There are NOT two sidings to this question.

(or, what my boss called, Perry Mason's Case of the Clueless Contractor)

L has received about 4 bids. I don't want to "out" their pricing because we haven't decided yet, but the high bidder is about 30% higher than the low bidder. We are doing the whole house, of course, not just the addition, and the house will be 2-stories, roughly 2500 square feet, plus a 350SF integral garage when we are done, so it's a decent-sized job. One guy wrote up a detailed bid by hand and submitted it when he did the measurements. One guy came and took measurements, then submitted a professional-looking bid via email. There was a third one, early on, who has submitted information a while ago, as well.

Guy #4 wanted to make sure we were BOTH there to do the dog and pony show, possibly even with a slideshow presentation. I'm sure the other guys wanted the work too, but they just wanted to review drawings and get busy with their tape measure. When Guy #4 got there, L told him the same as the other guys. He even had a short spec sheet, detailing what we do and do not want. No slideshow. This is what we want, this is the material we want (we'd already researched what we wanted and what would work in this climate), this is how the window treatments will be done, this is how it will be painted, take your measurements and get me a price - I'll get back to you when I've reviewed all the bids. The guy was there for maybe an hour. We got busy with other contractors on the site, and left him to get his measurements. When he was done, maybe an hour later, he wrote a price on the back of his business card. L told him he'd need a detailed breakdown of the price. When L didn't get any detail in a couple days, he called the guy. He said he was having a problem with emailing it or something. At that point, I'm getting pretty reluctant to talk to him. He could print it out, fax it, throw it in an envelope or even drive it over. IF the detail info even exists (smirk). How bad do you want the work, fella?

So, he calls L a couple days after that and says, he'll come over and redo the measurements (although we have framed in the addition during Aug and September, the house has not grown since last week) and get us a lower price. He schedules it for Tuesday, 6:30pm. How he thinks he's gonna measure the house in the dark, well, I can't answer that. We delay dinner, etc. until it's clear he's not coming over. No phone call or email to explain why. Friday morning, he calls - well, this is the email I got from L while I was at work.

The --------------- Company, who was supposed to be out Tues, called to set up a new time. First today, then when I said you wouldn't be there, they went for tomorrow. Then they started giving me the song and dance that we had to take the offer then and there (basically without detail), so I blew them off - I said if they couldn't take the time to provide, in writing, what their bid covered that we couldn't do business.

We're not talking about $300. We are talking about a job in the low 5-figure range and he truly thinks we'll sign on the dotted line without any detail showing what is to be done. As L said, the fact that he said we would have to "sign today or else I can't promise you this price" raises big red flags. Big red flags on fire. Over and over through this whole remodeling experience, I keep remembering my boss's Rule #1 - when you go to court, the guy with the most paper wins. I can't believe he really thought we'd fork over that kind of money using the back of a business card. I guess, though, some people actually DO. That's scary.