What's up with Malek?
He came by to look at our place and give us an estimate but never got back to us. I called him daily till finally his receptionist said he decided to not bid on our place. WTF?!? We have a landmark building that is in need of some serious work. Any other recommendations??
He came by to look at our place and give us an estimate but never got back to us. I called him daily till finally his receptionist said he decided to not bid on our place. WTF?!? We have a landmark building that is in need of some serious work. Any other recommendations??
and that stringing you along thing, I know, I know…I started to feel like a high schooler trying to get a date when I was trying to get the other contractor to start the job – so many calls unreturned…
yeah, I agree with you totally, but they often don’t seem to do that..just saying that, while annoying, it’s one of the lesser sins of contractors.
Agreed, 1:59, but a phone call doesn’t take more than two minutes…all it takes is a “thanks for your interest, but I can’t do the job now or until whenever,” instead of stringing people along and driving them nuts.
While it is annoying when contractors don’t follow through to actually start the job, of all the potential problems one can have with them, that’s one I can live with. (I did chase one other contractor for months to get him to start a job, but I did it because I’d seen his work and knew it would be good, which is was, great actually, just slow to start, him being so in demand, and it was a smaller job for his company.)
I’ve hired A. Malek a few times, and the work was done very well. That’s mainly what I care about. Still, since he’s in demand, he may have more than he can handle well, and that must be frustrating. But less frustrating than having work started by a lousy contractor – I have (knock on wood) successfully avoided that situation so far.
Sorry, 1:38 here, I inadvertently left out a few words: “1:11, I agree, if a contractor goes radio silent, they aren’t interested….”
I had the same experience with Malek. He came to look at my job, gave me an estimate which I accepted, and said he would come the following week (it was a b’stone repair). This was in September 2007. In November I gave up on him after several follow up phone calls and called Metro Restoration in March to do the repair. They came within a month, did the work in one day, and I was very happy with the result. 1:11 goes radio silent, they aren’t interested in the job…which is a dumb way to do things, but then again, many contractors (not all) come from the same defective gene pool.
Funny, when contractors don’t call me back to give me a bid, I assume they aren’t interested in the job – it is a pretty clear message they are giving.
“Maybe he has all the work he can handle right now, or maybe thought you’d be a pain-in-the-ass client. His perogative.”
Then the appropriate thing to do is to say so promptly so the OP can find someone else. Professionals don’t say they’ll get back to you with a bid and then dodge your calls.
Try Zoltan Olti at AYC Group. He did a lot of work on my landmark brownstone over the past 9 months. He and his workers were extremely professional and the work was high quality. http://allyourconstruction.com/aboutus.aspx