So all I want is 3 gutters on my cabin.

A 26' long gutter on the front.
A 24' long gutter on the back side of the back deck
A 8' long butter on the back side of the front entrance deck.

Simple easy job.

So I call this local guy up near little river canyon. Here's how it went down.

I call several times and leave a message. Finally the guy's wife calls me back and we talk and I ask if he can come and take a look and give me a price Saturday or Sunday while I'm up there.

"He don't work on the weekends."
Ok fine.
"Can you tell me what would be a good day? Maybe Friday and I can take off work to come meet him."

"I'll get him to call you back."

I never heard from anyone. So I called back about a week or so later and left a message.

In the mean time a friend up there just had some gutters installed and raved about the job they did. So I ask her where she got her gutters... You guessed it. The same guy.

So I told her I didn't have good luck with him. So she says she will call him and meet him at my cabin and get me a price. "Great!" I think... This was on a Friday.

The following Tuesday the wife of the gutter guy called me back and said that she had forgotten about my previous request for gutter work and assured me that the guy was coming by that week to look at the job and give me a price.

I never heard anything.

So about a week later my lady friend calls me and ask if I ever heard from the gutter guy. I said no and that I had pretty much given up on him. She said once again that he did a great job for them and to let her call him and get him to meet her there. This was about a week ago. So she calls me back and he is supposed to meet her husband there and give me a price right after.

Guess what? It's been over a week and I still have not received a call or a price. My lady friend texted me today and asked if I ever got a price and I texted no and I guess I just need to get accustomed to dealing with contractors in Cherokee County...

What the Hell? I'm trying to pay someone to do a job and I can't even get somebody to show up and tell me how much it's going to cost! If it takes a damn act of congress to get you to just give someone a price it doesn't inspire confidence in the timeliness or quality of your service.

OK rant over.

Small jobs ain't worth the trouble for him. Plus, you aren't paying him for the quote. He's tending to paying jobs.

he don't want to work too much.

That's a small job, BUT, unless you told him, he doesn't know that. If he does, and isn't interested, he could have the decency to tell you that. If he showed up he'd probably give you the "I don't want to do it but will for a crazy amount" price. I called a plumber's hand at that once when I was doing home improvements, finishing basements and such. The guy gave a me a price of $3,500.00 to move a drain in a slab, about 4'. I told him if he wasn't interested he should have just told me up front. I ended up paying a guy less than $1,000.00.

Preach it brother... come on with it!


Nothing gets me more fired up than a contractor not showing up at all or not having the decency to call if running late for what ever reason.

I couldn't give my money away when I was trying to get some excavating and concrete work done for my shop. Finally got it done but it was like pulling teeth.

It sounds like someone should open up a gutter business in Cherokee County. At least that’s what I tell folks when they want to complain about the way I operate at work. If there were lots of other options, I’m sure you would’ve tried them by now.

So I guess if you don't have a lot of competition you don't have to try too hard. Is that the lesson I should just learn from this?

I have a hard time with that lesson, because I work hard to do a good job even when it don't matter.

I agree. Besides, if you do a crappy job for long enough, you won't have a job.

I might understand your argument if my cabin wasn't 2 miles from his business.

I had a guy do 300 hundred dollars of concrete work. Never had a problem. Been trying to get him to do about 3,500 dollars worth and he hasn't called back. Blows my mind.

Countless clients tell me that, "the other guy never showed" or "I never got a call back." I get a lot of jobs just because I make a point of showing up and I'm often the first to give a quote.

I am seriously considering starting a contracting business up there based on the fact that this ain't the first, second or third time something like this has happened to me in Cherokee County. Same thing goes for friends up here. Getting people to simply show up and do work is extremely difficult.

The 3 basic steps in life are these:

Get up
Dress up
Show up

Once yo get those down you can work on the other stuff like actually doing a good job, but if you can't even get those three down, you need to start over back at step one.

These contractors don't punch a clock. Shoot, he could be working other jobs, fishing or tending to sick children. Its his call, because he can do what he wants! Its his business.

Its all in how he runs his business!
So he has taken forever to respond.
So now if he does will you really every trust him?
Good business starts from the beginning!

This kinda thing just burns me up. Can't even give my money away! Gotten to the point where if they show up on time for the estimate and give me quick turn around on cost I will go with that person 9 times out of 10.

A man should stick to his word. If he can't do that, why should you trust him to do anything else?

I have fought the same contractor battle over and over again, and I don't ask for much, or set deadlines, but when a man gives me his word he is going to do something on said date and he doesn't, or even try to contact me to let me know there is a problem, I see no reason to trust him.

I do see your in trussville and he lives up here close to me ( little river canyon) that's and hour and 20 minutes to you for a smaller job ?? I dk this could be the reason though. But do think he should tell you

Y'all must be the few good clients. For every thing a contractor does to you I have had a customer do to me. Not show up for appointments and lie about why they can't be there, be drunk or high when i get there, ask me to lie to an adjuster or insurance company, ask me to do stuff for free, tell me they're ready to start and have material delivered then tell me they changed there mind. Call me for 5 times a day before the work is done but then when it's time to pay can't get in touch with them calling 5 times a day. Customers agreeing on a price, then wanting to see your books after the job is done. Or blaming damage outside the scope of work on us because we were in the house, or blaming you for oil stains in the driveway or stealing things.

As a contractor You learn how to weed through the BS customers as well. Not saying you are a bs customer Irish guy

Two folks have posted here, that I wouldn't give the sweat off my nads to have them do a free job for me. 3 words--SHUT IT DOWN.
GUESS WHO THEY ARE. COULD BE THE 2 THAT DON'T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT YOU, OR ANY OTHER FELLOW MAN.

JL-sounds to me, that you aren't able to run a business.