Work Crazyness

You know you've made it when you get the haters, they say.
I am putting a bid on new house construction.  Talking to the builder, I knew exactly where he was coming from.  He said he used to do renovations, but he just got sick of opening places up, finding lots of crap, pointing it out, saying he'll fix it for extra, then the customer doesn't necessarily feel ripped off, but isn't happy about giving up a lot more money than he or she had budgeted for.  Its so much nicer to bring people joy, by taking them out on dune buggies or something.

A fine example was a panel box I moved for a friends sister.  I gave her a fair estimate,  high enough, to account for a little unexpected.  Well the place was full of unexpected time consuming BS.  That all just takes time, if I end up only getting $20 an hour for the gig, oh well, I'm still making some money.  Then I need to call Epcor to disconnect the power.  After I change the supply conductors over, I need to get an inspection, and have Epor come and reconnect.  Little did I know, Epcor won't reconnect the crappy old meter bases.  The customers mast is too low, which I did know, but we weren't messing with.  Now we need to put a new meter base in, we had better put a new mast in, or it probably wont pass the inspection, and won't get hooked back up.  Well that is $500 in materials, I charged $300 to put it in, a total of $800, really cheap.  Well did I ever hear about that, from her, and her brother.  I had told her before hand, $500 extra in materials, I will put it in for $300, normally that would be $1500 installed.  "I thought you said the extras were $500".  This was already practically charity work, but I know she doesn't have a lot of money, so I took another $150 off, whatever.

Almost the same day, after 2 weeks of calling a contractor I did work for, to get paid, I get this email:

Mr. Smith,

As per the recommendation from my solicitor, I am forwarding this response to this invoice. As of this date, this invoice has not been paid for the following reason:
- Wiring for under cabinet lighting run outside of cabinets, and it was stated as being incorrect by the customer.
- Differing plug heights, which was stated as being incorrect by the customer.

Due to the above comments, we have not been paid for the job yet, and until the electrical is fixed by a licensed contractor, at our cost, we will not be paid. The amount for the invoice will be paid within 30 days, as stated as the timeframe in which to pay on the invoice. A GST number and WCB number shall also be forwarded to our office as well, before payment will be processed.


That ruined my night.  What the hell do I need a WCB number for, with no employees.  It was never specified to put the under counter lighting wires in the cupboard, where you can see them, and where plates will rock on them.  Or maybe the lighting wires were supposed to magically disappear, like wireless under counter lights.  The plug height difference must be an eighth of an inch or less.  I offered to fix it, I offered my furniture buddy to buff out any staple marks from under the cupboards, who I would happily pay the $80 an hour to.  He said "the tile back splash hid all the staple marks, don't worry"  That means the wires would have been easily hidden in grout.  With just short of offering my soul to make this better, the contractor admitted these were just 2 complaints on a long list, which the customer wants fixed before he pays.  That is to say, my responsibility is minimum.  Customer is being difficult.  But I still think he has every right to have it made the way he wants it before he pays.  Its not a big deal to put the lighting wires in the cupboards, or adjust the plug height.  But you know if I had put the wires in the cupboard to start with, that would be a complaint, only then I had drilled holes in his new cabinets.  I feel I did the best job I could.

Then I have a big trenching job, out near Andrew, and the trencher just won't dig through the hard soil.  We were standing on it, and all kinds of sketchyness, it just rides up and out of the hard soil.  I put it down to dull blades.  In 2 days I can get back out there, replace the teeth, and try again.

The ultimate upset, bothered me very little, as I have a half dozen checks in my vehicle safe, waiting to be deposited into the bank.  I was at a crappy little service call in Andrew.  "my husband pulled the light fixture down in our bedroom, it sparked and now nothing in that room works, no plugs, or anything."  I said I would look at it for $60, if its an easy fix I would have it fixed, if not, I still expect $60 and I will give a quote and how I would go about fixing it.  I am already late for another job at this point.  the wife is happy with that.  I call the husband, I have to make sure he's home, and has $60, this is Andrew.  He says "I'll give you $60 if you fix it"  I explained the deal, and went ahead anyway.  he had pretty much disconnected everything in the ceiling JB, so it was just a matter of figuring out the switch leg, power wire, and feeder wires and connecting them all accordingly.  Then he brings me a monsterous ceiling fan, the cause of all the problems, he wanted to put a fan up.  I pretty much put my hand out for $60, "your not going to put the fan up" he says.  I simply said I don't have time for that, I would be happy to come back, but I would never put a fan in a ceiling like that, above your bed, without first going in the attic, and backing it up with 2x4 blocking.  I got away with that excuse, and made $60 in 20 min, but dropped my Iphone in the driveway, which shattered the touch screen, grr.  Cost of doing business, but it upsets me because it was at irritating job, that I probably should have said no to, but I somehow sadistically enjoy the challenge, and entertainment of their cheapness.  Had I not stopped there, would my Iphone be broken?  Had I dropped it at the job I'm making $6000 at, the profit margin is still there.

The previous Andrew service call, to "disconnect a dishwasher" you wouldn't believe.  I should have taken a picture.  About 4 layers of flooring up to the dishwasher.  She has got it wedged up at an angle, over the flooring but stuck against the counter.  I got distracted, and tried to help, I actually tried to cut the old dishwasher in half for her with a sawzall, but got too close to her precious cupboards and aborted that mission.  then I focused on the disconnect, yup, rite in front, just on the edge of the raised flooring.  Good luck getting the dishwasher out, your going to have to remove the counter, or the flooring, neither of which were an option in her mind.

I am utterly disappointed we can't shoot the bow in the back yard in Edmonton.  I was joking when I mentioned bb guns, but it got Michelle excited, so I bought us BB guns, that were on sale at Princess Auto.  She got a pink one, and I got a camouflage one.  So there are bb's all over our basement floor now from Michelle missing the target.  I am surprised they don't penetrate drywall.  Our basement drywall already needs a lot of love, and redoing, so no harm done.