The change from "dream client" to the huge pain in my ass has been anything but subtle.
In the beginning, everything was going really well, any decisions that they couldn't make, they left it up to me, to them, as long as everything is done properly, that was all that mattered, the little nitty-gritty details didn't really matter to them.
And then the wife brought up an issue she had with a certain aspect of the renovation and that was when things went downhill, it was a small issue initially with the painting works, there were certain areas that weren't painted smoothly, so she requested for the areas to be smoothed out before getting painted over again, she didn't attach any pictures to explain what she meant, so I replied to her request with...
"If the affected area is small, then I will get my painter to plaster those areas smooth and paint over, but if it is an entire wall, then I will have to get a different contractor down as plastering a full wall will require a specialist."
.... because the original walls of the apartment isn't straight to begin with, so I wasn't going to be agreeable to get a contractor down to smooth out all the walls for them, and then not charge them for it because they will probably deem it as a "defect" that needed to be rectified.
For some reason, this got the husband riled up and he started bombarding the chat group with a ton of images of the "defect areas", and then stated that there were a lot of areas that were not done well, asking me why I didn't recommend plastering their walls before the painting, why I just assumed that they would be okay with it.
So I explained to them that their case wasn't straightforward because their walls are inherently crooked, that is just the way old houses are, if they wanted the walls to be smoothed out, they are the ones who have to bring it to me. I then gave them an example of a more straightforward case, which would be a wall that used to be covered in wallpaper, but has since gotten the wallpaper removed and is covered in glue stain residue, that is a straightforward case and that will require the specialist to come in.
This exchange went back and forth for a while and finally, I just told them I will get the relevant contractors down to rectify the areas I can rectify. The wife quickly thank me for following up and I guess she was trying to mediate the whole situation because the husband has obviously gotten the bit upset and I think the last thing she wanted was for the exchange to end on an ugly note.
They are the customers, I am the one offering the services. I can't say shit, so the only thing I could do was suck it up, but this exchange has probably left the husband with a bad impression of the entire renovation, so now he is fucking anal with every single fucking thing.
Not too long ago, I had the plumbers down to install all the toilet accessories, I told him to indicate on the walls where he wanted the different accessories to be installed and he did, but not everything, he left the toilet paper holder and bidet spray out, so on the day of the installation when my plumber dropped by to do the installation, I just told him to install the unmarked items where he felt would be best. They have done this for my previous projects in the past before and the clients have always been satisfied with the locations in which the accessories were installed, so I didn't think I would have too much of an issue with it.
When I went back to the site after the installation was done, I have to admit, I was a little excited to see the toilet all done up and fully functional, everything looked great and I didn't think there was going to be any issue.
I was wrong.
This morning, as I was having my breakfast, I get a text message from the husband, who writes...
"Hi Tim. I am a little shocked at the placement of the toilet accessories. I need them to be reinstalled at different locations."
... and he attaches a few pictures of the toilet, and on the photos, he drew where he would like the toilet accessories ,that he did not indicate previously, shifted to, I was a little taken aback because reinstalling the toilet accessories isn't simply unscrewing them from the existing location and then screwing them back at another, when the accessories are removed, the tiles will be riddled with holes from where the accessory was screwed into, in a feeble attempt to try and defend myself and hopefully have him accept the current location of the accessories, I told him that the location of the accessories have been installed at areas where what my plumber has deemed to be the most comfortable location for the user, to which he replied...
"No way. I can't reach the toilet paper from my toilet seat without having to get up a little."
...
So I couldn't say anything else but agree to his fucking request. I am not looking forward to how this will affect my final commission, it is going to take a really huge hit because there is a shit ton of work that has to be done for the changes to take place and it is honestly pissing me off when I think about it.
And then after that, he brings up another problem, he tells me that he wants to adjust the height of the the toilet cabinet, and in the picture, he marks out where he wants the cabinet to be shifted to with his own tape, and then beside that tape was another tape left by my carpenter, and it was a tape my carpenter had stuck on the wall for my client to see during the site measurement
A little confused as to why my carpenter did not install the cabinet at the height indicated by the tape he had left on the wall, I send him a voice memo and he told me that the height they had installed was indeed what was discussed with the client earlier, this got me even more confused, so I went to look through my past site photos and realized that what my carpenter said was true, the tape was originally stuck at a higher height and the husband actually went to shift the fucking tape down.
He didn't tell me the cabinet was installed wrongly, but the fact that he adjusted the original location of the tape my carpenter left and did not bother to tell me about it, it was obvious he was trying to insinuate that my carpenter had installed it wrongly. He knew I knew he was upset about the toilet accessory problem, so he was using that to try and get me to fix the cabinet for him, thinking that since I am already getting leashed around by him for the previous "error", he could try his luck.
Well, I decided to call him out for it, so instead of texting back like I usually do, I just gave him a call and told him that I have taken a picture of where the tape originally was and that I was aware the original position of the tape has been tampered with, he then tells me...
"Yeah, I am not saying it is installed wrongly, I just want the cabinet to be lowered a little."
... Fuck You! Then maybe tell me that from the fucking start instead of leaving out the fact that you moved the bloody tape, maybe you should have asked me if it was possible to move the cabinet lower and not tell me to move the cabinet lower like it had been installed wrongly.
Well, the cabinet couldn't be moved due to legit reasons, so we left it as it is, as it was originally discussed with the carpenter while he was present. The fact that he marked out the new location with his own tape, and then moved the original tape without pointing it out to me, dude is a bloody sly fox.
We are back to talking cordially with one another again but that doesn't mean I like him, I did like him and his wife at one point, but after the exchange with the husband today, that has gone to shit. It is important to be nice and friendly for now because I want this renovation to end as smoothly as it possibly can, there is no point lashing out and then make the last few weeks miserable for everyone involved, but had this been my last project, or if for some reason I got fired from the company and I was given this bullshit to deal with, the exchange would have been extremely different, the hostility I would show towards him via the text messages would have been equivalent to the hostility towards him in this post.
This is the part of the job that I do not like, dealing with clients. Getting insufficient pay is one thing, but having to deal with clients on an almost daily basis can get really frustrating because there are times when I just want to cuss them out, just to let them know there is a limit to my patience. I have colleagues who actually gotten into arguments with their clients before and I can only imagine how satisfying it must feel to finally release all that build up angst. The clients requested for a change in designer after, no shocker there, but I honestly don't think it is bad for the designer as well, the fact that the designer actually retaliated just goes to show how unreasonable the client must have been and being rid of such clients is always a weight off our shoulders, even if it means our commission gets reduced by half, knowing that you will no longer be disturbed by the client can sometimes be worth that reduction in commission.
If a company doesn't have any negative reviews online and you have a problem with the company, chances are you are the problem.
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