Bloody Contractors

[murphy]

Not much you can do about it other than hit them with a “priority fee” the next time they make a similar request.  Calling out their dishonesty doesn’t usually accomplish much.  

I used to get all bent out of shape about this kinda stuff until I began viewing it as an opportunity to make more money doing the same task.  Don’t make it personal.

[beuckie]

I’m definitely not taking this personal. Just wanted to get it out of my chest. 😉

Priority fees don’t work over here. They just go somewhere else if you start with this.

[just-a-surveyor]

I try to charge extra for those “need to have rush jobs” but you can be sure some other surveyors will do it for half the regular price.

Charge all you can but I feel your pain.

[John]

Where I work now, we have some truly terrible customers (believe me, that is being very kind calling them “terrible”).

The owners believe that we “are taking food out of our mouths” if we turn some idiot (again, being too kind) away.

On the other hand, a couple of us here have seen these jerks take entirely too much of our time and energy…. which results in other, better and more important customers being ignored or put off. To me, that is wrong.

Dump the terrible idiot jerks and don’t look back. Would make Everybody’s life easier and calmer.

[beuckie]

it needed to be done anyway but i would rather spend my sunday evening with my kids instead of a dirty construction site

[brad-ott]

ƒ??They just go somewhere elseƒ?

Let ƒ??em go.

[scotland]

I feel for you.  Been there and had the same done to me.    I always put in a buffer for my time.   Always seems to be something come up that wasn’t expected then they want me to do it our of my own pocket and time.  

[jimcox]

No contractor should come before your kids – especially not a disorganised one

No contractor is worth working Sundays for – especially not a disorganised one

That sort will just continue to abuse your good nature.

Just say “No”

 

 

[P.L.Parsons]

I am so happy we don’t have construction contractors as regular clients. Well, we have one, but he only uses us to get out of the ground, has his own layout crew. We do the boundary, topo, set some control points and that is the extent of our involvement. Once in a while they will call to get us to double check calcs if they are convoluted or confusing, but they have their heads screwed on pretty well. 

 

The guy I work with and I both agree, we are too damn old to put up with that crap anymore. The one that broke us from construction layout had 6 companies at one time or another do layout for him, was always looking for the cheaper price or the guy that would drop everything and go hold his hand. I don’t know who he finally settled with, but thank God he doesn’t call us anymore. 

[a-harris]

It is not always contractors that expect impossible things.

For every client my words are the same, “I will call you as soon as I have completed your survey”.

I have a few clients that begin calling me the day after I’ve been in the field to check on the status of their survey and demand a completion date and continue to call and/or text once or twice or more a day every day afterwards.

Often, more than likely, I do not talk with them again until I am finished or unless there is some problem that I need their assistance on because of some irregularity or absence of information for them to answer a question so I can complete the survey.

Some people simply treat everything as though we can pluck things off the shelf and have it for them immediately.

0.02

[Norman_Oklahoma]

I’ve been doing a lot of construction staking these past few years – apartment buildings mostly -  and while the contractors are always on a tight schedule, and the surveyor is on the critical path at all times, they don’t sweat the charges much. I’ve largely lost interest in doing small boundaries.