Comments on: Making It Worse for Everyone Who Works for a Living

By: Jeff T

Jeff T — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 01:46:17 +0000

I agree with the “Me” guy. Being a home theater/low voltage electrical construction contractor and repair person (entails every aspect of the home theater - usually rooms costing in excess of $100,000 in nice parts of town - carpentry down to high-end lighting controls with $2000 custom remotes and such…). The company I work for does it all from start to finish, and we spend a lot of time in wealthy areas with incredibly rich people (that drive me nuts sometimes).

Some of them are so leary of contractors they just treat me like scum of the earth sometimes, but most of the time they are awesomely accomadating and genuinely nice people. Always investigate the contractors you hire, but most of them I work along side with are the most honest dependable people you will ever meet on the face of the earth, and I have worked in other fields that I could never say that about. They just have more common sense usually.

By: Me

Me — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:34:55 +0000

I agree that one bad apple can cause a lot of harm. My dad has been a refrigeration repairman for over 30 years. My grandpa started the business back in the 50’s. They are both as honest as the day is long. But all it takes is one bad “undercover investigation” by someone like Dateline to give the whole industry a bad name. But it happens in other aspects of life as well.

For example, a small group of druken idiots can give a bad name to thousands of genuine sports fans. (Think college football at almost any big-time football school.)

It sucks, but like my dad always says, you can’t worry about what other people think. He is fond of saying: “If you are loved by your family, liked by your friends, respected by your peers, and don’t have any trouble sleeping at night; then you are doing ok.”

By: Nate Bezanson

Nate Bezanson — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:09:29 +0000

The question isn’t “why do the contractors do this?”, because obviously it’s the same answer as why anyone steals — their desire for cash exceeded their morals. That answer hasn’t changed since the invention of money.

The question is “why did Lowe’s come down against the woman?”, which is a far more interesting one. The corporate folks obviously want to defend their image, but they could’ve done so by simply distancing themselves from the contractor and siding with the victim. By threatening her, they’ve made themselves into a bad-guy when formerly they weren’t one. That’s incredibly misguided on their part!

By: Chuck Cage

Chuck Cage — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:54:39 +0000

Chris: Agreed, re: find a local contractor. This just pissed me off because I’d imagine that a lot of people read something like this and think “all those contractors are shady.” Even the people at the Consumerist seemed to pick up on that a bit, though I suspect the “industry” they want to “reign in” is the big-box subcontractor set — and they might have something there.

By: nrChris

nrChris — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:50:37 +0000

I tried to find the article, but you try a Google search for “honest contractor finds money” and variations on that. The results are pretty disheartening–they all speak of how to avoid shady contractors, etc.

I love Lowe’s but I would not use them for any installation. I would use a smaller contractor that I took the time to get to know, find out their reputation, etc. Not a large company insulated from anything by their relationship with a sub–unscrupulous or otherwise.