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I hired a company to do some work on the exterior of my house. We set up an appointment and they did the work but some of it has to be redone.
Since then, they sent somebody out to inspect the work and get my feedback, and then sent someone else out at another time to do some measurements. They did not call either time.
Shouldn't they call before they come out? Or is it normal to drop in without calling first? Thought about calling them and letting them know that I expect to be called, but don't want to come across as a jerk.
If it’s all exterior and there’s no key or gate access needed to get in, I would not be surprised if they did not call first before coming.
Ah ok. It is exterior. I guess that is normal on their end then to drop in and do their thing as people work during the day, others may call them to fix vacant rental houses, etc. They didn't really need me there in those instances.
when i have exterior things done; sometimes i get a courtesy call and sometimes i dont. sometimes they text or email. as long as nobody needs to be around; i dont care if they dont contact me. that doesnt mean that is really the best way to do it. a text message heads up would be the better way to do it. if you want notice, then its no biggie if you just nicely ask if they could send a text just to give you a heads up so your wife knows who is walking around the property.
If it is exterior work, it’s still best to call first as a heads-up, just courtesy. In some cases, they should call first because driveways and other outdoor variables might not be clear to accommodate trailers and/or large trucks.
I woke up one morning to someone climbing up onto my roof; it was the roofer who'd installed my roof four weeks prior and I'd called them three or four times in that interim to complain about a leak.
A call would have been nice on any of those counts.
This goes back to the initial meeting-
Setting an agreeable expectation- your situation is a perfect example of a "lack of communication".
If you want to know what, when, where, etc., you need to express your desires. The flip-side of this is the contractor wants to get it done as soon as possible- so they can get paid (hopefully you are holding those monies). And they don't see the "full picture" when it comes to communicating.
Ah ok. It is exterior. I guess that is normal on their end then to drop in and do their thing as people work during the day, others may call them to fix vacant rental houses, etc. They didn't really need me there in those instances.
It probably is normal, particularly if you have called in to one person with the company, but they will likely assign it to a worker down the line. Workers down the line may be given a number of tasks for a day, and they don't normally call customers.
If that doesn't work for you, say so. Otherwise, I would just try to go with the flow and expect them any time if they say they're coming. It wouldn't work for me, because I have a locked gate on my driveway. If they come and I'm not here, they won't be able to get in. Contractors who end up doing long ongoing projects, we give a key to so they aren't dependent on us to get in. We have to work it out.
I followed company POLICY and took the judgment call (guesswork) out of it.
When I was running a Ditch Witch for AT&T as a full time employee, we'd have to call before every dispatch (which was futile, because we were expected to continue to the job, even if they didn't answer - the only thing that would change our scheduled job was if someone answered and said now's not a good time).
Our day started at 7 AM. Now, I can't tell you how many half asleep people we woke up, but I directed all the angry customers (there were surprisingly not many) to my manager's phone. Eventually, we stopped having to call that early. People knew what we were there for, most never even came out of their homes. I'm just burying a line. 20 mins start to finish including cleanup if we're not going under driveways or sidewalks.
Now, throw in a street bore and 3-4 guys show up to do the directional bore. You'll wake up the neighborhood then. But the alternative is leaving the line above ground, which is not an option. Not for the customer who expects to have it buried within a reasonable amount of time, and not for us whose productivity numbers depended on COMPLETED jobs, not showing up to abort mission halfway through.
Around here if it's exterior and they don't need a signature on a contract or something, they'll just stop by when they have the time and are reasonably nearby.
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