An open letter to our contractor

I am your Customer. Why don’t you treat me like one? What I mean is, why don’t you treat me like I treat MY Customers? I too am in a service industry and would never in my wildest dreams treat my customers like you treat me.

Why is it that you can never tell me what will happen and when? What happened to the project plan?

Most of the time, I feel like you are not telling me the truth or even half truths? Stop lying to me. There I said it.

When you send me an email, I respond right away…I don’t hear from you for a day, or two or three. You never answer ALL of my questions…you mainly pick the first question and you answer it as vaguely as possible and then I hear nothing from you. Why does it have to be this way?

Do you know what it makes me feel like when you don’t respond? I feel left out in the cold, like my project is not a priority. And believe it or not, I often feel that there is a possibility that you will walk. What kind of supplier makes their customer feel like they could/might walk away from the project at any given time?

I am totally frustrated with our relationship. The decision to pick you was carefully considered. Why don’t you treat this relationship that way?

Understand that this is an exorbitant amount of money for me and you seem to think so flippantly about it. Why can’t you be respectful of our budget? Why do you give us options that are out of scope? (I have grown to despise that phrase). Since we were so detailed in our expectations, why are there things that become out of scope (for example, the electrical panel…honestly, you could not have legally electrified the kitchen without updating the panel…why was it out of scope?)

DO NOT REFER to my home as “your site” when you speak to me. I know this is common jargon, but IT IS MY HOME. You have invaded my spaces even though it was just a kitchen and basement addition. You cannot imagine how personal this experience is.

I know the trades are busy. They are very fortunate to have so much work, I wish the company I work for had that much work. A phone call or a note takes less than 30 seconds. Leave a message, “I know you were expecting me, something came up, they will be there tomorrow.” Or at least tell the lead carpenter who is supposed to be the site manager, the project manager. How can you possibly think he can get everything done if he doesn’t know when to expect the trades? We all know shit happens…believe me, it is not as bad when you manage your customer’s expectations.

You lied.

You have lied to me so many times, I cannot even consider anything you say without wondering if it is a lie, even if it is true. You have supersensitized me (I think the worst all the time).

You lied that you are an architect, you lied that you have designers working for you, you lied about the electrical permit. You lied to my face about being able to deliver our kitchen at the “allowance” you purposely discounted to meet our budget in the contract. And then, you lied about the being able to include the countertops in that “allowance”. How dare you? And then you squeeze your supplier to fill in for your mistakes. HOW DARE YOU? You were very lucky to find honest and honorable people to fill the gaps where you are squeezing the last all mighty buck for yourself…I hope they are smart enough to avoid you like the plague in the future. I hope the the extra money you earned from squeezing these people only brings you misfortune and unhappiness.

You have stolen this experience for us. There will always be a sour taste when I think about this reno and you have yourself to blame for that.