Yeah. It sucks.
...

There are an awful lot of folks making a living doing really ****ty
work with really ****ty customer service skills. The good and
reliable folks generally don't want to deal with every new pain inthe
ass homeowner, and gravitate instead to larger jobs.

This has been a mystery to me for some time.

How is it that in a capitalist society there isn't someone who can
fix this problem? Hire well-qualified people, have stringent quality
control, make sure they are all on time, and charge 20% over the
"going rate". I'd pay 20% extra just to know that the guy will show
up and I wouldn't waste the day waiting for him, and several people
I know would gladly do the same. The word would get out, and this
company would put all the "****ty work" people out of business.

And yet this isn't happening. Instead we endure contractors who do
****ty work, don't show up and don't call, wouldn't even give an
estimate for "small" jobs, etc. etc.

Is it because everyone who is any good is already so booked up that
they don't need any extra work (and extra money)? It's hard to
believe that. Besides, painting a door is not rocket science. I am
sure I could master the skill (after all the programming jobs are
outsourced to India

Cheers,
--
In order to understand recursion you must first understand recursion.
Remove /-nsp/ for email.

From my experience, unless you are hiring a very specific "small project"
trade like electrical or plumbing, its very difficult to get people to come
out for smaller jobs. You've gotta resort to these idiot "handymen".

Suing everyone who does crappy work like another poster suggested might
sound great in theory, but are you really going to do that in practice?
probably you'd spend more time and money going after someone for $500 then
its worth. If we are talking a larger project, of course... but since small
claims is limited to what, $1500? $2000?, thats not even worth it for all
the hassle of filing a claim. And they know that, thats why they get away
with it.

Some people may tell you "check references", well, thats about as useful as
checking references when you are hiring someone for a white collar position.

Think about it... if you are applying for a white collar job, and the
company asks for references, do you give them references that'll paint a
REAL PICTURE of you? HELL NO. You are going to give them the best possible
picture. Same with these guys, references they give you are probably best
friends or family members. You aren't usually going to be able to see the
work they do either. So there really isn't anyway to check them out.

Unless as another poster suggested, the references are from your friends or
people you trust.

My bosses at work use this handy man that they swear by. Some how they can
get him on a moments notice, but when I called him once, he told me he had a
7 week back log.