This ever happen to you???
Had an appointment with a homeonwer first thing this morning to look at an interior remodeling at his home. We set the appointment Weds. So I get there today and he’s got a crew already on-site working!
I was courteous and he said he decided to go with someone who could start sooner. (A little impulsive but hey…) I left him my card and thanked him for calling and he thanked me for coming out but I thought WTF?!!!
I wanted to lay into the guy about being such as ****head and not calling me to cancel the appointment but thought that not very professional. So I just got in the truck and left.
I was mad about it for an hour or so but after a cup of coffee and having an attractive gal at the local big box ask for a business card when she saw the truck, I was over it.
But still, what a jerky thing to do! Anyone experience that? I’m sure someone has.
Mike
Edited 7/14/2006 9:47 pm ET by Oak River Mike
Replies
It's a free country. Yea it sucks but what can you do? That's the cost of dealing with people.
Break the windows out of the other contractors truck. That's Sopranos style. :)
Tipi fest 06. A nice place to get away with the family and enjoy the lush estates of Cliffordland. And hang out with the amazing shirtless camper dude from the great white North. Eh
I think it'd be more like hit the guy with a shovel and break his arm. Make the other worker fall off the scafold/ladder. Then take his wallet and tell him he owes you $500 a week. Every week.
ROAR! Yea that's a lot more like it. I love that show, just for that stuff.
Tipi fest 06. A nice place to get away with the family and enjoy the lush estates of Cliffordland. And hang out with the amazing shirtless camper dude from the great white North. Eh
Break the windows out of the other contractors truck. That's Sopranos style. :)
Thats good but I say pluck his eye out, thats the Dan Dority way!
I'd have said something to him. If you don't and the other guys don't...then why should he stop....not that he would anyway...
I say wack him...
If Blodgett and Gunner say, Tipi tipi tipi it must be so!
TipiFest 06~~> Send me your email addy for a Paypal invoice to the greatest show on earth~~>[email protected]
Is his wife good looking? Maybe cheat on him with her. Yeah that would show him.
Knock her up.
Tipi fest 06. Crawling the pubs of NYC. Loading up on gourmet food,underwater bocce ball, shirtless camper dudes with umbrella hats. And a chance to sit down and meet and visit with old friends. Get hip to it.
Hey Rez. Did I spell all that right?
Edited 7/14/2006 10:21 pm ET by Gunner
Where did that red hair come from?
Imbedded hand prints are bad too.
Tipi fest 06. Crawling the pubs of NYC. Loading up on gourmet food,underwater bocce ball, shirtless camper dudes with umbrella hats. And a chance to sit down and meet and visit with old friends. Get hip to it.
Hey Rez. Did I spell all that right?
Just do the old time Kentucky favorite and burn him out.
Then tell him you'll cut him a break on rebuilding it.
Tipi fest 06. Crawling the pubs of NYC. Loading up on gourmet food,underwater bocce ball, shirtless camper dudes with umbrella hats. And a chance to sit down and meet and visit with old friends. Get hip to it.
Hey Rez. Did I spell all that right?
But dont show up for the estimate!
I say everybody whack everybody. Just keep my number handy. ;-)
I would ask the HO how happy he would be if he had stayed home from work that day waiting for you to come for an estimate, and you didn't show. Tell him it's the same thing for you, and shows his lack of respect and thoughfulness for others.
As he does the foot shuffle thing, with eyes dropped to the floor, WHACK HIM. It won't help, but at least it won't be a completely wasted trip.
SHGFor every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.
-H.L. Mencken
Yeh
Wack everyone is right. Thats why I rarely leave home...I just wanna hear about it on the news..
What a wonderful world this could be hee hee
PS- Hey...if ya wanna go pool hoping I'll be home after my docs appt...home by 12-1.
Damn pool is crystal clear : )If Blodgett and Gunner say, Tipi tipi tipi it must be so!
