No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:33:05 -0700 (PDT), Frenchie
wrote:

No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

What if you just wrote a nice _Letter of Recommendation_ for the
contractor? It would go a long way; instead of a tip that may just
fill his fuel tank a couple times.

Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?
Hi,
I always hire reputable proven contractor through word of mouth creating
a good pool of reliable trades people. I always give them some thing
after job is completed to our satisfaction. I buy them formal dinner,
give them couple bottles of good stuff or gift cards so they can use it
as they wish. When our roof was upgraded with ceramic coated metal
tiles, I gave each of 3 men, two bottles of Scotch, two bottles of wine
with a thank you card. I usually don't do to a sub- contractor.

On 3/11/2012 6:33 PM, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

I am a contractor. Typically I work time/material for the type of work I
do. When I do give an estimate for a job, and I've done nothing beyond
what I was expecting to do, I wouldn't expect or accept a tip, and I
would make sure the customer was completely happy with the work.
Having said that, I get the impression that this guy is working really
cheap, to try and build up a customer base and as such, is leaving it to
your good graces to compensate him fairly. I'm not really fond of that
approach, but if you truly believe that his competition would have cost
you a couple thousand dollars more, and their work wouldn't have been
any better, I would give him a couple of hundred dollars. It's really
not your responsibility to figure out his cost/profit ratio, but at the
same time, the guy had enough integrity to complete the job, and do a
good job, even though he might have under bid it.

On 3/11/2012 6:59 PM, Tony Hwang wrote:


Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?
Hi,
I always hire reputable proven contractor through word of mouth creating
a good pool of reliable trades people. I always give them some thing
after job is completed to our satisfaction. I buy them formal dinner,
give them couple bottles of good stuff or gift cards so they can use it
as they wish. When our roof was upgraded with ceramic coated metal
tiles, I gave each of 3 men, two bottles of Scotch, two bottles of wine
with a thank you card. I usually don't do to a sub- contractor.

Great, now these drunks are going to fall off the next guy's roof

On Mar 11, 6:33*pm, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed *he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire *him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 *railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?

"I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from
India."

Are you serious?

Do you really think his bid was lower because he faced "American
competition"? That means that you think that everyone else is as much
of a bigot as you are.

Why didn't you tell us what nationality the railing contractor is? I'm
going to guess it's because he's American.

"DerbyDad03" wrote in message
...
On Mar 11, 6:33 pm, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?

"I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from
India."

Are you serious?

Do you really think his bid was lower because he faced "American
competition"? That means that you think that everyone else is as much
of a bigot as you are.

Why didn't you tell us what nationality the railing contractor is? I'm
going to guess it's because he's American.

In some areas, people from certain other countries, are developing a
reputation for trying to get into a line of work without full knowledge and
skills. We have such in our area, they often do not do work according to
code and will not fix problems they have created. Now, this is also true of
home grown citizens as well. But it creates caution with someone who may not
be articulate in the English language and use the lack of it to bluff
through. This is not bigotry, it is being cautious. On the converse, I would
probably assume that someone from India may have excellent skills in brick
and stonework, just as many Italian workers in this area had such skills in
the 1960s.

DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Mar 11, 6:33 pm, wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?

"I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from
India."

Are you serious?

Do you really think his bid was lower because he faced "American
competition"? That means that you think that everyone else is as much
of a bigot as you are.

Why didn't you tell us what nationality the railing contractor is? I'm
going to guess it's because he's American.
Hi,
I am not a racist or stereotyping people or prejudice but running a
small specialized retail outlets since I retired in '96 from my career,
I observed native born East Indians are difficult to deal with. They try
to haggle the price, always they want to get some thing free in addition
to what they buy, just even couple more brochure sheets.
But I don't see this from foreign born Indians educated under British
schooling. They are very nice.

My daughter is a rural family physician, delivering babies from now and
then. Quote from her,"Native Indian and Middle Eastern Women are worst
mother to be. When baby is coming out they are making all kinds of fuss
yelling and screaming acting like they are dying from great pain. Other
women are usually calm and very cooperative." unquote.

DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Mar 11, 6:33 pm, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?

"I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from
India."

Are you serious?

Do you really think his bid was lower because he faced "American
competition"? That means that you think that everyone else is as much
of a bigot as you are.

Why didn't you tell us what nationality the railing contractor is? I'm
going to guess it's because he's American.

I was wondering if he fixed his computer while fixing the steps.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:33:40 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Mar 11, 6:33*pm, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed *he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire *him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 *railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?



Not necessarily. Sometimes I find Indians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with.

Frenchie it ok to Tip a 10% bid

But divide it by 1/2
Give 1/2 of the 10% to the Bidder
and divide one 1/2 of the 10% the crew..



