I have been dealing with a developer on trying to subdivide out a 20 acre parcel here in Asheville. I have spent hours on the phone with the guy trying to determine what it is he wants. The other day he calls and asks for a letter stating what the slope percentage is on the property. I tell him no problems I can do that with the available Lidar data and parcels that are online in North Carolina. So I type up the report and send it to him on my letterhead with all of the details of how I got the info and where the data was from. Now here is where the problem comes in, in the closing paragraph I note that no actual survey work was done to derive this data, pretty standard statement as far as I am concerned as I have not even stepped foot on the property at this point. He calls me up and starts raising hell with me that I don't need that statement on the letter as its redundant and that he didn't order a survey from me anyways. I try to explain to him that it is a CYA on my part and that I will not be remove it. At this point he just lays into me about that he's not going to pay as that's not what he ordered blah blah blah. I hung up on him and sent him an e-mail basically telling him my reports my rules, payment is due, I am not charging you for the 4 hours of phone consultations and best of luck.?ÿ
I had a developer client that I fired, but then he came around.?ÿ My office was in my house, and he was there raising hell over something I had nothing to do with.?ÿ I finally told him I wasn't going to listen to that in MY house, he should leave and not come back.?ÿ Shortly after that he came around to my way of thinking and I ended up doing several 100 lot subdivisions for him.?ÿ Sometimes I think they just want to see what you will put up with.
I had a developer client that I fired, but then he came around.?ÿ My office was in my house, and he was there raising hell over something I had nothing to do with.?ÿ I finally told him I wasn't going to listen to that in MY house, he should leave and not come back.?ÿ Shortly after that he came around to my way of thinking and I ended up doing several 100 lot subdivisions for him.?ÿ Sometimes I think they just want to see what you will put up with.
That is an astute observation.
Trouble is, clients don't know much about our ethics; it's our problem and not theirs.
I had a Town Chairman surreptitiously move an iron and wanted me to "survey" it, as if no one else would notice.
After you explain ours and they still don't get it, is the time to walk.
You sleep better that way.
i did this once- sorta- so far.
bout 8 years ago in my former life as a survey PM at a civil firm i had this client...
client had a bulldog for a development manager- it was, i believe, his niece.?ÿ or his sister, i don't know.?ÿ there are few people i've encountered in this life who were more unpleasant from the word "go" than this particular development manager.?ÿ she'd call every 10 minutes- either me or the PE in charge of that end of things- for over a year.?ÿ and i'm not exaggerating.?ÿ nitpicking every last detail, suggesting how things needed to be done, all with an unwavering saltiness that suggested some lack of emotional fulfillment in her personal life.?ÿ and despite working "with" her for a couple years and trying every single tack i could think of to thaw that icy crust, nothing ever worked.?ÿ?ÿ
so it's december 2010 and two things are happening: she's getting ready to toe up in front of the local authorities with a preliminary plat and site plan for the world's largest gas station and... the spouse and i are counting the days until our long-planned escape from the kids to costa rica- our first "alone" trip together.?ÿ so in the weeks leading up to it i was burning extra oil at the office every day, getting all my ducks in a row, etc..?ÿ and nurse ratched is well aware of my impending vacation and decides, apparently, that it's time to unleash her full powers.?ÿ last day at work before the trip she emails and says i need to change the plat to include a small tract across the road.?ÿ "but you don't own that land.?ÿ tell me whose signature i need to add to this dedication."?ÿ (this was, as i suspected, a fairly transparent attempt to strongarm her way into acquiring that tract from the owner.) silence.?ÿ "besides, i haven't even done a full boundary of that tract, i'm not including that on anything with my stamp on it.?ÿ please call me and we can discuss."?ÿ strangely enough this was the one day where i didn't get a single phone call from her.
it's, seriously, probably 9 p.m. the night before i get on the plane to costa rica and i'm in the office, and here comes the email.?ÿ to me, my boss, his boss, her boss, and like 15 other people.?ÿ "we are a very important and very influential client and if you cannot fulfill our request regarding the additional tract (which, btw, was about an acre whose sole purpose was to be filled with dumpsters for the worlds' largest gas station...) perhaps we need to find another consultant."
that was it.?ÿ i fired right back, and added a few more people to the cc list (i don't remember who, but probably more just for sh*ts and grins than anything).?ÿ "you are indeed an important and influential client.?ÿ that does not, however, make me a prostitute.?ÿ you have asked me to perform a task that puts my professional standing in question, which i refuse to do.?ÿ you have also been the single most unpleasant client i have ever worked with in any capacity in my time in the field of land surveying.?ÿ i am now going to take my vacation.?ÿ should the gentlemen here choose to retain me as an employee upon my return, you will still need to find another RPLS to supervise your next project, as i will no longer tolerate the conditions you demand from your consultants."
now- that's not verbatim, as my memory isn't photographic, but it might as well be.?ÿ i told her to FO about as diplomatically as i could.?ÿ turned off my email, went to costa rica, came back 10 days later, walked into the office and got one of the biggest ass chewings i've ever gotten.?ÿ but... i didn't get fired.?ÿ and after the world's largest gas station got built, i never spent another second of my life working for that client.
I would say that you have to supply that statement per the NC regulations. Without the statement I feel the board would say you were presenting the data as "surveyed". The Buncombe GIS used to have a hillside shade slope analysis layer....I think there even was a slope calculator for each parcel. I would send the guy the bill and note that you did what was required by the regulations and he has a bill due.
Yep. NC standards of practice require you to note if is from an actual survey or not. It's even part of the map certs.