Anyone who says that they need it, "ASAP, this week if possible, no matter what the cost".?ÿ?ÿ
The cost doesn't matter because they aren't going to pay you anyway.
Dunno. Had a few I wish I??d turned down. One that stands out was a request from someone to do more work for them after they tore me a new orifice for all the issues my previous survey for them brought to light. Seems they couldn??t handle the truth and after that, I couldn??t handle dealing with them again so I politely turned down doing any more work for them.?ÿ
Did a job for a friend who really couldn't afford it.?ÿ They buyer of the remainder of his original tract threw a fit.?ÿ Rewrote my description to match what he wanted it to say, which, of course, was wrong.?ÿ Later, my friend wanted to split what he had left.?ÿ Told him that I absolutely would not do that because of how his previous buyer screwed up what he still had.?ÿ He begged and cajoled, but I stood firm.?ÿ We are still friends, BTW.
YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID.
When the potential client ask me if I have GPS to setout the foundation as GPS is more accurate.
And they're also telling that same thing to 3 or 4 other surveyors, till they get a bite
@t-ford?ÿ
And ensure that it's measured to the 0.001' to confirm it's the best measurement possible for record...
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I just had to turn away a boundary dispute survey, because the potential client did not have title to the piece of land he wanted to defend. I told him he would either have to get a deed from the heirs of the owner in 1950, which his attorney said would be very expensive, or he would have to go to court and prove title by adverse possession (he told me he had been mowing and clearing brush on the parcel for over 30 years), which is also very expensive. Both approaches to gaining title would have uncertain outcomes, with lots of money being gambled. Without title, my survey would accomplish nothing with regards to the new neighbor crossing over the boundary and using part of the "owners unknown" parcel. Basically, without title, he had no standing to defend the boundaries of the parcel in court. As a surveyor, I have no authority to order people off of a piece of land.
yes to much of the above to include: asking for a proposal telling me they have much more work for me in the pipeline;?ÿ organizations/churches/community associations et al when they have not formally designated one person to manage their procurement;?ÿ they tell me joe' said he could do the job for $$$$ less but they want to use us; fence surveys, mortgage surveys, house location surveys - I send them to the surveyor who platted the subdivision or performed the previous survey.
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- It's a project that we're not setup to accomplish efficiently such as small commercial development or small project construction staking.
- The project is in an area we haven't worked in before.
- The request is coming from an Architect.
- Too busy.
- The conversation starts off with 'I'm having a problem with my neighbors' .
Those are just a few, there are plenty more.
Attitude is an instant deal breaker with me, especially when it comes to their schedules. You reach out to me requesting a survey or design just a couple weeks before you absolutely have to have it & then expect me to stop everything to start on it? No thanks - I'm not just waiting by the phone for calls like that every day. If they're already getting snappy or mad when they first reach out to you then they'll only be madder later on during my work on the project & I just don't have the patience for that myself.?ÿ Plus, I rather not hurt my reputation with losing my cool either on someone who's probably not going to speak highly of you no matter how hard you try to deliver on time & on budget but they'll definitely bad-mouth you should you mess something up. Some times I'll just let them know I can't get to the project if they've been polite enough but if they have not I normally wont respond at all simply because I have a feeling the conversation won't be well received. Sounds bad but I know my limits there and my hopes are other potential clients would see that bad apple for what they are...
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Also, clients floating a potential project past me when I know they've also taken the same one to other engineers or surveyors is also something that really irks me. I'm not looking to be someone else's second or third choice & word gets around our part of NC who's had who look at which surveys or projects. Occasionally, it is an understandable situation where the other firm or firms were just too busy to handle as soon as the client might have hoped (some firms have a year or more worth of backlog around here and that's even for steady/loyal clients). But if the client did not like what those other firms had to say about the project's requirements or their proposal for it then I doubt they will like mine either. Clients & developers asking for professionals to bid against each other on private development projects is kind of a joke right now considering the state of the market but if things change then yes it may come back to that for some of us. Praying that doesn't happen for the private sector
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Another huge red flag to me is in development when a client doesn't want to wait several more weeks or a couple months to obtain all the permits necessary or they say they'll face the consequences for a lack of permit later on. That doesn't bode well with me at all no matter how many notes I may take of conversations or meetings that were held where the client specifically said they were fine with pressing forward. Usually they'll have requested a contractor to preliminarily price the job to get a ball park figure in mind only to like the construction proposal enough to say "well we have certain permits so let's get started" without a completely permitted plan set. That never ends well as most of you know a project is pretty dynamic from start to finish and every agency involved in the permitting process wants to alter to change the design in one aspect or another. There's very few contracting partners that I trust enough to work with in that sort of situation as most will want to change order the client for changes
Anyone who says they're, "just looking for an update of a survey".?ÿ And most of the times they're talking about some random plan of their property from more than 30 years ago.?ÿ How is that an update?
Anyone who says they're, "just looking for an update of a survey".
If they are looking to update a survey that I did it could be different.?ÿ
If I become aware that some other surveyor has recently completed a survey in the immediate vicinity I will usually point the potential client in that direction.?ÿ
The one who scared me the most was the guy who said "Do you have insurance??ÿ I want to sue the County!"
"We're fighting with the neighbor over the fence and we don't have much money"