--
This post contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
Without proper rendering support,
you may see question marks, boxes,
or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:33:05 -0700 (PDT), Frenchie
wrote:

Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Tips are not expected. It is a business deal. OTOH, if he did some
extra work and did not charge, a gift of some sort would be
appreciated. Bottle of good booze, gift certificate to a restaurant,
etc. Same with the guys working for the contractor as they do the
actual work in most cases.

I did give a cash tip to one a few years back. He quoted a price and
gave me a bill for that, but it was a bit more involved than what he
thought and took longer. It was a small job; I paid extra and thought
it was quite fair to do so.

On Mar 11, 10:52*pm, "Doug" wrote:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:33:40 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03









wrote:
On Mar 11, 6:33*pm, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed *he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire *him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 *railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?

Not necessarily. * Sometimes I find Indians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with.

Sometimes I find Americans/Italians/Yugoslavians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with. In other words, *people*, not
nationalities.

Do you not hire people from India because they are from India or do
you not hire a person because they are hard to understand or difficult
to negotiate with?

The OP said "because he was from India".

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:52:21 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Mar 11, 10:52*pm, "Doug" wrote:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:33:40 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03









wrote:
On Mar 11, 6:33*pm, Frenchie wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed *he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire *him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 *railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

Am I the only one who noticed the bigotry in this post?

Not necessarily. * Sometimes I find Indians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with.

Sometimes I find Americans/Italians/Yugoslavians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with. In other words, *people*, not
nationalities.

Do you not hire people from India because they are from India or do
you not hire a person because they are hard to understand or difficult
to negotiate with?

The OP said "because he was from India".


I'm going out on a limb here because I'm speaking for the OP but my
"guess" is he really meant the same. Of course taking it literally
is bigotry but isn't everyone g??? Remember Archie Bunker??? Hell
I used to live in NYC and there was no racism because everyone hated
everyone else.... no racism.

On Mar 11, 5:46*pm, Oren wrote:
On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:33:05 -0700 (PDT), Frenchie





wrote:
No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed *he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire *him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 *railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

What if you just wrote a nice _Letter of Recommendation_ for the
contractor? *It would go a long way; instead of a tip that may just
fill his fuel tank a couple times.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Letters of recommendation for this type of work are very important,
also offer to let him use your steps to demonstrate the quality of his
work to other prospective customers. Good recommendations are like
gold in the services field.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:52:55 -0500, "Doug"
wrote:

Sometimes I find Indians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with.

I found the exact same thing out about drunk Samoans and drunk
Hawaiians. Those folks are big, large wrists and sometimes need
leg-irons shackled to the wrist. Meaner than a drunk Apache Indian.

I'm never totally sure if folks are India or Paki. But, they rate right up
with Greeks, in the "difficult to do business with" category.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"Doug" wrote in message
...

Not necessarily. Sometimes I find Indians hard to understand or
difficult to negotiate with.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:33:05 -0700 (PDT), Frenchie
wrote:

No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

I don't tip contractors (others here have a good point with recommendations)
but I do put stuff out to drink and buy lunch for them while they're working.

On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:33:05 -0700 (PDT), Frenchie
wrote:

No experience with a contractor till this past weekend. Had my stoop
done with limestone steps and bricks. He was the lowest bid of 3, and
I was hesitant in hiring him and his crew..because he was from India.
He claimed he was licensed and i did see his number. I asked him to
show me work he had done and he did, and i was impressed. I decided to
hire him, not only cause of the lowest bid, but I felt that he had to
have a lower bid with all the American competition he had to face. One
wanted almost double what he asked for. Well, he and his crew ( one
guy who was experienced with bricks and the other and him with the
lime stones, did an excellent job...no regrets. I gave him the final
payment and either it was me, or him felt that a tip should be
forthcoming. I did not know how much to tip him, so I did not. Its not
too late yet, cause he is coming back tomorrow to pick up all his
tools and left over cement. its not like 15% of a diner meal...I was
thinking perhaps a hundred dollars? Or is that an insult?
He charged me for the job $2800 railings are extra ( 2 sides ) $720
to another contractor. Am I suppose to tip both of them if at all?

I tip my general contractor so he keeps coming back. He charges me
time and materials for the job. I also provide food & drinks when I
can. Sometimes I'll just say "dinner is on me" with a cash tip -
enough for all the guys working to split it up.

If your guy quoted a price and completed the job without complications
- I doubt he's expecting a tip. It's really up to you. I like the
other idea of doing a reference. Chances are he will not bring
someone over, but you could take a picture and write up a nice
recommendation and give that to him.