It's not often that I lose it on a customer

[evilhomer]

I was pretty stressed out by this job. My boss was supposed to be running it, but he got pulled away. Can't really blame him on that, he's ridiculously overworked, but it's an awesome start. One guy called in, so I'm down am installer, and the crew I've got is not great, they will work... kind of... if I give very clear instructions, then repeat them, then stay on them.

So that's what I've got coming in, but it's an "easy" job, just 8 stations down, move to new location, then reinstall them. Okay, let's see the plans.... WTF is this?!? These aren't plans, there's no dimensions, there's no divisions, it's just a bunch of lines on paper. Okay, okay, I'll work with the client and sort things out. Yet another highly paid "professional" designer who is too stupid and/or lazy to actually do her job.

I get to the building and security tells me that I can't stay in the dock because it's garbage day. Okay, well I need the dock, when will the garbage be done? Sometime between 8:00 and 4:00. Okay, this job isn't happening if I don't have a dock, work something out or it's being cancelled right now. I'm set to call it a day, but I talk to the client and security gave a "huge" concession and "allowed" us into the dock, provided we move the truck immediately once the garbage truck arrives. Wow! Allowing a building tenant use the building resources that they pay for and had booked, thanks guys!

Up to the floor we go. Okay, where are these 8 stations that we are taking apart? Oh no, it's not 8 stations. We are taking parts to build 8 stations, we have to knock down as many stations as needed to get those parts. WTF?!? That was not the quote! Fine, Fine... your "plans" tell me nothing. Where is the pull list? What's a pull list? (Seriously?!? You are a highly paid facilities management professional and you don't even know what a pull list is?) Okay, it is a list of the parts that we have to pull, a count of the panels, surfaces and other parts. She is completely clueless and dumbfounded. Fine, can you at least tell me the sizes on this "sketch" you did? Oh yeah, they are 8 x 8. (WTF do you mean 8 x 8?) No, I need panel sizes, surface sizes. We get that worked out, and I do her job and make the pull list. I take a look around and realize that this will mean taking apart over 20 stations to get what we need. At this point, I make a very specific point to her: you have many different colours and styles here, there will be a mix. She is very disappointed with this news, she asks us to try to keep everything the same. There is no "try", you don't have the product, we will use what is here.

So now we're off to the races. It's just awesome that at the shipping end alone, we have double the work that we were supposed to but such is life. I'm managing my group of halfwits and doing what I can to make things happen. All the while, my boss is texting me, asking for updates. I explain the utter shitshow that I'm in. Well he needs a full explanation of what's going on. Okay, I am down 2 installers and you want me to waste an hour texting back and forth? Piss off. Come and see for yourself if you want to know so badly. That didn't go over well, but reaching into my bag of fucks, I found that it was empty, so I had none to give.

But we got this end of things done. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't happy, but we got our parts and we're off to the receiving end for the re-installation. I get up to the floor that is supposed to be empty and ready for us. Oh, there's stuff to move, these stations need to be torn down and moved to storage, this one needs to be reconfigured before you can start the build. Just awesome. Another call to the office, this time they have no fucks to give, just get the job done.

But we make things happen. We bust our asses and start making some progress, only to find that our walkways are too small; apparently, I'm not following the plans properly. Oh really!?! You did not provide plans, just this "sketch", I don't have any plans to follow so how can I be or not be following them; you told me that every panel was 30" so that is what we pulled and that's how we're building it. Oh, no, these ones are supposed to be 24". Okay, well I followed your instructions and this is where things are, there is no way we can go back and get anything else. We measure things out and we're at the legal minimum, so it will be passable.

Once again she disappears and we continue with the build. It's getting into the wee hours of the night and we're 6 hours over the estimated time, but it's actually starting to look like an office with workstations. The client awakes from her nap and checks on things, and she is not happy. The panel colours don't match. Uh yeah, we tried, but the product wasn't there, we had to use what was available. Oh no, we were supposed to go to the other floor to get all matching colours.

I pride myself on being highly professional and courteous. My patience is legendary. But I have limits, I am human and this pushed me over the edge. I not only raise my voice, I yell: "YOU SAID 'TRY'!!! WE TRIED, THE PRODUCT WASN'T THERE. YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT GOING TO ANOTHER FLOOR. I TOLD YOU IT WASN'T THERE AND YOU SAY TO 'TRY'!!!

At this point my guys actually stepped up and saved me. One guy pulled me away and another dealt with her. He came up with a reasonable solution that satisfied her. I was livid and needed some cool down time but was able to clear my head. This job was an utter clusterfuck shitshow because this woman doesn't know how to do her job. I saved her ass and worked things out and she wants to bust my balls over some stupid colours!?! Anyways, as always, things worked out in the end and it's on to the next clusterfuck of a job that tomorrow brings.

