I don't do a lot of residential lot pin surveys, but there always seems to be a few in the stack. If they're local I agree to do them just because they're a good 'filler' when the crew finishes in the middle of the afternoon and needs something close and finite to round a time sheet out.
Anyway, the client has been having a problem with her neighbor. She had her lawn guy cut a tree out of the fence and the neighbor is hollering. I could tell by the multiple phone calls that she's a hot head.
Sent the crew out. They found a few pins close by...they shot them..a phone conference with me and they set the pins. Guess what? The neighbor is right. The common fence in question (where the tree USED to be) is about 4' outside of her (client's) property.
She called this evening. Reamed me out because she didn't think the guys that came out knew what they were doing. AND they set markers that don't line up with the fence and she is just humiliated!
I explained that we found plenty of other pins in the block (I had a good previous survey for a couple of lots 2 doors down). I stood behind the locations I calc'd.
I also explained that she needed to hire a professional that had her confidence. And since "there is no way those markers could be right"; I asked her permission to remove the markers in the morning....and allow her to seek the services of someone she trusts. She agreed.
I'm sooooo happy to be 'eating' a couple of crew hours. Just keep that lady away from me.:-P
There have been just a few times in my surveying career when the client was such a d%&k that we just walked off the job and never billed them. Usually it happens in a situation where you have bent over backwards to give them a good deal or perform extra services then they turn around and start mouthing off. It's particularly rewarding when they come back with their tail between their legs and want to to finish the job and you can tell them to go pound sand.
Thanks for the warning. If I get a call from a frenetic female tomorrow she will find my price pretty high. Any idea why the fence is 4 feet from the line?
I have never let a client or an adjoiner intimidate me to remove pins that I was hired to set which I believed to have been set correctly. I would have offered to meet her at the property and walk it with her, listening to what she had to say, and then showing my findings and explaining them. And then sending in my invoice.
Now the former "client" has a view of surveyors that will waste the time of all who follow on until they "get it right".
She is already telling her friends and neighbors about how she is a better surveyor and it only took one phone call set things straight.
I rarely disagree with the OP but this is one I would have handled differently.
Incredibly unprofessional, Paden
> Sent the crew out. They found a few pins close by...they shot them..a phone conference with me and they set the pins. Guess what? The neighbor is right. The common fence in question (where the tree USED to be) is about 4' outside of her (client's) property.
I'm aghast. You told your survey party to place markers to delineate an actual property boundary before checking with your client to see how she FELT about it? I mean, suppose the sight of those new markers well away from where your client "knew" that the boundary was had caused her to have a psychotic break? This is seminar material, my friend, seminar material.
The lady's property actually has no fences. It has just kinda been swallowed up by all the adjoiners placing fences.
There is about 35' between the houses, large lots. The fence in question has been there a good long time....just about as long as the gentleman who put it up...and who spoke with the crew. He knew the fence was "about 3 feet" from the property line.
Don't know why it's there, but it is. Drop me an email and I can fill you in on more details...unless you're feeling particularly foolish!
I've been dog-bit, snake-bit, shot at and chased (on foot) by a drunk in a pickup....and this lady scares me.
Incredibly unprofessional, Paden
:good:
i call them richards
...frumpy Richards...
Some days a person just has to speak the truth whether the other person wants to hear it or not.
One day, after about 45min with my client who was a little old crabby lady that was screaming in my ear then entire time as I went up and down the block finding control and monuments, I stopped and told her "I am going to begin setting your monuments now, if and only if you go into your house. If you don't, I am leaving".
After 5min of deciding if she wanted me to set the monuments or not, she went in her house and did not come out again. I made my measurements, calculated, set monuments and left.
Did other jobs for her and she never again screamed when I was around.
😉
I don't want to go far out on a tangent here, despite my handle, but perhaps this is an additional reason to consider 'value of services' which reaches beyond an hourly rate when performing boundary survey. Sometimes there is much more that goes into a job than simply a few crew hours and send out a billing. I don't mean this as a slam to Paden, but rather see it as an opportunity to bring light to the fact that our liability is can/should be a HUGE factor in the cost of boundary work. It's a cost which can shadow us for a number of years after the pins are capped. Let's not forget that any client can and may turn on us, especially when they feel cornered (no pun intended!). I feel for you, man. We have been in this situation a rare number of times over the years and in some cases, we have found new allies and clients in the neighbors!
