For a while the Canadian government was offering rebates on home improvements that increased energy efficiency. An inspector would come to the house, note all the areas of the house that could be improved, and write up a schedule of how much of a rebate the homeowner would get for doing which upgrades. The homeowner would have a set amount of time (say 6 months) to complete any renovations on the list and then the inspector would come back, check the work that had been done and fill out some forms for the rebate.
At least 25% of people that we quoted to do work for this program proposed some version of this: Could we do y work, at the cost of y work, but write out a quote and invoice reflecting that we did 2 or 3 times y work in order to get a larger rebate. This is a terrible idea. The best case scenario is that we scam the Canadian government for a few hundred dollars, all of which goes to the customer, at no benefit to our company. More likely outcomes are that we get caught attempting to scam the government, which I think they frown on. Hard. Or that we complete the work, and the customer successfully sues us to get back their money, or get more work done, because we have quoted and billed for something we haven't done. Lose-lose-lose right?
I heard any number of arguments, whining, threatening, blustering and pouting that we would not perform this fraud for our potential customers ie, random people we had just met and didn't know from Peter Pan, but this one stupid lady had a slightly different take:
Stupid Lady: Well company A and company B have both agreed to do this if I go with them. You should do this if you want a customer, and don't want to lose my money to your competitors
Me: I think you should just go with one of them then, our company is really not interested in this kind of arrangement
SL: But I don't want to use either of them. They have a reputation for trying to scam people, and everyone says you guys are really honest!
At least 25% of people that we quoted to do work for this program proposed some version of this: Could we do y work, at the cost of y work, but write out a quote and invoice reflecting that we did 2 or 3 times y work in order to get a larger rebate. This is a terrible idea. The best case scenario is that we scam the Canadian government for a few hundred dollars, all of which goes to the customer, at no benefit to our company. More likely outcomes are that we get caught attempting to scam the government, which I think they frown on. Hard. Or that we complete the work, and the customer successfully sues us to get back their money, or get more work done, because we have quoted and billed for something we haven't done. Lose-lose-lose right?
I heard any number of arguments, whining, threatening, blustering and pouting that we would not perform this fraud for our potential customers ie, random people we had just met and didn't know from Peter Pan, but this one stupid lady had a slightly different take:
Stupid Lady: Well company A and company B have both agreed to do this if I go with them. You should do this if you want a customer, and don't want to lose my money to your competitors
Me: I think you should just go with one of them then, our company is really not interested in this kind of arrangement
SL: But I don't want to use either of them. They have a reputation for trying to scam people, and everyone says you guys are really honest!
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