Had a similar experience a couple years back when we needed roof repairs. The estimator kept hyping some network I'd never heard of, promising they'd handle everything from permits to insurance. Decided to do a quick Google search and found their "office" was basically a PO box in another state... yikes. Ended up hiring a local guy who showed up in a beat-up truck but did amazing work. Lesson learned: shiny brochures don't fix roofs, people do.
"shiny brochures don't fix roofs, people do."
Couldn't agree more. Reminds me of the time our neighbor hired some fancy nationwide company. Their workers spent half the day taking selfies with their branded vans... Meanwhile, our local guy finished our roof and was halfway through lunch already.
Exactly, flashy marketing rarely indicates actual craftsmanship. Still, not all larger networks are problematic—some have pretty strict quality checks. Always best to verify reviews and references directly rather than trusting brochures alone. Good local workers typically earn their reputation through consistent results.
That's a fair point about larger networks—some do have rigorous vetting processes. In my experience, though, even the best networks can occasionally let quality slip if they're expanding quickly or juggling too many projects at once. I've found that direct conversations with past clients often reveal more about a contractor's reliability than any official rating system. Curious, has anyone here had an experience where a highly-rated network contractor didn't meet expectations, despite good reviews?
I've definitely run into that before. Last year, we hired a contractor through a pretty reputable network to redo our deck. Reviews were glowing, but the actual experience was... underwhelming. The workmanship wasn't terrible, but they missed deadlines and communication was spotty at best. Later, chatting with neighbors who'd used the same contractor independently, I found out they'd had similar issues. So yeah, direct conversations with past clients can really give you insights that official ratings sometimes gloss over.
