Why would you do this?

[draftermatt]

The company I work for is slow. Starting to pick up, but we went from 3 drafters to 1 (me), 14 laborers to 7, OT to 35 hours a week for some plant employees.

So when we got a call from one of our competitors asking if we could pick up a job for them (they were too busy to fabricate in time) we said sure.

I went through the painstaking process of redrawing (I don't know who drafted it originally, but I'd fire them). Most of the painstaking part was that they refused to give me some of the info I needed (I needed to sign 2 releases, and sift through 100 PDFs first) so I'm stuck scaling the info (which is bad) just to get something down.

Last Wednesday (8/13) they give me what I need. I draw it, send it to them, and send it to fabrication.

Today they send me the drawings back. And of 300 inserts they wanted (and located) they now want 275 changed!

Needless to say I'm pissed, they located everything for me and now they want them moved.

I ask what the deal is since I used their locations... Here is a quote from the e-mail.

CAD drawings were for reference only and may have not been updated for all changes. Drawings should be produced using information shown in the approved set of erection drawings.

Yup, they sent me old freaking drawings!

Which then got me this followup e-mail from that guy's boss.

Matt,
Please accept my apologies. I had no idea you were provided with dated drawings.

All this time, all this work, and for nothing.

The worst part? We started fabrication this morning per their instructions.

[strawbabies]

Charge them for everything you've already done!

[PepperElf]

apparently your competition sucks

[Hyndis]

Bill them for all the work you've done so far, including fabrication.

Its not your fault they ordered the wrong thing. You were providing them with exactly what they ordered, and through stupidity or carelessness, they gave you the incorrect information. You're holding up your end of the contract, they were just too stupid to tell you what they needed.

[draftermatt]

Thankfully of what had been fabricated we were able to get away with not having to throw anything out.

As far as my work is concerned, we had a nice sized mark up on the job to do it in the first place, so no harm there, and I get paid regardless.

As far as them sucking? Oh yeah. A big reason they hired us to do this is because they didn't pay attention to how much work they had and suddenly realized there was no way to produce everything they had.

Another reason is when they made the first delivery their customer rejected half the product because of the way it was drawn to start with. It looked terrible!

I've spoken to people who've worked with us and them, and they all say they'd rather work with us.

The sad thing? When this company first started they were trying to get my boss & I to jump ship and go up there (Jersey) and help them get set up.