[mjr]

I still can't figure out why your company puts up with a lot of what your clients hand you.

Seems to me like with a job you described above, they'd actually be losing money.

[evilhomer]

I still can't figure out why your company puts up with a lot of what your clients hand you.

Seems to me like with a job you described above, they'd actually be losing money.

I sympathize with them to a point. If you get tough with clients, tell them how things are to be done, they go with the company that doesn't give them these hassles. But there does come a point where you have to call bullshit and demand that at least the bare minimums are covered. My bosses are so terrified of losing clients and accounts that they just bend over and take whatever the client wants to shove at us. And it costs them. Obviously we don't lose money every job, but on one like this, where we went about 8 hours over our allotted time, they definately lost money.

[notalwaysright]

Why bother having a contract or quote or whatever paperwork your company has? When I worked for the roofing company, everything was laid out and the customer signed the legal document. If the estimate was to roof a detached garage and when the guys showed up the customer said "oops, I didn't mean that, I wanted the house roof done so go do it" the guys would have laughed and laughed. But in your field it's acceptable to just randomly draw some lines on paper, point at things, and expect perfection for the cost of a banana. Hm.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

You really need a better job. Your talents are wasted there.

Also, I loved the "bag of fucks" line.

[Marmalady]

Also, I loved the "bag of fucks" line.

So did I.

"I'm sorry, I'm all out of fucks to give at the moment - however, I can pencil you in for a 'go fuck yourself' later this afternoon, if that helps?"

[evilhomer]

So did I.

"I'm sorry, I'm all out of fucks to give at the moment - however, I can pencil you in for a 'go fuck yourself' later this afternoon, if that helps?"

Forget about pencilling it in, you can set that son bitch down in stone!

[mjr]

I sympathize with them to a point. If you get tough with clients, tell them how things are to be done, they go with the company that doesn't give them these hassles. But there does come a point where you have to call bullshit and demand that at least the bare minimums are covered. My bosses are so terrified of losing clients and accounts that they just bend over and take whatever the client wants to shove at us. And it costs them. Obviously we don't lose money every job, but on one like this, where we went about 8 hours over our allotted time, they definately lost money.

I understand about getting tough with clients, but at the same time, you (in a general sense) can't let them walk all over you, either.

It's like this "tongue in cheek" image regarding software:



Can't have all three.

Or the other sign I saw in a cube once that said this:

On Time
No Defects
Pick one.

[Cia]

If the Facilities Management personnel have never heard of CADD programs can one reasonably assume they may have heard of a product called 'graph paper'?

[mjr]

If the Facilities Management personnel have never heard of CADD programs can one reasonably assume they may have heard of a product called 'graph paper'?

That's a valid point, but as EvilHomer has told us before, he's essentially gotten hand drawn design plans on what basically amounts to a napkin in the past, and when he protested, was told to work with it.

[evilhomer]

That's a valid point, but as EvilHomer has told us before, he's essentially gotten hand drawn design plans on what basically amounts to a napkin in the past, and when he protested, was told to work with it.

I've got no problem with the hand drawn plans, even on a napkin, as long as they make sense. I've got no problem with having to work with ones that don't make sense, as long as I've got a client that realizes this and works with me.

In this case, it was a professional Autocad drawing. It looked real pretty, but it gave me zero essential information. I don't know if she had someone else do the drawing for her, or if she did it herself with only the most basic of use. Either way, she clearly had no idea how the process worked. She thought that handing me this drawing would just magically make the workstations appear. Which I could have done if I didn't care about getting any dimensions right, but I have this crazy way of doing things known as "professional". I knew she was guessing when she told me the dimensions, (which turned out to be true when we made things too large), but that was good enough for me.

[earl colby pottinger]

Learn to drop them

I sympathize with them to a point. If you get tough with clients, tell them how things are to be done, they go with the company that doesn't give them these hassles. But there does come a point where you have to call bullshit and demand that at least the bare minimums are covered. My bosses are so terrified of losing clients and accounts that they just bend over and take whatever the client wants to shove at us. And it costs them. Obviously we don't lose money every job, but on one like this, where we went about 8 hours over our allotted time, they definately lost money.

On the other hand, when the company I use to work with started to lose customers to another company that could talk good but could not do the job we waited.

We lost customers for about 6 months, then they started to come back as they found the other company can not do the job at the price they claimed.

What you should do is drop the jobs that clearly are a loss to your company, not the questionable ones - the ones that clearly will lose you money to do.

Keep doing that and an amazing thing will happen, your sales will go down, but your profits will climb.

[marlovino]

Forget about pencilling it in, you can set that son bitch down in stone!

You need to buy this and use it when you can't find your bag or you can't pencil them in.

flying f#ck copter.