dealing with irrational people

[forgeblast]

After working years in retail I realized the customer is more often wrong then right. I just took the stand that "the customer is just a customer". They could choose to listen to me, to could choose not to, but at the end of the day they are the ones who have to live with their purchase.
The mind set the customer is always right is what irrational customers, the customers who will try to nickle and dime you on everything, come in thinking. I remember we has kayaks on clearence because they were scratched on the bottom. After I had dragged two matching kayaks down from storage, outfitted the customers with lifejackets, oars, etc. They decided that the discount was not enough and wanted free things thrown in. They went ballistic on me and the store manager, saying we were trying to sell them damaged good and they wanted things for free. Explained about 30 times that they were getting a discount and it was because the product they wanted was scratched, and what was going to happen in the river when they hit a rock, or drag it out of the water? They ended up storming out of the store yelling the whole way out. The customer is always a customer, treat them with respect but know that the simple fact that you are in the business means you know 100x's more then most customers will ever know about your job.

 

[JimRB]

I called 611 for a utility locate this winter for a small fence. ATT contractor came out and did their marking but no cable markings. I called back and asked what happened to the cable marking. Cable company incorrectly reported there was no buried cable. I told the operator that there was buried cable and a tech came out later that day to mark. I was right of course and what I thought was their 20 year old trench and path was indeed correct. I had managed to hit the lateral cable run to the neighbor's house 14 years earlier and 650 feet away so I knew there was buried cable. But on my latest project I would have been off the hook if I had torn up that buried cable. Also I think we have a 30 day window to do work after you get the OK.

 

[Sigarms]

So, I have this customer who wants some landscaping done and she wants trees planted down the water and sewer lines. I told her she will need to have the lines located to prevent any accident. Simple thing, just call to schedule for a locator service. Well, two weeks now and for whatever reason she is just not doing it, claiming all kinds of excuses. So, she tells me Friday she will take care of it, today she says says that she didn't do it and to just come and plant them anyway. I told her I will not do that and be liable in the event something happened and that I would be glad to do the rest of the work and come back to plant the tree when the lines are located. Still waiting to hear back, she seems to want all or nothing.

So, what kind of irrational people have you dealt with?

I don't view your customer as irrational, but as someone who procrastinates

You set your requirements needed by your customer, your customer has not met those requirements, you don't do the job.

Now, if you know of anyone who can trim a Japanese maple tree located next to a house, and they can assure the customer that the Japanese maple will not die after they trim it, send me a PM because I'm looking for someone

 

[AGGIE00]

The op must deal with some pretty great customers for this example to be irrational. The service is free. Here in Texas it is the contractors responsibility to get locates and as the one doing the digging you want to be the one holding the confirmation number. Also, one call does not cover local city utilities like water and sewer in a lot of places. Call the local municipality seperately.

 

[powerpace]

It go's back to the 80/20 rule. 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your profit. 80% of your customers will give you 20% of your profit and 80% of your problems.

I helped my Son put in a chain-link fence in his front yard. His house is at the end of a cul-de-sac. I had the utility locator come out and mark the water, sewer and power lines. The paint marker lines looked like a drunk had staggered across it. The only straight line was the sewer. The power and water lines were not just his but also his neighbors on each side. All the water meters were located in one area and crossed his property. Power lines were all coming from the same transformer and crossing his property. It was tough finding a place to put poles.

 

[beppington]

I don't know that it is the contractor's responsibility to call locations, but it should be if it's not:

When I call locations they ask for a description of where I'll be digging, how deep, etc. What if the homeowner answers those types of questions wrong? What if she tells them 24" deep holes will be augered, & yet your auger goes to 36" or 42"?

 

[beppington]

It go's back to the 80/20 rule. 20% of your customers will give you 80% of your profit. 80% of your customers will give you 20% of your profit and 80% of your problems.

I helped my Son put in a chain-link fence in his front yard. His house is at the end of a cul-de-sac. I had the utility locator come out and mark the water, sewer and power lines. The paint marker lines looked like a drunk had staggered across it. The only straight line was the sewer. The power and water lines were not just his but also his neighbors on each side. All the water meters were located in one area and crossed his property. Power lines were all coming from the same transformer and crossing his property. It was tough finding a place to put poles.

Are you sure the locations guy marked them right?

I called locations to mark a long stretch where I was putting in a fence, where the entire stretch has an AT&T fiber running right next to where I was putting the fence. The first guy that came out marked that the fiber meandered 5'-10' inside my property line, which would've been kosher since that is well within their right-of-way, but he was wrong - I can't remember why now, but I ended up talking to them again after he marked but before we started augering, & his supervisor came out instead & ended up telling me that the first guy was a new guy who didn't know how to read the meter right. Turned out the fiber was ~2'-7' outside my property line! That coulda been a problem! Supervisor told me this is a main interstate fiber artery serving south FL that costs AT&T something like $90,000/ hr when it's down (not sure how they know that or who's charging them :confused2:, but anyway), & it would've been a major problem if we had hit it. In fact, along all stretches where he had marked the fiber to be within 2' of where we were augering, the AT&T super insisted on hand-digging the holes we had marked with flags ... in the middle of boiling FL heat. Now that's the kind of dedication you need in a supervisor, or any employee for that matter.

 

[s219]

I helped my Son put in a chain-link fence in his front yard. His house is at the end of a cul-de-sac. I had the utility locator come out and mark the water, sewer and power lines. The paint marker lines looked like a drunk had staggered across it. The only straight line was the sewer.

Chances are the person marking the line was yakking on their cell phone in one hand and not really giving a crap about their work -- I've seen line markers out doing that many times, and they leave some lousy worthless marks, like stumbling drunks.

At our new place, they recently trenched and put power lines in. A few weeks later after the trenches were long since filled but still obvious, the lines were marked in preparation for running phone cable. Whoever marked the lines was an idiot, since they painted their stripes about 2 feet to the side of the visible trench remnants. I previously saw the open trenches to know they went straight down, and weren't crooked or anything. How the idiot detected/painted that line wrong, and missed the *visually* obvious trench remnants, I'll never know. Funny thing is, I leveled the ground with my box blade after 2-3 weeks, and now the paint line and the trench remnants are no longer visible. It's going to be like the wild west now.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Yeah, I thought the contractor was responsible for locating the lines before digging too.

It is kind of irrational to plant trees along the water and sewer lines in the first place. That's just begging for a problem later on when the roots invade the lines, or when trying to dig the lines up encased in roots.

Considering your liability, hand her a revised contract stipulating that she pays all fines and legal fees for damages incurred.

Wanna bet she won't sign it?

 

[EE_Bota]

To my knowledge its the home owner who is responsible for having lines marked, at least in NC anyways, but I could be wrong. That's just how its always been done and its never an issue. However, this is the first time I have dealt with city water/sewer lines. All of the other lines have been marked, so I did in fact call the city and turns out that a third party vendor marked those lines. You all may be right, I just may have to have it done myself and just add the cost to her bill.

I think the locator service is free of charge. You pay if you don't use it and strike a utility. If you use it, and strike a utility, you are off the hook.