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!