Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
Maybe she wouldn't start without a deposit, but a reputable contractor would. I would never pay a deposit in advance. But, if I did, it would only be for custom materials, and charged to a credit card that I could dispute if the work was not performed.
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I find comments like yours quite curious. What makes a
consumer reputable, vs. a contractor being reputable? Why should I - as a contractor - put up potentially thousands of dollars in materials needed for a job in the hopes that my "reputable" customer is going to come through at job's end with the agreed upon costs of the job? Some consumers might just be well-versed in the fine art of being a b@llbuster, finding nit-picky reasons to decline paying for a contractor's job just to get a cheaper price in the end. Ah, just the costs of doing business, right?
I'm not a contractor, by the way. But where I come from,
everyone's got to have skin in the game. That means you (and I) put up money in advance for, say, half of the job's cost, and the contractor doesn't get paid in full until the job is completed in an agreed upon manner.
There are risks on both ends of the deal, not just on one side. That's fair. What are the consequences of a contractor not following through? There are legal and social media repercussions. Does anyone think "Trish" is going to benefit from the OP's post here on what happened? I don't. Can the OP also file legal complaints? Absolutely.
As far as the customer is concerned, due diligence is a must. Sure, anyone can have a bad experience even when local reviews/ratings on a contractor's work are great. But for the most part, these reviews should normally be prologue on what to expect in the end. Don't use a contractor for personality reasons. Find out in advance who they've done work for, and see if you can contact the people who had the work done.