Without going into the details or naming the company (yet) let's just say today I learned how "invaluable" repeat business is to some. After years of recommended a contractor to different clients and within one hour of talking to the owner of the company about finishing a job, they went to their attorney's office to file a mechanics lien.
Yes you read that correctly. Within one hour of agreeing to finish a job to the client's satisfaction they instead went to their attorney. Was the client's payment late? I guess if one hour is late then yes it was. Was the job finished? No it was not. In fact the owner had agreed on the phone with me to come back and make sure the job site was clean and all their debris removed.
For once I would have to say that incredulous doesn't even begin to cover it. Then their office called and said if we would deliver a cashier's check to a location that was an hour away, within the hour, they would hold on filing the lien at the courthouse. Okay the homeowner is supposed to get to the bank, get a check cut and be at a location an hour away within the hour? This is starting to read like a Tom Clancy novel.
In the end this contractor will never see another referral from me and certainly not from this homeowner. I know the company owner has already been contacted by a neighbor to do some work on their property. How fast do you think my client will be at their door to let them know how his dealings went with this contractor?
It is sad in a time when we know the economy is tight that someone would go so far to break your trust. The owners last words to me before they called their attorney were "we trust you and we know you work with integrity". Apparently it was not a two way street.
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