Progress is Slow

Some family/friends of mine have complained from time to time about the poor service by trades people in their area. Sometimes this lack of service is blamed on the small town they live in - well remember this post? Guess what? I still don't have new gutters on my house. The guy that was supposed to come that day didn't show up. He had some excuse about his helpers not showing up and how he had to work by himself. We rescheduled for the Friday. But he didn't show up that day either. Here we are a week later, and nothing. 

So we had to start all over calling companies again. Now we are supposed to have someone coming out on Friday to take a look and provide us with a quotation. I hope they show up. I hope they get the job done. I had wanted to paint after the gutters were in but I'm afraid I'm running out of dry fall days 

Do you have that in your town? Are most tradespeople these days really bad at responding to potential customers? It's no longer a small town problem anymore is it?