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I'm just too nice of a guy
Got a call this afternoon from a guy who couldn’t find a bar he was sure I had set. I remembered his name as I had met him in early 2018 while doing a complicated survey on a tract adjacent to one he had farmed for years.
Today, he was attempting to find a bar that would mark the southwest corner of what he had been farming for years. He started out, though, saying that he was trying to follow a survey I had done for a tract near there as he mentioned my former client’s name. That started the confusion. That survey was for a tract in the southeast quarter of the section and he couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working for him. After about ten minutes of confusion, I finally discovered he was looking for a corner of a tract in the southWEST quarter that now happens to be owned by my former client for the other tract. For a bit, I thought he was asking about one of two tracts I had surveyed years ago on the opposite side of the county road. Meanwhile, he had someone wandering all over Creation with a metal detector looking for a good signal. Then another neighbor pulled up to see what was going on. I’m listening to all of their conversation.
I was searching through my records for a survey I might have done for where my former client now lived. I had needed three of the four corners as part of the complicated survey from 2018. I was starting to believe I had surveyed that tract and would have set the very corner he was searching for. When it didn’t show up anywhere in any of my survey files and index files, I sort of remembered that I hadn’t set that corner because it wasn’t critical to my 2018 survey.
Spent at least 45 minutes searching for something that didn’t exist. His desire to find the nonexistent bar was for a reason that would not justify spending what I would charge him to set the missing bar, in my opinion. He may call back but I hope not. A contractor is supposed to show up Saturday. Not my problem.
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2 Replies
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I often get calls that start out with “Your company surveyed my lot and I need…” I have to whittle down the phrase “Your company” before I can figure out if we actually did do the survey, and when. MacCarthy & Sullivan? – sorry, no affiliation. Joe Sullivan? – we acquired his records from Sullivan Survey when he retired. We didn’t do the survey, but may be able to find some useful information in his files. Schofield Brothers? – ah, yes, this office was HQ for Schofield until 2015, when we were acquired by DGT. The main office in Boston has a bunch of other survey companies’ records. Thankfully, they usually get those calls.
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Initially, I thought I could help him out over the phone. By the time I figured out exactly where he was searching, I had invested too much time. However, this fellow has several properties that might need surveyed down the road, so, I was trying to keep him thinking positively about me in the future. I currently have a job on the list for one of his second cousins and have done numerous jobs for various other relatives of his.
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