This should get interesting fast, considering some of the regulars on here. I got an email via my website contact page at 3:09 AM last night with the following message.
"From: A burned out fellow surveyor
Subject:
123 lost lane
hr@google.com
40448765309
Message Body:
OK it has been a sh#@$y week. One of my best CAD techs hands in his two weeks telling me he is going to work for Ga Power and he need 27hr to stay on. I am into my third Jack and Coke and wonder what the f@#$ I am doing. Are my empoyees working for me or is it the other way around. Anyway I thought I would offer some constructive critisim for your website...
You came up as the top sponsored link when I typed in "Georgia Land Surv" so just to be assy I clicked on your site knowing that cost you like $5 bucks. If you sense a tone of resentment that is because I used to partisipate in Google Addwords and I spent a fortune trying to be on top of the heep. I quickly found out that a lot of my traffic was from my compition trying to submarine me. THere are a lot of meek little surveying bitches out there. You might want to closly monitor the Add Words thing. Also most of the internet clients suck. THey want Andrew Ellicot service for David Lynal prices. Develop personal relationships with local Attorneys and developers. join rotary, and the chamber of comerce. You will get a premium for your services because they want to use you and not the internet undercuter.
Ok next point. You have got a lot of great content on your site. I like the pictures but there is a ton of misspellings. That is an atrostic observation coming from me as I am mildly retarted when it comes to spelling. Get someone to proof read this thing. You have miss spelled land on the ALTA hyper link on the profesional services page. WTF! Hey web developer guy I would punch you square in the nuts for that. Tighten up!
Fourth drink...
The formatting is all jacked up on the form submition boxes. I can't read what the choices are because the text overwrites. Give wofoo a try it makes it easy.
Where are you located? I am in Atlanta and you poped up. Do you want to be working in downtown Atlatna? That is cool if you do but from you web site it looks more like you want to serve west Georgia. Also more information on your contact page would make me feal more confortable about ordering a survey if I new that you did not " Live in a Van down by the river"
--
This e-mail was sent from a contact form on Tompkins Surveying and Mapping ( http://www.tompkinssurveying.com)
[checkbox-573]
ALTA/ACSM Land Title Survey
I am buying land"
Now I didn't know how to take it at first as you can imagine. I can't say I am grateful, but at the same time I have to take his rant and "constructive criticism" and address on some level his points.
I did go through my website and indeed did find A misspelled word, and I did have to fix the "contact us" page. So for that I am glad and grateful he went off at my expense. Don't know if any other surveyors out there got this same type of email or if I was singled out. I can tell you that his phone number is garbage and I am pretty sure he doesn't work for Google's HR department.
All that aside, I would like to know who this is so I can take him to lunch. I mean he did for 5$ what most web developers would charge $100 per hour for in his drunken stupor. I only assume he had had more than what he admitted to considering the time stamp on the email and the fact he felt compelled to call me out on my attempt to garner more work via the interweb.
In other ways, I can totally relate to what he is feeling. The surveyor morale down here is worse than anything imaginable. Partly our fault or the fault of our surveying predecessors and in large part the fault of the board of genius' whom enforce diddly squat and thus pollute the waters with degenerates that have no business being in surveying. (http://www.xyht.com/civiltransportation/when-a-fence-appears-in-the-middle-of-your-street /">Fences in the Road Article!!)
If the surveyor that wrote this email would like to meet. I will take you to lunch...ON ME!! I prefer transparency in all my dealings especially considering that you have a better chance of getting bit by a shark in Atlanta than you do being reprimanded by the board of engineers and surveyors independent of the violation.
And yes I did have to edit the cuss words with symbols so the website would take the email.....sorry!
Itt wuzz knot me. Never bin two Georgie. Spelun iz mi spayshultie.
I can understand his situation.
At a crossroad and asking for help.
There have been some advantages of being solo. At 62 and being 2mos behind and new calls coming in daily, help from someone with a talent for surveying would be great.
😉
I like how he quantifies "4th drink" 😀
Getting drunk hurts in the morning.
Not if you get drunk every night! 😀
uh I heard that in a song
I need some hair of the dog that bit me but then I'm drunk again 🙁
Clark, I'm NOT trying to pile on... Really, I'm not... I just want a free lunch. 😉
JUST KIDDING!
But, you did misspell "use" as "us" on your example alcohol survey plat.
Those must be a Georgia thing. I had a friend that needed one in Hapeville.
Anyway, VERY nice looking website. I like the pic of the crew at Homer Hickam Lane in Coalwood, WV. It's about 3 hours from me and I've never been there, but I've read a few of his books. He's also a Virginia Tech grad (which is in my county) and I've corresponded with him via facebook.
Have a good Sunday, and don't take it too much to heart (the original email), that was in his cups and just venting... and not spelling very good.
Carl
Better check the ordinance. Some alcohol permits are contingent on the distance from school/church/whatever measured as the ordinary person would walk rather than as the crow flies.
Spelling
They do require a the path distance and if anything is close, within the circle then I show the path distance also.
Thanks for the other spelling edit Carl. Sure am glad everyone on here is a great spell checker. As a side note does Carlson have a spell checker. One of the things I really like about ACAD is the spell checker. Makes life a lot easier.
I didn't take it too seriously as I understand where he is at and what is happening. But thanks for the information.
Carl,
Thank you for the positive reinforcement and constructive criticism. Change will be made tomorrow. I really enjoyed that project and gave me a new perspective on that part of the country. They still hold some sort of a reunion there in Coalwood once a year, or least they did when we were working there back in 2009. Not sure if they still do. But the cast and the real life characters would have a little festival there in town pretty neat. There is an old gas station right across the street where we ate quite a bit and take to local town folks. Apparently his dad really was a piece of work. In plain English he was and a@#hole.
Good people up there and really nice area. Love VATECH country. Will be making a field trip there in the next couple of years hoping one of my kids will try to go there just so I have an excuse to visit that part of the country more.
Clark,
that has to be an award winning submission there. Being from Atlanta and getting the guys references to things is also funny.
At one time I had a drunk surveyor email me from another state due to the fact that my web guy had taken a photo from his website. I searched him out and he was not far from me. I called the guy and confronted him explaining I did not take the photo our paid designer did. While he was quite drunk and belligerent it got me fired up bad. That was in 2010 when it was kill or be killed.
I would agree that the adwords marketing is tough at best. We really started a movement in 2008 with it; then had competitors raise the bar and it cost too much to compete. I have not advertised since 2011.
I agree find him and buy him lunch! Would love to hear more.