Remodeling Contractors Advice For Dealing With Foreigners
During one of my many bathroom remodeling adventures, I
ran across a family that was from India who had only been in the country
for a few years and was interested in remodeling their bathroom. I was
the second contractor that they contacted but not the one that they
hired.
I called them back to give them an estimate and they were shocked. I
mean they were fit to be tied. They were practically yelling and
screaming at each other, because I had given them an estimate that was
to high. I could see that I didn't want to work for these people and ask
them politely, not to call me back.
This isn't the first time that something like this happen to me, but it
was the first time that it happened between me and a family from India.
I had done business with a couple of clients from different countries,
including India, Japan, Germany, Yugoslavia and the list goes on,
without much difficulties.
If someone calls you on the telephone and you have a hard time
understanding them, there's a good chance that you're going to have a
hard time understanding them in person. I've had children talk for their
parents, used third-party members of their family to communicate and
even tried to get through it on my own.
Don't forget that you're not allowed to sign a contract with someone who
doesn't understand the language it's written in. If you choose to do
business with people from other countries, you could find yourself
dealing with a totally different set of problems, so be careful and be
warned.
Here's the best advice I can give any contractor who is going to deal
with someone from another country. If you get the home remodeling job,
it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up a book about the customs in their
country.
If you really want to learn a little bit more about that particular
country and the customs of it, you should invite the people out to
dinner. After working on a home with a family from Iran, they invited me
to their daughter's birthday party and since I wasn't going to be
working all day, I told them that I would be glad to.
I learned a lot about that person and their customs and they didn't need
to recommend me to another person, because they had plenty of work for
me on their rental properties.
Again, I would like to suggest something to most contractors that they
really don't like to hear, but if you don't get along with a person, I
wouldn't work for them. It doesn't get any simpler than that.