Perhaps they should call themselves "Mr. We'll Fix YOU."
Will someone ever just show up promptly and charge a reasonable price to do what they're asked to do and paid to do?
This business charges very big prices, and for that reason alone, dealing with them should be totally trouble free. Yet in my experience, it doesn't work out that way. I gave simple and clear and written instructions about the job I wanted done, and the instructions weren't followed at all, muffing things up beautifully, creating lots of confusion and unnecessary aggravation in order for things to get set right. Instructions are provided for the primary reason that you're believed to need them. Read them. Record them. Use them. Simple, basic stuff.
We're not building rocket ships, folks.
These people take their time doing the work -- the contract gave them a window of up to several months to get around to doing the job -- but the minute the work was over, it was "payment due upon receipt of invoice." Here's the clincher, the contract stated they "might" start the work in as little as two weeks, if their circumstances allowed for it. I think that's window dressing, intended to help lure you in, to get you to think maybe there's a chance you'll get them done and on their way quickly.
Dream on. They work at their own pace -- and the paperwork you accepted afforded them that luxury -- and they shuffle onto the work site with and without advance notice, depending on how their mood strikes them. Again, predictably, the contract allowed them to start the work several months into the future and they indeed started very near the end of the listed prospective waiting period. I was a fool not to know that was exactly how things would pan out.
Yep, this kind of stuff suggests they're "professionals" in more ways than one. It suggests they know all the ins and outs, and how to work things in their favor. That's fine, except you, the customer, are from the outset paying through your nose for this work.
The job's bill was sent as an invoice, but, according to its envelope's postmark, the invoice was not mailed to me until five days after the date on the invoice. It also arrived at my door three days after the postmark date, with a due date two days into the future, and a warning of a finance charge for all late payments. Since one of the two days between my receipt of the invoice and the due date was a Sunday, I had to rush to get the payment into the mail, so as to have my payment postmarked ahead of the due date.
So...to recap.....it took them months to get around to doing the work, and then they gave me, in essence, a few hours to rush to the post office to get my payment postmarked prior to their "without fail" due date.
Something stinks pretty powerfully about that.
The work is done, but I have no way of knowing for sure even about the final quality of the work, since they showed a disregard for some of the instructions I provided. Maybe the work will be fine. Maybe enough of the instructions were still ignored, that I'll have regrets in the future.
Me thinks there is no way to know, something which should not be a lingering doubt in my mind, considering the huge amount of money they sucked out of me for the work they did. And me thinks all of this suggests that something is a little crummy about the way they do business.
Such a circus of a world, to live in. read more