I’m becoming so jaded about hiring anyone to perform any service for me. It seems scams are becoming the norm, no matter what services you need. I was divorced in 2014 and the tricks that the realtors had up their sleeves and the incompetence of attorneys cost me so much money. Now, hiring someone to repair things around my farm is like navigating a land mine of scam services and repairmen. I have come to the conclusion that I better start learning how to repair everything myself. Anyone else feel this way?
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I’m very sorry that you’re having so much trouble finding reliable contractors/service people. You definitely aren’t alone, unfortunately. I hope you have better luck soon.
But regarding the history of scams, my guess is that people have been scamming each other pretty much since communication began to develop. I don’t think it’s any more prevalent now than it has ever been, and I think that sometimes it is easier to avoid unethical or incompetent people/companies now because of how much information is easily available on most people.
Some of the more interesting scams and an astounding real estate scam from the 1800s:
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I use personal references and reviews and do research before hiring anyone or purchasing a service. I think in some cases you have outright scams but there are also a lot of people out there who are just not competent or good at business.
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For me, it depends on what needs to be done and how much $$ I have. Fix-it stuff, menial labor—those kinds of things I try to do myself. YouTube is a friend! I have a good—well if you’re me, not a guy—set of tools and a 50hp tractor with a front end loader and can operate them all. So I can get an extraordinary amount of work done when I set aside the time and have the patience for it to take awhile if needed. For big stuff like building buildings, fencing, specialized work (wells, roofs, etc.) where I don’t have the expertise, I consult neighbors, friends and look at the reviews online and get quotes. I’ve had good experiences this way and haven’t had any really bad.
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It is tough. I have found some great workmen in my new area, but it took time and experimentation. I try to use them regularly, so I won’t get the “too busy elsewhere” excuse when I need them.
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I only work with people based on personal recommendations from people I know that have used them. I used to know several excellent workers of the handyman variety. But since 2020, most are no longer doing that kind of work, and it has been very hard to find good people. Friends are having the same problem. The pandemic upended that whole end of the economy, at least locally.
Just going from advertisements through various channels I have found to be completely unproductive. Like you, my experience is that they mostly seem to be chiselers.
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I use only large plumbing, electrical, and HVAC companies. I am done with the solo guys in panel vans with a magnetic sticker on the door who are hard to find when a post-repair problem occurs.
For farm things, I have a relationship with a landscape designer who serves as my contractor and has knowledge and access to reliable workers that I’d never find. If I need someone to paint a fence, plant a tree, install arena sprinklers, grade a riding arena, trim shrubbery, cut down trees, repair my well, or just move some dirt around to fill in holes, he takes care of the arrangements. I do the things myself I am comfortable with and he doesn’t mind. I spread my own fertilizer and seed; he has it picked up and delivered to me. When I get to the point physically that I can’t lift the 50 pound bags to load into the spreader, he said he can have someone come do the lifting and pouring for me while I drive the tractor. I feel very lucky.
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I feel this in my soul.
Major septic issues going on. They always say “pump it” - but only the toilets that go towards the pressure manifold that sits in a horse pasture and had a broken pipe - back up when it rains and drain immediately after the rain subsides.
So instead of pumping the tank, or paying 3200 for a new pressure manifold, I took a RASP to smooth out the end of the broken pipe in the pressure manifold and slipped those rubber pipe fittings on it that were $8 a piece from lowes. All fixed.
For real estate… I dealt with an agent that knew my farm would not be fha approved but she kept telling me to go with the loan so I would be approved and then bait and switch and say I have to buy a different farm.
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Yes, that too. A few summers ago iIhired an HVAC company (reputable and recommended) to take a look at my mini split unit. He was afraid to get into the crawl space (snakes) and I didn’t catch him in time, so he cut my condensation lines when I wasn’t watching. He thought that might fix the leak, which I already assured him, it was a humidity related issue. So, the $500 condensation lines became my expense to replace. I don’t think it’s my place to pay for their on the job training. I contacted the owner of the HVAC company to reimburse but they just stonewalled me.
