I was reading one of the threads about a customer who was having trouble getting contractors to follow through after the initial visit (or even phone call). So, for all you customers or potential customers out there here is MY (as a contractor) definition of a GREAT customer:

1)- One that picked me because they found out that I really know what I am doing and trust me to do a good job.
2)- One that isn't paranoid to the point of mental illness about hiring me and, after hiring me, making my life a living ****.
3)- One that, after the negotiations are over and the contract is signed and work begun doesn't ask me to do 'just one little thing more' about ten times during the project and then says, 'oh, you want to charge extra for that?' Contractors usually like to get the money stuff out of the way ahead of time and just get the job done and get paid what they asked for.
4)- The best customer cares that a contractor's time is valuable and OFFERS to pay for extra work thus telling the contractor that he is valued.
5)- Believe it or not, we legal, legitimate, licensed and reputable contractors for the most part actually care about what we do and love customers who really appreciate our work. We HATE nitpicky and overly critical customers who have nothing good to say about our work. AND, we can usually tell on the initial visit who you are and we WILL stay away from you. We like a good work environment just like anyone else.
6)- A great customer doesn't abuse their contractor at the end of the job, holding the final check over their head to get them to do 'just a little more' in order to get paid. I know some of us may be 'out the door with the check' but you would be surprised how many of us (me included) would move heaven and earth for you in the future if you would just pay us when we ask at the end of the job (or even before, like leaving the check on the counter before you go to work when we tell you we will be done that day). I can't tell you how many customers have jerked me around this way and I will NEVER work for them again. As a matter of fact I will make it a point to let every contractor I meet or talk to know about that customer so they have the choice to stay away from them as well. Bad press can go both ways. Let's treat eachother with respect and things will be much better for both parties.

Hear, Hear.
I just love it when I have a signed contract, including payment terms and when the jobs all done and the total bill is due for $3000.00 and there compleatly satified with the work, they hand me a check for $50.00 and ask me to come back every other week and they will try and pay me some more.
One contract read in the first line I was to cut the trees and shrubs back 4' from edge of driveway and 14' over head because the road into the house was so over grown I could not even get my trucks in without folding in the mirrows.
The lady shows up and says we never talked about cutting the tree limbs or brushes back and wanted me to now pay her $30,000.
The house was so bad there was tree limbs sticking out of the roof, The limbs had grown into the screens and under the siding.
You could not tell there was two garage doors because trees had grown up in front of one of them.
I deducted my time and the materials from her deposit and send her a certifided cheak for the balance. She took me to court and lost and never cashed the check I had sent her. Five years later I get a registered letter from her that she wants me to send her another check because the old one was now uncashable or she was once again going to sue me.
The customer were working for now stands outside all day, cold, rain whatever, and about a ft. behind you and watches everything were doing and talks nonstop to my guys about everything going on in his life.
One more person that will never get us to come back.
On some jobs I have to do a cost not to exceed in the contract. I just love it when the first words out of there mouth is "well I know your going to try and screw me and make sure the bill goes to that point" That's when I walk out and say no thanks.

This thread has caught me at a time when I need to vent. I'm sick and tired of people who want me to pay for something because they felt it should have been included in the bid. I'm not talking obvious things but things like electric ceramic tile warmers.

"You should realize that the tiles are going to be cooler than the rest of the floor and have the warmers automatically included in your bid".

These are usually the same people who go round after round cutting things to get down to their budget, which is fine but don't bad mouth me for leaving out things like tile warmers after the fact.

And yes, the almighty "As long as your here, could you do this one little thing?". "Oh I didn't know you were going to charge me for it"

This was a couple years ago. "You should have told me the front door that I picked was ugly, what are you going to do about it?" The exact same thing happened with an EIFS color someone picked. "We think you should pay to have it painted, you didn't tell us it would look this bad".

A friend of mine who is also a contractor was putting interior door knobs on the inside of a house. The homeowners and their kid dropped by and while they were talking, the kid took one of the knobs that hadn't been put on yet and started "playing" with it. They couldn't find all the pieces and guess what came out of the homeowners mouth "If you hadn't had it accessible for him, he wouldn't have did that"

My favorite to date is the lady who gave us a set of plans to build a house. It was a story and a half, the plans called for a 6' knee wall on the second floor and set the vaulted rafters on that, when she saw it she flipped out telling me that a "good" contractor would have told her that it was only a 6 ft wall. I proceeded to show her the plans that she gave us calling out the 6 ft wall. "I'm not a contractor, I can't understand all that, you should have still told me". That's the closest I ever came to giving it all up right then.

