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We have been stupid busy this year. I'm used to this being a come and go kind of occupation, with high seasons and low seasons, but I've never seen anything like this year. We have been hiring steady since July, have turned down more work in the last 4 months than we actually did all of last year, and we are currently booking out 10 weeks. It's a great problem for a company to have, but I really hope this settles down soon. Also I'd like to suggest that instead of turning down work that we don't have the time/people to do, we start turning down work based on the IQ and/or crazy factor of the owners of the buildings.
Case(s) in point:
Can't see the light
Customer calls into the office, talks to my coworker. After our guys left his site he couldn't find one of his lights, customer is sure our guys took his light with them when they left. My coworker calls the crew in question, finds out they did not take a light and do not have a light on the truck, and left all the lights on site. She called the customer back and a left a message to this effect. He called back later in the day and got me.
He wanted me to know, he found his light, in the back corner of the house, where he couldn't see it, because it was so dark. He wanted me to explain to him why the guys would leave it there. (Possibly because it was dark back there so they were using it to see to work?) I asked him why he couldn't see it, was it burnt out. No, he had taken the extension cord out to the garage so none of the lights were plugged in, and that's when he couldn't find it. (So you can't see in your house, and can't find one of your lights in your dark house, and your first conclusion is that our guys stole a light from you?)
Then he thought we should offer him some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. I was so stunned I actually said to him on the phone 'You want a reduction in price for the inconvenience of you not being able to find your things in your house once you've unplugged the lights?' I didn't even realize it was rude until I heard my boss laughing behind me, and the customer sulked 'When you say it like that it sounds stupid'. I didn't know what to say to that, so after a VERY long awkward pause I said 'Would you like to phrase it so it doesn't sound stupid?', causing my boss to leave the room in hysterics, and customer to hang up on me. Customer called back eventually and paid full bill.
Write, rewrite, right?
Had a customer complaining that we did the job wrong. Complaints were numerous and bad, I was sent out to the job to inspect with the customer and go through his complaints. His main argument kept being 'but the plans say', with my main argument being, 'but your quote says'. We quote a job, we do what the quote says, we get paid the amount on the quote. Seems straightforward to me, but he really didn't think it mattered what the quote says, we were supposed to do what the plans say.
So we start going through the plans to see what he actually wanted done. When he starts pointing out things that we didn't do according to the plans, I start countering with ways the building wasn't built to the plans, so that we couldn't actually do what was on the plans, it was no longer physically possible. He goes over and starts actually inspecting the building, comes back to the table we were working at, takes a pencil, scratches out things on the plans, starts writing over top of it how the building was actually built, and then changes our section of the work to something that we didn't do, but was now possible with the way the building was built. 'But the plans say...'
Did you really just re-write that in front of me, and now your argument is that we didn't do something that wasn't in the plans until just now
. When I casually suggested that the plans didn't say that the day before when the guys were finishing their work he said that it didn't matter, he wrote the plans, it was still valid.
1. That's not how plans that are stamped by an engineer work
2. Our guys, in addition to never seeing the plans, are not time travelers and could not have anticipated this change
3. That explains why your plans look like they were designed by a coked out beaver with bad instincts
4. After we made all the 'repairs' the customer demanded the inspector failed the job, he doesn't care what the plans (now) say, the building has to actually make sense for it to pass
5. Have to stop doing stupid things just because the customer is an adult that owns the building and can make his own bad decisions
Blame it on the rain...
We have had a number of 'barge jobs' scheduled for this fall. This is when the truck and equipment is put on a barge which takes it to an island, is parked at island for the day(s) the work is done, and then returned to land after. Whenever we get this calls in September or after we ALWAYS warn the customer that the weather is dicey this time of year, we can't control it, the barge drivers are in charge of when we go. Period. We have over 50 days of barge work left for the year, and it is NOT all going to get done. People have not been very understanding about this. Pretty much the only lake with ice breakers is Georgian Bay (not the most forgiving of waters in the winter), we are rapidly running out of time, people have been making more and more ridiculous demands. Reality is:
We will return your deposit, but you are no longer on the priority schedule list
No, we will not convince the barge driver to go after they say it is not happening that day
Yes we will take snowmobiles over, when that is possible, if your job doesn't need a truck. There is no way of telling when that will be, we will NOT schedule it now
Your quote clearly says this job is weather dependent, and there will not be a discount for us not coming before a particular day
Yes we will drive the trucks over, if that is possible. If it gets cold enough this year, it probably won't be until February. You will just have to wait.
