Bad Customers Black List

Trim40

Twice this year(so far) I have GC's attempt to screw me out of money. I agree with a list for bad GC's. I 'm getting tired of staking out their homes.

WisePainter

Why are you on the outside staking out the house...you need to be inside shaking down the house.

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My advice: Hire a real painter to do it.

Dutch1962

That's actually a good idea. But somehow I think the satisfaction would be short lived. Better to just move on and get to the next customer. Too much time wasted on losers makes you the loser.
Be the pro and enjoy life.

LadyFinisher

After reading through this thread I did some searching and I found this website for a marine company that has their dead beats listed

perfmardotcom/DeadBeatsdothtm

Funny.

jimmys

This just got a sidebar writeup in the Journal of Light Construction May issue p. 15. Says: Membership costs $5/yr...Libel rules still apply...be "very careful about posting information".
Sometimes you just have to get something off your chest. Might be safe if you tell the truth?
Jim

carolinahandyma

Has anyone on CT ever used this Business Beware site www.businessbeware.biz and can shed some light for us?

dadema

Waffleface:

I have been a contractor for over 15 years and have had my fair share of bad eggs. I usually post my experiences on removed

Hope this helps

ChrWright

Sniff sniff....


Smells like...

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Astrix

I believe you could safely have such an information forum, but to be safe from allegations of libel/slander you would have to keep it off of search engines, and it would have to be a private site where only qualified contractor members could join and have access. If the information is not publicly available, then the odds of being shut down for libel or slander are slim.

FYI, the insurance industry has blacklists of suspected insurance fraud. The records are kept by province (and by state I assume for the USA), but I have seen info on out-of-province businesses pop up when I do a name search. If a potential client comes up on the list, the only thing we can say to the client is that the insurance company does not want to insure them because of "class of business" or "not within the insurer's appetite at this time". We can't even tell them the very basics that an insurance black list exists and their name is on it; not even mentioning why they are on it and what has been written about them.

dadema

True. And if you have information that is of public record (ie, mechanic's lien) then the person you are talking about doesn't have much recourse.

SewerRatz

Here is the rub. There is Angie's list and many other sites where a home owner can rate a contractor. But if we try to make a site where we rate the homeowner we can get in trouble? How does Angie's List get away with what they do? I am a plumber's Service Plumber meaning I subcontract for lots of other plumbers. A few of them get their calls off of Angie's List and the home owners always end up calling the owner of the shop i am representing with a threat like "If you do not lower your price I will give you a bad review" Or like the poster in this thread stated a buddy of his got burned and never got paid by the home owner but the home owner still slandered the contractor on the site.

I have had a few people hire me to do a job and had no intentions to pay us. One job the Owner of a rental property showed up , showed me what needed to be done and told me to call him when I am finished. I called when I was done, he said he was busy, to just leave a bill with the tenet and he would send a check. Of course no check ever came, and he changed his phone numbers. We just ended putting a lien on his property. Had others right us the check all happy for the work we had done, only to get it back NSF or STOP PAYMENT. Again property liens worked for us in these cases.

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marketingmaven

Interesting website! There is a $5 fee to join. I joined and searched my county. No listings there but I did find one in the next county over. I'll be sure to steer clear of him! You can search the database by county or zip code. Also available in Canada.

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ash83

The site Business Beware is set up for business/contractors to use to help warn each other about those customers you just cannot please (and we all have at least a few you know of). This is set up like a reverse BBB or Angie's List. It's not for you to just go rant off about someone because you're pissed off, it's really about helping out your fellow business so they don't get scammed by the same person. Customers are able to file a rebuttal if they choose to just like the BBB works in a way. In a sense, yes you should be careful with things you say but you should with whoever you tell about someone. You don't need to bash someone, just simply state the case and there is a rating system where you can rate how hard they are to deal with.

There is always two sides to a story of course, this site lets you tell yours just like the BBB lets customers tell theirs. And for the customers sake, they can tell theirs if they choose. If customers can have many outlets to use to rate businesses, there is no reason a business can't have a place to give their business a voice too. The site promotes small businesses as well, giving them a spotlight for once so others can read their stories too. It's in no way like those sites you see like RipOffReport.com where they exploit everyone who is complained about... It's made for businesses by small business owners, if they believe in it, you should too

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carolinahandyma

I had looked at www.businessbeware.biz a while back but they didn't have any posts in my area of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) so I didn't join.

I believe ash83 is right, contractors can submit complaints and ho's may respond too.

ash83

Thank you for backing me up There are some people filed under Durham from what I saw not too long ago... So you know..

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ToddRolston

Shouldnt that guy be able to sue Her for Defimation of character and possible loss of business due to inaccurate slander ?

sean26

On the one or two occassions I've been stiffed by customers, I've harassed them until they begin to make payments. It's no skin off my nose to spent 20 seconds a day leaving messages on answering machines - or to drop by on a weekday night at around 9:00 with my hand out. If you've done a good job for someone, why the hell would you just roll over and die when it comes time to getting paid??

clowny

I am extremely disappointed to see that this didn't go anywhere.
I just found out that I am at least the third contractor to get screwed over by a particular couple in Sea Girt, NJ. I should have listened when the building inspector mentioned that the wife was "evil".
I assume there would be legal issues with bad mouthing taxpayers that have a lot more money than we do, but all the same, we should be able to protect one another a little bit.
I have been at this craft for 35 years and have numerous credentials, but none of this prepared me for a woman who is hell bent on getting over on me.
Fortunately, my ducks are in a row, but I should not have to use the legal system to be paid for work completed at or above industry standards.
Apparantly my downfall was when I mentioned (I thought in passing) that I am not out to impress the homeowners as much as the building inspector and other trades on the job with our workmanship, because they actually know what they are looking at. OOPS! I have said something of this sort many times to other customers and they usually ask the building inspectors opinion, which is always extremely positive; we are the good guys, the homeowners love us and want to bear our children.
Not this time.

woodworkbykirk

i worked on a house a couple years ago where the homeowner was playing all kinds of games. just a complete nightmare for me.

she hired the hardwood contractor, she withheld $6000 which from what i understand put the guy under

when the hvac installers we used had worked on a previous house she owned, first thing they said when they saw her was "awe, F$%# not that bitch again"

at the end of the project she said she was unhappy with certain things and was going to withhold her final payment. as soon as she made that comment we dropped the word LAWYER, cheque was in hand within 5 minutes

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putting down subfloor with glue and screws, well i saw dr. smith and the robot too , i had a martian burger and a sonic shake

jeffatsquan

All my perspective customers need good references before I get involved