[Tommy]

When I ask for a time frame, I don't want to hear the "if everything works out just right" time. I want to hear the "not later than this even if I have to fly to Japan to get the stuff" time. In other words, tell me 8 months and deliver in 6 and I'm happy. Tell me 4 months and deliver in 6 and I'm not happy.

I once dealt with a local painter who was known to do good work but was notoriously slow and unreliable on delivery time. I asked him how long and he said six weeks. I asked if he would sign a contract for ten weeks and he said yes. The contract specified a discount in the price for every week longer than ten. It also specified that I could reclaim the car when it was more than 5 weeks late at no cost. In other words, he'd get no pay for any of the work done to that point. We signed it. He didn't start work until week 10. He was not finished, but working at a frantic pace, at the end of week 15. He presented it to me at the last hour . . . and it didn't pass inspection due to orange peel. I gave him another day to fix it and he did.

On another occasion I got a shop to agree to a timetable in an email. As it approached a year late I began to hint at legal action. That sped things up.

I wouldn't expect a shop with customers backed up to agree to such a deal. But asking for a time guarantee or getting the conversation in writing might get you a more accurate estimate of the actual completion time than "3 months."