No return call and ballsy phone reps

[Margie122 845]

I've got a rant about three different types of calls.

1. The no return call from contractors - I'm having work done on my house, I've called various trades including plumbers, roofers, landscapers and masons. The masonry job is estimated to be at about $15,000. I had a guy give me an estimate last Fall and we parted saying I would call him in the Spring. Fast forward to MARCH when I email him with the photos of similar work that was done at my brothers house (per his request) and with the info on the material I picked out. Crickets. I emailed again two weeks later asking when he might be able to come out again and start the job. He emailed me that he would be out that weekend and would call with the date/time. Crickets. I called him. He said he was really busy but where he had given me estimate last year he would make time for me. (GEE THANKS!) I had a neighbor and a good friend use him last year and they both said he does awesome work but he's hard to get a hold of. He finally called and said he would be out on this past Sunday.........NADA, NOTHING...no call/no show. He better not call me any time soon. I had a tree limb fall off a very high Pine tree and it crashed into my garage in the back of the house. I didn't realize that the branch had actually put a fist sized hole in the roof and damaged it a few more places. I also developed a leak in the main roof after the guys shoveling the roof hit the pipe coming out of the roof from the bathroom with the shovel. I don't know the technical name for that pipe, but it vents the air from the bathroom. I went on Angie's list and looked up "roof repair". I called 8 roofers. 4 of them called me back and "they are only doing entire roof jobs, no repairs", 3 never called. The last guy is great - and is fixing the roof and my chimney (he's putting a cap on it) tomorrow. I will definitely be giving him a good review online once the work is done.

2. No return calls from LICSW/Therapists. I've been looking for a therapist for a while. I went online to my health provider, put in my info and found two therapists that have some experience with bariatric patients. I called one and left a voicemail with my info. CRICKETS. No return call. I emailed another - she initially emailed right away and said she would call me to schedule the following week. Never happened. I called a referral service that my NUT gave me. They called me back right away and gave me the names of two therapists - one of whom I had already emailed and she ignored me. I gave her another shot. NOPE. No return call, no return email. The other therapist who was new to me - I called. I left a voicemail. That was three days ago. Good thing I wasn't in crisis huh?! I am at the point where I am ready to give up.

3. This call JUST happened while I was typing this. I got a call from the "BLANK PARTY" on a recorded line telling me that we couldn't let SO AND SO into the White House and should they send out my party material confirming I would pledge $200 or should they put me down for $100?! H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEYSTICKS NO????!!!! No sweetheart - I don't know how you got my cell phone # but lose it fast and don't ever call me again. The nerve. I don't want to get into politics but both sides are making me ill. I'm not at the point where I'm moving to Canada or going to load up on shotgun shells or anything but the political landscape right now is just downright depressing.

Luckily I have an awesome plumber who recommended a masonry guy and I called him today. He's coming out TOMORROW to price the job. He was pleasant and courteous and I'll be making sure that he gets a good review online too if he decides to do the work (and does a good job....I'm figuring he will

Ok - RANT OVER. Thanks for listening!

[JamieLogical 8,684]

For future reference. I have had nothing but great experiences with contractors through Thumbtack. I just saw they have national commercials on TV now, but I've been using them for a couple years. It seems like a pretty active site in my area at least. But I guess it's like a lot of those local-based sites like Craigslist where it's more active in some locations than others. I had Angie's List for a little while when we were selling our old house, buying our new house, and moving. I never ended up using a single one of the contractors through there and I was like, "why am I paying money for this?!?!"

It is definitely SUPER annoying when people are all enthusiastic at first, but then just stop returning your calls and emails!

Edit: I just went back through my Thumbtack project history and it looks like the first "project" I requested quotes for was whole home cleaning after a renovation project (drywall dust everywhere!) back in March of 2014. Didn't end up hiring anyone to do that, though. The first "project" I hired someone for was mowing an acre lot my husband and I own. The guy we hired through Thumbtack for that is the guy we are still using this coming summer! We've also had carpet installed, had our front porch concrete resurfaced, found a home inspector for our new house, hired movers, painters, and window cleaners, and had a whole home humidifier installed. We also recently got quotes on some re-tiling work in our master bath, but haven't pulled the trigger on any of those yet. It definitely does depend some on how active the site is in your area though. I have had a lot of good luck, but one of my coworkers lives one county over and he had a harder time finding people on there, because the are he lives in is more sparsely populated.

