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You didn't hire slaves for the day

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  • You didn't hire slaves for the day

    Many of the jobs my company does are quoted, that means that the jobs we do are at a set and fixed pre-determined price. The customer comes in and says what they want moved and we give them a price based on what they said they want. But rather than giving a dollar amount, the customer is given an hourly rate, and told how many hours there are to do it. So a customer comes in and says they want 20 desks, 30 cabinets, and 200 boxes moved, they're told that it's 5 hours at $100 an hour for four guys (or whatever the time and rate are). But the catch is that we are only allowed to move exactly what was quoted, exactly 20 desks, 30 cabinets, and 200 boxes (or less). They can't add things on, they can't get us to do something else, we are hired to move exactly what's on the move list and no other work whatsoever. The customer is fully advised of this fact. Life would be much easier if they'd just tell them a flat $500, but that's a separate MiM post and not the point of this thread.

    So this comes from comes from my file room job which was grossly under-quoted (link). The quote was 12 guys and 12 hours. The job was a total clusterfuck mess so I really had no idea what was required, but the bottom line was that she considered our part of the job to be completed at around the 7 or 8 hour mark. Okay, well the only thing I'm clear on as to what we're supposed to be doing, is to follow her instructions, so if she says we've done it all, we're done, beer time fellas.

    But no, even though we're done, she's got us booked for 12 hours so she's going to use for those full 12 hours. (Let's not even get into the argument as to how the 12 hour shift is illegal, particularly considering that with our travel time factored in, it's a 14 hour shift). She wants to send a crew to another jobsite, she wants some work done at this one, she wants guys to organize the storage room, she wants us to do any menial task she can come up with to get her 12 hours of blood, sweat and tears. Uh no, we're here to move the file room, NOTHING ELSE, considering that this is a repeated problem with her, there's no way she doesn't know this. I mean she's a valuable client, so I can bend the rules a bit for her, but not to the extent that she's looking for. So she hmm's and hah's this for a bit, and decides that rather than getting her staff to box up the offsite storage files, she'll get us to do it. Okay, at least we're still in the file room, I have no idea if we're supposed to do this, but according to her, we were supposed to move the whole room so I guess I can still consider this to be part of the quote. We get to work on that and I carefully managed the time to make sure that it was done by the 11:45 mark so that she couldn't pull any more of that add-on crap.

    She just expected us to do anything and everything for 12 hours, like she owned us for the time she was paying for us to be there. Never mind that this is something that is specifically dis-allowed by the contract, it's just a damn rude treatment of people.
    D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
    Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

  • #2
    I hope your boss backs you up on this one and tells client "NO!"

    Yeah, right...

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    • #3
      Seems like some of your clients take the "I'm the boss and you are my workers" mentality. When in fact you have a separate boss and you are the hired help, not their personal laborers.
      "If we refund your money, give you a free replacement and shoot the manager, then will you be happy?" - sign seen in a restaurant

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      • #4
        Actually the boss totally has my back when I say no, as a matter of fact, I'm in shit if I don't say "no". But, after the "no", I've got to call the shop to advise them, who then tell me to just go ahead and do the extra, just keep track of the times so they can double bill for our work. [fantasy land]and then we get a bonus because the boss made ridiculous coin with this double billing[/fantasy land]


        Yeah, a lot of clients think they dialed hire a slave. They actually are my boss for the day because my instructions going in are "various work per dude's instructions" so as long as it's not too far out of our scope of work, I don't mind, if it's a bs task, I just take twice as long. It's when there's a quoted job and they are specifically advised that they can't ask for any extras that it drives me nuts.
        D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
        Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

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        • #5
          If you end up finishing way early, does the customer pay less? I had movers hired who estimated 6 hours, but the move only took them 3 and a half, and they only billed me for the shorter time (which rocked since I'd budgeted for it taking longer just in case). I didn't ask for a cheaper bill, they just gave it to me, so I was under the impression that they just over-quoted to be on the safe side and that the final bill was the true cost.

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          • #6
            Quoth bankworking View Post
            If you end up finishing way early, does the customer pay less? I had movers hired who estimated 6 hours, but the move only took them 3 and a half, and they only billed me for the shorter time (which rocked since I'd budgeted for it taking longer just in case). I didn't ask for a cheaper bill, they just gave it to me, so I was under the impression that they just over-quoted to be on the safe side and that the final bill was the true cost.
            No, the price is fixed. If we finish in 6 hours, it's the same, on the flip side, if we finish in 18, it's still the same (and I get raked across the coals).

            My guess for your move was that the 6 hours was just an estimate to prepare you for how long and how much. When it came time to give you the real total, they just charged the hourly rate. Some of my jobs are timed like that, like when a customer has a "various task" day, but when we're brought in for a specific job, it's usually the fixed price quote.
            D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.
            Quoth = Crossbow "EvilHomer, Irv, Gravekeeper, and Seraph: the Four Horsemen of the Dumbpocalypse."

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