Mine is more expensive.

I recently met up with a young couple who wanted to renovate a relatively big house they had bought, and like all the young couples I have met since I started working in the company, they don't have a very generous budget.



The amount they shared with me isn't unachievablely low and when they shared their renovation requirements with me, I can tell that they were only opting for the necessary items.  I have spoken to clueless customers who have no idea exactly just how far their dollar can stretch before, so I know this couple doesn't share that type of delusions.


That being said, the one thing that really stuck with me during the first consultation with them was the requirement the husband had...

"The budget cannot exceed $60k."

... $60k sounds like a huge amount for renovation works, and it is, but the unit they wanted to renovate is an Executive Apartment, it is by no means small, and even though the requirements they shared with me were basic, the basics don't come cheap for them for an apartment that size. He was very adamant about it, so I took note of that budget but also informed him that based on the size of his house, my quote will more than likely exceed his initial budget. He kept joking that he no longer had anymore money, and kept reiterating that the renovation mustn't exceed $60k, and honestly at that point, the whole thing just felt like a waste of time.




It's the same as a customer walking into a Chanel store to get a Chanel item, but then only have the budget to get afford a Louis Vuitton.
(I did my research and Chanel apparently cost more, so there is that analogy)



Seeing how they were really friendly during our consultation and despite knowing that they will most likely not be coming back to me again for a second consultation, I decided to calculate a quotation for them out of goodwill*.



*I know that Interior Design firms all offer a free "Non-Obligatory Quotations" , but just because it's a free service doesn't necessarily mean we are obligated to prepare one for the clients, there isn't any contract anywhere that states that. If the meeting has been a clear waste of our time, then why should we bother spending more time preparing a quotation the clients will probably spend less than a minute looking through before deleting it from their emails. That being said, most of the time, if I don't actually prepare a quote for the client, it's most likely because they were exhibiting cunt like behavior during the consultation session.



Needless to say, the final amount exceeded their initial budget by $15k. and when I saw that amount, the husband's "cannot exceed $60k" just kept replying in my head, so I didn't bother to double check my quote for errors and just send it straight to the wife via email, thinking I was never ever going to hear from them again.




About 2 days later, surprise of the century, the wife actually emails back to me, requesting for a second appointment, I was very surprised and agreed to it, but unfortunately, the meeting ended up being another waste of time.



It was a pleasant consultation session, but the whole meeting was essentially just them calling me out for my expensive quotations, the main phrases I remember were...

"Your quote is by far the highest one we have gotten."

"The other ID offered us more carpentry, but their prices are still lower than yours."

"Your quote is almost 10k more expensive than the other firms we have visited."

... they were not being confrontational about it at all, but it was just a little mind boggling to me. If the other Interior Design Firms are offering you a better price than me, then why did you even bother scheduling a second meeting with me in the first place ? I honestly do not get the logic behind it, you could have spend the weekend elsewhere, meeting with the cheaper Interior Designer to fine tune the quotation, but instead, you decided to drop by my showroom and call me out for charging you higher than the other Interior Designers. 

If the first meeting I had with them felt like a waste of time, well, this second meeting just felt completely redundant and if there is a third meeting, time will probably collapse upon itself from the sheer redundancy of it. They were a nice couple though.


----



Recently, the company is planning a company trip for all the employees and I am not really keen to attend the trip because I have to pay $300 for it.


You'd think that a company trip would be paid for by the company, but because I did not manage to hit my sales quota, the company isn't going to be paying for my ticket. The trip sounds like it is compulsory and that just doesn't sit right with me because that's the company essentially forcing me to shell $300 out of my already meager income to go for a trip I have no interest in going.



I also do not know how much longer I have with the company, am seriously contemplating to leave the company very soon to look for a different career, just have to quickly finish up my remaining projects and that option will finally open up for me.

Getting my panties in a bunch.

Didn't really have a proper lunch this afternoon, so I decided I would drive over to Burger King at the nearest Community Center to get a quick bite.



There is this new item on the menu that I wanted to try as well called a Malty Float, so I ordered it and realized it was just Iced Milo with Soft Serve, I was expecting some sort of rich chocolate drink with soft serve, so it was a little disappointing.



As I was on my way back, I reach a little zebra crossing area, and I could see 2 cyclist cycling closer towards the crossing and then stopped right in front, there was a bus right in front of me at that point, and it was blocking the crossing, so right after the bus drove off, I inched forward a little and stopped right before the crossing, in an attempt to allow the 2 cyclist to cross the road.



That second that I waited for them to cross felt like forever and then one of the cyclist looks at me, brows furrowed , flicks his wrist and mouths at me to go, as if me offering to let him cross the zebra crossing has somehow offended him.



Here's a tip, if you do not want to cross the zebra crossing, then don't stop right infront of the zebra crossing and confuse drivers who are actually using the fucking road.



This really isn't a huge deal actually, it just really pissed off because of the way he was signaling for me to go, I mean at least have some fucking common sense, you are the one who is waiting in front of a zebra crossing, drivers are automatically going to assume you want to cross, for fuck sake, even a kid is going to assume you are gonna want to cross it, so if you do not want to cross the zebra crossing, then, oh, I don't know, wait a few meters behind the fucking zebra crossing so you don't give drivers mixed signals and make them stop their cars for you!




Moron.