Ring ring

Well, that story ended much differently from what we were expecting.

I have learned to do anything possible to prevent those helpful clients from "helping".?ÿ Ninety-five percent of the time they drive you nuts, just like I would do to some poor plumber or electrician who was working for me.?ÿ I know I'm guilty of being a pest, so the best thing I can do is tell them what I think I need and then get gone somewhere far away while they do their job.

Had the tree guys here this week. I try to mostly leave them alone. A question here or there. Wife gets upset about this or that plant getting damaged, nothing that won't grow back. Hey they are tree guys, not finish carpenters. I expect some level of damage. Most of the crew aren't the brightest bulbs in the box. The foreman/tree climber seems pretty smart, that guy is nimble. In his 40s, not an ounce of fat on him, I couldn't do that.

Where did he/she think you were gonna set them?

My guess is that we had zero understanding of what a "survey" is

?ÿ

@holy-cow

I tell them its $150 if I do it, $250 if you help. They're gone in a flash.

@skeeter1996

and $500 if they attempted it first.

I usually explain that what I do is not interesting, probably dangerous, and unlikely to entertain. If potential client persists we schedule the site visit for a rainy ass day.?ÿ That usually works.?ÿ As I write this, I recall a homeowner (we all know one) who followed me out to the centerline monument on a very busy arterial because he wanted to see what was inside of that mini man-hole. Probably the only time I yelled at a client.?ÿ?ÿ

My first question is whose property markers did they pull those nice 5/8 bars from?  😉

I'm doing a survey of a property of someone my wife and I have known since elementary school.  The owner said they got a survey online and the city wouldn't accept it since it didn't have a professional stamp on it. I just told them that when they see my survey, they will understand exactly what a real survey is and whatever they got was not worth a cent.

When I get the client that wants to be there while I am surveying I tell them it will be as exciting as watching paint dry while sailors cuss. That usually stops them right there.

@daniel-ralph

About 10 years ago I worked on a light rail project for a major city. The route had been shifted from the one that made the most sense logistically to a not-so-nice area of town (because one small community of rich people who would have benefited from the rail line being a 5 minute walk from their neighborhood screeched to their local politician about the horrors of public transportation).

The route was along an existing bus route, which happened to be the one the local hospital put all of its homeless psych patients on when they were discharged. Lots of apparent schizophrenics, some of whom were perfectly happy to wander out in the street and talk to us about all sorts of things as we gathered observations.

After a month on the job our entire crew agreed that the schizophrenics were easier to deal with, and sometimes made more sense, than our average client.

Brings to mind the old story about the guy who parked his car on the side of the street where the mental hospital was.  When he returned from his errands and shopping he found that someone had stolen his right rear tire, rim, and lug nuts.

While pondering what to do a patient at the hospital said, "Just take one lug nut from the other three wheels to hold your spare tire on until you can get to a repair or parts place."

The car owner said, "That's pretty clever for a guy in there."

The guy from the hospital said, "I'm crazy, not stupid."