I will never, ever, use a realtor again in my lifetime.
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The HVAC story resonates.
The largest plumber in the area where I live, with by far the most advertising and presence in front of homeowners, does not hire competent personnel.
They will hire any nice-looking young white guy and send him out on calls. I have no idea what training these young guys have, but they are always on the phone to the main office with one of the three senior plumbers who own and run the business, trying to diagnose and guide by phone.
This works as well as you would expect – that is, it doesn’t. They leave without fixing things saying they will come back later. “Later” is usually days.
The senior guys will make sure the household has a source of water and that at least one toilet that flushes.
As for the rest, their repair jobs are junk, and the homeowner end up calling them out again and again to fix the same problem.
But most homeowners don’t have any means of evaluating if a plumber is any good or not. So many people use this company because they are the largest and have the biggest presence, not because they think they are good at what they do.
In my mind they are operate in a way that is close to being a scam. One could make a case, I think. Except that their customers honestly couldn’t say one way or the other.
I have more than average plumbing, electrical, and vehicle repair skills. Over the years as I have frequented the plumbing and electrical aisles at my local big box stores I have overheard many, many conversations between repair folks talking about how they have upsized jobs.
One was a guy who had convinced an old couple - his words - that all three of their home’s toilets needed to be replaced. He was being paid $850 per toilet. He was loading 3 on-sale Kohler toilets ($159 each) onto his cart. I have replaced toilets. It is an easy but not an enjoyable job, but hardly is worth paying someone $700 labor per toilet to do.
Another story is about potato peel plugs in kitchen sinks. One guy said “I love these calls. Takes maybe 5 minutes to take off the P-trap. Then I go outside, tap the p-trap against a tree to knock out the potato peelings, smoke a cigarette, reinstall the trap, and drive away with $300.”
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and then it only takes the homeowner about 15 seconds to plug it again
When I had my service company we stopped doing any work for residential clients as they were just very unpredictable as just what outcome they desired.
My problem is simply getting people to show up when they say they will. I can count off hand at least five services that came out to quote something, stayed to chat with my husband for an hour or more (he likes to talk), and they said they’d call back with a quote, and just ghost us. Some even said they’d come back out (on say, Tuesday) and just never show up or call or text. ?? Is everyone making so much money that they don’t need a job? Some of these were smaller jobs, but some were for a good bit of money. I don’t get it. If you don’t intend to come and and do the job, please tell us that you are not interested, no hard feelings, and we move on to the next person/company.
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I’ve found that’s no guarantee.
Local plumber with a fleet I see regularly did a pretty good job trying to scam me when my hydrant needed a set screw.
I’d Googled & determined this was the problem, but wanted an expert to back it up.
Service guy dismissed my info & said they’d need to dig to replace the entire hydrant.
At an estimated cost of $2K 
I called another company & the guy who came out turned out to be the guy who’d repaired the hydrant some 10yrs earlier - when he’d had his own company. He agreed set screw was the problem, but suggested replacing the head.
I agreed & for under $200, including labor, hydrant was good as new.
He was now working for a newer Employee-owned company.
I’ve since called him back when another local BN plumber replaced my sump pump & that failed after 2mos.
Their solution: $1K+ work to replace the outflow PVC pipe.
I called the other guy & though he agreed outflow was the problem, quoted $500 to fix it.
When my well pump died, I called the Good Guys, but it was a Sunday & they had minimal staff, could not promise anyone that day.
In desperation - no water was not feasible - I found a local guy who came out - with his teen son & (on a flatbed) the ATV they’d been playing with.
He came back promptly on Monday with parts needed.
Best of all: he let me stretch out payments.
I’ve since recommended him to neighbors.
So honest workmen still exist.
