Alternative to Brooklyn Solarworks

OK, ft greenp nut: there two ponds of customers and swimming in each of those two ponds are contractors; the water does not mix and one does not swim from one pond to the other, readily (you have to jump unless you are moving to the lower pond, that is easy. for a contractor screw up and you will end up there). the people in the pond who spend more money have better customer experiences because, as with everything else – a car, computer, restaurant, more money gets you something better. it is the same for contractors in the better pond: they charge more, can hire better help and can take their time doing things correctly and do not like when their employees taking short cuts and will demand better from their staff;. the customer experience is better (these contractors do not ever want to have an unhappy customer). that is why we consistently hear good things from those people. those people also accept responsibility for the contractors they hire and they know that contractors are not magicians: if the money is not there, the contractor can not make it ap pear.

there is another pond. people who do not want to spend the money to get things done right and they swim with shoddy contractors. OK, in emergencies maybe they do not have the money and that is understandable. but many of these people do not understand, if a contractor is giving out lower prices it is because their own reputation does not allow them to jump into the other pond. for these contractors, something has to give. they are not going to deny their own children food or new shoes. they have to cut corners on a lot of things including they way they treat their unskilled, low paid help. the customers in this pond are always unhappy because they make money the overriding factor in choosing a contractor. with these people that pattern repeats itself becuase they do not seem to understand that they chose the contractor using faulty parameters.

People on this board who have never taken a swim in the other pond may have not a clue as to what i am talking about. Cookthebooks said “most people go gold plated” and that is because cookthebooks swims in one pond and does not socialize with nor talk to the people in the other pond. if a contractor from the other pond showed up at cookthebooks house, and let a cigarette hang out of their mouth as they talked to cook the books or if the contractor’s crew was playing loud music in the truck as they contractor was made their pitch or if they contractor dropped an f bomb, cook the books would quickly realize that the contractor is not from their pond but is from the other and they would not call that contractor back.

in short, this is why you hear praise of contractors from one group and a lot of complaining from the other. People “buy” their customer experience and you get what you pay for – with just about everything – including contractors.

Dennis, i can tell you something about the better pond: when money is a factor in the choices people have to make, the people swimming in the better pond will always put their money into an asset that appreciates. Not an asset that depreciates. i cannot tell you about solar as i think it has a limited lifetime, maybe someone else can offer help on that-

Impression is electric cost savings by installing solar will take many years to recover costs. True?

i think my neighbor said six year recoup. he also said that coned changes the way they buy back electricity and that that change just took place and the old way was better for the customer. i am not sure about what he was talking about, so research.

with respect to selecting a better (pricier) contractor, the people (contractors and customers) in the better pond will view the customer/contractor relationship as more of a “partnership” in which when one succeeds so does the other. there will also be a lot of trust. by selecting each other this way, the customers and contractors will respect the challenges each other face in having a job done or doing a job and they will work together to ensure the other is happy. a customer no more wants a miserable contractor around than a contractor wants to work for a miserable customer.

for the customers and contractors who swim in the miserable pond, they seem to have an adversarial relationship and a lot of distrust between them. a woman once said on this board “all contractors are thieves, they cannot wait to get their hands in your pockets”. no contractor in their right mind would consider taking a job with some who thinks like that – at the same time, there are contractors who think like that about the customers (my first boss – a talented individual – used t o worry about not getting paid and customers bouncing checks. there was no trust. he was swimming in the wrong pond).

approach the situation like you would in any other relationship. choose contractors because you like them and you think they can do the job (not because you think they are cheap). you want people around you who are happy, successful, professional and like what they are doing and do it because they want to do it (not out of desperation), and you want the relationship, no matter how short it may be, built on trust.