Said It Here

How do you deal with a rigid and untrustworthy service provider?

Bad service providers often impose strict cancellation policies while delivering subpar work, cutting corners, and acting unprofessionally. This leaves clients constantly chasing answers, feeling unable to trust the work being done, and trapped by burdensome rules that make it difficult to walk away.

Overview
People affected21 accounts across 12 forums
Workarounds found35 items attempted
Community agreement231 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

35 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Looking for a new dog walker
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Checking municipal water meters for continuous running
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Hiring an independent CPA to review returns before signing
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Sending certified letters demanding explanations and billing details
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Looking up firm reviews on Google to check for similar complaints
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    switching to alternative local beverage companies or independent distributors for better service and margins
    Did this help you?
  7. 7
    canceling contracts and going a different direction
    Did this help you?
  8. 8
    checking with local peers regarding how individual distribution centers run before signing
    Did this help you?
  9. 9
    Being skeptical of prices that seem too good to be true
    Did this help you?
  10. 10
    Waiting for semi-annual parent-teacher conferences to get real information
    Did this help you?
  11. 11
    Guessing or wondering about program structures and requirements
    Did this help you?
  12. 12
    Picking another vendor
    Did this help you?
  13. 13
    Voicing experience to the account manager
    Did this help you?
  14. 14
    Calling a different company for a second opinion
    Did this help you?
  15. 15
    Inspecting the equipment and doing personal research to verify the work
    Did this help you?
  16. 16
    research restaurants carefully rather than assuming busy or expensive means good
    Did this help you?
  17. 17
    pre-book airport transfers
    Did this help you?
  18. 18
    agree a fixed taxi fare wherever possible
    Did this help you?
  19. 19
    Asking hosts to send screenshots of speed test results before booking
    Did this help you?
  20. 20
    Sticking with established major carriers like AT&T
    Did this help you?
  21. 21
    Calling the underlying vendor directly when outages or billing issues occur
    Did this help you?
  22. 22
    Warning others to avoid the vendor entirely
    Did this help you?
  23. 23
    calling bank to prove payment on the spot
    Did this help you?
  24. 24
    chasing management repeatedly for follow-ups and compensation
    Did this help you?
  25. 25
    filing public negative reviews
    Did this help you?
  26. 26
    Closing doors to affected rooms
    Did this help you?
  27. 27
    Vacuuming up stray pests
    Did this help you?
  28. 28
    Keeping the HVAC system turned off
    Did this help you?
  29. 29
    Researching treatment safety and methods independently online
    Did this help you?
  30. 30
    addressing the issue directly with the vendor in writing to request an explanation or meaningful refund
    Did this help you?
  31. 31
    checking the contract, emails, and texts to see what was agreed upon and documented
    Did this help you?
  32. 32
    escalating through the payment method or vendor platform used
    Did this help you?
  33. 33
    Switching to competing laundry service providers
    Did this help you?
  34. 34
    Purchasing and maintaining laundry appliances in-house
    Did this help you?
  35. 35
    Tenants hanging clothes to air dry when systems fail
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/travel3 people · September 2026

“Our biggest disappointment was the general lack of hospitality and customer service.”source ↗

“Considering the enormous number of tourists and cruise passengers passing through Kotor, the infrastructure simply didn't appear able to cope.”source ↗

“Kotor Old Town in particular could be extremely expensive without the quality or service necessarily matching the price.”source ↗

“Paying €84 for that particular vehicle and a traffic-free journey left us feeling thoroughly ripped off and wasn't a great final memory of Montenegro.”source ↗

Odd-Pea-3034 · r/travel · 119 upvotes

“For Airbnb or Booking.com I’ve on occasion asked the hosts to send screenshots of speed test results. It’s a hassle for them and they could fake it, but worth a try.”source ↗

Dismal_North6638 · r/travel · 1 upvotes

“I often get to my accommodation and find the advertised internet is slow or broken.”source ↗

“Staff at the location rarely know how to fix it.”source ↗

PersonalityChemical · r/travel
r/sysadmin4 people · September 2026

“I said i was dissatisfied that a paid NBD on site service had taken a full week to resolve a straightforward problem.”source ↗

Obvious-Water569 · r/sysadmin · 68 upvotes

“Some MSPs look solid during the sales call, then the cracks show once tickets, escalations, or security issues start piling up. What red flag did you ignore early on that became a real problem later?”source ↗

TechnologyMatch · r/sysadmin · 1 upvotes

“It's not even the fumbling of the service that bothers me. These things happen. It's the gaslighting that's a totally new one on me.”source ↗

