Home Repair "Professionals"...

Okay, so I'm not really a ranter, and I should probably just post my issues on AngiesList or something, but what is up with the way contractors and small businesses are doing business lately?

It's making the hard-working individuals who do their jobs and show up on time look bad, and it's really making me wonder just how many people are being taken advantage of out there just because they don't necessarily know the logistics of the jobs that are being done on their homes. 

First off, I just want to say 'thank you' to Dish Network for being expedient and professional when our dish started malfunctioning a few months ago. They set an appointment for the next available business day, updated us on any time changes, and called before and when they arrived.

They were very professional, cordial, and fixed the problem (even giving us an updated dish when it was probably not a necessity). He was in, out, and very friendly and courteous. 

In other aspects of home repair, things have not been so professional: Last year, my dad had his roof redone to fix the damage and leaking caused by a tree falling on the house a couple of years ago. However, when Joseph and I moved back in between us moving into our new house, Joseph went to put some boxes up into the crawlspace and came across a horrific sight.

The contractor that "fixed" the roof had:

1. Left all of the moldy and water-rotted debris from the original accident up there in the crawlspace.
2. Not properly secured the hole he cut back into the roof for the exhaust pipe to run out, leaving a hole (with a piece of roof tile falling through it) that could easily allow water in.
3. Had used wood on the roof that looked nothing like what we originally had up there; side-by-side it looked like they had used the cheapest stuff they could possibly find... And for the price my dad paid, if we would have done the same job ourselves, at least 1/2 would have been straight profit!

And NOW (bare with me), our one-year-old air conditioner just STOPPED working! Yet, the guy who installed it and warrantied it (a family friend of my aunt's) said he couldn't get out here yesterday because he was having dinner with his mom ...and said he would be out here today at 9AM sharp, but didn't show up 'til around 1:30 this afternoon (without bothering to call).

Okay, seriously, it's the middle of summer (real air feel around 102 degrees, and I have a six-month-old daughter that had to suffer through it yesterday while we had to slowly cool down the house from 85 degrees with the window units we luckily stored in the shed!), and now he's saying the motor has gone out on our BRAND NEW air conditioning unit, and since he will have to order it, it will be a few more days before it gets fixed (when there are stores that carry A/C parts all over town)!

...And he was rude as crap, like I was causing him a hassle.

I just have a serious question though: What if we didn't have the window units (a sweet Godsend)? Would my daughter have to sit in the heat, with no A/C, in the middle of the hottest part of summer for what promises to be a week before the air gets turned back on?

Uhhh! Sorry, but I feel better now. 

Has anyone else had these sort of quality issues with home repair "professionals" lately?