Just plain poed #2

[jgoral76 14]

For the last 10 days I've been talking with the park owner of a manufactuered home site and for 10 days things have been changing, example1.. do 30 homes single and double I gave a discount because of the amount of homes. Now she says there are 9 and expects the same discount, but wants a 1 home demo to see if she likes my work> ahhh thats what pisses me off. 2.. She never returns emails or calls always seems to busy for me..3..wants me to do my inspection in 15-30minutes I want to see if any damage or something i need to document as so i don't get screwed. please reply, I'm thinking of not doing this job.

[CCPC 26]

My rule of thumb is, if they don't have any respect for me, my line of work, of my time, then it's a deal breaker. There's just too much work out there to mess with people like that.

[Celeste 341]

Ditto to what Lance said....no respect, no deals. We're all in business here to make a living doing what WE chose to do. Personally I never listed "sucking up" in our sales protocol. We are courteous, we are polite, well mannered, professional, etc...but butt kissers, nope, not a chance!

Celeste

[PressurePros 249]

Every PM, HOA and anyone offering bulk work all do the same thing. What's our price for fifty units? Oh clean one to see how we like your work. Or.. there is only five to do right now, but if we like what you do you could get all 50. It's the oldest scam in the book. Grab your dignity and tell the lady to put her "demo" where the sun don't shine.

[mikew 14]

For the last 10 days I've been talking with the park owner of a manufactuered home site and for 10 days things have been changing, example1.. do 30 homes single and double I gave a discount because of the amount of homes. Now she says there are 9 and expects the same discount, but wants a 1 home demo to see if she likes my work> ahhh thats what pisses me off. 2.. She never returns emails or calls always seems to busy for me..3..wants me to do my inspection in 15-30minutes I want to see if any damage or something i need to document as so i don't get screwed. please reply, I'm thinking of not doing this job.

Then clean the one unit at the higher rate as her demo. She can have the rest at the discount if she wants.

Mike

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

I despise the 'carrot' danglers. My angle is that I will get business whether they go with us or not. I am not hurting for business. I set the terms, they tell me what they want done. If they want to play games, I turn on my heel and walk. I don't haggle. We have formulas pertaining to the individual costs of our company and don't pull prices out of my butt.

I get the same ole "I'll pay you $$ and give you the business" (knocking off a few hundred from the price) and my response is "Pay my price and I will give you the best service available but don't ask me to take a pay cut and still give you the Cadillac for the VW price."

If they want a demo, I point them to our photo gallery, if they want a reference, I point them to our testimonials on the website.

My position is simply this: I don't show up in a $45,000 rig looking professionally dressed and complete with full marketing materials to be mistaken for a fly-by-niter. If they don't understand why they are getting cheap results from undependable people then they have no business being the one interviewing the contractors to begin with.

In business the first step in a solid relationship is respect from the very beginning. Anyone trying to get something for free or at a discount in business to business relations is not operating with respect to the company they are trying to hire. We got into business to make money not lose it or give away our services just on a lick and a promise of more.

Heres a recent example: We gave a bid for a PPCU at a hotel locally in Feb. with the understanding that the time frame was mid to late april for work to begin with our company. Well, that time came and past with no word, no call, no signed contract, no money down as specified, and we get a call from a project manager 2 days before they want us to start letting us know that they need us to work on a weekend. Yyyyyyyeah! I call the contact back with a tone of concern that this person may not be completely aware of the missing contract obligations. He was told that we were the company to use and to call us when he was ready for us. I explained to him that we had not received any communication, contractual correspondance....nothing. We were under the impression they went with another bid. He was understanding and asked if we could still do the work. I informed him that our current booking puts us in excess of 3-4 weeks. He asks if we could expedite this for him (a favor?). I reiterated the same thing again, we are booked for 3-4 weeks at this point. Well, he finally decides its time to call the people upstairs and find out what to do next. We got a call from a higher up and he was asking why we couldn't do the job when he wanted us to. Same story to him. No contract, no money down, no work. He said, 'oh yeah, their was that money down thing...we don't do that"...click!

Needless to say we won't be doing anything with a company that will not even have a reliable line of communication or the respect to abide by our contracts policies. (we don't like waiting 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 days for them to decide to cut us a check that was due upon date of completion.)

We control the contract, not them. That is why we are called contractors. We set up the guidelines and specifications based upon each job and that my friends is how we keep ourselves in business.

:rant:

Rod!~

[Scott Stone 604]

How come EVERY time there is a company that has multiple locations they want you to give them a price for all the locations at once, and then only give you one location? Personally, I feel it is dishonest, and trying to take advantage of someone. I get really tired of that.

