Too good to be true

I had a board rot on the front of my house. It's been rotted for more than a year but my homeowner's association just noticed it last month and have threatened to sue me if I don't replace the rotted board immediately.

As such I went to Home Depot yesterday morning. I was proud of myself for getting up so early and taking charge. I took the offending board to the store and told the "info desk" clerk what I needed. She directed me to the lumber cashier for help. I waited in line to be told someone else would have to help me and she paged someone. This young guy comes up and says he's not sure what I need and grabs an older man and asks him. I say I wanted treated wood, if possible, because it's for outside. The older man says - and I quote - "I don't sell that here."

We start talking about what he does sell there and he offers to follow me home to see exactly what it is I need (apparently the board I brought in wasn't enough). He suggests he can install it too - which excites me because I want to be sure it's right.

I ask if he also installs baseboards (I still don't have any) and he says he does. I'm really excited at this point because I'm thinking I can charge his labor upfront and then pay when the bill comes in. So I ask if I can charge his labor. Turns out he doesn't even work for Home Depot! He's just a contractor who spends a lot of time up there - which, I decided was okay too. I still need these things done.

Anyway, we exchange numbers and I give him my address because he's going to do "one thing" and then come see what I need done. So I come home and promptly start throwing things in pantries and closets, etc. because I want to have the baseboards done and that means he'll probably come inside.

An hour passes. Then two hours. Three hours passed and I haven't heard from him.

Five hours later I called him. He'd forgotten about me, but he says he'll come right then - and then he does.

Come to find out, not only does he NOT do the work himself, minimum labor costs are $250, no matter how small the job.

I need one small board tacked up and he wants to charge me $250 in labor! That doesn't even include materials!

Needless to say, I didn't hire him to do the job. I went back to the store (Lowe's this time, so I didn't run into him again) and bought an untreated board (they won't cut treated wood and an uncut board would do me no good) and tacked it up myself - for less than $8!

So the fact that it seemed good (that I'd found someone and they seemed available to do the work) was an illusion.

I don't know though, I think I did a pretty good job with the board out front...maybe I could give installing the baseboards a try. LOL