So Sick of Dishonest Contractors

Part of it is living in a nice house in a nice area. We moved from an economically depressed area to an affluent one, and the kinds of quotes we get now for the same services are just totally off the wall.
 
About 4 years ago I had a plumber come out and give me a quote to unclog my kitchen sink drain. I tried to snake it myself with no luck. The plumber quoted me $430 and said the clog was at the junction where the kitchen pipe meets the main pipe. It is about 20 feet away. I call another plumber who confirms the clog but quotes me $89. Hired! I have used her ever since.
 
my car's AC was going bad for a while - the blower motor would stop and i'd hit the glove box and it'd spin up again. but over time it finally died.

so i took it in to replace the blower motor. at this time, it was still cold, etc. they replaced it, but said there was a problem: they also tried to put more freon in to recharge it, but something "went wrong" and it only blows hot air now.

i asked what could be done. they said, oh you'll have to replace the compressor, some other part, and it's all behind the dash, and it's all bad, needs full replacement. so labor and everything is looking like $3000.

i said no, i'll just manage. so i pretty much kept the AC off since then, windows down only. a few hot months later, i turn on the car, and boom, it's blowing cold air and has for almost a year now. shrug
Similar to what happened with our house AC.

The 2nd floor AC unit died. So we hired a company to fix it. Since it used the old Freon the entire thing needed to be replaced. New condenser, coil, etc. I think it was like $8K.

The guy is literally pulling out of the driveway and the fan fails.

He comes back the next day, puts a new fan in it. Then he starts acting weird. He's telling me "yeah, you really should replace that other unit, it's not going to last much longer." "It's working fine", I say. Next day he calls "Have you given some though to replacing that other unit?". "Uh, no, as I told you it's working fine." Calls again later that night.

The next day I turn on the first floor AC and it's blowing hot air. WTF?

So I call a different HVAC company to come out and take a look. Guy spends about two minutes and says "Uh, someone stole your Freon".

SON OF A....!!!

So I look the first company up on Angie's List and sure enough there's all kinds of horror stories about the guy. I added my review which stated "Around here most contractors are either dishonest or incompetent. This guy is both."
 
Similar to what happened with our house AC.

The 2nd floor AC unit died. So we hired a company to fix it. Since it used the old Freon the entire thing needed to be replaced. New condenser, coil, etc. I think it was like $8K.

The guy is literally pulling out of the driveway and the fan fails.

He comes back the next day, puts a new fan in it. Then he starts acting weird. He's telling me "yeah, you really should replace that other unit, it's not going to last much longer." "It's working fine", I say. Next day he calls "Have you given some though to replacing that other unit?". "Uh, no, as I told you it's working fine." Calls again later that night.

The next day I turn on the first floor AC and it's blowing hot air. WTF?

So I call a different HVAC company to come out and take a look. Guy spends about two minutes and says "Uh, someone stole your Freon".

SON OF A....!!!

So I look the first company up on Angie's List and sure enough there's all kinds of horror stories about the guy. I added my review which stated "Around here most contractors are either dishonest or incompetent. This guy is both."
fkn people man.... that's crazy.
 
...Your calcium permanganate filter needs replacing, your Scheffield bypass valve is shot, you need a new bistable anti-backflush piston assembly and a new local ionization destratifier".
I think the biggest question on my mind is will the Axe-Fx IV have a variable permanganate filter, and will the Scheffield bypass valve include the bistable anti-backflush piston functionality if the ionization destratifier is disabled?
 
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I'm a Chief Engineer of a large commercial campus. If anyone has ever watched anything on CBS Sports online, it was filmed at our campus. I run the maintenance department and oversee all repairs and construction on the property. I spend half my days reading and negotiating proposals. When I took over my position (I replaced my former boss) I went through a lot of contractors/vendors trying to see how well I was reading the proposals. They all got 1 shot at giving me a pork-filled proposal, now they know I'll call them up and question every single line of work. Or worse, I'll sick my property manager on them and make their life hell.
 
A while back I had someone come to take care of a roof leak. I specifically asked the owner to send someone with a lot of experience that could diagnose this correctly and find the actual problem. The asshole sent two guys that could not form a sentence in English to save their lives. They take a look and nod like they’ve figured it out. One guy goes up on the roof and proceeds to caulk around the two skylights. Meanwhile, the other dude is hanging out front doing nothing and a third guy shows up for no apparent reason. Sometime in the midst of all this my mother had dropped by. Second guy goes back around the house and I go talk to my mother inside. A few minutes later I go outside because I see the two original guys heading out front because they’re done. Then I notice dude number three heading for his vehicle in a hurry and takes off. Then I see my mom’s car door ajar and see all the stuff from her glovebox was on the passenger seat. Apparently he heard me coming back out and bolted after just getting started with his search. Unfortunately for him, my mom didn’t have anything worth taking. The other guys were packing up while I’m looking in my mom’s car and asking her if anything is missing. They left without saying anything.

