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Post by Mango Man on Jun 20, 2024 20:11:30 GMT -5
Definition of Yankees please? Kind of a catch all designation based on behavior........ You mean location, right?
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Post by OhMy on Jun 20, 2024 20:15:23 GMT -5
I got two quotes in the last two days to fix 3 appliances. Both said $100 per appliance service call and we will send you quote to fix after service call. $300 bucks for a quote. Seems high to me but everything does these days. It's cheaper to buy new. Maybe I can help you. Name? (manufacturer) Model # Age Appliance And what's it doing/not doing? Frigidaire Gallery appliances. The refrigerator has a broken shelf (plastic outer piece on glass shelf cracked). Stove (stainless) has some rust around the stainless sheet that surrounds the glass of the oven. Just aesthetic. Dishwasher leaks from bottom. I could fix the first two by ordering parts and installing them myself but I do not live close to my mother. Are you in the industry? I already agreed to the company coming out or the $300 on Monday and give me a quote. If I move ahead with repair they will credit me the "service call".
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Post by TRTerror on Jun 20, 2024 20:19:52 GMT -5
On The Other Hand... I was a basic contractor doing Inspection Report repairs in Big Money beachfront homes and Condos for 25 years. Answer the phone...got everything you need to do the job.. That told me two things. # 1 you were going to do the job yourself and now it's all screwed up and you want me to finish it...CHEAP for you. # 2 you don't have everything I need and it's going to take me 2 trips to HD or Lowes..and then your going to want me to take all the crap we didn't use back and get you a refund. It'll only take you 30 minutes and you still want a Hundred bucks for doing the job ..? WOW. The Customer is always right is bullshit. Having said that I always answer the phone and showed up on time and ready to get er done. I'm not here to make friends..just go back in the house you pajama wearin , Latte drinking yuppie. Hope this Helps...
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Post by Mango Man on Jun 20, 2024 20:24:36 GMT -5
It's cheaper to buy new. Maybe I can help you. Name? (manufacturer) Model # Age Appliance And what's it doing/not doing? Frigidaire Gallery appliances. The refrigerator has a broken shelf (plastic outer piece on glass shelf cracked). Stove (stainless) has some rust around the stainless sheet that surrounds the glass of the oven. Just aesthetic. Dishwasher leaks from bottom. I could fix the first two by ordering parts and installing them myself but I do not live close to my mother. Are you in the industry? I already agreed to the company coming out or the $300 on Monday and give me a quote. If I move ahead with repair they will credit me the "service call". Was, retired July of 23 How old on the dishwaher?
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Post by bswiv on Jun 21, 2024 6:18:25 GMT -5
Kind of a catch all designation based on behavior........ You mean location, right? No......I was clear the first time..............
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wildman
Junior Member
Posts: 65
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Post by wildman on Jun 21, 2024 6:56:07 GMT -5
I have always done everything on the house myself. Plumbing, electrical and carpentry. Unfortunately I cant do a lot of the stuff any longer because it hurts to bad after. I'm about to have a new roof put on the house. The last one I did myself 20 years ago. Its a hard thing dealing with reality. I agree that finding a good reliable contractor that is not trying to screw you is getting harder and harder to find I try to do all my own work as well as I don't trust contractors/repair folks, but it is getting more difficult with age, especially replacing a roof. After your roof is replaced, make sure you inspect everything! Had a tree fall on the roof and punched 2 fairly large holes through the decking. Came home one evening and they already had the underlayment down. Asked them if they repaired the holes as I requested by replacing the entire sheet and not just scabbing a piece in. In broken English, they told me they did. After they finished and the building inspector signed off, I climbed up in the attic in the middle of summer and had to crawl back to check. Come to find out they didn't even repair the holes in the decking and just shingled over them. Glad I checked before walking around on the roof... Fast forward 8 years and my insurance company required me to replace the whole roof (during the prior repair the insurance only paid to replace the 1 face that had damage). Used a different roofing company this time that was reputable and recommended to me. They were going to replace some slope vents with ridge vents and I also requested a ridge vent be added to my shop. After they finished, they forgot to add the shop vent so I had them come back out. They didn't realize I was in the shop when they added the ridge vent. I never heard a saw startup to cut a air gap in the ridge. After they were finished I crawled up to find the ridge was sealed tight so wouldn't be any air flow at all. Then I went and climbed around in the house attic to inspect and they had done the same thing on 3 of 5 ridges (again the building inspector had already signed off). A week later we got some rain and water was coming over one of the gutters. Figured some debris just clogged a down spout and rather than call them back out I got up there to clean it out and low and behold there were 2 empty beer cans along with some potato chip bags stuffed in the down spout. Makes me wonder how many times this kind of crap happens and the homeowner never knows.
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Post by mackeralsnatcher on Jun 21, 2024 6:59:53 GMT -5
I always use Rick, the guy on Pawn Stars, saying. It's not that I don't trust you, but I don't trust anybody. Been my way of looking at things for a looong while.
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Post by OhMy on Jun 21, 2024 10:57:47 GMT -5
Frigidaire Gallery appliances. The refrigerator has a broken shelf (plastic outer piece on glass shelf cracked). Stove (stainless) has some rust around the stainless sheet that surrounds the glass of the oven. Just aesthetic. Dishwasher leaks from bottom. I could fix the first two by ordering parts and installing them myself but I do not live close to my mother. Are you in the industry? I already agreed to the company coming out or the $300 on Monday and give me a quote. If I move ahead with repair they will credit me the "service call". Was, retired July of 23 How old on the dishwaher? They are all 10 years old.
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Post by ferris1248 on Jun 21, 2024 11:48:23 GMT -5
Was, retired July of 23 How old on the dishwaher? They are all 10 years old. Mango Man knows his stuff.
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Post by Mango Man on Jun 21, 2024 12:55:55 GMT -5
Was, retired July of 23 How old on the dishwaher? They are all 10 years old. I think you wrote they were Gallery products which are pretty good products. They also have a Classic series but that is designed more for entry level (qualty & cost) and the Professional which emulates the look in a professional kitchen and of good quality. I am sorry to say that todays appliances will typically last 8-10-12 years top. The culprit is the technology (electronic & computer) . It just isn't as durable as yesterday's "mechanical" appliances. Those could last 30+ years! Trying to repair them is difficult as getting parts is dang near impossible. You can give it a whirl in trying to repair but most times when we sent our techs out they would tell me the cost is too much. (Many times those repairs didn't last long or another problem popped up.) I am not sure where you're located but there are some good places to shop and it doesn't have to be a big box store. Just as an FYI, in our condo we just replaced a dishwasher with a Gallery dishwasher. Our old unit was 30+ years and was a Kenmore, probably made by Whirlpool (I didn't check). In our house we have an old Kenmore probably even older than the one in our condo. The 4th is coming up as well as Labor day which means sales! Non big box stores will typically have rebates that either a), big box stores don't qualify for the rebate or b) have multiple rebates that allows you to double dip. If you need anything let me know, I'll help where I can.
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Post by Captj on Jun 21, 2024 18:47:55 GMT -5
Getting the house painted and found an ace. If you look and listen there are a lot of good people out there working hard every day.
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Post by gogittum on Jun 22, 2024 12:14:39 GMT -5
I have a cousin whose husband is a small scale developer. She's a licensed C21 realtor and they've worked out a system where she keeps an eye out and when she sees a great deal coming up on some land, he buys it, builds upscale homes on it, then she sells it. Kinda an all-in-the-family type of thing...and they're very wealthy.
He told me several times that the biggest hang-up he had to deal with was sub-contractors, for all the reasons listed above.
I started and operated 3 service businesses in 3 different states between 1983 and 1996. 1st was an appliance repair in a tiny Idaho community, then a restaurant service business in Palm Springs, then another in Port Angeles, WA.
All 3 towns were well covered by my competition, but I made a point of being where I said I'd be when I said I'd be there...did good work and charged fairly. All 3 paid me a living within a couple of months and 2 of them grew beyond what I could comfortably handle in just a few months. (the Idaho one failed because of the Spotted Owl fiasco - no one had any money to hire me with)
In Palm Springs, IIRC, there were 20 something pages of a/c contractors in the area. I was overwhelmed with business within a short time....all due to customer referrals. Tells ya something, doesn't it ??
I got a laugh out of one customer on his 1st call: I did no advertising, but when he called, he told me he'd talked to several business people in P.S. and all of them said to call L... at P.... and he'll treat you right. Gives ya the warm fuzzies, it do.
Then I went to work for a luxury hotel in Palm Springs and a few years later was promoted to Director of Engineering in a top rated luxury hotel in Santa Fe, NM. They ran my ass off and, tho' I could do most of the work myself, I had no choice but to hire local contractors.
What an education. Company policy dictated that I get 3 bids for any work and take the low one. Hah. There were 1/2 dozen contractors that fit the bill, but it wasn't long before I focused on one Hispanic fella with a small crew.
He was like me - showed up when and where he said, did good work quickly and charged fairly. Took me 6 months to lock onto him and for the next year, until I retired, he got all my work.
You don't want to pre-judge people, either. Nayo had a small speech impediment that made me initially think he was a bit slow, mentally. Not so - he had trouble with some words, but it was soon apparent there was nothing wrong with his brain. People like him are like gold.
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Post by gogittum on Jun 22, 2024 18:21:56 GMT -5
I think a little background to the above may be appropriate:
I was a timber faller in the woods in Idaho when the Spotted Owl b.s. crippled the industry and most of the contractors were soon out of business. Small towns across several states were devastated, tho' my boss managed to keep going. When we shut down for freeze-up in Oct. '82, my dad had an a/c business in Palm Springs.
"If you want to work, getcher butt down here and I'll teach you the business," he said. "I need help." I had a few months off at that point, so hustled on down there and worked with him for 3 months and returned to Idaho to sell my place and prep for the move.
I loved it there and going up the mountain towards home, I thought, "how can I leave this ??" Dawg, my Black Lab made it obvious he agreed.
When work started back up in Jan. '83, I let it be known around the community that I now knew how to fix appliances, esp. refrigerators. People started calling me as word spread.
All bluff and ego, I actually knew very little about the business other than what dad had taught me in 3 months. Nevertheless, most people in the 2 small towns locally knew me and gave me my chance. (about 2,000 people, total) I doubt it would've worked in a larger community.
Busted my buns, but I made it work. There were several times when I'd work 1/2 day on something only to fail and walk away. I never charged for those and was light on the hours I did charge for, 'cause all knew I was a beginner. Word spread fast.
By July I had to make a decision. Falling timber is brutally hard, dangerous work and you've got to be on your game. Moonlighting an appliance business, then working all day in the woods was running me to death, so I quit my day job.
One morning I was nearly killed twice within a couple of hours - the 2nd one had me shaking badly - I was almost smashed flat by a tangle of trees and snags coming down that a quick, wild jump cleared me of. That was my excuse - I walked off the job on the spot.
I did well and enjoyed the work and esp. the challenge of figuring things out on the fly - winging it, successfully - but the economy continued to worsen and by winter time no one had money to hire me, so I left ID to go and work with dad in the spring of '84.
That was fine, but dad wasn't used to working with an adult son (step-son) and generally neglected to pay me. I was working ~60 hours a week and working hard, but if I asked for money, he'd scowl and say, "I just gave you $20 the other day." (generally a week or more ago and I was a grown man in my early 40's by then)
Sooo...I started my own business and mom agreed to be dispatcher for both of us. You should've seen dad's face when some of his customers started asking specifically for me. ππ Working with him had given me a running start and it was kind of a seamless thing.
After 5 years of it, I was thoroughly sick of working on the flat roofs of buildings in the desert sun all summer with a/c units blowing hot air on me over and above the 140ΒΊ+ up there.
While married, my wife and I had relocated to Port Angeles, WA and I loved it there, so, said adios to P.S. and relocated - alone - back to P.A.
This time it was a genuine cold start, knowing nobody and being a stranger in town. I had some flyers printed up and went to all the businesses in the area - Port Angeles and Sequim (pronounce it "Skwim") and introduced myself.
Repeated that every week for a month and even tho' there were a couple of refrigeration guys in town and a stoner pot head commercial appliance guy, within a month I was making a living and building a customer base.
I busted my butt - honoring my commitments to people - and doing as I said previously - be where I said I'd be, when I said I'd be there, do good work quickly and charge fairly.
I was making money within a month, but was swamped with work within 6 months. I did have a phone book ad there, but almost all my work was word of mouth.
I couldn't find good help - went thru several - and after 7 years of it was starting to burn out. I generally worked 60 - 70 hours a week, but still found time fairly often to go Salmon fishing and loved that, too. Then dad called and told me mom was failing and he needed help with her. He'd already paved the way for me in the engineering dep't. of the new Ritz Carlton hotel in Rancho Mirage, a suburb of Palm Springs, and would I come back ?? For mom ?? Of course I would.
That was in '96 and she passed in '98, so we had that time and the timing was perfect....and on I went with a new career. Loved that, too, and did very well at it. Retired in Santa Fe on June 1, 2008.
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