When we signed for this house March 7th 2013, the landlord told us that Pedro, his landscaping guy, would come and finish to clean up the driveway later that week. We started moving stuff in the following week and his junk was still there. When we moved in on the 22nd, Pedro had not yet picked it up and we had to get the landlord to call him...
 
There were also a few minor things which needed fixing around the house and our maintenance guy - let's call him Jack - was supposed to drop by as soon as he got the piece that he needed to fix the stove, possibly even before we moved in, certainly not much later.
 
After months of trying to get ahold of him, Jack finally showed up in late September, and fixed one thing. But apparently he didn't have the piece for the stove so he ordered it and said he'd be back the next day or contact us... Never to be heard of him again, much to the dismay of the landlord who considered him a good friend.
 
The patio door still needed fixing, and since he'd lost his maintenance guy, the landlord finally found another entrepreneur to do the work. Let's call him Frank. They were supposed to get back in touch to schedule repairs for his other house here but Frank vanished. Back to square one in his search of a maintenance guy.
 
As for Pedro the landscaping guy… A few months after we’d moved in, we asked him to come do some work. On the designated day, he showed up at 8 pm instead of noon and rescheduled for the next day. The next day, he was sensibly late but at least he showed up.
 
A few months later still, the second time we had work for him, he postponed at the last minute 3 times in a row, rescheduling to a different day every time. He finally showed up - late...
 
So last month, our landlord was in town and dropped by to say hi,  I mentioned we were trying to get in touch with Pedro to take care of the weeds. He said he'd get him to call us. Pedro never called.
 
When the landlord visited us again at the end of the month and saw that nothing had been done, he called Pedro who lied and tried to tell him that he'd come but we didn't answer the door! Actually, he never called to schedule an appointment, and I'm here all the time, anyway... Landlord told him that I was standing right in front of him and didn’t agree with his version. 
 
While they were on the phone, every time they'd agree on a potential date and the landlord was about to confirm and get a formal commitment, Pedro would back off and suggest another date. He just didn't want to commit. He eventually did, after much back and forth.
 
When the scheduled day arrived, he called, late, saying he was sick and couldn't come. 
 
I got in touch w/ our landlord and said that if he didn't mind we'd try to find someone else.
 
Well so far, since last friday, the two landscapers I've contacted via text and e-mail failed to reply…
 
I just can't believe how inconsiderate people are.  I'd have all of them deported to Canada for a while so that they at least learn to say they're sorry... ;)
 

 
 

I can't picture that on a Maple Leafs jersey. 

 
;)

Though this one is still the best hockey jersey ever. :P
 

 
 
 
If David Gilmour says so...
 

 

The key issue here is that the landlord seems to be the employer. He has little incentive to hire top quality people so long as he is getting his rent. Generally the kind of contractors who behave like this have to work for bottom dollar, or if they can get more from someone else, have an incentive to work for that someone instead of you until there is no more work available at good rates, at which time they may show up at your place to finish the job they promised. If you were the employer, you could ditch the sub-par help.
 
This has nothing to do with politeness. 

slartabartfast
The key issue here is that the landlord seems to be the employer. He has little incentive to hire top quality people so long as he is getting his rent. Generally the kind of contractors who behave like this have to work for bottom dollar, or if they can get more from someone else, have an incentive to work for that someone instead of you until there is no more work available at good rates, at which time they may show up at your place to finish the job they promised. If you were the employer, you could ditch the sub-par help.
 
This has nothing to do with politeness. 

 
Actually, we pay Pedro for the landscaping. The landlord strongly recommended him because he'd done good work at his other property, but he is not involved otherwise - though he did try to give an extra push when he dropped by.
 
As for the maintenance guy 'Jack", he'd done some great work on our landlord's other house a few years ago and they developed a friendship. As a matter of fact, last September, we all had dinner together over there - lovely evening.
 
This has everything to do with politeness and curtesy - and what we call professionalism on a business level.
 
If you tell me you'll be there at 8 am, and I change my schedule to accommodate you, I don't care whether you think you've been paid enough or not - that is your problem if you cannot negotiate a proper salary. You accepted these conditions, you show up. 
 
 I'm sorry to say that if money needs to be involved for people to show curtesy, they need to revise their definition of politeness. If you think you aren't paid enough, simply refuse the engagement.

I'm going through this kind of thing right now with the landlord's plumber who's supposed to be coming over to replace a valve on the heating pipe. I've been making arrangements to come home every afternoon at 1:30pm to let him in. Twice he just hasn't shown at all - no phone call, no nothing. I'll get a text four hours later saying "sorry, was dealing with a housing inspector on a code violation, can we do tomorrow"? On the third day, he shows up an hour and a half late. I tell him sorry, I have to go back out to work now. And the guy flips out on me! "Listen buddy you want me to do this work or not? I come all this way..."
 
This being New York, I'm reluctant to leave anyone alone in my apartment while I'm out, especially with some of the shady characters my landlord's hired in the past. The funny thing is, I've been on rent strike for four months because this repair has been ignored. The deal is, you complete the repair, you get the thousands of dollars I owe you. And they still can't get it together!

New York sounds so forlorn.

The herd is culled on a weekly basis. Canada is about to try and eliminate all underground contractors. It could be illegal very soon to used uncertified tradespeople. My Industrial Electrician ticket I've held since 1984 will become void as soon as the bill passes. The government will now provide all valid licenses and collect a tidy annual fee to keep it.
 
I won't legally be able to change a light switch. I wonder what classification I will need to make tube guitar amps? Carpenter, engineer, electrician, Dr. of thermionic emission???

yorolpal
New York sounds so forlorn.

Strangely enough, despite all the violence, crime and corruption there's nowhere else I'd rather be.