A couple of months ago we got a call from a contractor we do a fair bit of work for, he has a friend, with a small problem in his house, and could we do something for him and help him out.
Said friends house is about 2 1/2 hours away, and the problem is very small, so boss is fairly unenthusiastic, but if he is a good buddy of this contractor we should try to keep him happy. This house happens to be almost on the way to my mom's, so I offer to go see what's up with it when I dropped my son off for a visit one weekend.
Go look. I don't have x-ray vision, so what I see is the homeowner pointing at random pieces of beautifully painted/wallpapered/textured drywall, while I nod intelligently. Go back and tell my boss what the problem probably is, but that I have to cut open drywall to know for sure. If the problem is what I think, it will only take minutes to fix, but I'm not sure. Also that I am going back home labour day weekend, and if he wants to do this guy a favour I can stop in then, so we can do it cheap.
Boss writes a quote, for $150.00. That is CHEAP. We never send a truck out for less than $500, this guy is far away, he is getting a deal. The quote says price only good for Sunday, August 31, (so I can do it on my way near his town), and our scope of work says to remove drywall in areas, assess situation, and if possible repair - if the problem is what I think. So he is paying for me to show up, take apart some parts of his house. If the fix is what I think, great I fix, if not, it's going to cost a lot more to get a truck, crew etc there. Customer agrees to quote.
I went there today, took some tools from the shop, leftover materials from other jobs, in case I could fix it. Now, I don't like working in this house. It isn't just clean, it's rich people clean. There isn't a single piece of mail sitting on a table, not a set of keys on the counter, no errant pair of shoes in the living room. Not a thing anywhere except fancy furniture, fancy pieces of art, and fancy surfaces. I like a clean house, but houses this clean intimidate me, I always feel like pigpen when I'm working in them, like I'm trailing a cloud of dirt around me. Especially when I'm sawing through pieces of drywall in a carpeted room. Ughh.
The good news is, the problem was what and where I expected it, I was able to saw apart his house, fix his problem and clean up behind me in about 40 minutes. I gave him his bill. He wasn't impressed. I guess $150 is too much to pay for such a small amount of work, I barely used any materials, it didn't take very long, etc. etc.
I am so angry right now, if this guy had gone to a hardware store, rented the tools I used, bought the materials I needed (he would have had to purchase full packages) he could have done it himself for about $320. If he got it done in 1/2 a day. Otherwise the rentals would have cost more. My guess is if he did it himself it would have taken about 3 days, some of it could be tricky if you don't know what you are doing. If he could have done it at all. And he thinks we are ripping him off.
He's going to call boss on Tuesday to see about making the bill more 'reasonable', and boss is going to lose his mind. The only reason we did this for him is to keep a good customer happy. No good deed, right?
Said friends house is about 2 1/2 hours away, and the problem is very small, so boss is fairly unenthusiastic, but if he is a good buddy of this contractor we should try to keep him happy. This house happens to be almost on the way to my mom's, so I offer to go see what's up with it when I dropped my son off for a visit one weekend.
Go look. I don't have x-ray vision, so what I see is the homeowner pointing at random pieces of beautifully painted/wallpapered/textured drywall, while I nod intelligently. Go back and tell my boss what the problem probably is, but that I have to cut open drywall to know for sure. If the problem is what I think, it will only take minutes to fix, but I'm not sure. Also that I am going back home labour day weekend, and if he wants to do this guy a favour I can stop in then, so we can do it cheap.
Boss writes a quote, for $150.00. That is CHEAP. We never send a truck out for less than $500, this guy is far away, he is getting a deal. The quote says price only good for Sunday, August 31, (so I can do it on my way near his town), and our scope of work says to remove drywall in areas, assess situation, and if possible repair - if the problem is what I think. So he is paying for me to show up, take apart some parts of his house. If the fix is what I think, great I fix, if not, it's going to cost a lot more to get a truck, crew etc there. Customer agrees to quote.
I went there today, took some tools from the shop, leftover materials from other jobs, in case I could fix it. Now, I don't like working in this house. It isn't just clean, it's rich people clean. There isn't a single piece of mail sitting on a table, not a set of keys on the counter, no errant pair of shoes in the living room. Not a thing anywhere except fancy furniture, fancy pieces of art, and fancy surfaces. I like a clean house, but houses this clean intimidate me, I always feel like pigpen when I'm working in them, like I'm trailing a cloud of dirt around me. Especially when I'm sawing through pieces of drywall in a carpeted room. Ughh.
The good news is, the problem was what and where I expected it, I was able to saw apart his house, fix his problem and clean up behind me in about 40 minutes. I gave him his bill. He wasn't impressed. I guess $150 is too much to pay for such a small amount of work, I barely used any materials, it didn't take very long, etc. etc.
I am so angry right now, if this guy had gone to a hardware store, rented the tools I used, bought the materials I needed (he would have had to purchase full packages) he could have done it himself for about $320. If he got it done in 1/2 a day. Otherwise the rentals would have cost more. My guess is if he did it himself it would have taken about 3 days, some of it could be tricky if you don't know what you are doing. If he could have done it at all. And he thinks we are ripping him off.
He's going to call boss on Tuesday to see about making the bill more 'reasonable', and boss is going to lose his mind. The only reason we did this for him is to keep a good customer happy. No good deed, right?
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