TipiFest 06~~> Send me your email addy for a Paypal invoice to the greatest show on earth~~>[email protected]
I find a crystal clear pool vitally important to help me digest the salt around the rim of my frozen margarita, if you get my drift.
cant help ya with the margarita (baby frggin' drink anyway you girlyman)but betcha my cement pond is crystal clearer than yer cement pond...
Just finished painting the soffets and facias round back, mowing the lawn and cleaning the pool...think I'll go look for the peace pipe and call it a day....
Tomorrow I'm out back paintin' red againIf Blodgett and Gunner say, Tipi tipi tipi it must be so!
TipiFest 06~~> Send me your email addy for a Paypal invoice to the greatest show on earth~~>[email protected]
The answer is yes .
One time this guy decided he wasnt going to pay me . I asked why and he said it wasnt worth it . I said we agreed on the price . He said I know we did but I just dont think it was worth it .
I would have understood if DW had said that .
Tim
So what happened?
be curious
He hit the guy with a shovel and broke his arm. Then he made the other worker fall off the scafold/ladder. Then he took his wallet and told him he owes him $500 a week. Every week. And not to be late.
Ohhh tipi tipi tipi. Tipi tipi fest, Yes we're gonna party with the very best. Come over to the tipi. Give Andy all your dough. Cause you gotta to pay. If you want to go. Sing along Y'all.
Tipi fest 06. Get hip.
Edited 7/15/2006 1:14 pm ET by Gunner
Hey, you stole my line! Now you owe me a beer in the Tavern. Every week. And don't be chincy, make it an import. LOL!
I "absorbed" your line and became one with it. :) I love it.
Ohhh tipi tipi tipi. Tipi tipi fest, Yes we're gonna party with the very best. Come over to the tipi. Give Andy all your dough. Cause you gotta to pay. If you want to go. Sing along Y'all.
Tipi fest 06. Get hip.
Edited 7/15/2006 3:15 pm ET by Gunner
he didnt pay me
It was two weeks labor . At the time I didnt think it was worth the trouble for court. Now I take many claims less to small claims court on a regular basis from rental properties.
Ive refused to work for his family 7 times in the last 20 years er ther bouts. They keep needing refreshers. For some reason they get pizzed over it. Its a small town so that might be it .
Thats the only money on a job Ive ever lost so Im lucky.
Tim
I had a job rebuilding a small porch going into a mobile home. No contract. No deposit. Just agreed with the owner to come back in a couple of weeks and do the job.
I get ready to go 40 miles round trip for material. Decide to drive by and see if there is anything else I need. The porch is done. They never called and told me they changed their mind. I told them about my "suprise" and they just said the new guy at the husbands job had just graduated from tech school in carpentry and so they had him do it. It never occurred to them, there would be any problem.
As far as your situation goes, if the guy was that inconsiderate, its best you didn't get the job.
Now, if you go to an appointment to see the attractive gal from the big box and she is kissing the same contractor goodbye while telling you she had already been taken care of, then that would be a problem.
We had a lumberyard order trusses once, and set a delivery date. But when we showed up the house was already shingled. Then they claimed they had never ordered the trusses.
Guess there are jerks all over...
You don't get FAX orders from lumber yards?
I FAX all orders over $1K to my lumber/truss supplier. Covers both our butts when the yard screws up a load, and I never break a bundle until I have counted everything in it.
I got charged for three units of 1/2" CDX that I never recieved once, along with the two units if 1/2" rigid foam I had substituted for the plywood. My framer was a long time customer of the same yard, so when he confirmed that the plywood had never been delivered I got a credit. I learned a valuable lesson from that experience.
Dave
Some truss companies do want faxed orders, others don't. In this case it was all done verbally. They even gave us their P.O. number. But since the HO refused delivery there was little that we could do legally. Can't file a lein based on a verbal agreement when nothing was actually delivered.
I'm on the road constantly, where the hell is Easy Street?
Some truss companies do want faxed orders, others don't. In this case it was all done verbally. They even gave us their P.O. number.
But since the HO refused delivery there was little that we could do legally. Can't file a lein based on a verbal agreement when nothing was actually delivered.
