Existing Problems & Potential Problems

I don't think I will be able to ever catch a break with Sly Fox's project, after multiple visits with my contractor to assess the issue and after multiple rounds of rectifications, the problem still persists.

Out of all the projects that have been completed which I have yet to collect my commission, Sly Fox's project carries the largest amount, and my plan from the start was to close all the smaller projects with Sly Fox's project so my overall check will be a substantial amount, but because of this ongoing issue with his site, I doubt I will be able to see my commission until next year.

I am now trying to just ignore the commission I will be getting from that project and just treat the potential messages from him as a weekly annoyances which I will then revert to the contractor who is responsible for the shit show that's causing me all this headache, and when the problem is finally fix then I will view that commission as like money that I have deposited into a bank and forgotten about, the bank being my company's account department. Sly Fox isn't being unreasonable for now, in fact he has been really cordial throughout this shitty situation, and I am not really in dire need for money, so I really don't care if I can't get my money soon.

I know his wife is extremely unhappy about this issue, she is just not vocal about it in the chat, she is actually really calm about it in the group chat but Sly Fox is probably bearing the grunt of her displeasure. I'm just worried about the eventual emotional explosion from Sly Fox when he can finally no longer stand her complaints about the issue and starts directing all the pent up frustration towards me, if the issue keeps persisting like a fucking cockroach that won't fucking die.

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I also met that "rude customer" I blogged about previously not too long ago and it turns out he is actually a pretty nice guy. Being an older gentlemen, I guess he has that impatiences that a lot of individuals his age exhibit, but the main thing is he wasn't really all that unpleasant in person as he was on the phone.



I met him twice since then, first time was with him and his wife, and the second time was with him, his wife, his son and his daughter in law.


The whole dynamic of how this renovation is happening is just really odd, because most of the time when someone wants to renovate their space and is looking for a designer, they will meet the designer personally and try and create a rapport with the designer to see if it is a good match, but this time, every decision that is being made, every exchange I have had to do with regards to the quotation and the space planning proposal , it has been done through proxy via the Dad, that "rude customer".



The second meeting I had with them was really really uncomfortable because even though the son is the one who is forking out the renovation money, he was just really disinterested during the meeting, the Dad is the one who doing all the talking and decision making, every once in a while, his daughter in law will chime in and share what she wants to do and the Mum would also ask me some questions now and then, but the son is just completely disengaged from the conversations.



When I am explaining certain renovation procedures to them and advising them on the space planning, I will make sure to make eye contact with all of them so as to not make anyone feel like they are not involved in the conversation, and every time I make eye contact with the son, he will just smile out of courtesy but never have any sort of feedback, and when I am done talking and am looking at his general direction to observe him for any sort of reaction, he will just look down on the floor or just look away from where his parents and wife is, to try and distant himself from the conversation as much as possible.



He is suppose to be my main point of contact because he is the homeowner and the one forking out the renovation fee, if any issue should arise during the renovation, he should be the one I am talking to, but he just doesn't seem interested at all and his Dad is doing all the talking and bargaining.



I know his Dad wants to engage me because at the end of the meeting, he just said to his Son...

"Okay, so just let Tim know when you want to start the renovation."

... like everything has been confirmed and it's just a matter of when the renovation despite the lack of a contract confirmation, after which he also tried to bargain for a lower price and the entire time, his son is just at one corner, completely uninterested in the conversation, and when his Dad ask him if the final amount is okay, he just goes...

"Yar, Yar, Okay, Okay."

... in this rather annoyed tone directed towards his Dad, which I can sort of relate to because I also kinda do this to my parents as well sometimes, so I know that slight hostility he is exhibiting isn't directed towards me


I was so tempted to ask them to go home and really think about it first before letting me know because the Son just doesn't seem interested and I personally really do not like working with a customer who isn't all in, much less one who just looks completely uninterested, but I kept my mouth shut and I continued to talk a bit more with the Dad.


Finally the meeting ends and I say my goodbyes to them, made our separate ways, but then somehow, I ended up running into the Son and his wife at a junction. I really wanted to pretend I did not see them and just stand far away from them, but then I thought to myself...

"I'm very likely going to be running their project, so I should really try and make the effort to make them feel comfortable around me."

