Sorry, but I have to introduce some very different opinion about Jim...
Early August, after reading all those highly positive reviews I wrote to Jim about replacing vinyl liner in my in-ground pool. Jim promptly replied with the e-mail asking several questions about the pool to which I answered immediately. After that Jim went silent for few days, but eventually our meeting was set. I had very positive impression of our meeting: Jim seemed to be knowledgeable and professional, describing what needs to be done, answering my questions and pointing to the problems. By the end of the meeting I decided to go with Jim's company and asked him to give me a formal quote. "I'll send you a quote and samples of liners so you can pick which one you like - sometime this week", told me Jim. That was August the 20th... Ten days later (August 29th) with no quotes or samples, I'm writing Jim a "friendly reminder" - "Jim, did you get a chance to put together a quote?" Another week of silence and on September 5th I'm writing yet another e-mail to Jim saying "Jim, if you decided not to go with what we've discussed, please let know, so I'm not wasting my time". To this Jim finally replies promising to send quote "this afternoon" - which he did. The quote was just a standard form with almost no details, just stating what will be done, job total cost and the amount of required deposit. Since Jim told me before that if I plan to replace liner next spring, price of the liner can go up as much as $300, I replied asking whether making a deposit now would secure current liner price (that's what it sounds like from the quote). Again, silence for couple days... By that time a had few more questions and sent another e-mail asking to break down total cost by material and labor and asking whether quoted prices are negotiable. To that Jim responded with the stern e-mail basically refusing to do the job and blaming me for that because "it seems that you are uncomfortable having us do your repair." Quite to the contrary, I was very comfortable and just wanted more details regarding pricing. What's wrong with asking a contractor to give material and labor costs separately? As a matter of fact, it's a norm and most contractors do that without even being asked! But Jim seemed to be offended by my questions. Obviously, if he doesn't want to do the job, further discussions were pointless. Problem is that with Jim's habit of answering e-mails with two weeks delays and only after several nudges, I lost most valuable thing - time, almost a month! And instead of getting things wrap up before closing the pool, now I have start process of finding another contractor in mid-September, instead of mid-August. Maybe it's all for good, because now I'm not so sure whether my first impression of Jim's professionalism was correct. read more