Littering

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

I witnessed a locally based contractor throw trash out his truck window. When I walked by I asked him not to litter and he didn't react at all. One time this happened before I called the police non emergency line to report a license plate and they just said thanks, but didn't say they would send a warning letter or issue a ticket. Will they?

I'm not going to post the name of the business in this forum even though i want to, unless the moderator tells me its appropriate.

I seriously would be OK with caning Singapore style for littering. There is simply no reason to litter, you can't feed your family by littering.

Comments

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

Bob Carroll Old School Roofing. Based out of Somerville.

Independent of the littering, I would say not to use him based on experience I had in 2004/5 timeframe when I hired him to do a small roofing job for me. Both business practices, personality and the actual work weren't up to snuff. But that is not informing how I feel about the littering, I'd forgotten all about having used him until after I saw the littering.

I can't say for sure whether it was him or an employee. So take with a grain of salt.

[ron_newman]

Thanks, and I'll now add the 'home repair' tag to this post.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

This is making me want to think about putting together some Somerville centric review site of contractors. Any feedback on that idea? Would I be duplicating what is elsewhere?

I am a Somerville landlord/developer and I work for a contractor (so I see many subs that are good and bad) and I believe in investing in the Someville community so it would be a fun and relevant project for me, but want to see if folks think that would be worthy or not. And if anyone would like to assist. I know .HTML, which might be enough technically (or might not) but there is also deciding on content/layout etc.

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Angie's List and Yelp ought to cover it, really...

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

Yelp maybe, but I was a member of Angie's list for over a year and used the service several times. I did not feel that a good Angie's list rating meant much in the end. Still lots of no shows for quotes, never following up after seeing the jobs and all had excellent reviews. I think that a locally focused list where no one pays to be listed or to subscribe and where person to person discussions can take place would be useful.

[spettacolo.livejournal.com]

There's actually a mailing list called "Arlington List" that has tons of local contractor discussion. I found a fantastic electrician there. It's Arlington focused, but being so close to Somerville, contractors are still relevant.

I do not like the whole concept of Angies list or any review site which is making money. This includes Better Business Bureau... which I've discovered is sort of a racket. Non-profit, non-ad, local discussion fourms are the only thing I'd really trust when looking for a contractor. It would not take much to register a domain name, install a free forum package and start something up.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Well, we could all try posting contractor reviews to Yelp. It's the most-used review site for restaurants and small stores, so why not contractors?

[rhean.livejournal.com]

Can you add an edit to your post with the business name visible?

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

I don't understand what is being requested. You mean edit the original post instead of my reply?

[rhean.livejournal.com]

Yes please! like a line that says something like:

Edit: Mods encouraged me to post the business name: it's Bob Carroll Old School Roofing.

[ron_newman]

Edit the original post in addition to your reply here. That way, when people later scan the 'home repair' posts, they'll immediately see your disapproval of this particular business.

[justjess.livejournal.com]

Just in case you're not sure how to do this, you can edit a post by logging in, going to the post's comments screen, and clicking on the pencil icon in the bar at the top of the screen (above your original post, below the LJ banner). That should open an edit window.