I disagree. No big deal. Verbal is supported with document of PO . Verbal is supposed to be binding if it can be proved. Seems to me you had proof.
Tim
The PO# in this case had been given to us verbally. We had nothing in writing. Once they figured out that they had screwed up, they claimed that they had verbally cancelled the order the day after they placed it. You also have to keep in mind that there are only a finite amount of lumberyards out there. You can't just quit selling to one and expect to pick up more customers to replace it. So burning bridges is a bad thing to do if you want to stay in this business. Fortunately, the number of time that we've gotten burned like that is REALLY small. The lumberyards also know that they can't screw their suppliers too badly or they won't be able to buy anything. In this case it was an 84 lumber yard, and they've pulled out of this part of Illinois. So we no longer have to worry about them.
I don't lie, cheat or steal unnecessarily.
84 pulled out of here this past year as well.
Tim
I guess thats why there are purchase orders . Yall didnt get one from them. If the truss company would have had a purchase order you could have said , well where do you want these things?
Tim
Maybe, down the road a month or two, he'll call you back to finish where this contractor left off and then you can recoup your lost time and expenses plus a little extra to soothe your pain.
Send him a bill for two hours - lot of doctors and other professionals charge when you don't notify of a broken apt.
if he doiesn't payu, ignore it, but maybe he will pay and send a note of apology. Worse has happened
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
that would be making a bad situation worse. At least now he's still the good guy, so when the current contractor becomes the enemy, the HO will turn to him or may call the next time. By sending a bill, he guarantees that he will not only never see a cent, but the HO will tell all his friends what a mutt he was for sending a bill for a free estimate.
I agree with you one hundred percent. Just disengage and move on. Worse things will happen. It aint all that bad.
Why is everybody assuming the other guy is a hack? Just cause he happened to get put in an uncomfortable situation doesn't mean he's gonna goof it up and Mikes gonna have to come and save the day.
Ohhh tipi tipi tipi. Tipi tipi fest, Yes we're gonna party with the very best. Come over to the tipi. Give Andy all your dough. Cause you gotta to pay. If you want to go. Sing along Y'all.
Tipi fest 06. Get hip.
I probably wouldn't bother doing it because of the PITA factor, but sending a small bill for your time has some benefits. First, it allows the HO to recognize your effort which he may simply have overlooked. Second, in the absence of any response, it confirms that this is not someone that you want to work for. And third, it may eliminate future inquiries by his like minded friends and encourage calls from acquaintances who think he is a horse's a**.
What about sending a "thank you note".It would start asking the client to keep him in mind for future work.Then end up with a comment about reliability.That Mike is reliable and keeps his appointments and projects schedules. And remind him how how the client is frustrated when someone does not show for an appointment.And likewise the contractor is not only frustrated but could have been working on other paying projects.It has to be very low key and written very, very carefully.
Nothing wrong with that idea, but I bet that few people could write something that low key and effective. My bet is that most people here would rather vent and beat the guy up, even if they start out trying to be effective.
Also, there's a question about how much MORE time you want to put into this fellow. You've already wasted time, do you really want to spend MORE? Do you really think it will pay you back? Do you really think you are going to make him feel horrible about it?
Here's a HOs perspective. He's been really busy, and forgot that he should have called and let the contractor know that he had already hired somebody. But hey, it happens that you get tied up and make a mistake. In any event, the contractor knew when he came for the estimate that he might not get the job and was prepared to lose a few hours of his life. So no harm, no foul. It wasn't intentional or malicious, but a mistake. Contractors never make mistakes? Contractors never make appointments that they miss? Contractors never waste HOs time?
So maybe the guy is a bit of a jerk, but not the biggest a**hole in the world. And not worth getting too bent about, especially for guys who have made the ocassional mistake in their own businesses. Just another perspective.
SHGFor every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.
-H.L. Mencken
Many folks seem to have the attitude "hooray for me, the heck with everyone else." OK, fine. Remember that the next time he calls. I charge such folks a 10% premium. The heck with them....
