Is there any such thing as a contractor's blacklist?

Question

Years ago I contacted a handyman to do some repairs on a crumbling chimney. He promised he'd be over at 9 AM. I waited and waited and he finally came at 11:30 AM with a story that he had to go and look at some other jobs. He inspected the chimney to determine what materials he would need and said he'd be back in an hour. It was more like 3 hours. He dumped 20 bags of Quickrete in my back yard (this is to repair a few rows of bricks), then announced that he had to go look at some more jobs, then he had to pick up his helper and he'd return shortly. Shortly was about 2 more hours. Now it's getting dark and he shows up with a 15 year old kid. By now I had had it with this guy and said I decided I didn't want him to do the job. He became obstreperous and threatened to have me placed on a contractor's blacklist. Now it seems that I can't get anyone to work for me and the house is falling apart. IS there any such thing as a contractor's blacklist? How could I have handled it better?

Answer 1

First of all, there is no such thing as a blacklist, but there is word of mouth. How badly did you "p" this guy off?
Do you live in a small town? Have you had run ins with other contractors?
No offense, but I'm a contractor & by the sounds of it , there may have been more contributing factors than you're letting on.
On the other hand, sounds like you hired an unreliable guy. Trust me there's alot of fly by nights out there.
The term Contractor means exactly that. You enter into a signed agreement with a reputable person to have a specified job(s) done to your satifaction and to all applicable local/state/national codes.
It seems like you want things done on the cheap, that's a contractors worst nightmare, & when the word gets out, you will find it hard to get a decent contractor no matter where you live.

Answer 2

I have never heard of such a thing...

I know contractors talk.... but come on.. thats the dumbest thing I have ever heard of..

I have been doing jobs like this for 10 years.. never once heard of a "blacklist"... ask him if that comes with men in black and sunglasses.... then tell him your going to report him

http://www.angieslist.com/AngiesList/
http://www.bbb.org/
and home depot

that will shut him right up..

besides.. as a contractor.. I come to the job site ready to work.. with all my tools and helpers with me.. sometimes it is just me...doing the job... but I come ready.. if at any time the customer tells me they are not happy with my work or with me.. I tell them ( sorry what can i do to make it better ) if it is out side of my controll.. I settle up and leave...

it has only happened once and the customer just didnt want to pay for the labor to the job... which was about $1,000. I told him I dont work for free and that was the lowest price I could do the job for...( i made only $6.25 per hour ) on that job.. I told him I could sell him all the stuff I had bought for the job and he could find someone else.... we did that and a week later he called me up to finish what some guy had messed up... it ended up costing him about $1300. if I remember right.. had to re-do what the other guy had done

Answer 3

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