seriously?

The insulation is in, and that is the only good thing I can say about this last week. Let's do this in timeline format, shall we?

Early November: I call the drywaller, and agree to find my own insulator when he tells me his has retired. After much calling back and forth, I find an insulator and call the drywaller back and schedule our drywall to begin November 30th. He puts us on his schedule, or so he says, and tells me to call him if anything changes.

November 27th: I'm getting nervous, as I haven't gotten any sort of call from the contractor asking if we're still on, or confirming anything, or even saying anything about signing a contract, which we haven't done. I assume he'll bring the contract with, on the first day of work, but STILL. So I call him, the day after Thanksgiving, and, predictably, get no answer. I leave a message saying that I'd like to confirm that we're still on his schedule for Monday, could he please call me or Don back, and leave our numbers (although he should have them).

November 30th (Monday): Don takes off work so that he can do a walkthrough with the drywaller when he arrives. We wait, and wait, and he fails to show up. I call his cell phone at least five times and leave a couple of messages.

December 1 (Tuesday): He finally answers his cell phone in late morning. I say politely that I had thought we were supposed to be on his schedule this week, and that I'd been trying to get in touch with him. He says he was out of town, makes no mention of getting any of my messages, and says he can PUT us on his schedule for the week, just let him call his hanging guy and see when they'll be done that day, he'll call me back in a bit. I wait until nearly 5 PM, then finally call back. He says he was going to call me as soon as he got into the office, and that the drywall will be delivered on Thursday and hanging will commence on Friday. I ask if he can come out for a walkthrough, as there are a few trouble spots that weren't there during the estimate (plumbing, etc). He says absolutely, he can come out around 2 PM the next day, he'll give me a call when he's on his way and oh, he'll bring the contract with him.

Wednesday: He doesn't call. Don takes the afternoon off of work to be here for the walkthrough. The drywaller doesn't show up. We call several times throughout the afternoon. Finally, Don leaves a message on the guy's voicemail saying, essentially, either call us back or we'll be moving on to another contractor. Rather predictably, he doesn't call.

Thursday: Shockingly, no drywall is delivered. I call the other drywall contractor we got similar quote from in August, and leave a message asking if the quote's still good and if not, can we get another. He calls me back and says he'll check.

Today: New drywaller calls back again - meaning he is officially two phone calls higher in my estimation than his predecessor - and tells me they can do the job for the same price he quoted me in August. I ask him to come out for a walkthrough. He says he can come out on Monday, and will give me a call. I have limited hopes.


This whole thing has been... just... why wouldn't you put forth the simple basic minimum effort and call somebody back? Clearly the guy didn't want our money. And, it seems, may not in fact know how to check his voicemail. In which case, uh, good luck with that business of yours.

So now I don't know if we'll have drywall by Christmas, and I'm kind of depressed about it. The entire experience has left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth, and I'm so sick of waiting for phone calls I could spit.