[Blue717]

Dont get me wrong, I love Florida. I like being able to get to a beach, I love the idea that I'm sitting in shorts while my up north friends are telling me about how much snow they shoveled that day! Love florida and will never go live back up north. But.... Be very careful when you pick out any service people to do work for you. I'm here 5 years and this is some of the problems I have had. When I bought my house, we were looking for 2 homes together (one for my 83 year old Mom) we wanted to be next door. I bought thru Palmwood homes and they started to build in July. In November I came to see the houses, and found they were on the same block but not next door, when questioning the agent she said she told me they would not be together. Well my house in Pa was sold we had put down $5000.00 each on the FL. homes and would lose that if we cancelled the deal. So we live down the street from each other.
Had a problem with AC.. got one guy in here he said we needed a new system..didnt like what he said so called someone else and the line had froze, he let it defreeze, cleaned it up and charged $35.00. The other guy wanted $1000.00 to start!
Was going to put a addition on to the back of the house. After a year and a half I had a pile of sand and a frame for the room. Finally had to threaten a law suit to get them to a least finish a patio. This was Carr Construction.
This is just a few examples of problems with contractors I found here. Just be very careful of who you hire...CHECK EVERYTHING!

[Travel'r]

Hi, Blue. What town are you in?

I can relate.
Lived in one SW town that I wouldn't even go into the restaurants anymore, and, God forbid you needed something fixed = no matter what it was.
That was just one area where it just seemed "normal", though.

Yet other Florida towns have and expect strict (high) standards regarding all-around workmanship/ethic, customer perception/service, etc., so they're either really on the ball or out of business very quickly. Just no room for such lackadaisical antics in some Florida towns. :>)

It's really not the whole state.

[tallrick]

I avoid those problems by fixing or building everything myself. If I can avoid the government communists and get the supplies that is.

[jhlcomp]

Just remember, always get 3 quotes for everything and in Florida I double that. I could write a book about my experience with contractors. I do a background on anyone that comes into my home, double check references (make sure it's not a relative who thinks they are so wonderful) - and even after all the precautions there are still no guarantees.

You just have to hope for the best. Better luck to all.

[Magnolia Bloom]

I've heard that this problem is unique to Florida, but just have to believe it exists in other states. But it IS a problem here- I've lived from south to north Florida and it's hard to find good service people. Maybe it's the transient thing- I've found good folks, but often they have left the area when I try to get them again.

You have to check them out like crazy. But once you select someone, there is still a 50/50 chance that they will never come to do the job.

I have found a good carpet cleaner that doesn't hire a revolving door of crackheads, good tree removal company that exceeds expectations, a very professional pressure wash company, success on two roofs with the same roofer.

Still need a good painter and handiman....the bane of my existence- my honeydo list.

I want to put a door in to my attic from upstairs, but have nightmares of a gaping hole in my little girl's room forever....

[Blue717]

I'm in Spring Hill, north of tampa

[Jammie]

We had a major hail storm a few years ago (In So. Dak) and everyone in the whole area got hit with it. Nearly all the roofs, siding, etc had to be redone. Our local contractors were booked solid, but luckily the guy who normally does a bit of carpentry for us fixed ours. There were many new people in town who were going door to door looking for opportunities to fix people's homes up. There were also new people in town who were fixing the many car dents from the hail storm. It turned out that there were a lot of unhappy people in town because neither the houses nor the cars were fixed properly and the contractors were gone. We later learned that they follow behind the storms and make their living off the misfortune of others. So to make a long story short, it's not unique to Florida and it appears they wander the whole U.S. in hopes of finding suckers.

[FedUpInFtMyers]

The customer service and work ethic is worse down here, though. It is a huge decline from Chicagoland to Tampa Bay and even more of a decline in South and SW Florida. I have seen it in every area of service be it legal, banking, grocery stores, or contractors. I've noticed it after moving from up north and living in two different FL cities. I understand that there is a decline in work ethic throughout the country; however, my friends up north and even some in Tampa Bay are horrified when they here about what goes on down here. Quite incredible that some of these people stay employed or remain in business, but it just seems that there are SO MANY mediocre to awful service providers that there is just no point in firing people to get better employees anymore, I guess, because it would appear that finding good employees is not as easy as it used to be.

