Adding a photo of the bad flashing job is what did it for me, because anyone can say a roofer did a bad job but the picture shows it plain as day. I put the date and what I paid in the review too, and a guy two streets over told me he skipped that company because of it. Maybe it feels like a lot, but if it saves one person $900 then it was worth the two minutes.

Ha, your uncle spent 22 years in the oil fields and still thinks a piece of paper never helped anybody. Funny how the job board sold you before your hands even got the chance. Sounds like the cert paid for itself before you even walked across the stage.

Three practice boards and you gave up? That is wild to me. I fought with a cheap jig for way longer than that before I quit. I'm talking a whole weekend, maybe 15 test cuts, burning through scrap pine like it was free. The template kept shifting no matter how hard I cranked the knobs, so every cut was a little off from the last one. You got out way smarter than I did.