Negotiated a survey a few weeks ago for a family estate that has several hundred acres. They've decided to sell off a few parcels.
One 12 ac. mol parcel in particular is to be purchased by an existing adjoiner who, imho, has been a little more than vocal about how everything is supposed to come down. The survey fees are to be split by the buyers and sellers. I've never met this gentleman, but spoke several times with him over the phone.
Anyway, the family spox had advised me this buyer was wanting a few days lead time to 'prepare' for the survey. He wants to schedule time off from work so he can "be with us every second...".
I did explain, in a jestful manner, to the (seller) family matriarch that I charge more if you watch, double if you help. She related to me she could "care less" if I complied with his wishes.
I haven't intentionally disregarded him, but some scheduling issues came up Friday afternoon. Looks like I have a slot open for tomorrow A.M. for a crew to hit the ground out there.
Gee..guess i messed up.. hope he's not too angry.:whistle:
DANG, don't you just hate it when that happens?:-D
Sounds like you will be better off doing that instead of him babysitting you and your crew. I don't mind the clients asking a few questions, but I do not like being watched the entire time.
Guys like that are going to gripe no matter how things work out. Ignore the twit.
Try not to be too hard on yourself, we know you tried your best! 🙂
I had a client one time that was, in general, a good client. BUT when we were staking a condo complex for him he stayed and watched us almost daily. One day, before he arrived, we stumbled across a yellow jacket nest, and wanting to avoid getting stung I tossed a wad of yellow flagging near the nest. Along comes the client, sees the yellow flagging and goes kicking around to see what's there. They ATE HIM UP. He was not back for a couple of days and I really felt bad for him, but he never just stood and watched any more either.
Andy
We were surveying a cattle ranch that covered all or part of some 16 sections. After spending a day with us recovering GLO monuments the rancher struck out on his own with a topo map, the GLO plat and notes. He ended up finding about 80% of the remaining corners we needed. Our total recovery rate on this project was close to 90% of the original corners. We assured him that if he ever gave up raising cattle, we'd be more than happy to give him a job surveying!
I usually enforce the idea to them that it is not necessary for him/her to be present during the survey and advise them that I would be happy to walk the property with him/her me once it is complete. I also advise them that the the fee is based on hourly work and talking with the crew will only slow them down and add to the final billing. This usually work pretty well.
I have told more than 1 nosy client that I would be happy to stand there and talk to him/her at $x.xx/minute. They usually find something else to do or somewhere else to be in a quite short order.
B-)
When I was a rod man, I spent most of my time digging for
section corner stones. The client came out and asked what
we were digging and probing for. We showed him a 1920 map
of his property that had stones for his corners. He asked
how much we were charging. The boss said $60 per hour.
He said wow, can you go do some measuring or something else
while he looks for the stones? The boss said OK and we left
to do a survey a couple miles away. The boss said not to move
any of the stones.
The next day we came and like a kid finding candy, the client
said he found the stones. Two of the stones were about five
feet deep and the rest were about three feet deep. All of them
had x's carved in the limestones. He was happy when the boss
told him he lowered the cost of the survey.
Occasionally it works out quite well. That one did.B-)