Another frustrating day - OR - the saga of getting the door fixed

I called a friend June 5 about having some work done on the house. I told him I needed my front door jamb repaired, and I needed a little place of my vinyl siding on the house put back. It kept coming off, and I wanted it fixed. He told me it would be about $60 to fix the door jamb. I thought that sounded low, but said OK.

When we talked about having the siding fixed, I told him the part I needed replaced was aluminum. No problem, he said, I’m doing that right now. He said he did that kind of work all the time himself.

I told him that I would be available the 16th and 17th of June. He immediately jumped on the 17th for some reason. I tried to explain that I’d really rather they show up on the 16th. I was afraid of typical delays, and wanted to give myself a time cushion. When we ended the call, I re-confirmed with him that I would see him on the 16th.

The 16th came, and no guys. I left a message or two, but really wasn’t feeling very well. I figured he would show up the next day, and left it at that.

He called me that evening to confirm that he would see me the next day. I went over the jobs again with him because he had forgotten the siding job.

The morning of the 17th, I got a call. His guy was finishing up where he was, and would be with me in an hour or so. This was about 9:30am. At 12:40pm, still no guy. I left a message. At 1:30pm no guy. I left another message. At 2:40pm, I finally reached my friend, who said he had just gotten my voice mails, and thought that the guy was already here.

At 3:10pm, the guy showed up. He had no idea about the siding job. He looked at the door job, and started making that expensive “tut-tut” noise that repairmen make. I asked him if he would be able to finish the job today. He looked surprised, and said that Oh, they wouldn’t be doing any work today. They were just here today to make measurements. He also told me that he had only been called him about the job last night. Grrrrr.

The door jamb, because of the age of the house, is now supposed to cost about $300.

I was told that in order to get a piece of siding aluminum replaced, they had to buy a whole roll (about $100), and then contract to have it bent, another $100. They wanted $200 to fix a 4 and a half foot piece of aluminum.

I guess I’ll just miss another day of work. I really think it was a bit soon for me to go back tomorrow anyway.

I’m pretty over it. Especially since after they left, they called my friend to tell him I was pissed, and he called all telling me he didn't want any hard feelings over this. And I'm sitting there thinking "Then why are you jacking me around like this then?" But of course I'm over a barrel. I can't get anyone else to do the work at this point. So they're coming back in the morning. Supposedly. I'm first on the list for tomorrow. They are to be here about 8am.

I called a siding guy to come look at the eaves. He sounded pretty nice, even though it was a small job. I'm going to get a quote from him on doing the out building in my back yard to match the house while he's here.