Contractor Troubles

My neighbor contracted with a company to build a fence across the back of her yard. She asked me if wanted the fence to go all the way to the corner of my garage. My garage is five feet from the property line, so the fence would extend five feet into my yard. I asked her to end the fence at the property line. The fence installers arrived and put up the new fence. They installed the fence—you can probably guess this part—all the way to my garage.

I had a new roof put on my house. It leaked. I called the owner of the roofing company, but he refused to fix the leak. I called the foreman of the crew that had done the work. He promised he would fix the leak, but as it turned out—you can probably guess this part—promising to fix the leak is all he would do.

I asked another roofing company to fix the leak. They tried several times but they only made the leak worse. Then they quit trying.

I asked a third roofer to fix the leak. I paid him $462 and thought the leak was history. But then the rain fell hard and the wind blew, and I had a funny feeling that told me I should go upstairs and peek under the eave and check on that leak. I did and—you can probably guess this part—the roof was leaking in the same place it had been leaking all along.

I called the owner of the company and told him the roof was still leaking. He asked if he could call me back in one minute because he had another call. He promised he’d call back in one minute. I told him okay. The call ended and—you can probably guess this part—he never called back. I didn’t attempt to reach him again. I was pretty sure my call would go directly to voice mail.

I saw a contractor sitting in his truck parked across the street. I walked over and told him I had a simple job for him. He said he couldn’t do it at that time, which was understandable, but he promised he would be back “next week.” He promised two or three times. He gave me his business card, and after he drove away I texted him a reminder. I never saw him again.

I phoned a plumber and, of course, got his answering device. I left my name and number and asked him to return my call. He never called me.

A man who does occasional yard work for me said he knew a man who would definitely do a simple roof repair job for me. My yard guy said the man would call me in 2 weeks. I never heard anything from him. No phone call, nothing.

This kind of thing happens all the time with every company I deal with regardless of size. Whatever happened to “integrity” in this country? Oh, I know. Integrity is something people had in olden days, and this is modern times. “Get with the program, VW. Things like integrity, doing a good job, and keeping your word are so 20th century.”

I know, but what can I say? I’m a 20th century guy.