.... and with that thought in mind, I walk up to them and greeted them. I ask the son if he was really comfortable with my renovation fees and he told me he was, he was a little more friendly without his parents around but still a little distant, and then I decided to ask them about their style preferences but soon ran out of the topics to talk about really quickly and then the 3 of us just stood there really awkwardly in silence as we waited for the traffic lights to turn red so we can cross the street.



It felt really really long, and during that awkward silence, I was just lamenting about the fact that I had to let my extroverted side take charge and start a conversation with them when I could have just pretended I did not notice them.



Up to now, the Father is still the one who is liaising with me and making all the decision, the whole dynamic is just really off. I wish I didn't have to meet the Son at all, would have been great is the Father had just told me that his son won't be involved in the renovation at all so at least I won't have to feel obligated to actually engage with the Son before and during the renovation.

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A few days ago, a customer I met once probably about a month ago suddenly reached out to me asking me if he could start a group chat with me and his wife to discuss about some minor changes they wanted to do to their renovation requirements.

I remember this couple pretty well because they wanted to do a Moroccan themed home. It is not really a common theme that customers who walk into my company request, so I was really interested to actually explore the idea of doing a Moroccan inspired space.

Unfortunately, during the actual consultation, I realize that the budget this customer and his wife had really wasn't realistic, and I imagine that as soon as I send them the quotation, they will probably turn tail and run away.

To my surprise, the final figure itself was actually not as high as I expected, but I honestly didn't put a lot of hope in them as being potential customers for some reason, so as soon as the husband texted me back to thank me for my time, I soon forgot about them and eventually decided to delete his number and messages from my phone after 2 weeks of silence.

I did do a 3D Sketch Up based on their requirements, but it wasn't really so much for them as it was for myself, I really went to town with the designs and space planning and was quite impressed with what I came up with, being able to actually come up with a design proposal without any budget restriction was quite liberating and I was actually planning to render the 3D when I had the time, so I could to add it to my online portfolio, but I got lazy and it was soon forgotten as well.

But anyway, the husband texted me and ask me if it would be okay to start a group chat, so I agreed and he proceeded to start a group chat, and the first thing he wrote was simply...

"Hi Tim, I have started this group chat so my wife and I can discuss the changes we have in mind with you. "

.... so I gave acknowledge his request with a thumbs up emoji and was expecting his wife to start typing out the changes they have in mind. There was no typing.

I was under the impression that they were probably a little turn off at my nonchalant response to their initial request, because instead of requesting for them to share the changes they have with me, I just replied with a thumbs up emoji, so I send them a text requesting for the changes they want made.

That message was marked as read by both parties, but there is no respond.

I really don't get what's the point in inviting me into a group chat with the intention to discuss about the renovation, but then keeping silent and leaving me hanging after I ask them to update me of the changes, it's really bugging me how inactive the chat is, if the chat remains inactive after 2 weeks, I'm just going to leave the group and if they leave the group chat first, well, I will leave my response to that once they actually do, because maybe they are still in the midst of consolidating the changes, maybe, although I am leaning heavily towards them having waste my time and putting my hopes up.

I think that they are actually no longer interested in my services, but just feel bad about leaving the group mere days after they have created it, so they are just ignoring my message and waiting for me to leave the group chat first so they won't look like a huge waste of my time, because if they were consolidating the changes, they should have at least acknowledged my message. 

More Useless Leads

Ever since I started my career as an Interior Designer and started on my very first project, I have been consistently busy, when one project is done, another begins, new ones come in sporadically and I am never really out of projects to manage.

In the recent weeks, I will say that that has stopped, I am now pretty much project free, the days are passing much slower now that I am not constantly visiting sites after sites on a daily basis and the amount of customer leads I have been getting from my company is slowly dwindling.

The only project I have on hand now will only started 3 months from now and the meager amount of customer leads I have been getting are not enough to really get me busy, because there aren't a lot of them and because more than half of the leads I have been getting are just a waste of time. 

The last lead I got from my company wrote in asking how a bank loan works. It's just so bloody stupid and such a huge waste of my time, I actually called the customer up, thinking he might be asking how to proceed after he gets the loan, but nope, he was actually asking me how he should go about getting a bank loan and then asking me if I have any contacts, so I gave him the only bank loan contact my company had, and he goes...

