Dishonest Contractor Who Was Telling The Truth
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a homeowner who lived
about 70 miles away from me. I usually don't hop in my car immediately,
to give someone an estimate that lives that far away from me. I will
either refer them to another contractor or have them send me some
pictures about the project, if possible.
This homeowner chose to send me some pictures and I was able to give him
a price without going out to the project. I didn't hear from him for
another week and I thought I lost the job. I wasn't worried about it,
but wanted to make sure that he got my e-mail, I sent him another and
asked him to respond. Let me know if you got my e-mail, otherwise I can
send it to a different e-mail address or give it to you over the phone.
No response, so I called him and left a message. Still no response, so
enough was enough, I was done. He contacted me a few days later and
apologized, but wanted more information about the project. I sent him a
detailed proposal and told him that I would need to know about his job
as soon as possible.
At the bottom of the e-mail, I wrote,” Let me know if I have the job,
because I'm starting another one and I would like to do yours first. I
didn't hear back from him for another week, but this time, he told me
that I got the job.
I sent him an e-mail telling him that I could start the job in about six
weeks. This got his attention, because he called me on the phone and
asked why. I responded,” Didn't you read the bottom of my e-mail,
attached to the proposal.” He sighed and replied,” I thought you were
lying to me.”
Obviously he found out the hard way, that I don't lie or pressure anyone
into signing contracts. He told me later, after I finished the job that he
only stalled, to see if I was lying. I replaced a set of stairs that was
in extremely bad shape and someone could have hurt themselves, sometimes
it's not good to assume that your contractor isn't telling you the
truth.