[carolac]

My husband is a painting/drywall (etc.) contractor in Orlando. Angie's List is a list of contractors that have been "invited" to join and provide quality work. They are highly scrutinized before they are invited. Only companies who provide services for residences are on the list (so my hubby's company is not). A homeowner joins Angie's List for like $40 a year. The homeowner then gains access to many, many different kinds of contractors for nearly every service available. Homeowners fill out "report cards" for the contractors. The contractors obviously want to get "A's" on their report cards, so they bend over backwards to make sure you get the appropriate service. Angie's List is all over the US, and has now made its way to Florida, although I don't know if it's in every city. You could check though to see if there's someone in a city nearby.

The web site is www.angieslist.com. My husband is appalled at the service consumers are getting, to the point where he has even considered moving from Florida because there are so many unlicensed ripoffs, and he has even gone into people's homes if they're old or impaired in some way to finish work for free. We are not on Angie's List because we have primarily done commercial work, but over the past few months have started to do some residential, so we will more than likely, hopefully be on it soon. I've been trying to get him to take the Florida state contractor's examination because, personally, I think people still want quality work, and he would provide it.

I've read the other messages about double checking references, obtaining insurance certificates, etc. If you choose not to join Angie's list, you are very wise to do these things. As a homeowner, if you have an unlicensed or uninsured contractor on your property and they get hurt, you could be liable for their injuries. The laws in Florida changed at the end of 2004 and every company, to get workers' comp coverage or a WC exemption, has to be a corporation. We're finding companies just printing business cards with a company name on it, but they're not insured or licensed. One we just found was an AC contractor

We're in Orlando, and I know Angie's List provides contractors for our area, but again, I'm not sure about other areas.

So sorry for your trouble. Construction litigation attorneys are rapidly increasing their case loads because of things like this.

Originally Posted by Blue717

Dont get me wrong, I love Florida. I like being able to get to a beach, I love the idea that I'm sitting in shorts while my up north friends are telling me about how much snow they shoveled that day! Love florida and will never go live back up north. But.... Be very careful when you pick out any service people to do work for you. I'm here 5 years and this is some of the problems I have had. When I bought my house, we were looking for 2 homes together (one for my 83 year old Mom) we wanted to be next door. I bought thru Palmwood homes and they started to build in July. In November I came to see the houses, and found they were on the same block but not next door, when questioning the agent she said she told me they would not be together. Well my house in Pa was sold we had put down $5000.00 each on the FL. homes and would lose that if we cancelled the deal. So we live down the street from each other.
Had a problem with AC.. got one guy in here he said we needed a new system..didnt like what he said so called someone else and the line had froze, he let it defreeze, cleaned it up and charged $35.00. The other guy wanted $1000.00 to start!
Was going to put a addition on to the back of the house. After a year and a half I had a pile of sand and a frame for the room. Finally had to threaten a law suit to get them to a least finish a patio. This was Carr Construction.
This is just a few examples of problems with contractors I found here. Just be very careful of who you hire...CHECK EVERYTHING!

[tallrick]

Originally Posted by FedUpInFtMyers

The customer service and work ethic is worse down here, though. It is a huge decline from Chicagoland to Tampa Bay and even more of a decline in South and SW Florida. I have seen it in every area of service be it legal, banking, grocery stores, or contractors. I've noticed it after moving from up north and living in two different FL cities. I understand that there is a decline in work ethic throughout the country; however, my friends up north and even some in Tampa Bay are horrified when they here about what goes on down here. Quite incredible that some of these people stay employed or remain in business, but it just seems that there are SO MANY mediocre to awful service providers that there is just no point in firing people to get better employees anymore, I guess, because it would appear that finding good employees is not as easy as it used to be.

I agree with this! Also since the pay is lower in Florida, it would be difficult to attract high quality employees. Kind of takes the ambition away to work 40 hours for pay that only allows you to live with a roommate in a crappy condo. Even worse working two jobs to make ends meet. You won't find many quality craftsmen willing to settle for a miserable place like that.