Sorry for the Hiatus! More on Contractors...

I have been out of town on business, our company is shuffling equipment around from our facilities and I have to do the installations in KC. All I can say about it is that highway 40 in middle Tennesee is covered in cops.

Regardless, I am gearing up for a lot of work with contractors again, and wanted to add some types of contractors that I don't recommend doing business with*. They are:

Mr. We're Cheap 'til You Get the Bill Guy:
Currently, I hate this guy the most. He has on many occasions has been told to accurately bid some of our factory work, including a little fluff factor for the unknown. Instead, he has constantly been bidding low, charges something high, and then I have to argue with him on the final price of the work. His people do the best work around, but he I can do without. Let me tell you how his game works. His guys start a project, work hard, and get a bunch of stuff done. Then one of them asks me a question about something that may need to change, I approve, workers continue to work, and complete project on quoted time. Now, in every big project there will be changes that may occur, it is expected, and contractors should build it into the quote as best they can. I even think that if material that was not originally in the quote is used then that will become the buyer's liablility, that is fair. But what he does is, at the point of change he begins charging me double labor time plus material. The same number of guys still work the same quoted amount of time but he will charge extra for the everything after the change. He has done it every time and I am done with him.

Mr. 80% Done, 100% Pay Guy,
My current pain in the ass is this guy. He has completed one major project for me and for that I am greatful, but he has one consistently poor attribute. When the project he completes for me is 80% done, he claims the project is done or close enough for final payment. After the 80% point it is like pushing a wall to get his crew back in here to complete the work. Especially irritating is the fact that I have paid this person a lot of money over the past two years to do a whole bunch of big time work. What he doesn't realize is that it is going to cost him some seriously well paying projects coming up soon.

The next guy I am not so irritated at but I am tired of the situation:

Mr. Fair Price, Take a While Guy,
This man is currently working a job on a project for me at my home and is doing an extremely quality job at a fair price. My only fault with him is that he is slow. I have been out of my house for 4 weeks now and there is still probably a week's worth of work. I am not frustrated with him at all, he is not in the best of health, but I am frustrated with the situation. I think this is one of those life lesson things though. I really like this guy, so I need to just get over it. I could never hire this guy for a fast job, it's unfortunate.

So I am looking for new contractors to do work in our plant next week, it should be fun. Breaking in new contractors to my ideals is always an adventure.

More updates this weekend, the market is circling done the bowl right now.