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A hard to please customer isn't as bad as a hard to please community. It's the companies that have a fine line to walk, not the customers. As I mentioned before, small towns love to leave bad reviews of local companies, and people do pay attention to bad reviews.
The small town I grew up in had several families, cousins actually, that were always on the town council, and they had several businesses in town as well, seemed like they had fingers in every pie. If you didn't want to do business with them, the clique might give you the cold shoulder, but as for payback or anything, absolutely not. They were more a social clique than a mafia.
Most of the time in small towns and rural areas, if a contractor or service provider is unreliable or unscrupulous, they usually don't last too long as there's a limited pool of potential customers, and news of a poor service experience gets around pretty quick.
Unless you're over a hundred miles to the next possible provider of a service, word of mouth and reputation keep most pretty honest if they want to stay in business.
This. They have a reputation to maintain. Word gets around in small places. Plus they won't be as busy and will need the work, probably. If there's one in town, to begin with.
I wonder how you'll like living in such a small place. I moved to a semi-rural burb from a large metro city. While the people are nice, I made sure the main shopping is within minutes of my house and all....I hate it. I have little in common with the people. This is the "land that time forgot." They live as if the last 10 years hasn't happened. You have to fit in. Differences are not appreciated, depending on the difference. Getting workers to come to my house is not as convenient as when I lived in the city. A garage door service business? In the next burb, but not in mine. A gutter installer business? Just Bob, locally. And he's kinda pricey. I'd have to look at the mid-sized city nearby and the other burb I mentioned. Home Depot in that city charges extra to deliver, which makes sense. Loose dogs...many of them pit bulls. Country people love their large dogs and pit bulls. I used to like to walk daily, but it's too dangerous (roads don't have wide enough shoulders to walk on, also), so I walk just a few times a week...driving to a nearby park. I hope to move back to civilization.
^^I think it has to do with preferences and personality. My husband and I are (friendly) introverts, and as I indicated, older people. We both feel as though we were born 50 years too late. We are just looking for a slower pace of life and, quite honestly, a place that hasn't quite caught up to the 21st century in many ways.
We just want, and appreciate, as much advice as we can get regarding how to best fit in to a small town and rural community.
One thing I will mention is that if you do choose not to use someone a second time because you're unhappy with the service, be careful about any actual bad mouthing. It's really awkward to find out that the person you're complaining to is married to the cousin of the guy you're complaining about, lol. Won't hurt to sit back for a good while to get the lay of the land so to speak, before you start voicing opinions.
I wasn't sure the best way to phrase this, but what I am talking about is a situation like I encountered today in my big city suburb as it would translate to small town living.
I now live in a metro area with a population of about three million people, and we are retiring next year to a rural county with only 30,000 people. (!) So, today, in my suburb, I had arranged for a local company to come and trim our trees, a $1,300 job. I had booked them weeks ago and had a follow-up e-mail saying that they would be here between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Well, at 10:00, they were not here so I called the company to make sure they would still be here, and I was told, "Well, they had one small job first, but they should be there any minute." Well, here it is 10:30, and they are still not here, and I could have done a lot of other things in the two-and-a-half hours I have spent waiting for them. So, although this is NOT a tragedy (of course), I am perturbed and will not be using that company again, and I might leave them a less-than-glowing review, and that would be that. There are probably at least a hundred companies that do tree-trimming in our area.
But now I am wondering if that were to happen in our new small town/rural location where there might be only three local companies that would do that service, and I had an unsatisfactory experience similar to the above, would I either be "stuck" with them or else risk facing some unpleasantness in the community if I did not use that company again? (Of course, this would not just apply to tree-trimming, but it could apply to well or septic servicing, for example.)
So, in short, I am asking what the "rules" are about such things in small communities.
Thanks in advance!
First off you need to relax because you have no idea what could have caused them to be late.
Second if you give a bad review to a good company in a small town you WILL pay for it. In small towns the contractors ALL know each other. You will get on a list of hard to deal with customers. Then one of 2 things will happen. You will get charged a much higher rate than normal or they will just ignore any future requests. I say this as a contractor for 20 years in a small town.
Contractors showing up delayed for jobs happens all the time and if that stops you from using them again you ll likely run out of options quite soon in a smaller town.
^^I think it has to do with preferences and personality. My husband and I are (friendly) introverts, and as I indicated, older people. We both feel as though we were born 50 years too late. We are just looking for a slower pace of life and, quite honestly, a place that hasn't quite caught up to the 21st century in many ways.
We just want, and appreciate, as much advice as we can get regarding how to best fit in to a small town and rural community.
Thanks again.
I think you will be fine.
You cant go wrong with the golden rule and other than that dont ever tell people they should change the way they do things like it was done where you just moved from.
Like some of my new neighbors who move to a dead end road in an agricultural/farm zoned rural area and complained about farm animals, people driving out before 9 a.m., mud from 4 wheeler tires on the chip and tar road, pulling over in the grass on the right of way to let cars pass and wanting to put in street/security lights, pave the road, fill in the drainage ditches and put a gate in where you turn in from the highway.
First off you need to relax because you have no idea what could have caused them to be late.
Second if you give a bad review to a good company in a small town you WILL pay for it. In small towns the contractors ALL know each other. You will get on a list of hard to deal with customers. Then one of 2 things will happen. You will get charged a much higher rate than normal or they will just ignore any future requests. I say this as a contractor for 20 years in a small town.
First, thanks -- as you are a contractor, your advice is especially appreciated. And, yes, I know that unforeseen things happen, but at least a call saying that they would be delayed would have been both nice and considerate.
Second, I know this a "quirk" of mine, but punctuality and doing what someone says that s/he will do when s/he says they will do it is very important to me. I know that I will have to work hard on not being impatient or coming across as being "pushy" (even though I think I am always very nice about my "pushiness"). From what I understand, small town people just have a more relaxed mindset than big city people do, and I will have to learn to adapt to that (which I am very willing to do)!
Sorry, this was my fault for not being more clear, but what I meant is would I be stuck with using the same company or could I try one of the other two (assuming there are three who do that service) without any negative ramifications?
Thanks for your reply -- and I also thank the rest of you for all the other replies I have received on this thread, too!
No, now I live in a suburb with a population of about 40,000. Next year we are moving to a town with a population of about 1,400 that is located in a county with a total population of about 30,000. (Just to clarify. )
And, of course, you are right about problems coming up unexpectedly! (And thanks for the tip about the lumber company, too.)
Katharsis, for 30 years I lived in a county that had a population of 16,000. If you did something wrong, or had an accident, you don't have to wait for the court news in next Wednesday's weekly newspaper for everybody to find out about it. lol
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And, yes, I know that unforeseen things happen, but at least a call saying that they would be delayed would have been both nice and considerate. 
