let me hear your horror home improvement contractor stories

[Anonymous]

and possible filing complaints / law suits and won/lost.......just let me know.............

[Anonymous]

we would probably have sued our bathroom contractors a fews years ago except for the arbitration clause. When we had a dispute with them on a change order, then entered our garage without permission and removed the materials we had paid for. Ended up getting them to wind up the remodel and get out of our home. We then changed the locks and had to hire someone to cure the problems in their work. Was a money pit for us.

This all happened when contractors had more than enough work and it was difficult to get contractors to return your call. We should have recognized that these folks had time, therefore there was probably a problem.

They used to come through our neighorhood with flyers. I noticed they changed their name and logo.

I think my husband looked into filing a BBB complaint, but I don't know if he ever followed through.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that sounds horrible. If they entered without permission and took the materials you paid for, that's a theft correct? Where did it happened?

We are in the process of dealing with the contractors. Basically, they are playing one of those games, "refused" or "delay" to respond out to repair or fix the problems.

We will wait till a few more days, if no response, we will proceed to file charges through State Contractor License Board and The BBB with the possibility of sue them through small claim court.

This is in DC, but the contract is from VA, how does it works?

[Anonymous]

Thank sound like a nightmare a good new website to try to find a great service provider is www.qwotester.com check them out....

[Anonymous]

Funny story...house was getting painted. DH accused me of drinking his beer. I promised him didn't I touch the stuff and blew it off as he maybe drank a couple more over the past few days tham he realized. One worker was very friendly at the end of the day. The guy was drinking DH's beer and throwing the crushed empties in the garden! He got fired. No harm, no foul. They did a great job.

[Anonymous]

It didn't happen to me, but this is a story I read in a contractor website I used to read frequently. As far as I know, it's a true story.

Couple just finished a huge renovation. The only thing left was to seal some stone floors. Couple knew of an unemployed guy and wanted to help. They offered him $100 do apply some sealer on the floor. Guy agrees. He buys some sealer (I don't recall this was included in the $100; I think it was separate) and applies it. He is unhappy with the results and decides to strip the sealer. In order to save money (and at this point the money for the stripper was going to come from the $100), and without consulting with the owners, he goes to the store and asks for the price of sealer stripper. "Too expensive! I'll just get some *muriatic acid*, which costs just a few bucks". He didn't mention this to owners. He then proceeds to apply the acid while the owners were out. A few hours later, the dog is dead, and the whole house is unbearable. The excessive amount of acid had ruined/corroded every single metal object -- including most wiring inside the building. Owners realize that they can't sue the guy (he has no assets) and can't make a claim to the insurance company because the guy was unlicensed.

The guy offered to pay for half of the new sealer to reapply on the floors.

I never knew the end of this story.

[Anonymous]

It didn't happen to me, but this is a story I read in a contractor website I used to read frequently. As far as I know, it's a true story.

Couple just finished a huge renovation. The only thing left was to seal some stone floors. Couple knew of an unemployed guy and wanted to help. They offered him $100 do apply some sealer on the floor. Guy agrees. He buys some sealer (I don't recall this was included in the $100; I think it was separate) and applies it. He is unhappy with the results and decides to strip the sealer. In order to save money (and at this point the money for the stripper was going to come from the $100), and without consulting with the owners, he goes to the store and asks for the price of sealer stripper. "Too expensive! I'll just get some *muriatic acid*, which costs just a few bucks". He didn't mention this to owners. He then proceeds to apply the acid while the owners were out. A few hours later, the dog is dead, and the whole house is unbearable. The excessive amount of acid had ruined/corroded every single metal object -- including most wiring inside the building. Owners realize that they can't sue the guy (he has no assets) and can't make a claim to the insurance company because the guy was unlicensed.

The guy offered to pay for half of the cost of the new sealer to reapply on the floors.

I never knew the end of this story.

[Anonymous]

Way too long a story to repeat here, but you can read it in full on my blog
http://thetruthonlydementia.blogspot.com/#!/2013/03/the-low-bid-home-remodel-tale.html

It's pretty horrific, and anyone who hasn't been through it might want to read it.

[Anonymous]

sigh, contractors = pain in the ass

[Anonymous]

I'm an interior designer and I had a client that had hired a contractor to ripout their basement kitchen that they were going to renovate. Only problem is when they came home that day and walked in they realized the contractors had ripped out they're newly renovated UPSTAIRS kitchen. They of course broke the granite and some of the cabinets. They had the nerve to try and reinstall the damaged stuff and then wiped their hands of it.

[Anonymous]

I'm not going to go into the details of our contractor nightmare. However, I will say this. I called a friend of ours, an attorney, and told him that I wanted to hire him to sue these MF'ers . He proceeded to call them, tell them that he had a client with detailed notes (which I did have) about everything they had done and said concerning the project. They were on the phone with him within an hour. He patched us in and we ended up with a compromise. Contractors came back and fulfilled their part of THAT agreement. Done. Paid attorney with generous dinner and night out.

[Anonymous]

You get what you pay for, people.

[Anonymous]

Toooo horror to post, f***k contractors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You get what you pay for, people.

Get a life

[Anonymous]

Contractors are a pain in the a**. They are experts, you are not. They go home to their house, while visiting yours, and it is a messy process. Stressful and expensive. Ours were pretty good, but we paid about 20% extra.