Yes, there are ice breakers on the bay, yes we there are still barges on the bay, yes we can keep scheduling your job. The barge drivers had said no EVERY DAY for the last three weeks, I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon. It will be flat again in April, accept that and move on.
How do people live (cottage) on these islands and not understand these things by now?
A better question: why do I let these things bother me on a weekend ?
Case(s) in point:
Can't see the light
Customer calls into the office, talks to my coworker. After our guys left his site he couldn't find one of his lights, customer is sure our guys took his light with them when they left. My coworker calls the crew in question, finds out they did not take a light and do not have a light on the truck, and left all the lights on site. She called the customer back and a left a message to this effect. He called back later in the day and got me.
He wanted me to know, he found his light, in the back corner of the house, where he couldn't see it, because it was so dark. He wanted me to explain to him why the guys would leave it there. (Possibly because it was dark back there so they were using it to see to work?) I asked him why he couldn't see it, was it burnt out. No, he had taken the extension cord out to the garage so none of the lights were plugged in, and that's when he couldn't find it. (So you can't see in your house, and can't find one of your lights in your dark house, and your first conclusion is that our guys stole a light from you?)
Then he thought we should offer him some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. I was so stunned I actually said to him on the phone 'You want a reduction in price for the inconvenience of you not being able to find your things in your house once you've unplugged the lights?' I didn't even realize it was rude until I heard my boss laughing behind me, and the customer sulked 'When you say it like that it sounds stupid'. I didn't know what to say to that, so after a VERY long awkward pause I said 'Would you like to phrase it so it doesn't sound stupid?', causing my boss to leave the room in hysterics, and customer to hang up on me. Customer called back eventually and paid full bill.
Write, rewrite, right?
Had a customer complaining that we did the job wrong. Complaints were numerous and bad, I was sent out to the job to inspect with the customer and go through his complaints. His main argument kept being 'but the plans say', with my main argument being, 'but your quote says'. We quote a job, we do what the quote says, we get paid the amount on the quote. Seems straightforward to me, but he really didn't think it mattered what the quote says, we were supposed to do what the plans say.
So we start going through the plans to see what he actually wanted done. When he starts pointing out things that we didn't do according to the plans, I start countering with ways the building wasn't built to the plans, so that we couldn't actually do what was on the plans, it was no longer physically possible. He goes over and starts actually inspecting the building, comes back to the table we were working at, takes a pencil, scratches out things on the plans, starts writing over top of it how the building was actually built, and then changes our section of the work to something that we didn't do, but was now possible with the way the building was built. 'But the plans say...'
Did you really just re-write that in front of me, and now your argument is that we didn't do something that wasn't in the plans until just now
. When I casually suggested that the plans didn't say that the day before when the guys were finishing their work he said that it didn't matter, he wrote the plans, it was still valid.1. That's not how plans that are stamped by an engineer work
2. Our guys, in addition to never seeing the plans, are not time travelers and could not have anticipated this change
3. That explains why your plans look like they were designed by a coked out beaver with bad instincts
4. After we made all the 'repairs' the customer demanded the inspector failed the job, he doesn't care what the plans (now) say, the building has to actually make sense for it to pass
5. Have to stop doing stupid things just because the customer is an adult that owns the building and can make his own bad decisions
Blame it on the rain...
We have had a number of 'barge jobs' scheduled for this fall. This is when the truck and equipment is put on a barge which takes it to an island, is parked at island for the day(s) the work is done, and then returned to land after. Whenever we get this calls in September or after we ALWAYS warn the customer that the weather is dicey this time of year, we can't control it, the barge drivers are in charge of when we go. Period. We have over 50 days of barge work left for the year, and it is NOT all going to get done. People have not been very understanding about this. Pretty much the only lake with ice breakers is Georgian Bay (not the most forgiving of waters in the winter), we are rapidly running out of time, people have been making more and more ridiculous demands. Reality is:
We will return your deposit, but you are no longer on the priority schedule list
No, we will not convince the barge driver to go after they say it is not happening that day
Yes we will take snowmobiles over, when that is possible, if your job doesn't need a truck. There is no way of telling when that will be, we will NOT schedule it now
Your quote clearly says this job is weather dependent, and there will not be a discount for us not coming before a particular day
Yes we will drive the trucks over, if that is possible. If it gets cold enough this year, it probably won't be until February. You will just have to wait.
Yes, there are ice breakers on the bay, yes we there are still barges on the bay, yes we can keep scheduling your job. The barge drivers had said no EVERY DAY for the last three weeks, I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon. It will be flat again in April, accept that and move on.
How do people live (cottage) on these islands and not understand these things by now?
A better question: why do I let these things bother me on a weekend
?
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