Couple at odds over contractor's failure to do job right
(this article was first published in the LifeStyles section of the July 20, 2009 edition of the Lowell Sun. If you're interested in viewing other articles, click here.)

Stress Unit
By MICHAEL HAYDEN, Sun Correspondent
Lowell Sun

DEAR MIKE: There's a situation at my house that's causing a lot of anger between my husband Dan and me.

A little over a year ago, we had a contractor give us a price for doing some renovations at our home. While the price was within the range we had budgeted, it was by no means cheap. Dan received the contractor's name from friends who had used him previously.

The guy showed up and began the work. Although he was neat and seemed to do good work, he was slower than molasses flowing uphill. He would leave early and some days not show up at all. Well, he finally finished the job and everything seemed OK until about five months later, when we started having some problems with some of the work he did.

I asked my husband to call him. Surprisingly enough, he responded fairly quickly. We showed him the problems and he immediately blamed part of the problem on his helper and the other part on a previous contractor who had done work in the general area.

He finally agreed to come back and make the job whole and to our satisfaction. He asked us to give him a few weeks; well, the few weeks turned into a few months and when we called all we got was excuses. Now he has stopped returning our calls altogether.

I have suggested calling the Better Business Bureau but Dan is against that; he says if we force the contractor to make the repairs he will do a lousy job and make things worse. Dan also says I am being unreasonable with this guy.

Do you have any advice, because I am getting extremely angry with the contractor and with my husband for not doing anything. -- Pearl

DEAR PEARL: It sounds like Dan's self-imposed guilt for suggesting this guy is stopping him from doing the right thing, which is holding the guy to his contract. He needs to realize it's not his fault the contractor messed up and will not come back. It sounds like you checked him out, he had done work for people you know and he was a legitimate businessman. There is not much else you could have done.

You and Dan should go over the contract he gave you when he started and see what provisions he put into it in case of problems. Then, the two of you should write him a letter stating you are putting him on notice that if he does not come back and fix the problems you will have no choice but to turn it over to a lawyer. Send it certified with a return receipt so that you know he received it. If he has not responded after a reasonable amount of time, give the letter to a lawyer and call the Better Business Bureau.

Remember, this is business and not personal. You paid this man your hard-earned money to do a job and you should expect him to get the job done and done right. You have all the right in the world to be angry. Just make sure that anger is directed at the situation and not toward each other. Good luck. -- Mike

Michael Hayden is a certified anger management counselor who runs Bay State Anger Management and Counseling in Chelmsford. Send questions to him at Stressunit@aol.com or send mail to: Stress Unit, c/o The Editor, Box 1477, Lowell, MA 01853.