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I don’t know the age of your service providers, of course, but I’ve run into millennials and younger who are incapable of scheduling and tracking. Some are pretty good at what they do. But what days & times they show up to work on a job and leave is erratic. And they ghost jobs before the job is finished. It’s as if they got it 80% done, started another job thinking to work both until this one is finished, but forgot they weren’t done over here and didn’t come back. Some have even left tools behind – eventually they miss them and call!
I suspect some were never taught these basic life skills because so much was coordinated for them during their younger years. Others – maybe mild drug consumption that interferes with short-term memory and ability to record appointments? If they are making promises without writing them down or entering them digitally, that’s not a good sign. But they are doing fairly good work when they do work.
I learned to never, ever pay anyone before the job is finished. The minute they get even a partial payment for just what they have done to date, they ghost. I make that payment schedule clear on our first meeting and stick with it, no matter how sweetly they beg for an interim payment. Have learned my lesson.
What a strange way to live, from one day’s job to the next, with no firm future schedule. But there is enough work available that they do it.
If someone doesn’t call back with a quote, and/or stops coming to the job, I will not wait more than 3 days and then move ahead with someone else. I’ll make one phone call on day 2 of waiting to ask, but if they don’t get back within 24 hours, we’re done. They are demonstrating what to expect on the job anyway – ghosting, not getting it done.
One thing some of the workers who are better at scheduling (or think they are) will try to do is work 2 jobs at once without telling either party what they are doing.
I don’t know how they figure they can be in two places simultaneously. But they seem to think that if they show up and do 2 or 3 hours of work, then they can disappear to the other job for a few hours, then come back to this one – or vice versa, of course.
The problem is that they get something started at one location only to find out that for some reason they can’t leave it – so they don’t go back to The Other Job that day. The time schedule they promised doesn’t work and the person paying for the job gets impatient.
This especially goes badly when a trade person is doing this while working with a contractor, and the contractor’s other work schedule is affected because that bit isn’t getting done.
Definitely!
I posted about this in the venting thread when this happened, so skip the following if you read it there.
We had a good experience with a plumbing, heating and air conditioning contractor when we had central air installed in the townhouse DH and I own with our daughter. She chose them based on reviews and a reasonable estimate. So when our water heater turned into a fountain on a Saturday, we called them.
It was a terrible experience. DH gave the office the existing water heater’s model number, and explained at length that ours is a condo installation with special venting. They said they could get someone there by 6 pm that day. We were thrilled, and said “come on down!”
The guy showed up when he said he would, took one look at the existing water heater, and said he didn’t have the right one on the truck. It would have never fit, and didn’t have the venting connections. DH told him the information he’d given to the office, and the guy said it wasn’t passed on to him, and the plumbing supply place was now closed until Monday.
We were supposed to get a call back on this mess to reschedule on Monday. The call didn’t come. DH called several times, leaving a message each time, and finally got someone on Tuesday or Wednesday. Meanwhile, we were going over to our daughter’s place to shower. Our water comes in way too cold to shower without hot water.
The call got ugly, and we told them to forget it. DH found a plumbing supply place that would deliver that had what we needed, and ordered it. He asked our daughter’s boyfriend to help move the new water heater up the stairs, and move the old one down into the garage. We don’t have a basement, and all our living area is on the second floor, so the water heater is in a closet off the laundry room, . DH got it installed with no problems, and it’s worked fine since then.
We won’t use that company for anything now. When our heat quit working and DH couldn’t find the sensor that he thought was the problem, he called someone else, who came right out and fixed it in about five minutes. He showed DH where that sensor was hidden so he could fix it himself next time, and said he spent so little time on it, he didn’t want to charge us. That was after having to be up and down a ladder a couple of times to get to the furnace, which lives in the attic. We talked to the office and told them we wanted to pay for it, since there was a prompt service call and the guy was so pleasant. It ended up being a very small fee. We will probably have to replace our furnace at some point due to its age, and we know who we will use!
Rebecca
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In what way?
This seems to be the crux of the story, but can’t tell why/what.
