Contractor becoming irate with me
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Anonymous
| I hired a contractor to do several projects. We got through 2/3rds of them and then they took another job and then they got sick. That was 2 weeks of no progress. I then had family become sick and die so I put a hold on the project for another 2-3 weeks. I reached out to them again letting them know we were ready to start again after the 4th and all was fine. They reached out to me today asking if they could come Monday but I have a work obligation so I asked about starting later in the week and they now sound irate via text saying they’re broke, need money and they’ve been waiting weeks to do this job. I really don’t care for the tone and it’s frightening me a bit. What would you do? It’s just me unfortunately and I don’t have a husband to bounce them if need be. |
Anonymous
| This is not uncommon with contractors. Just bear with it until they come back and finish. |
Anonymous
My concern is that he might get physical with me. Why he’s angry after he initially stalled the project I’m not sure. I’m also concerned he might do something to increase final costs if he’s so hard up for money. |
Anonymous
| Do you owe him for previous work? |
Anonymous
No he has been paid for all work already done. He was supposed to start a new project and for a week he didn’t show because he took another job and the. The following week he said he was sick. Then I had a family illness and death. |
Anonymous
To follow up based on what he’s said he’s broke, anxious to get money, was stilled on a different job and can’t get other contractor jobs. |
Anonymous
| Stiffed* |
Anonymous
I had a contractor behave erratically towards the tail end of a project once. One of his workers who witnessed his behavior quietly told me later that the guy was stressed because of money issues with other jobs. It’s not you, it’s them. |
Anonymous
| How do you go from irritated and impatient to violent? That is several leaps of logic. |
Anonymous
|
Another thing to keep in mind is that contractors like to block out a week per client. They like to start Monday or Tuesday so that they can get the work done before the end of the week. If it is a shorter job, then they have a day or two to fix things or finish things if the client changes, or flags something. They want to be ready to start on another project the next week, if possible. They will take short jobs like day jobs or two day jobs mid-week, if they have finished with the main project for the week.
If your job is a mid-sized or longer job and he suspects it could take 4-5 days, then he may be worried that either something delays the job (needing to order a part or supply, replacing a defective part, discovering something that was not planned for, etc), then he may be worried about the job creeping into another week and possibly not making him available to take another job or start another job that was planned for after yours. In this case, he's frustrated because of the delays. Yes, the first delay was on his end, and he can't complain about an illness/death in the family, but now, it's been several weeks, and when things finally align, you've stalled again. He's frustrated. And the delay only delays him getting paid for this job and being able to schedule other jobs behind you, which delays him getting paid for those. So, acknowledge his frustration and try to help keep the job moving as fast as possible and try not to make any excuses that extends your job any further, and if possible, crossing another week boundary. Be as cooperative as you can to get him back to work as soon as possible and to finish the job as soon as possible. That's the best that you can do. And, if appropriate, tip generously to help ease his frustration at not being able to get paid. |
Anonymous
| If you stalled for a week, that messes up their schedule. If they don't work they don't get paid. |
Anonymous
| Stop finding ways to delay. Find someone else to be home with him if you can’t be there. |
Anonymous
His tone was more than irritated. He was cursing. |
Anonymous
Again, that is quite a leap to violence. What kind of contract do you have signed for this next step? Or see if a friend can be there when he comes. |
Anonymous
| Share their name so others are on notice. |