Verbal confirmation.
Get it in writing.
Get it in writing.
Get it in writing.
This is my Mea Culpa.
- 9 Replies
When I was starting out on my own, a client gave me a verbal confirmation that a relatively large job was awarded to me. It was over the phone. PO would follow. Since it was a large work for me I needed additional equipment. Went online and got a used GPS rover/base & total station from ebay. Needed to order it immediately because delivery time would take a couple of weeks plus customs warehousing. Paid using a credit card that I remember was nearly maxed out. Prepared for it then alarms went off when client went quiet for maybe a week. Emailed the client. No response. Called the office. She came on and she said that their client has placed the work on hold so it means the survey part was also on hold.
Had to accept several low paying jobs for several months just to be able to pay off the credit card payments. That particular work did not push though but the client gave me several other works through the years. The instruments like most survey equipment eventually pay themselves off.
Now I don’t move an inch until I get a DP check that clears.
Saw this happen a few times but the worst was when the economic downturn of 08 was kicking in. The company I was working for was coming to a crawl and I could see some layoffs happening. A guy that we had done some GIS mapping for approached me about working for him doing tech support with survey equipment. At that time, he was a one man operation working out of his house doing GIS, software development and some equipment sales. He had been given a verbal on a contract to provide tech support and training for a company that sold survey equipment in the eastern part of the country. He was told to gear up by hiring an employee, he bought and began remodeling a vacant bank branch, etc. He was going to be given around a million dollars worth of equipment to have on hand for us to learn inside and out and train people on. So I came on and within 2 weeks, he was told that they gave it to someone else. He had to let me go a week later. I was out of work for a few months since the economy was in the tank. Good times.
And carry it with you, don’t leave it in the office. There have been times where I’ve had to show a tenant or neighbor my authorization to be on a property.
Client is in a big hurry to get started, but is not in a hurry to sign the contract or pay the retainer = big red flag.
I sent a client a contract and he sent it back, signed, on Friday; he said he would call on Monday and make the down payment with a credit card…
It’s Wednesday and he still hasn’t called me back.
My contract clearly states that I will put you on my schedule when you sign the contract AND pay the deposit.
How long would you wait?
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!@dougie
Why not give him a call tomorrow morning? Remind him that you have other clients, who have paid the deposit, plus other proposals that could come back at any time. The list grows longer each day.
The list never stops…
I texted him this morning; he could pay with a credit card, if I needed it today, but he’d rather wait until Friday and pay with his debt.
If he doesn’t mind waiting another week to get his survey started I don’t mind waiting a week to get the deposit.
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
@dougie
It is always nice to extend the olive branch……….
When a person says they will call and they do not call, it generally means that the agreement is by all purposes voided and does not exist beyond the agreed time.
It can also lead to legal problems.
A year or to ago, Supreme Court ruled that if you say you are going to call someone back and you do not call them back, you have violated their rights and they could bring suit against you.
If they have called you about a land survey and you say I will call you back and you do not ever call them back, they can sue you for a number of reasons from personal loss to pulling out the race card to ignoring or refusing to deliver a series of promised services.
“life gets crazier every day”
Oh I get those all the darned time and it is nearly always tied to the $10k price I informed them of which they usually ignorantly and stupidly thought would be $2k.
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