The next day it rains and the leak isn’t fixed. I called the owner to report the aborted robbery attempt and the leak. He mentions that he’ll send me the bill. I told him I wasn’t paying him anything because the leak wasn't fixed. He says he’d send somebody else out to fix it. I told him if anyone from his company showed up at my house the police would be called. He then asks “how will I get my money then?” I laughed. He said he’d sue me for it. I laughed harder.

I never heard from the scumbag again.
 
I try to build and fix things myself to avoid this.

Three repairs over 15 years and it’s still going strong, well, once I put it back together. :)

View attachment 72870View attachment 72871

I wish I would have just fixed our old dryer. Decided to buy a new HE (High Efficiency) washer and dryer set and they were absolute junk. The washer broke a bunch of times and the manufacture refused to replace it and they ended up paying way more to keep repairing it under warranty. All the electronics had to be replaced. The dryer had to be run at least 3 times and would make our clothes smell like mold if we left them in the dryer over night. We ended up replacing them after 4 years and luckily our new set works great and our clothes are dry in about 30 minutes instead of 3 hours.
 
Have to crack on youngsters when the chance arises. General answer is the internet says. But I was super proud recently when my daughters refrigerator freezer stopped getting cold. She did the research and came up with the part she thought it was. I found the part local and put it in for her, all of a 10 minute job and that was the problem. Was surprised she generally will call someone to come out and fix stuff being its hard for me at times being a full time care giver for her grandmother to just come and look at something.
 
Character and integrity are hard to come by anymore. Used to be fair pay for honest work. Now it's how do I get more for doing less and make sure they'll need more work in the future? Sad, sad reality.
The labor version of 'Planned Obselescence', which brought us the Chevy Vega and many other 'durable' products that had expiry dates like produce....
 
my car's AC was going bad for a while - the blower motor would stop and i'd hit the glove box and it'd spin up again. but over time it finally died.

so i took it in to replace the blower motor. at this time, it was still cold, etc. they replaced it, but said there was a problem: they also tried to put more freon in to recharge it, but something "went wrong" and it only blows hot air now.

i asked what could be done. they said, oh you'll have to replace the compressor, some other part, and it's all behind the dash, and it's all bad, needs full replacement. so labor and everything is looking like $3000.

i said no, i'll just manage. so i pretty much kept the AC off since then, windows down only. a few hot months later, i turn on the car, and boom, it's blowing cold air and has for almost a year now. shrug
Probably overfilled the freon. That will make the compressor shut itself off in self-defense....
 
I think the biggest question on my mind is will the Axe-Fx iV have a variable permanganate filter, and will the Scheffield bypass valve include the bistable anti-backflush piston functionality if the ionization destratifier is disabled?
This would work. But it's really just a workaround for putting in a flux capacitor.

Sounds like something from TNG. TOS was not as sophisticated....
Yea, I was thinking Geordi would say these... ;-)
Scotty would just say "Captain, I canna fix it that quickly..."
 
In the long term, honesty always reaps better results. Sometimes the result is called Hank, sometimes it is unexpected or unnoticed. Life has many turns

Yeah, thing is, too many people have the mindset of hmm, $80.000 in the bank now, or be honest and make $800.000 a year? I'll take the former. Fixation on short term gains is killing everything.

Sounds like something from TNG. TOS was not as sophisticated....

But it was still the better show. Not to mention that Shatner has matured as the Godfather of Trek, whereas Stewart just shat a very big one on it with Picard.
 
Hanks are a rare bird around here also. Where I live, demand for
contractors always seems high which make these issues worse.
 
Don't get me started about contractors. Almost every one we've used have done horrible jobs and most of them don't even finish what we paid them for. I don't know if we just have bad luck but we research them and make sure they have good ratings. Recently found out that if a company pays a fee to the Better Business Bureau, they will remove bad reviews because ours got removed.

When I had my own company, the BBB tried to strongarm me into joining. They were very aggressive on the phone trying to get me to join multiple time. Finally I told the to F-OFF. It was during this time I realized the BBB was a sham. It means nothing. Luckily, I was good at what I did & 90% of my business was client referrals.
 
Lucky here. We have a great contractor who is also a great friend. He's built my recording studio and done a lot of remodel/rennovations of our home. He's doing our bedroom now. He's going to do the electrical upgrade too. When he subcontracts he knows the people and oversees their work. We sometimes come up with issues and he always makes good on it. He's also a designer and an artist. So sometimes we have to reign him in a bit. LOL.
 
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