13th February 2007

Contractor Arm Twisting

posted in Contractors |

Why oh why, is it necessary to beg, plead, cajole and socially Electrical Outletmaneuver to get certain contractors to come out to work here in Brevard County, FL? If this is typical, someone please let me know by leaving a comment.
I was recently out at a one of our rentals for something unrelated and the tenant mentioned that certain electrical outlets and light fittings were not working. After checking the obvious things like tripped breakers in the electrical panel and broken switches, I determined that I’m in need of the services of a professional electrician.

Getting an electrician to come out, however, is another story. So far, I’ve had electricians say that they will be there at a certain time and not show up. I’ve also had one electrician say he can’t make it out for a full month.

I mean really, I will pay for the services, on the spot if necessary, but this is getting pretty ridiculous. Brevard County is still growing and I think that when enough of the general public starts demanding decent service, the contractors will fall into line….hopefully.

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  1. 1 On June 12th, 2007, Mikki said:

    Bruce

    I picked you up at Cliff’s “Changing My Direction” site.

    As a contractor, I can tell you that those that are not even reliable enough to return a phone call most likely are not reliable to do the work.

    As for the other electrician who can’t make it out for a month, I completely understand. It is usually a sign of someone who is in high demand. And they are in high demand for a reason.

    When potential customers call (or email) me requesting a service, I do a walk through of the property as soon as possible. Within days of getting the initial contact. I will meet with them after both of us are finished working for the day. I will get them quotes with in the week, but I also advise them that I am currently working on at least an 8 month backlog. The longer I am in business, the bigger the backlog is getting.

    I do not know how big the job is you were writing about, but it is most likely the cause of your inability to find someone to come look. It is difficult to work on the smaller jobs because they just do not cost out to make it worth the effort. Smaller jobs require other smaller jobs to round out a full day. Calling a larger firm that has more employees might help, as they probably have many small jobs and can dispatch the employee out to several in a day.

    Personally, I work 4 days a week, scheduled. The other days are spent on paperwork, walk throughs and small jobs if I have them.

    Good luck!

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