Scott

[Jeff 232]

One home demo for free. I would have said I dont work for free and told her I will do it for my regular price then start a discount by volume.

The hell with them , dont send them another email, dont call them again and if they call you or email you, I wouldnt respond, screw them

I never work for free unless I want to. Ive done a few PM's homes for free and I was happy to , they given me 10's of thousands worth of biz, they've tried to stuff money in my pocket and I wouldnt take it just like I wouldnt take it from a friend

A sample is just that, a parking garage I'll do a 10X10 area to sell them on doing it all, but Im not going to do a whole level as a sample

Please pass on this and if they say the free thing, tell them no thank you:lgwave: :bullistic and walk

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

How come EVERY time there is a company that has multiple locations they want you to give them a price for all the locations at once, and then only give you one location? Personally, I feel it is dishonest, and trying to take advantage of someone. I get really tired of that.

Scott

Me too!

Beth

[bforbis 14]

jgoral76 vbmenu_register("postmenu_61460", true); ...

Don't sweat it. Put you renergy into another project and move on. You'll run into those without regard/respect for basically anyone. You'll recognize them now.

Best of Luck

[jgoral76 14]

I got a very nasty email from this lady today and like Rod said Mercedes value for a Kia price, My email back was ok your unprofessionalism and inconsistensy with this project is as well no deal. If you can find someone else good but pros don't work for peanuts . I'm Done with her. Maybe I'll call her boss and see what he says what'd you think of that?

[PressurePros 249]

Take Brent's advice. Don't throw good energy after bad. Its a learning experience we all went through.

[PLD 14]

Since we're PO'd today... I got cussed out today by a deadbeat customer for turning them over to collections. She "threatened" to pray for me in church about 3 seconds before telling me that she would sick her G**D**N lawyer on me (her words, not mine).

I always find it interesting that only deadbeats offer to pray for me, those offers typically insinuate the prayer will be for my downfall, the requesting party has no issue cussing me like a dog and using GD at least once in the coversation.

How does this fit in the thread? She had been gameplaying about payment since well BEFORE the job began. Should have walked...

[Jon 533]

First thing to remember is once you start lowering your prices you have cheapened yourself.

Others have already covered the big discount for several location stuff so I will skip it but this is what I would have done had I been in your shoes.

I would have asked her for a list of all the locations first, then I would ask her if they work with PO or some other form of written job order.

Then ask how they pay, per job or per month or weekly etc.

Some HOA management companies handle all the bills, others send them to the BOD who pay them and it is imperative you know who pays before you ever do a job.

I myself did not want HOA but that might be because I lived in one and knew first hand the BS that went on.

Then I would say I will do one job at my regular price and if your happy and I get the account we can discuss a price range that we both can live with.

I would do a follow up in a week, then another week, then a couple weeks but I would NOT pay attention to her continuing asking for a better price.

You mentioned you wanted to tell her boss, think for a moment about that, she is probably following orders from him/her so all you would do is shut the door tight. I always tried to keep the door opened because someday when you least expect it they might call and say go clean x number of homes ASAP and here is the PO/work order number.

Oh and never ever beg for a job.

[Jon 533]

Phil take her to small claims court and watch her lie to the Judge or keep interrupting you, no better way to win a case.

To bad you guys cannot ask for 50% up front, at least your supplies will be paid for then.

[PLD 14]

Phil take her to small claims court and watch her lie to the Judge or keep interrupting you, no better way to win a case.

To bad you guys cannot ask for 50% up front, at least your supplies will be paid for then.

I will. After the collections agents hassle her for awhile. I got cursed out after I sent her an updated statement with charges for collections and lien filing fees.

[bforbis 14]

I hope this is not too far off the thread...

Have not had to do it yet, but how do you place a lien on a business that has not paid a bill. Not sure what the course of action would be after several billing notices (past due) etc.

[Celeste 341]

Brent,

Go to your local (to the job) Clerk of Court and ask the procedure for a Mechanicsman/Materialsman lien. Do you have a contract - before & after pics? Not necessarily required, but very helpful as "evidence".

Celeste

[bforbis 14]

Thanks Celeste!

[PressurePros 249]

Every area is different. There is also a mnimum time from job completion until the time you can file. In my county it is 60 days or 30 days if you can prove intent of default.

[PLD 14]

Every area is different. There is also a mnimum time from job completion until the time you can file. In my county it is 60 days or 30 days if you can prove intent of default.

Mine has no miminum, but a 90 day max. As for procedure: Fill out a form, swear to the clerk, hand her $5, and mail a copy of the form (certified) to the prop owner.

But, unless they are selling/re-fi'ing a lien will get you little unless you paln to renew it every year. Hiring a collections agent to harrass them, and filing in small claims court are your best bet