In a story, that is, unfortunately, all too common in the world of residential construction and home improvement, a St. Louis doctor and his wife had a very bad experience with a remodeling contractor. In 2004, they initiated a $200,000 room addition and kitchen remodeling project, and trouble signs began to surface almost immediately.

After only a few days of demolition, the project sat unattended for more than a week. And despite serious misgivings, the couple chose to soldier on, pushing the contractor to stay on schedule. The project proceeded, in fits and starts, until many weeks after the original project completion date and much of the work was yet to be completed. Then came an unusually long absence followed by some bad news. The contractor was going under. He was filing for bankruptcy.

In the end, the doctor and his wife lost most of the $150,000 they had already paid. Later, they found a new more competent contractor to finish the job, but by then almost a year had passed and they had been seriously nicked financially in the process. Ultimately, the couple had the means to recover and move on.

Case closed, right? Not really. This one bad experience has had ripple effects throughout the high-income community where the couple resides.

First, there was the serious strain that this mishap put on the friendship between the couple who referred the contractor to the doctor. The referring couple had worked with the contractor on a smaller job and were relatively happy with the outcome. So when their friends asked his name, they were willing to give a recommendation.

Second, both couples say they have told the story as a cautionary tale countless times in the ensuing years. And though the exact dampening effect that this negative retelling has had on the local market is hard to calculate, certainly many remodeling projects were delayed or scrapped on account of this single circumstance. Indeed, management experts at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Management who recently studied the effects of satisfied and dissatisfied customers have confirmed the age-old truth that bad news travels faster than good news. They even have put numbers to it.