How Do You Handle Services That Don’t Show Up?

My husband and I have crazy work schedules and little time for home chores.  We  hired a yard person for a reasonable price, maybe too reasonable, since he STILL hasn't shown up!

I think many people are extremely busy these days, so busy that they’re, willing to spend the money they really don’t have in their budgets, to hire services to catch up on things around the house that are being neglected.  My husband and I are no exception to this dilemma.

We decided that we had to figure out in our budget to hire a yard person to take care of the mowing and weeding.  We were given a name of someone who was said to be both reliable and reasonable.   Without hesitation, we made the call and made arrangements for this person to come over on Monday, LAST Monday.

Not only did this person not show up, this person never returned our phone calls, leaving us to our own demise to figure out WHEN we’re going to get our" way over grown yard" taken care of.  We're now worried with reason, that our neighbors will start a protest  for our now disheveled yard that makes “The Munster's” yard look like a well groomed paradise!

It didn't help that I suffered a painful shoulder injury on Friday, which put everything on my busy schedule even further behind.  I don’t know what’s more painful, a shoulder injury, or the fact that we were stood up by someone we thought we could count on, and not even returning our calls to explain really feels like a slap in the face!

Have you ever hired someone who either didn't bother to show up, or did such a bad job, they disappeared off the face of the earth every time you tried to reach them?  How did you handle your situation?