"Wow, that bank interest is quite high. May I know what benefits will your company get if I get the bank loan through your contact?"

... it was really quite triggering when he ask me about the benefits my company would get.

Firstly, the benefits that my company or I get from introducing the bank to you is none of your fucking business, do you go up to a cake shop and ask them...

"Hmmm, you are selling me cupcakes at $3.00 a piece, may I know what is the actual cost of the ingredients and how much you are earning if I bought this single cupcake from you?"

... we are not going to break down how much we earn or the commission we get from the referral, if you think that the interest is too high and my company has ulterior motives introducing such an expensive loan to you, then look for another bank, which brings me to my next point...

CALL THE FUCKING BANKS IF YOU WANT TO ASK ABOUT RENOVATION LOANS!!!

.... the renovation loan has nothing to do with Interior Designing and Construction, why the fuck would you call an Interior Design firm and hope to be educated on it. 

That's like walking into the cake shop again and then asking them where would be a good place to buy a flour mill, get the fuck outta here. 

So I kept reiterating to the client that he should call the banks directly to check and he just went...

"Okay, I will discuss with my wife and contact you again."

.... I know he isn't going to be contacting me again, such an unnecessary customer lead. My company actually pays the renovation portal quite a generous monthly fee for customer leads and it just feels like such a rip off when all the leads I have been getting are of such crappy quality.





Leads aside, I have also been getting referals from my clients and just last night, I actually got a call from someone I didn't know, literally asking me...

"Can you drop by *caller's address* on Saturday?"

... doesn't bother to introduce himself, doesn't clarify what he was calling me for, just started the conversation asking me if I was available on Saturday, he was extremely brash over the phone and just overall unpleasant, I thought he got the wrong number until he called me by my name, so I thought he was another Interior Design firm trying to set up an Interview with me, probably got my name and contact from Jobstreet or something, and as I was about to turn him down, he FINALLY tells me....

"You did my niece's house before,I need you to drop by my sons' place this weekend to take a look at his place."

... really could have started the phone call with that.

By the time I realize who he was and what his intentions were, I really wanted to reject his request and told him I was too busy, but he is my client's Uncle and I just don't feel really comfortable to just outright reject a referral, so I begrudgingly agreed to the meeting and the conversation that we were having after the confirmation was not pleasant. 

He wasn't being an asshole or anything, but the tone he was using the entire time was just very unpleasant, very impatient and every time I repeat what he told me, it's like every response I get from him will be an annoyed "No!", and then just a repeat of what I have said.

Him : The apartment is old, so I need to change all the floor tiles and wall tiles.

Me : Okay, so you want to revamp the space by hacking off the old tiles and installing new ones.

Him : NO!, the current tiles look really ugly, so I want to change them.

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Him : I will meet you, my son can't make it because his work is shift base.

Me : Ah, I see, so he is doing shift this Saturday.

Him : No! You know what shift is? He has shift work this weekend, so I will meet you instead of him.

Everything I say, even though it has the exact same meaning as what he has told me, gets responded back as if I have been mistaken, it was so frustrating, and when I ask him for the address, he tells me...

"I will Whatsapp you later!"

... and then he suddenly gives me the address verbally over the phone.. doesn't give me time to write down the address properly, he just strings out the entire address like I am suppose to be able to remember all the numbers.

Him : 432 Apple Street, Level 5, Unit Number 56

*as I am writing down the address and verbalizing what I am writing* 

Me : 432 App-....

Him : NO! the Unit Number is 56, 432 is the Street Number!

I wanted to scold him so badly.

If he was a lead from my company, I would have turn down his request then and there for a site visit, but alas, he is my client's family, so the least I can do is show up out of courtesy for my clients. 

Of course, the pricing on my quotation will ultimately depend on how he is like during the site visit, if he is as unpleasant in real life as he is over the phone, then I will also do my best to distance myself from his project by being the most expensive Interior Designer his son will meet. I hardly ever turn potential clients down directly, unless they can't take a hint of course because there have been such cases before and it is always really surprising how dense some people can really be.