Keeping in mind that there are many many good clients out there who were fantastic to work for, but the bad ones always find a way to ruin a perfectly good week.

I must live a charmed life, because I can count the bad owner-contractor arrangements on one hand and have fingers left over, after hundreds of jobs and almost 50 years in this business. Maybe it has something to do with the completeness and thoroughness of my plans...ya think? Maybe I'm the one that tells the client something's not gonna look right. Maybe I'm the one that carefully explains what's in and what's not in the contract. Maybe I'm the one who gets the changes done on paper, which is a **** of a lot cheaper than changing stuff in wood. Or maybe it's just dumb luck, I don't know.

But I certainly agree that 99% of the contractors who have ever worked on my jobs wanted to do what's right, and wanted to do a good job or better, and were a great bunch of guys, besides. I've worked with some contractors on 30 or 40 jobs over the years, and all I ever asked of them was to make my clients happy, and they did. And they were just as thorough with their work as I tried to be with mine.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Hetzel:
I must live a charmed life, because I can count the bad owner-contractor arrangements on one hand and have fingers left over, after hundreds of jobs and almost 50 years in this business. Maybe it has something to do with the completeness and thoroughness of my plans...ya think? Maybe I'm the one that tells the client something's not gonna look right. Maybe I'm the one that carefully explains what's in and what's not in the contract. Maybe I'm the one who gets the changes done on paper, which is a **** of a lot cheaper than changing stuff in wood. Or maybe it's just dumb luck, I don't know.

But I certainly agree that 99% of the contractors who have ever worked on my jobs wanted to do what's right, and wanted to do a good job or better, and were a great bunch of guys, besides. I've worked with some contractors on 30 or 40 jobs over the years, and all I ever asked of them was to make my clients happy, and they did. And they were just as thorough with their work as I tried to be with mine.

For the record there hasn't been many, but when they do come along, then have a nack of making you forget all the good ones.

All the "completeness and thoroughness" of plans in the world wouldn't do any good most times. As far as telling the client that something isn't going to look right, you assume that they are going to agree with you all the time - it doesn't happen. You may think something likes absolutely fine and the next person or the homeowner may think it looks like crap. It's inevitable. These type of people are looking for free work and will say anything to get it. I don't see how an architect would have prevented any of these problems that I talked about.

Maybe your "dumb luck" maybe due to the fact that these problems don't come up until after the thing is built and then they see it for themselves. Guess who is standing next to them when they realize they don't like something. Me. It doesn't matter who's fault it is, it doesn't matter if it's on the plan or not. I'm there at that particular time so I'm the sounding board with the target on his forehead. The example of the lady above is one such example of this. The plan couldn't be clearer.

Just for the record Richard, I would love if every single one of my houses were done by an qualified architect. One that is not a commercial architect who is "doing a favor for his buddy". One who knows residential codes and knows how houses are built. It would certainly make my job a whole lot easier but in real life I know that won't happen. Do you know one big reason why people aren't using architects? I heard this about 2 months ago when I got a phone call from someone wanting to do a small commercial building. The summarized version of the conversation is that they didn't want to use an architect because "they will design something way more than I need for twice my budget" This was for a commercial building when architects are needed the most. So, you can imagine it's a tough sell for residential work when the code doesn't require one.

Jay, I certainly agree that architects have given architects a bad name. I have been swimming against that tide for several decades. However, my stuff generally comes in on budget. The trick is to make sure the budget is realistic to start with. If clients won't agree to a realistic budget, I often won't work for them.

I'm not sure that I've ever left a builder holding the bag, and I say that because every builder I work with recommends me to clients and is happy to work with me. There must be a reason for that beyond just wanting to make a living. A few have done dozens of jobs with me. I even get referrals from building officials. Why? Because they know I do their work for them, and they also know that if they do find something wrong, I usually back them up instead of covering my arse. Same with builders...if there's a dispute, and they are right, I acknowledge it. Makes some great friends...

I couldn't agree more. I have an architect that I prefer to use simply for the reason you stated, he's very knowledgable and has no problem going above the code officials head if he thinks he's right - which is usually is. We have a two way system, I'll give him referrals and he'll do the same for me - only because we trust each others work.