I Don't Understand the Contractor Business

Two weeks ago today, we had a contractor come out to the house to look at some repairs. He even commented on the many other things that, theoretically, we could have him do besides the things we were having him quote out. It's an old house. Go figure. As he left, he said he'd "give us a call on Monday with some numbers". When Wednesday came, I got ahold of him. He apologized for the delay, and told me "by the end of the week". The end of the week came, with no response. Over the course of the following week, I've left numerous voicemails, with no return call forthcoming. He seemed really interested in doing the work, because -- after all -- if we liked his work, he'd have had a lot of opportunities for future work. And yet, silence reigned.

I started calling another contractor. Leave messages, get no callbacks. Not a one.

How hard is it to convince a contractor to give you a call back, for Christ's sake? It's like, we want to give them fucking money, and work, and nobody can even be bothered to return phone calls. The only one who actually returned our call, couldn't be bothered to give us a quote.

What's the secret to convincing a contractor to actually (a) call you back, (b) give you a quote, and then (c) do the work? If anyone knows a contractor in the Hudson Valley who wants to do all three of those things, feel free to drop me an e-mail.