Speaking of unpleasant customers, Sly Fox is still in my life, the issue has yet to be resolved, even after my contractor has gone up to the place multiple times to try and rectify the issue. None of this is Sly Fox's fault, it really is my contractor's fault for doing a shitty job, but because Sly Fox is ultimately the one who has to text me about the the problem, he has become my source of annoyance and I just can't help it when my mood gets ruined by his text messages. 

Was literally trying to have fun last night by playing a game, lost my mood completely when his wife texted me telling me the issue has not been resolved. I would really like to push this to my manager and have him handle this problem for me but then that would be a pretty dick move.

A Wild Sly Fox Appears

And so the Sly Fox has returned to my life once again.

He had some issues and I had to drop by his place to assess those problems, I was a bit annoyed that I have to deal with him again, but also a  little excited to see how the house looks now that it is fully furnished.



Well, my excitement was for naught.


As a designer, I am almost ashamed to say I was the one responsible for his renovation works, because of how disappointing the place looked from a design standpoint.



I really didn't do a lot for Sly Fox place, it was mostly freshening up the place with a new coat of paint and flooring works, the place looks great when I was done with it, when it was still empty, the before and after wasn't huge, but it  was definitely noticeable that it had been revitalized. I had essentially left him with a blank canvas to work with in terms of styling when the house was officially handed over, him and his wife had a really neutral color palette to work with and with the openness of the space along with the new wooden grained flooring, it was just screaming for a Scandinavian themed styling, but the end product I saw was nothing like what I had envisioned, nothing close to the 3D I had send to them that would maybe give them a hint as to the colour scheme of the furniture I was thinking of, a colour scheme that would be complimentary to their space.



I have done quite a fair bit of homes now and even though I am never really satisfied with a lot of my projects, there is at least a modern touch in all of them, when people walk into those apartments, they will KNOW that it was designed in the current era, but Sly Fox's apartment had none of that modernness, the furniture they got just dragged the apartment back to the late 90s, it was like walking into an apartment of a couple who had lived there for the past 20 years because of how cluttered the place looked. Had I been their friend and was invited to their house as a guest for the first time, I would have NEVER believed them had they told me an interior designer was responsible for their renovation.



The place isn't ugly, it just felt like there was no effort at trying to make the place look even look halfway decent and I am just really upset thinking about it because that space had so much potential to actually pull off a Modern Scandinavian theme.



Wasted Potential aside, the recent  issues are now in the midst of getting fixed, hopefully they can be rectified soon because I REALLY do not want to have to deal with this project anymore. I mean Sly Fox isn't being unreasonable, his concerns are completely valid and the fault is with my contractor, but I just really have no interest to deal with him anymore because it seems as though doesn't believe me, like I am trying to shirk responsibility and it is really quite disappointing that that is the impression he has of me.



When I was relaying what my contractor has shared with me about the cause of the problem he was having, Sly Fox keeps questioning my reasoning and telling me it doesn't make sense, that it's hard to accept my excuse, luckily his Mum was there when my contractor popped by, so I told my contractor to explain to his Mum and got her to explain it to Sly Fox.



I actually told his Mum directly that I don't think Sly Fox will believe what I say, to which she could only tell me in Mandarin....

"I don't think he distrust you, he isn't like that."

My contractor was able to convince the Mum of the reasoning, so thankfully she was able to explain to Sly Fox directly, but every time I reiterate the source of the problem, it will never be a convincing response from his end, never a...

 "Oh, I see!" 

... but always be along the line of...

"Okay lor. If you say so."

Overall, the renovation with Sly Fox has just been immensely unsatisfying, it was a good learning experience for me as a Contractor, but definitely not a project I would ever want to tackle again as an Interior Designer.



Sly Fox also gave me a failing grade for my Service when my Marketing requested for his feedback, not really sure what I did to receive that failing grade though, it wasn't really emphasized because it definitely isn't about the Workmanship Quality, that one is a separate category that he also failed me for, but he did give me a good grade for my Professionalism, which is confusing to me because I thought Good Service and Professionalism works hand in hand so the grades for both shouldn't differ that much.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sly Fox use Confusion and it is super effective!