This first story of mine has been copied from another thread. The second story is Mighty Moe's experience as copied from the same thread.
"Back in the early 1980s, another surveyor shared with me that he had been run off a job by the client, with whom he had history on several previous survey projects. This was the first time with this client since they had acquired a total station. Apparently, the client had made a little research project of his own to learn how they worked and why they were so wonderful AND SAVE A BOATLOAD OF MONEY. The purpose of the project was to locate the east line of the southeast quarter of the section and set numerous markers on line. This was a somewhat rare case of there being no county road occupying that line AND FOR GOOD REASON. A small slough ran along the entire length of the half mile with a dozen twists and turns that were totally overgrown with small trees, medium trees, large cottonwood trees that had been there since Jesus walked the Earth, blackberry bushes, poison ivy everywhere, etc., etc. The client insisted on observing the field work. When he arrived the crew had already dug up the southeast section corner in the east/west road and were moving into an open field about 100 feet to the east and maybe 400 feet to the north to set up on the first turning point before traversing the half mile distance to the north. The client was upset before he got out of his truck. He had noticed the hole in the road where th southeast corner monument had been found. He demanded an explanation of why they weren't setting up there and then shooting straight down the line. His research had testimonials from surveyors bragging as how they could shot straight through the trees. He honestly believed that the beam would shoot straight through tree trunks of multiple trees, somehow. Then the beam would return from the prism back to the total station giving you the total distance and alignment of the section line in one half mile shot. All you had to do then was walk the line back and set the requested line markers. One to two hours of work, total."
"I had a similar experience, one of my section lines ran off a ridge into bottom land and I needed to stake line through it. I staked line to the break off of the ridge. there was a good set up spot to the south of line and I put a random there. We set up there and my crew went into the trees and I could see into the trees from the south since they mostly terminated south of the section line. While I was set up on the ridge the neighbor came by and said I had to set up online since he had worked on a survey crew and they never set up off line. He was quite upset about it."
Would enjoy seeing similar reports from those of you who have encountered similar situations with clients, adjoiners and nosy neighbors. Please add in your own encounters of the weird kind.
If I had a dollar for every nosy neighbor encountered who claimed to have worked in surveying at some point in the past, I could fly around the world.
Had a client one time who informed me that all descriptions had to be written in a clockwise order. Said it was illegal to do it the other way. If that were true, I would be serving a life sentence.
I had a lady who refused to except the results of my survey, and the three surveyors before me, because I didn't start at the point of beginning as shown on one of multiple plats. Said point was about 3000 ft and over two mountain ridges from her half acre slice of heaven and had zero impact on anything as all of the original boundary monuments were still in their respective places. Luckily, she paid me but wrote in the note section of the check, "Not Satisfactory".
Remember the days of the worry about Y2K? For the youngsters, I will explain that there were people who firmly believed the world was going to be destroyed at the instant we left the first millennium and entered the second millennium.
An adjoiner to a project was the classic welfare case of someone who couldn't hold a job because of mental deficiencies and who had a wife with similar deficiencies. He watched everything we were doing. Everything. He finally approached us to ask what we were doing. Gave him the standard story. His immediate response, that day in late 1999, was that it really didn't matter due to Y2K and the end of the world as we know it. He was dead serious. Followed me around for 30 minutes explaining Y2K, or his understanding of it, anyway.
I had a lady who refused to accept the results of my survey, and the three surveyors before me, because I didn't start at the point of beginning as shown on one of multiple plats. Said point was about 3000 ft and over two mountain ridges from her half acre slice of heaven and had zero impact on anything as all of the original boundary monuments were still in their respective places. Luckily, she paid me but wrote in the note section of the check, "Not Satisfactory".
Luckily, she paid me but wrote in the note section of the check, "Not Satisfactory".
Oh, Thats precious, I hope you saved a copy.
At first I was indifferent about people coming up and asking me what I was doing a survey for but now it kind of irritates me. I think the people who ask wouldn't like it if I was working for them and spilling the beans about their plans to every joker around, so I get the sense I'm dealing with a hypocrite every time this happens. Needless to say I don't mind playing dumb even if I know what the client's plans are.
At first I was indifferent about people coming up and asking me what I was doing a survey for but now it kind of irritates me. I think the people who ask wouldn't like it if I was working for them and spilling the beans about their plans to every joker around, so I get the sense I'm dealing with a hypocrite every time this happens. Needless to say I don't mind playing dumb even if I know what the client's plans are.
That has been my SOP all my time in the field. Our field crews are instructed to direct all questions to the office. Smile, say "I'm not sure what this is for" and give them a card. They almost never call to ask.
It's a preliminary route survey for a new, overhead, solid glass, sewer main so the city sewage guys can find problems easier.
It's a preliminary route survey for a new, overhead, solid glass, sewer main so the city sewage guys can find problems easier.
When I was a young guy working summers on the field crew in seacoast NH, I was very tempted to say, but managed to keep my mouth shut, while swinging the metal detector, "Oh, we're searching for a leak in the nuclear supply line to Seabrook Station." I really wanted to keep my job.
The joke was alway to say, Oh, it's a HUD Housing project.
Last time I got pepper with questions it went like this:
Whats all the yelling? That's me.
Why are you yelling? He can't hear me.
What are you doing? Surveying.
For who? Our client.
Why? They asked us to.
When are you gonna be done? When we go home.