Great letter till this part. You needed to tell them you were not paying for it, see if they give in. Trust me they are going to bill your ass. They don't give a shit.

We are indeed in the bedroom now, and it's fabulous. There are just a couple of little finish-up items that we're waiting on: a door that hasn't come in yet, and hooking up the swamp cooler to a water supply. I'll post photos when the whole thing is done.

Overall, the project has gone pretty well. We're in about the 15th week of an 8-week schedule, but I've been around long enough to know that construction schedules are always underestimated. I can live with that. My big worry is getting the final invoice and seeing where we stand on price. The contractor has been good to work with, but has been very laissez-faire on the change orders. We've had very few, but when we would talk about something he would say, "Oh, the cost is trivial. We'll get it to you" and then we never get a price. I don't think they're dishonest at all, but rather they're just too busy right now and their finance person is way behind. (They've never even sent us the final contract to sign, so this whole project has been done without a contract. I think that's to our advantage, so I've let it ride.) He's also had to work around at least two major design flaws by our incompetent architect, and I don't know who's expected to absorb any extra costs there. If nothing weird happens with the pricing, I'd certainly recommend the contractor to others.

I find it a little odd to be so ticked off about the backsplash on a kitchen counter, but you get that way on these projects, especially toward the end. "WHITE? WE HAVE WHITE OUTLET COVERS!?!?! I SPECIFICALLY ASKED FOR BISCUIT!"

Yeah, I'd be willing to bet that you're right, but we'll see. However, my major concern right now is to get the backsplashes, because if trouble starts, there's no way we'll be able to match the granite, and they've got the possession arrow in their favor. Given the choice of getting the dang things or saving $445, I really need to get the dang things.

I don't blame you. We hate homeowners, too. But it's not your fault. It's a human nature thing. People are incredibly protective with the largest investment of their life - as it should be. They also expect to get a lot of work for a little bit of money. This is where bad blood comes in. People have no problem spending $79 for $1.25 worth of leather, plastic, and rubber with a Nike swoosh on it but they don't want to spend too much markup to the guy working on their largest investment. It's a strange phenomona. Don't ask me to explain it. I used to be you when I was on the other side of the fence.

Woo. Just got a nasty call from granite saleswoman. They're charging the $445 and they don't think it's their fault at all, and they don't like my tone.

While I don't think they should eat the entire $445, they should make some other concession. Obviously, they're not handling it well.

That sucks. Too bad you don't have documentation of the phone calls you made. That's why I love handling this sort of stuff via email.

Well, go back and look at your original order. If the backsplash is not listed there then it is your fault. Sorry, Rainman, but you have to be very specific when having work done based on your custom ideas. I piss off a lot of contractors when I ask them to itemize their estimates but I won't hire them without having their responsibilities 100% clear in writing. It takes more time and effort at the beginning but it is well worth it.

Yeah, she handled it very poorly. Her contention was that she had told us that the backsplashes would be extra yadda yadda yadda. I don't agree with that, but even if I did spot her that, they have repeatedly failed to get the order correct. I keep ending up being the one that tries to keep it from falling through the cracks, and they keep forgetting to add it to the order.

I can handle mistakes. What burns me is when people won't admit that it was a mistake.

This would be the point that I would tell her to stick her granite backsplash up her smelly twat.......sideways.

I don't mind paying, I just want a contractor to come when they say they will, and do what they are supposed to do.

I have found a couple great honest contractors that I use for my projects. I talk them up every chance I get.

People that are spending the money can say, I hate blah, blah, blah. It may not be right, but they're spending the money and they have a right to expect excellent service. If contactors hate home owners, that's a big problem with the industry as I assume, home owners are contractors bread and butter.

I gotta have that backsplash, and it can't have any feces on it when it's installed.

However, the owner of the business is going to get a politely rude letter from me stating that his salesperson valued $445 more than the reputation of the business, and that I'm reluctantly going to begin my "public information" campaign tomorrow.

I would never be a contractor for exactly this reason. People do tend to be hypersensitive about this stuff, even if they aren't paying a ton of money for it. We're talking about large expenditures, long-lasting effects, and lots of uncertainty and stress. That's a volatile combination.

If the contractor can't deliver a quality product to the customers satisfaction, he/she shouldn't be a contractor.