Obvious-Water569 · r/sysadmin · 1 upvotes

“Like what's the point of paying for it if they won't honor it?”source ↗

speaksoftly_bigstick · r/sysadmin · 1 upvotes

“I called the about an issue and they were like "why are you calling us call the telco" to which I said "the circuit it under your name we can't"”source ↗

“They were charging us $400 a month to "manage" a 50$ coax line from Spectrum [which has no contracts] when we cancelled MetTel got us for 48 months left on the contract. Scummy and slimy run fast away.”source ↗

Stonewalled9999 · r/sysadmin · 1 upvotes
r/moving1 person · September 2026

“Imagine standing there with everything you own inside their truck while being told to pay money you already paid or you won’t get your things.”source ↗

“And this doesn’t even include the damage to multiple items during the move. Our dining table was DESTROYED among other damages.”source ↗

strawberrypie1299 · r/moving · 9 upvotes
r/hvacadvice1 person · September 2026

“My ac company would do checkups twice a year and shit always seemed to work worse after they left.”source ↗

“After he left, same day, my upstairs unit stopped working.”source ↗

Interesting_Low_6908 · r/hvacadvice · 5 upvotes
r/msp2 people · September 2026

“Does anyone have experience with clients using MetTel? Large client is in talks to switching from ATT to MetTel. We are having issues with connectivity and the ability to have a fleet of phones on different carriers seems too good to be true.”source ↗

Inflatable_Catfish · r/msp · 4 upvotes

“Have a client that used them for MediaCom. There were several times that the Internet bill from Mediacom to Mettel was not paid. We would call Mediacom because the Internet was down and they would tell us to pay our bill.”source ↗

deadmhz · r/msp · 1 upvotes
r/Parenting1 person · September 2026

“The Montessori daycare she is at has stopped logging naps and bowel movements.”source ↗

“I have gotten one note on her behavior in 6 months.”source ↗

“When we get there, not a single word spoken to parents.”source ↗

“I am the type of person who basically wants the maximum amount of communication and information, so this is all crazy to me, ha.”source ↗

Kevim_A · r/Parenting · 4 upvotes
r/Pestcontrol1 person · October 2026

“I'm pretty frustrated with this company as the treatment is very different from their inspection estimate, and it's very different from every other source I'm looking at”source ↗

jerichobyt · r/Pestcontrol · 4 upvotes
r/restaurantowners2 people · September 2026

“They had already deposited the certified check I gave them but I noticed they also pulled the same amount as an ACH the following day (I had provided them ACH authorization for future transactions).”source ↗

“They then pulled ANOTHER ACH for the same amount the following week. It’s now been 8 weeks and they still have not refunded any of the money.”source ↗

sixfootmoonquaker · r/restaurantowners · 4 upvotes

“The trucks never showed up when they were supposed to. The rep promised us the world and then when we were set up we could only order a few items, none of which were in the catalog promised.”source ↗

BigPileOfBennies · r/restaurantowners · 3 upvotes
r/PropertyManagement3 people · October 2026

“This is an absolutely enshitified company that does not provide any support whatsoever.”source ↗

“The app that controls the machines is full of bugs and loses connection all the time.”source ↗

Mike_Shenanigans · r/PropertyManagement · 3 upvotes

“I fought with them for a whole year to cancel our contract with them.”source ↗

baldymcbaldyface · r/PropertyManagement · 2 upvotes

“I've had some big issues, and some small issues.”source ↗

corsair130 · r/PropertyManagement · 1 upvotes
r/homeowners1 person · September 2026

“Well, our new walker is very strict and treats it like a formal job where she requires a 2 weeks notice if we have to cancel a walk for any reason and she will give 2 weeks notice in advance for any time off.”source ↗

“She also has tried to go off rover in the first 2 weeks and we denied her request twice because we did not trust her yet.”source ↗

“We don’t tip our current walker because she does not show she goes the extra mile for anything. She also walks half the distance all our other walks would.”source ↗

OutlandishnessOld331 · r/homeowners
r/smallbusiness1 person · September 2026

“Since then, the experience has been a nightmare! This year was poor communication, lack of professionalism, mistakes and confusion surrounding my taxes, and fees that are shockingly high after the returns were already prepared and submitted.”source ↗

“I went from having a CPA I had complete confidence in to feeling like I’m constantly chasing answers and questioning whether things are being handled correctly.”source ↗

kkkkk1018 · r/smallbusiness
r/weddingplanning1 person · October 2026

“So our DJ seriously dropped the ball.”source ↗

“He could not figure out how to connect to the speakers so no one could hear our ceremony.”source ↗

“He used the wrong entrance song (which showed he did have the list just used at the wrong time)”source ↗

“There were few more minor details && our guests didn’t notice but Im still very upset over it.”source ↗

Complete-Panda-2137 · r/weddingplanning

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised