Since the heat subject keep coming up...is the internet a requirement for your job or other necessity?? Can't afford heat but you can afford internt??? Just a thought.

 

When I say "sighting things that were not on the contract" they are claiming that there are things that need to be done that are clearly not a part of the contract. Wow I didn't realize that was so confusing to you guys. And I do agree with you that there are always 2 sides to every story. Unfortunately in some cases the other side is just that, a "STORY", made up or otherwise.

 

I just noticed the edit in the the title of my thread, sorry about that Bluejay, I'll be sure not to do that again.

 

thanks, not a problem

 

That's the norm around here.
People always make changes on renovations, and many don't want to pay for them. they just don't realize, "Changes cost money". The ones that did this to you are just ***holes, and don't care about you, as long as they have what they want. They will justify it to themselve one way or another.

 

Sorry lamprey, but you couldn't be more off base in your post, and please don't take this the wrong way as I understand what your saying and I am not coming down on you. As I stated in my 4th post, I am not looking for sympathy nor am I feeling sorry for myself, and I certainly am not jealous of these people. This was just a rant about those folks who have done well for themselves taking advantage of of others out there who are struggling in what is being called a bad economy. Basically stealing from others. I too depend on people who "have money", otherwise I would be out of business. I too applaud folks out there who have developed the smarts to accrue a certain amount of wealth to live comfortably. They are much smarter than I am, sucks to admit I guess what angers me the most in this case is the fact that these people I speak of depend on government money for their income.

 

I have a few friends in the remodeling business and they are having the same issues with almost every job. They've gotten down to being so detailed in their contracts they almost specify the number of nails used and still are having issues. Seems that for them the folks that are doctors, lawyers, and military officers are the biggest problem children. I'd suggest to you like I did them, you can go to a small claims court and file against them at a very low cost to you. Or you can file a mechanics lien against the property. If the house is under mortgage, the lien isn't near as good as if the house is owned by the person. A mortgaged house puts you in the second lien position but it does screw up a persons credit score. I would not just let this go or you can expect it to happen a lot to you.

 

Hey ONELOW, I am a licensed contractor and yes there is a comprehensive contract as well as a change order, both reviewed and signed by both parties involved, that being me and them. I am trying to resolve it without having to involve the court system, though I'm not sure that is possible at this point. I've taken pride in the fact that A) this has never happened to me before (although I've always known it to be a possibility) because B) everyone I have ever done work for has always been happy and satisfied with the work I have done for them, to my knowledge that is.

 

Sorry Galaxy but I had to address your post. Are you serious? Of course I can afford internet over heat, have you seen the cost of heating oil these days ? Just kidding with you man. We actually just ran out of heat this week and are dealing with it, I only used it as an example as we are struggling in all areas. At this point it is more important for me to keep up the mortgage, electric and phone. Without the mortgage, no house to heat, without electricity, no way to run the heat, and without phone no way to communicate to conduct business to make money to pay for all these things. As for the internet, I actually pay for it 2 to 3 months in advance if I can, and yes, in todays world it has almost become a necessary tool to conduct business as I have found most folks have it and prefer to communicate that way. It is actually due again and there is a good possibility I won't be heard from on the site for awhile as I will be getting heating oil before I will be paying for the internet. And by the way, you have to have a minimum amount of oil delivered before any oil company will come out and that is right now $330 worth, a 100 gallons, and as cold as it has been here this winter, it doesn't last long. And that's keeping the thermostat set at 50 degrees. Compare that to the internet at $40 a month, so yeah, I can afford that over heat

 

I and a lot of contractors out there don't like customers supplying their own materials as a lot of them don't know what they're buying. Some times they purchase inferior products or don't get enough of everything or end up with things missing in their purchases and that almost always leads to problems and delays in completing the job and therefore collecting on the work. Not to mention it becomes harder to warranty the work. It just so happens that this was the case on this job, and dummy me gave in. I offered to work with them to help them out with their buying decisions to make sure they got all the right stuff and they declined that help. Again I blame myself for that and as stated before, lesson learned. I am not saying that about you tradosaurus, so please don't take it that way.

 

A lot of contractors won't do this because they are making money on the materials - much like mechanics, plumbers, HVAC companies, etc..

I'll let customers buy materials only if I tell them what to get or if they truly know what they're buying. The majority of the time, I'll pull materials at my suppliers and have them pay over the phone, rather than charging it to my account(s) - so if they do try to get shady, they're out of at least that amount. I don't make money on materials and will do my best to use my discounts and pass that on to them. I'm a pretty good judge of character and can get a feel for a person, so when I feel someone may be on the shady side, I'll collect up front for materials and a portion of the labor and call it a 'good faith' deposit.
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Depending on the balance, the extra work they want and how bad you want to collect - try to offer up some sort of middle ground to complete the extra work for a few more bucks. You may end up giving your work away but at least you'll be able to collect a few bucks now, instead of taking them to small claims court and ending up with nothing. Your customers may be the type that would rather spend the money on a lawyer to fight you, rather than pay you.

Good luck on your situation. I hope you can get some money out of this as I hate to see hard working people get the shaft.

 

if it make you feel better i had a company shut their door on Monday and they owe me $17k


how much do they owe you? how much would it cost to make them happy?

i understand what you are saying but i think alot of us have been done wrong by home improvement people and i will never pay that last 10% until i am happy with the project.

 

I'm with you on everything you stated and conduct my business in the same manner. Unfortunately there will be no middle ground in this matter as they have already gotten quite a bit of extra work out of me and I obliged just to try and keep them happy and to get more work from them. Been talking to the other contractors who were working in other areas of the house today and as it turns out they are now going through the same thing.

 

Thanks Dave, but it doesn't, I'm sorry to hear of your plight, that is a lot of scratch. I do know that there are some shady contractors out there, and they give me and other hard working individuals a bad name.

 

Not surprising. There is a small percentage of folks that are just impossible to please. Nothing can ever meet their standards. Whether this is a negotiating ploy or they are just not right in the head is impossible to know.

Either way, they are nightmares to have as customers.

There is not much protection from these types, as it's pretty hard to screen people who will eventually turn into jerks when the job hits a point of no-return.

Sucks they hit you at a bad time.

Good luck and I hope the next customers are easy to work with.