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Appointments made by contractors


Niki

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I have a contractor who is the owner of a little company. He always tells me that he will be at my house "AFTER" a certain time. I keep explaining to him that it's not respectful to expect me to wait several hours for him to show up...if at all. I tell him not to tell me the time after which he will come, just tell me something like he'll be here between 8 and 9 in the morning. He told me that he would be here after 1:30 today. It's now 10 to 4:00 and he has neither arrived or called. I like him and his work is good. How should I handle this?

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Give him a day and time when you need the work done. If he arrives very late send him home. Tell him again that he needs to work within your schedule if he wants the work. He'll either show up on time, or he'll tell you to go f**k yourself. Either way, you take back control of your life and are no longer held hostage. Believe it or not, there are Mexican workers who will show up on time if you require it.

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You learn from experience and eventually you will not have to work with folks like this, who will not change their ways, but you will find qualified individuals who understand that working with foreigners requires a few small differences, such as reasonable punctuality, if they want to be hired and employed by you. You have one very strong recommendation right now. Entirely up to you whether to choose him or continue being held hostage time wise by your guy.

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Most of the contractors who understand the importance of working within a particular time frame have worked in the US for a period of time. And, of course, these people have some understanding of English as well.

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I have a contractor who is the owner of a little company. He always tells me that he will be at my house "AFTER" a certain time. I keep explaining to him that it's not respectful to expect me to wait several hours for him to show up...if at all. I tell him not to tell me the time after which he will come, just tell me something like he'll be here between 8 and 9 in the morning. He told me that he would be here after 1:30 today. It's now 10 to 4:00 and he has neither arrived or called. I like him and his work is good. How should I handle this?

Why should he come on your time, if you keep asking him back no matter what time he shows up (or doesn't show up). Your mistake was calling him a second time when he did not come as agreed. Too late now, he will never change. You created this monster, now live with it, or find someone else. Suerte !

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This is what I told him:

We stupid Gringos have a saying. It goes "fool me once , shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." We don't even have a saying for fool me three times. So the answer is just go about your life be happy and forget me.

Then he begged me to him him one last chance. This is how I replied:

If you want to come here I won't promise to be here; because you are not dependable. If I'm here I will be polite and let you see what I need and quote it. But how can I trust you to come and do the work when you promise? I didn't just fall off the turnip truck. That was years ago, and I'm mostly better. I wasn't born yesterday.

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. This man opens his mouth and removes all doubt. I intend to contact Gustavo on Monday. Thank you all for chiming in. Namaste!

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I will find out when he calls me. He was recommended in this post above.

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North of the border being on time and work is very important. Mexico is not NOB. Here friends and family come first. I do wish the Mexicans would call and let people know if they cannot be somewhere at an appointed time.

I use Chuy Rojas for any problems or needs and changes at my house. He worked several years in California and speaks very good English. He learned about gringos expecting people to be on time. He and his crew do very good work and at a reasonable price.

Contact Chuy Rojas at: 33 1416 1259

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We have known some contractors who do this; also some who show up on time, and a couple who show up early! Very disconcerting when that happens. I also know contractors who will come as soon as possible, when we have something broken that needs to be fixed ***right away***, and we certainly have no problem waiting around for those guys.

I always ask for a set time or span of time for them to appear -- and if they don't show, I just continue on with my life. I call them, and ask where they are. Every once in a while, someone has been so disrespectful of my time, that I have told them not to come - and made sure that they understand why. People will treat you, the way you teach them to treat you. That said, this is Mexico and people are less slaved to a clock, than the NOB types. So I kind of weigh the relative importance of any particular contractor, with my need for them to show up when expected.

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I have used Ricardo and his crew for 15 years .He speaks perfect english and is always on time

He has a key to our house and does most of the work when we are in the states and has done an excellent job on both small and large jobs.

Cell phone 045 3312867648

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I think that many Mexican contractors are under the impression that because someone is almost always home in their homes--wife, grandma, aunt, somebody--someone is almost always home in expats' homes, so it doesn't matter when they show up. I have had several experiences when a contractor has set an appointment with me and not shown up when scheduled. When I have finally called them two or three days later they have said something to the effect of, "I went yesterday and nobody was at home." Surprise!! I didn't even wait around all day the day you scheduled let alone another day or two beyond the agreed upon day and time! You would think that after all these years of having foreigners living in the area that they would have learned but it doesn't seem to get through to some. The crux of the matter here is reliability, or what the Mexicans call being "cumplido." As the OP said, if I can't count on you to show up for this appointment, how can I count on your showing up to do the work when you say? And even more how can I count on you to do repairs under warranty when there is no more money involved? Those who are successful have learned that they need to be "cumplidos" with expats, regardless of how they deal with Mexican customers.

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bdlington hits the nail on the head. Historically, there has always been an abuela or some other family member at home, so the clock is not the most important thing. It's up to us to train ourselves, not the other way around. And I've said it before: there are a lot fewer health problems associated with stress in Mexico, than there are back home.

However, no matter how often I remind myself of this, I still gravitate towards the folks who know I expect them on time, or close to it. I've offered tiling jobs and bodega construction jobs to guys who just didn't bother to show up for days or weeks at a time, and I tell them I've meantime found someone else... .

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Agree with both of you. Another issue is also the cultural one of " I have made enough money today so I can stop working and come back tomorrow or the next day when I need to make more money". This is also part of the ridiculous stereotype of Mexicans being lazy when in truth I have never seen folks who work harder. They just work differently than we ourselves are accustomed to doing and seeing NOB. Working long hours and making a lot of money is simply not a huge motivator to a lot of folks here as it was to most of us NOB.

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Working long hours and making a lot of money is simply not a huge motivator to a lot of folks here as it was to most of us NOB.

And I believe, because they make much more money from expats than they would if we weren't here, they are even less motivated to return quickly, for the reasons Al points out. They take some time off and treat their families; or some I know simply spend the time enjoying the country's popular elixir.

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I was just thinking that often we are not home when they return at a day and time not scheduled because we are out doing some kind of charitable work for the benefit of Mexicans. I wonder if there has ever been a study done on the economic impact of the presence of foreigners living, either year-round or part-time, at Lakeside, both the positive and negative. I also wonder how aware the Mexican community is of the good work done for them by the foreigners, such as charities helping children with education and medical needs, helping the elderly, and rescuing homeless animals. Or even a story about why so many foreigners choose to live in Mexico rather than in their own countries. These would be great stories for the local Spanish-language media.

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They are aware, but it is not high on the list of important things in life. There is also the awareness that we are quite strange and many would not be inconvenienced too much if we all vanished. Many expect that to happen anyway and that fatalistic view is accepted as normal.

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There are plenty of contractors, handymen, plumbers/electricians, and painters that show up on time here. No need to deal with the slackers.

That has been my experience as well and I've used more than a few of them here at the "Casa de Reparaciones."

:D

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