Sunday, April 21, 2013

Can I use pictures that I took of my work....customer issues

I did a chimney a few years ago. I gave a price with a budget price for the bricks.? The owner wanted to pick the bricks but had not decided until the project had started (i did other work on the house.? I had poured a concrete floor over top of the existing garage floor that was being made into a family room.? during the preparations for the floor pour, i kept bugging the owner's wife for a decision on the bricks.

Finally, the day i had to order the bricks, or fall behind on the construction schedule, the woman (from h--- as it turned out) told me the bricks had been set aside on pallets at my supplier's warehouse.? I ordered the bricks along with all my other materials and got a days work in on the outside of the chimney.? the next morning, as I got to the job, there was a note pinned to the side wall of the house.? The woman did not like the bricks. the general run of the brick was a very dark brown with an occasional muck lighter shade, almost a tan.? She did not like the tans and insisted I remove them. At that point, i should have just packed up, called my supplier to come pick up the bricks (still on pallets) and told the lady (I use the term rather loosely) I would be back when she decided what bricks she really wanted, and never returned.? Instead, I tore down the work i had completed, and rebuilt using only the dark colored bricks.? even so, there were some bricks that did not quite measure up to the dark color she wanted, but she let me finish the outside as long as no more than 105 of the bricks were a lighter color.? the tans, i hid inside the chimney.? Those were used instead of the much cheaper concrete blocks that i had figured on.?

When i got to the inside brickwork, there was to be no such compromise.? I think she looked at the work with a magnifying glass.? Because i had to be extra careful, it took me an extra day or two on the inside facing, time i was never paid for.? Then, when i went back outside, there were so many of the much too light, but still very dark brown, bricks, i ended up putting more bricks inside the chimney.? This was to be my very last chimney job, as i was moving into landscapng biz a step at a time.? I really had no place else to use the bricks.? I just swallowed and ordered an extra 1500 bricks to complete the job.? The woman was not happy, not with my work, but with the color of the bricks (remember, she was the one who picked them out at the suppliers yard.)

I breathed a sigh of relief as the flagstone was delivered for the fireplace hearth. I had just finihsed the installation when she walked in ad informed me the stone was very unsatisfactory.? The color was slightly off and one of the stones was maybe a mm thicker that the other two.? I refrained from banging my head against the wall (at this point, she owed me too much money for me to think of clobbering her)? i went back to my supplier with my tale of woe.? The man who did such fine stonework was about to retire himself. a week or so later, i took a pile of photos to him to show the completed jobs he had cut for me over the past 30 years.? He actually started to cry when I gave them to him.? nobody had ever done such a thing for him. And he had done some mighty fine work over the course of those years.? This hearth was right along in the same category.

I took the WFH down to the yard to look over the stone supply.? i felt real bad for my friend, the stone cutter as he tumbled thru the supply of stones.? No luck.? I took the WFH to 5 other stone yards in Western Connecticut.? There was no three stone that were acceptable to her.? Finally, we were in the very last yard and the Yrd Man and I had located three stones that were the absolute last that I was willing to drag out.? NO GO!

I then leaned the stones against another pallet and gave the WFH a little speech.

Mrs. WFH, I have been around for a great many years.? I have been doing stone work for longer than you have been alive.? During all of my years, even tho i have not been a devout Christian, i do have a strong belief in God.? It has long been my observation the He is a very good God and i have a great admiration for all he has done for all of us on this world.? He has spent a great deal of time making everything as perfect as possible.? however, when he got to where he was building stones, i think he must have been a little tired.? He just never had the time, or energy, to make the perfect stone.? i am not going to go one step further in search of the perfect stone.? such is just not a possibility for you.

The WFH accepted the stones and I installed.? When i finally received my final payment, i was docked $500 for improper use of materials.?

Everybody on that job got shorted in some way.? Even the builder, who was good friends with the husband would never go back there for anything.? a year or so later, i guess the husband decide he had had-e-nuf.? ?The big problem for me is not that i lost over a couple thousand $$$ on the brick work and ended up installing the hearth for nothing, i drive past that house nearly every day? >>> both going to work and coming home.?
Tinker

Source: http://festoolownersgroup.com/home-improvement-other-projects/can-i-use-pictures-that-i-took-of-my-work-customer-issues/msg253849/

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