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The question: How to politely tell the customer they are wrong?
The situation: I am the designer, not the builder. Customer is General Manager of a resort hotel, which is the site. Customer takes me over to a certain partial height wall in the job site. The slate tile has been grouted on both sides and top of wall (it is 95% complete). He tells me the wall is too high, and it should be lower.
Later, I went back through my project notes, and found the specific notes, and dimensioned sketches where we (customer, builder and myself, along with other hotel management) discussed this very issue.
The wall will get changed to what the customer wants. The way I see it, the contractor will get paid for the change, as they built the wall correctly in the first place. The problem is who will pay change. I am willing to pay, only because I know the contractor will do the work, and I don’t think they should eat the cost. This is really an issue between client and myself. Builder is just caught in cross-fire.
The concrete for the wall has been in place for a month already, and the slate has been on for a week. The wall isn’t any higher than it was a month ago, or a week ago. If it is too high, why wasn’t this brought up earlier? In addition, the General Manager and the Cheif Engineer have had sets of drawings since before the installation started.
I really do think this is a real change by the client. The problem is the client is corporate Japanese, so I can’t really tell them they are wrong, especially not in a meeting with all of the other players. How to request payment without alienating them?
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Replies
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The question: How to politely tell the customer they are wrong?
The situation: I am the designer, not the builder. Customer is General Manager of a resort hotel, which is the site. Customer takes me over to a certain partial height wall in the job site. The slate tile has been grouted on both sides and top of wall (it is 95% complete). He tells me the wall is too high, and it should be lower.
Later, I went back through my project notes, and found the specific notes, and dimensioned sketches where we (customer, builder and myself, along with other hotel management) discussed this very issue.
The wall will get changed to what the customer wants. The way I see it, the contractor will get paid for the change, as they built the wall correctly in the first place. The problem is who will pay change. I am willing to pay, only because I know the contractor will do the work, and I don't think they should eat the cost. This is really an issue between client and myself. Builder is just caught in cross-fire.
The concrete for the wall has been in place for a month already, and the slate has been on for a week. The wall isn't any higher than it was a month ago, or a week ago. If it is too high, why wasn't this brought up earlier? In addition, the General Manager and the Cheif Engineer have had sets of drawings since before the installation started.
I really do think this is a real change by the client. The problem is the client is corporate Japanese, so I can't really tell them they are wrong, especially not in a meeting with all of the other players. How to request payment without alienating them?
Any thoughts or suggestions?