[becomingmandikaye 262]

I've got a rant about three different types of calls.

2. No return calls from LICSW/Therapists. I've been looking for a therapist for a while. I went online to my health provider, put in my info and found two therapists that have some experience with bariatric patients. I called one and left a voicemail with my info. CRICKETS. No return call. I emailed another - she initially emailed right away and said she would call me to schedule the following week. Never happened. I called a referral service that my NUT gave me. They called me back right away and gave me the names of two therapists - one of whom I had already emailed and she ignored me. I gave her another shot. NOPE. No return call, no return email. The other therapist who was new to me - I called. I left a voicemail. That was three days ago. Good thing I wasn't in crisis huh?! I am at the point where I am ready to give up.

That happened to me when I was looking for a therapist last year. And it was a BIG DEAL that I even picked up the phone to call. When one of them finally called me back, I actually cried on the phone with her. She ended up being awesome and I'm glad the others didn't call me back... but it felt really awful to finally be able to ask for help and be ignored.

So sorry that happened to you!

[AvaFern 3,516]

I cannot STAND when people do not reply promptly. My logic is, if you ignore me for longer than a day, you lose my business. I own a business and I would never ignore someone for longer than a few hours and usually I reply within an hour. I feel like people don't want money...it's like they are far too busy for you until suddenly they have no work and then they come crawling back.

You want my rant about contractors? My realtor referred a guy to me to fix some woodrot and add an outlet before I closed on my house. He very much overcharged me, but at the time I asked him how much it would cost to do my floors. I wanted the carpet ripped up and wood floors put in. First, he was like "you don't need that my family has had carpet their whole lives", which umm, I don't give a crap about your house and it should not impact mine" and then he quoted me something like $6 a square foot, which is about twice the norm!! I think he was under the impression I didn't have money, or he was just lazy, but he lost thousands of dollars in work because he wanted to act like he was superior.

On another note, I have a guy who did some monograms for me. I emailed him Sunday asking him what day would be good to drop off a few things and today is Thursday and I have no reply. Guess who no longer gets my business? There are dozens of people where I live who can do the work, so if you can't call me back or email me back, guess what, you don't get my business.

Man, I hate people who can't be professional and if they just don't bother to show up and waste my time, I will never EVER use them again. I had a car detail guy who was consistently late and never once apologetic. I no longer use him. I think the only exception is my handyman who can be kind of a flake, except he's really cheap and generally does what needs to be done within 24-48 hours of when we agreed to have it done, and I think he's a nice guy so I tolerate it...that is the rare exception to my rule about people wasting my time.

[Margie122 845]

@@AvaFern - I feel the same way. If you can't bother to call me back or you keep me hanging...you've lost my business.

@@becomingmandikaye - I'm glad you were finally able to get through to someone. I am at a loss as to professionals who are in the business of HELPING people who are usually in some sort of crisis not returning calls or not having an answering service. It just sucks.

@@JamieLogical - I'm going to check out that site. Thanks for the info.

[Babbs 14,680]

You're preaching to the choir. I'm a Realtor. Need I say more??

And no, I'm not one of those Realtors who don't ever call you back. I pride myself on returning emails, texts and calls to clients and others I deal with in the business. Unfortunately, most others can't say the same.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I updated my home last year. I had to BEG contractors to come out and give me an estimate. then I had to wait about 4 months before he could start. Then, I had to babysit the yahoos that did the low skill work. His subcontractors were excellent though and my project turned out great and on budget.

The remodel business is booming and they can't find good help which leads to crappy customer service...

I updated my home last year. I had to BEG contractors to come out and give me an estimate. then I had to wait about 4 months before he could start. Then, I had to babysit the yahoos that did the low skill work. His subcontractors were excellent though and my project turned out great and on budget.

The remodel business is booming and they can't find good help which leads to crappy customer service...

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I updated my home last year. I had to BEG contractors to come out and give me an estimate. then I had to wait about 4 months before he could start. Then, I had to babysit the yahoos that did the low skill work. His subcontractors were excellent though and my project turned out great and on budget.

The remodel business is booming and they can't find good help which leads to crappy customer service...

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I updated my home last year. I had to BEG contractors to come out and give me an estimate. then I had to wait about 4 months before he could start. Then, I had to babysit the yahoos that did the low skill work. His subcontractors were excellent though and my project turned out great and on budget.

The remodel business is booming and they can't find good help which leads to crappy customer service...