I pretty much hire contractors for a living. The real people to blame are the contractor houses/journals/whatever bs they're calling themselves now. When the average person googles for a contractor, the first 5-10 links are all going to be "top ten (plumbers, whatever) in your area." People assume that these are the 10 best reviewed or reputable ones around them, when in reality they're the ten companies that journal has a backend deal with. They don't guarantee work or signify quality contractors. They literally mass aggregate and bid jobs and they're the reason local contractors sometimes struggle to compete. They're the wal-mart of home repair.

This is why I have a very select list of contractors I've built over the years of working in facility maintenance. I am a huge believer in small businesses. My contractors are almost entirely small business owners, unless it's entirely unavoidable. They get their shit done on schedule, I don't have to chase them around, and I don't have to supervise their work. They answer when I call and sometimes even proactively take care of problems for me that are out of the scope of the call if they notice them on site. I understand how people can unknowingly get duped into calling one of the big crooks, but we really do need to continue to spread awareness.