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Old 04-30-2019, 09:12 AM   #49
Tom.B
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City: Cary, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedtree View Post
This is very important to me too - value for the money. I have received quotes for work from yards who do good work, but the numbers are stratospheric compared to what I think it's worth. But sometimes I pay because I want to off-load some projects.


What completely boils my ass is when I pay the crazy price and they end up doing it wrong, or breaking something else. Then I have to chase them down and get them to fix it. One of my rules of thumb is that the person who messed something up isn't really the person who you want to call in to correct it, since they obviously don't know right from wrong in the first place. Inevitably in these situations I find myself spending more time working with the service provider that if I had just done the work myself. I hire people to save me time, not to consume it and fill it with frustration.


With service people and product manufacturers, I've adopted a one strike rule. If the work isn't right, or the product doesn't work, or someone doesn't show up when they said they would, I'll give them one get-out-of-jail card. But after that they are dead to me, technicians get sent home, and products get returned. I think the only way to ever change the BS we all encounter is to just not accept it and push the problem back on them. And write reviews for the good and the bad. It's pretty hard for the schmucks to hide these days. If they are good, tell other people. If they suck, tell other people.

I am with Peter here. There are very few times I need to hire a pro. I enjoy the challenge and certainly save a great deal of money doing the work myself. However, the argument can be made that is does add a great deal of pressure and anxiety to boating as I try not to mess it up and impede the actual boating.


Anyway, My issue is that 100% of the time I am disappointed in major aspects (or many small ones) of the job the tech(s) are doing. I spend countless hours going behind them, often forcing them to undo stuff to get it right, and generally being worried that if I object too much, he will just mess it up out of spite or walk off the job halfway through. There is balance there for sure, but it is hard to find.


Then, as is always the case, they seem to either find something ELSE wrong, or we fall into the endless pit of "well, while you are doing this, we should go ahead and do this too". Thus, raising the cost and my blood pressure.


To me it is a no-win. Especially in Eastern NC where it is really hard to get good people to do good work. I WANT to help the small businesses and get a more personalized experience, but that is turning out so poorly for me. Unanswered emails... unreturned phone messages... no-shows... wildly inaccurate estimates... It make me want to scream sometimes. I may just have to either stop trying to do these projects, or open my wallet further than I would like and get big businesses like Jarrett Bay to do all the work I am unable to do... generally just fiberglass work.. (although I don't know they won't just follow the same model).

/rant
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