Your Sub Did The Job. The Bad Review Has Your Name On It.

The customer never learned your subcontractor's name. They learned yours.

Your name was on the estimate. It was on the email that said who was coming Thursday. So when the tile started lifting three weeks later, the review went to you.

The person who laid that tile does not work for you. They are a sub you have used for years, mostly good. You were not there that day. And now you are looking at a one star describing work you did not do, from a customer who is completely right to be upset.

The true reply is sitting right there: "This work was performed by a subcontractor." Do not write it.

Why "it was the sub" fails in public

The customer hired you. From their side there is no sub. There is your company, and your company sent somebody who got it wrong. Naming the sub in your reply sounds to them like you are passing the blame to someone they never picked.

The stranger reading your page hears something worse. They hear that when a job goes wrong, this business points at somebody else. Nobody reading your reviews is hiring your sub. They are hiring you, and what they want to know is what you do when a job goes sideways. "Not our guy" is the answer they are afraid of.

There is a practical side, too. A public reply that names or describes your sub can start a second fight with a business you still need next month, and that fight can get legal.

What owning it looks like

Owning the outcome does not mean confessing to every detail. You do not have to agree with how the customer describes it. You do have to say, in public, that fixing it is on you.

Keep the reply short. Acknowledge the problem they actually named, say it is not how your jobs are supposed to end, say you are going to make it right, and give them your name and a direct number. Leave out who did the work, and do not explain your crew structure to strangers.

Something like: "Dana, tile lifting three weeks in is not okay, and I'm sorry. It's ours to fix. I want to come see it myself this week. Call me directly at [number]. Kevin."

Then actually go see it.

The conversation with your sub

That one happens in private, and it happens before you promise the customer a date.

Get their side first. Sometimes the sub cut a corner. Sometimes the material was wrong, or the prep was yours, or the customer changed something after. You need to know which before you walk into that house.

Then settle who pays for the fix, based on whatever you agreed in writing. If nothing is in writing, this is the week you find out why it should have been. Either way, the customer never sees that negotiation. They get one fix, on one schedule, from one company.

Do this

1. 1Reply within a day or two. Keep it short, and do not mention a subcontractor, a crew or anybody else's name.
2. 2Name the actual problem in plain words and say it is yours to fix.
3. 3Give your name and a direct number, not the office line.
4. 4Call your sub before you call the customer. Get the facts and agree on who covers the fix.
5. 5Go see the job yourself, or send the person you trust most.
6. 6Fix it on a date you can keep. Only after it is fixed, ask the customer if they would update what they wrote.
7. 7Write down what failed and make it a check on every job that sub does from now on.
8. 8If the same sub shows up in more than one complaint, that is a vendor decision, and no reply will fix it.

Why it keeps landing on you

If you run subs, you are the brand and they are the labor. Every review, good or bad, lands on your profile. That is the deal.

It cuts both ways, though. When your sub does great work, the five star has your company name on it too. The trick is getting the good ones written as often as the bad ones. Unhappy customers go looking for your page on their own. Happy ones mostly need to be asked, and your sub is usually not the one asking.

Where the card fits

It does nothing for this review. The fix here is a phone call and a return visit, and no card changes that.

Where it helps is the pile of good jobs your subs finish without anybody asking. Give your crews a tap card for the final walk-through, pointed at your profile, and the happy customer standing in their finished kitchen can leave a review before the truck pulls away. Your name gets credit for the good work the same way it takes the hit for the bad. A card from shop.optechsol.llc is how your review history stops being mostly the jobs that went wrong.

The short version

The customer hired you, so the bad review is yours even if your sub did the work. Do not name them in public. Say it is yours to fix and give your name and number, then sort out the facts and the bill with your sub in private before you promise a date. Fix it, then ask for an update. And start asking on the good jobs too, so your subs' best work shows up under your name.