If you hire someone who quotes you, upfront, exactly what you will owe, and they do the job exactly how they said they would… then you had better pay up. Because someone who knows how to be handy in the home can also be un-handy, if you know what we mean…
One contractor shared a story of his early days as a wood floor installer on Reddit. He had done everything right for the entire job. He quoted the homeowner exactly what they were going to owe. He told them exactly the timeframe in which they would be working and done working and when exactly he would owe the money. The homeowner agreed, and OP hired his team, and they got to work. They worked hard and did their job exactly how OP said they would. They finished exactly on schedule and didn’t go over budget. They put any of the extra scrap from the job that the homeowner had purchased themselves neatly in their garage and called it a day. The team was sent home, and OP called the homeowner. He called and called and got no answer. He even waited at the house well past the time he was supposed to be there, but they never showed up. Days went by, and not a word. Finally, he heard back from the homeowner only after putting a lien on his house ( a lien is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation).
However, the homeowner was trying to withhold $300 for some petty reason. He said they didn’t clean up their scraps, even though that was the homeowner’s scrap. OP was tired of fighting with this guy, so he let him think he had this small victory. To make sure the homeowner had to get that $300 and then some, he went up stars and made the pipes leak—water damage costs way more than $300.
