Normally I don't gloat when a customer is wrong

[evilhomer]

I'm on a large furniture install and I'm having a hell of a time because of the shitty drawings that the client has supplied. A client that doesn't have their head up their ass will provide a panel drawing, an electrical drawing, a surfacing drawing, an accessory drawing, along with anything else that is needed to be separate to make it clear what is being called for. Well this client thinks that providing so many drawings is too confusing for us, so they give us an all in one drawing. Not only is it too much information in the space, the real problem is overlapping print. We get one spot with some vital measurement or part number, and it's got multiple things printed over top of it, making it virtually illegible. As if that's not bad enough, they'll give one part number to get your run started, then it's up to me to figure out the rest.

That's just a little background to show you what I'm dealing with. But that's life, so I'm doing my best to make it work. I hit a roadblock when I come across some parts that will not work: some electrical connections with two female ends. Fortunately the client was on site, so I went to her for some clarification. After umpteen tries to get her to understand that a female end cannot connect to a female end, she finally acknowledges this as a fact, but still doesn't understand my problem. Okay, I've got these short male connectors, am I supposed to use them? Well of course I am, why do I even need to ask this question? Because you don't have those parts listed on the plans you stupid twit, so I have no way of knowing this. I show her the plans to confirm that they aren't listed and to point out how the overlapping print is a nightmare. She barely acknowledges this, instead just arrogantly stating how she triple checked everything, so there's no way that there can be a mistake.

Rather than giving her the whack with a clue x 4 that she deserved, I just smiled and thanked her. I carried on and got to the end, only to find out that I'm short on the electrical parts. I triple checked my work to make sure there was no possible way I can be mistaken and find that I'm short exactly one group of parts needed for a complete workstation. So I guess her triple check with a fine tooth comb didn't include actually counting the number of workstations that were being built.

I normally don't take pleasure in these kinds of mistakes, but to have someone talk down to me and arrogantly state that they are right, only to see that they missed the most basic step of counting the number required.... that one had me smiling for the rest of the afternoon.

[eltf177]

Why is it I'm thinking these piss-poor plans are going to increase your time on site and thus your fees?

And why is it I'm thinking client will not accept responsibility for this and blame you?

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Normally I don't gloat when a customer is wrong

Why not? I accept that people are wrong sometimes, but when a customer goes out of their way to 'prove' what an idiot I am compared to them and I get a chance to show them how they are wrong, I'm not adverse to a little rubbing it in. (In the most polite non-offensive way possible)

[earl colby pottinger]

Sign off

I hope at some stage she had signed off on her projected numbers so you can prove it is all her fault if she tries to blame you.

[evilhomer]

Why is it I'm thinking these piss-poor plans are going to increase your time on site and thus your fees?

And why is it I'm thinking client will not accept responsibility for this and blame you?

That's a MiM post in the making. The client is a furniture selling business who uses us all the time. These plans are the standard that we get from them, and the mistakes and problems and delays are par for the course. But the boss still puts up with it, still charges normal rates, and still gets pissed when we're over the allotted time frame.

I hope at some stage she had signed off on her projected numbers so you can prove it is all her fault if she tries to blame you.

They come up with the plans, they place the order, we come in and put it all together. Any shortage in the order is 100% their responsibility, as long as I didn't use any parts where I shouldn't have (which I didn't), it's all on them.

[wolfie]

I hit a roadblock when I come across some parts that will not work: some electrical connections with two female ends. Fortunately the client was on site, so I went to her for some clarification. After umpteen tries to get her to understand that a female end cannot connect to a female end, she finally acknowledges this as a fact, but still doesn't understand my problem. Okay, I've got these short male connectors, am I supposed to use them?

Sounds like the male connectors you mentioned are the electrical equivalent of a double-ended dildo. If that's the case, how can they be sold legally? After all, if you plug one into the wrong female connector (i.e. the one on the end of a "one male one female" cable) you've made a "death cord" (2 male ends). At least with the male connectors sold in hardware stores you need to know which end of a screwdriver to hold in order to make a "death cord". A "no tools" (anyone who would do it is a tool, but you probably know what I mean) "plug and fry" option should NOT be available, even though it would help in chlorinating the gene pool.

[Daskinor]

Sounds like the male connectors you mentioned are the electrical equivalent of a double-ended dildo. If that's the case, how can they be sold legally? After all, if you plug one into the wrong female connector (i.e. the one on the end of a "one male one female" cable) you've made a "death cord" (2 male ends). At least with the male connectors sold in hardware stores you need to know which end of a screwdriver to hold in order to make a "death cord". A "no tools" (anyone who would do it is a tool, but you probably know what I mean) "plug and fry" option should NOT be available, even though it would help in chlorinating the gene pool.

I would guess they are a type of whip cable that is specially designed for cubicles and office furniture. From the wall directly into the unit. And from that unit you can daisy chain them to others. These cables do not have any exposed metal where you can easily touch zap yourself or others.

[evilhomer]

Sounds like the male connectors you mentioned are the electrical equivalent of a double-ended dildo. If that's the case, how can they be sold legally? After all, if you plug one into the wrong female connector (i.e. the one on the end of a "one male one female" cable) you've made a "death cord" (2 male ends). At least with the male connectors sold in hardware stores you need to know which end of a screwdriver to hold in order to make a "death cord". A "no tools" (anyone who would do it is a tool, but you probably know what I mean) "plug and fry" option should NOT be available, even though it would help in chlorinating the gene pool.

(Trying to not get too complicated here, like Daskinor explained)

You've got your electrical tray that the feed comes into, these are always female at both ends. From there you've got your whip cables which are male at both ends. You plug the whip cable into the electric tray to connect it to the next electric tray and presto, they're both powered.

In this case, the whip cables they provided were essentially extension cords - male at one end, female at the other, so I needed the extra male-male cable to complete the connection to the next tray. The reason for the complication was because the cables were already long enough to reach, so there was no need for the additional cable. I just assumed that as per their standard method of operations, they screwed up the order.

As far as safety goes, these things are all insulated, so there's no danger of live wires from standard handling of them.