I wouldn't send a bill, but a nice letter explaining your thoughts on this %&*hole and then forget about it. Then if he replies, go after him like you read about. Obviously the guy has no business scruples. I wonder how he hired the other guy so fast and what quality of work he does.
Oak River Mike,
Nothing happens untill something is sold..
Clearly the salesman for the company doing the work knows how to sell.. the idea of dropping off a quote and waiting isn't going to work anymore!
I'm sorry but that's life..
I wish every client I spoke to would give me their full attention during the salespresentation but they don't . As a professional salesman I know how to command attention when they don't but most of what I would suggest can be too easily abused if done improperly.. no one presentation works all of the time..
Selling is a skill you'd better master if you intend to make your living in a tough and getting tougher enviornment.. Those who don't master it will be standing on the sideline watching.
--- I wish every client I spoke to would give me their full attention during the salespresentation but they don't . As a professional salesman I know how to command attention when they don't but most of what I would suggest can be too easily abused if done improperly.. no one presentation works all of the time.. ---:-)
Now Im dieing to know
As a professional salesman I know how to command attention when they don't but most of what I would suggest can be too easily abused if done improperly..
I know ways of killing people with a single punch but just like you I am too concerned that this knowledge would be abused if I published it
JohnIf my baby don't love me no more, I know her sister will.
Maybe a professional response like yours will get the homeowner to realize that they are dealing with a professional.
The really galling part is if the contractor who gets the job is using some of the ideas you gave the homeowner.
Something will come along to balance the raw deal you got.
Could be worse...Before I required deposits on even the smallest jobs, I started a small trim job--getting a restaurant ready to open--and the owner stopped in after I had worked for a day or two and said, "We changed our minds...not doing this now...we aren't paying for this."
What the ?????
Be Jaded.
Edited 7/17/2006 10:01 am ET by basswood
Even worse is when you begin to develop a relationship with a client, work together on design ideas, and then they take your ideas to a lower bidder.
Lots of great replies here folks thanks.
Just to clarify, I never even got to give a sale pitch (I'm actually a pretty good salesman as I'm quite the hunk...OK, I'm really uglier than hell but very tall and folks like tall guys)
Anyway, seriously I found out from the person who gave the HO my name that hes actually just flipping the house and wanted someone in there fast and cheap. So I wouldn't have gotten the job anyway as I am neither.
But I also found out he has no permits for what he is doing. Hmmmm? I wonder if a call should be made to the local building department? Is that wrong to do?
Mike
But I also found out he has no permits for what he is doing. Hmmmm? I wonder if a call should be made to the local building department? Is that wrong to do?
If you would call on a friend because it's the right thing to do, then call. If you're inclined to be a rat, then call. If not, move on to better things and let the Building Inspector do his job.
SHGFor every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.
-H.L. Mencken
I really have nothing to add and to say some good thought out posts .
Pretty cool.
On the other hand some times when its dull a BI likes to get one of these calls . Then he gets to walk on the job and say , what ARE you doing ? Its really cool to get all those signals.
ON the other hand I guess you are right that he should find them .
Tim
he wasted your time, pay back being a bitch, make the call. waste some of his flippin' time
Just let it go. Don't be a chick. Like you say, if he's operating like that you wouldn't be doing it anyway. Nobody likes a rat.
Ohhh tipi tipi tipi. Tipi tipi fest, Yes we're gonna party with the very best. Come over to the tipi. Give Andy all your dough. Cause you gotta to pay. If you want to go. Sing along Y'all.
Tipi fest 06. Get hip.
Are you implying that building inspectors are rats?
be a P.I.B.I.
private investigator building inspector
all building inspectors should get a dogbite in the azz when they're creeping around
No. Stop leading the witness counselor.
Ohhh tipi tipi tipi. Tipi tipi fest, Yes we're gonna party with the very best. Come over to the tipi. Give Andy all your dough. Cause you gotta to pay. If you want to go. Sing along Y'all.
Tipi fest 06. Get hip.
all building inspectors should get a dogbite in the azz when they're creeping around
never happen. professional courtesy, one mutt to another.