cloth and placed it under the window, I muttered something and carried on working
It turned out he was the guy who owned the company:o
We still work for him so they are not all bad:cool:
What would Catholics do until 6?
Pray for non-Catholics?
ALL of them? (them= non Catholics)
They’d need shorter prayer beads.
whereever theres 4, theres always a 5th.