.... And that is why I do no do "lot pin surveys".... Only real land surveys 🙂
> I don't do a lot of residential lot pin surveys, but there always seems to be a few in the stack. If they're local I agree to do them just because they're a good 'filler' when the crew finishes in the middle of the afternoon and needs something close and finite to round a time sheet out.
>
> Anyway, the client has been having a problem with her neighbor. She had her lawn guy cut a tree out of the fence and the neighbor is hollering. I could tell by the multiple phone calls that she's a hot head.
>
> Sent the crew out. They found a few pins close by...they shot them..a phone conference with me and they set the pins. Guess what? The neighbor is right. The common fence in question (where the tree USED to be) is about 4' outside of her (client's) property.
>
> She called this evening. Reamed me out because she didn't think the guys that came out knew what they were doing. AND they set markers that don't line up with the fence and she is just humiliated!
>
> I explained that we found plenty of other pins in the block (I had a good previous survey for a couple of lots 2 doors down). I stood behind the locations I calc'd.
> I also explained that she needed to hire a professional that had her confidence. And since "there is no way those markers could be right"; I asked her permission to remove the markers in the morning....and allow her to seek the services of someone she trusts. She agreed.
>
> I'm sooooo happy to be 'eating' a couple of crew hours. Just keep that lady away from me.:-P
The gift that keeps on giving. We have file cabinets full of files dedicated to [sarcasm]neighbors[/sarcasm] like these.:-/
Lovely. Just lovely
>
> I've been dog-bit, snake-bit, shot at and chased (on foot) by a drunk in a pickup....and this lady scares me.
The fence in question has been there a good long time....just about as long as the gentleman who put it up...and who spoke with the crew. He knew the fence was "about 3 feet" from the property line.
You can make all the measurements you want around the neighborhood to prove or disprove the fence. The testimony is the key to the boundary location.
There are two females I dealt with while working in OKC that were told after one of their raving rants that the only reason they were still standing was because they were female. I also told both I would never even consider doing any work for them again.B-)
In high school, there was a petite and pretty girl who talked a lot. Her voice was high pitch and a bit loud. She liked to talk. One day, talking to the physics teacher, she concluded her round of blah-blah-blah by saying: "good things come in small packages" with her little smart smile. The teacher lifted his head from the papers that he was marking and mumbled: "yeah, but they don't sell poison by the gallon..."
> I'm sooooo happy to be 'eating' a couple of crew hours. Just keep that lady away from me.:-P
Good choice. This sounds very similar to a recent client for whom we had never worked, and for whom we will never work again. He claimed that his neighbors were tearing out his trees. It was a recently platted subdivision, with original monuments found in place matching platted dimensions. A very open-and-shut case of the trees being on his neighbor's land and not his, contrary to his belief.
When we didn't tell him what he wanted to hear, he became very belligerent and hostile,
saying that his measuring wheel was a highly accurate measuring device, and that we couldn't have measured correctly between the monuments, or maybe we were in cahoots with the neighbor and the neighbor's surveyor, and with the original subdivision surveyor. He filed complaints with the BBB, the state attorney general's office, and the Federal Trade Commission.
With clients like that, who needs enemies?
Have your lawyer deliver papers indicating you are filing suit for Slander and Libel for his vindictive and malicious actions to harm your reputations. Such a person needs to be slapped upside the head in any legal manner available. He needs another kind also, but that is mostly not legal.
B-)
> Have your lawyer deliver papers indicating you are filing suit for Slander and Libel for his vindictive and malicious actions to harm your reputations. Such a person needs to be slapped upside the head in any legal manner available. He needs another kind also, but that is mostly not legal.
>
> B-)
Good advice. Did so immediately upon the escalation and change in tone of his communications. It is in the hands of a capable attorney. What's funny is, this guy is so intent on being a belligerent bully, that even after he was notified that "all further correspondence must be through our attorney" he still insisted on sending several nasty e-mails directly to our office. I would really hate to be his neighbor.