The issue with Jenny & her Bricks

J&J's mid renovation problems have officially started tumbling in.


After the tumultuous pre-renovation discussions that happened with them, right after I came back from my New York Trip, the renovation itself did proceed without much of an issue, things went as smoothly as they could and even though I found out I was undercharging them for certain items, I was still making a bit of a profit from the overall renovation.



The biggest issue with this renovation, aside from my disdain towards Jenny as a client, is the Brick Wall that they requested. I had undercharged them previously and told them I had to charge them a little higher to recoup my losses, Jonny was all for it, he was very understanding of my predicament, but then Jenny came in and stared a huge fuss about how I was trying to earn more to make up for the huge discount I had given them earlier, essentially guilt tripping me about the additional charges and the whole fiasco ended to her benefit.



So the renovation starts and things went well, then the brick walls came in and Jenny started to nitpick about it when she saw the wall half completed, her main complaint was that the colour wasn't what she wanted, so I tried to convince her that it would look different once it was completely done up, sending her sample photos of how the end result of the wall would look like and that was able to placate her for a while.



The kicker here is I have showed her the brick samples before and I have told her that the bricks won't be pure white, that there will be a bit of brown and cream speckled throughout, she was initially a bit concerned then but she accepted it because that was the lightest shade available for the brick wall she had requested. This was before we started the renovation, I have told her about it before and suddenly she somehow conveniently forgot about it.



Anyway, now that the wall is done, I was fully anticipating for Jenny to complain about it, I mean it is inevitable that she will have issues with it, it is Jenny after all, can't expect any positive outcome when dealing with her. Well, today is the day because Jonny called me about an hour ago, sharing his concerns with the brick wall, and I am 100% certain that he is just the mouthpiece, the one who has the real issue is without a doubt Jenny.



Reason for the complaint? The colour wasn't what they were expecting.



I have showed them the actual pieces in my showroom weeks before we started the renovation, I have explained to them the colour would not be the same as the one I have done up in my 3D and they never listen. My tiler has actually done a pretty good job spreading out the darker bricks out evenly so it doesn't look too patchy but because it's not a consistent light colour throughout, Jenny isn't happy with it.



Every time I try to do a disclaimer to them, it's like I am talking to a fucking wall, because they don't listen. I don't have it on paper, on video or text message, it's my word against theirs and they can just simply say...

"I don't remember you telling me that."

... they haven't and I am hoping they don't use that. I haven't met any customer of mine who have said that before and I really hope I don't because you really have to be a literal scumbag to be able to abuse your rights as a customer and lie through your rotten teeth.



We are going to meet this week to see if there are any solutions and I honestly don't know how it will end. I mean the wall is done, the bricks have been installed, the only way this ends well for everyone is for them to accept the wall the way it is. Worst case scenario is we tear everything down and redo, but I really don't see the point in that because their issue is with the colour and the supplier themselves don't even have control on how the colour will turn out.



I knew from the start that J&J's project will have problems and I was absolutely right, I honestly can't picture their project beyond this brick wall issue right now, but I will definitely be facing even more problems when the carpentry goes up because that is when a lot of my homeowners start finding problems, I am not looking forward to the dozens of "dings" my phone will be getting from their text messages.



This is the part of the renovation process that I hate, my last 3 projects that I was doing before I flew to New York were so smooth sailing, I guess having this project go to shit is the universe's way of balancing all that out.

Ghosted

Today's plan was to meet a client at her office this afternoon.



This client hadn't gotten her keys to the apartment yet, so the arrangement I had with her when I first got hold of her contact information was to schedule the meeting once she got the keys, since she was only planning to do bit of touch up work, meeting now seem pointless if I can't assess how bad the current condition of the home was and she also didn't have any photos of the place to share, so there was really nothing for us to go on. I relayed this information to my admin when she was doing her routine check on the status of all the designer's customers, and she was aware of my arrangement.



My admin then texts me up a few days after she did the check with me and told me the client would like to meet at her office in the afternoon, and ask me if I was available. A little confused as to why that client reached out to my admin instead of me, I just told the admin I will get in the touch with the client to arrange the timing.



So I texted the client and told her I was informed of her request to meet up, to which she then told me that it wasn't actually her that requested for it, it was my admin who had called her to arrange a meeting.



It was really odd but since she has already agreed to a meeting, I quickly confirmed a date and time with her and that date and time was this afternoon at 12.15pm. My admin then text me to update her of the arrangement and I shared with her the time and date of the meeting.



So after what was supposed to be a No.1 became a No.2 in the toilet this morning, I actually ended up leaving the house later than I was planning to, I missed my first bus as well and as I was in the train on the way to the designated meeting place, I quickly texted the client telling her I will be about 10 minutes late.



No response.



Once I finally reached my stop, which was about 15 minutes after I had texted my client, I realize it was raining, so as I was scrambling for my umbrella, I decided to check my phone for any messages from the client.


No respond, message wasn't even read.



I made my way over to her office, it was quite a walk away and there were so many people, CBD during lunch time is really packed and walking behind a bunch of people who dilly dallying as they were peering into the different food court and restaurants to see what was available was really infuriating. I was already late and people were so slow, even got hit by some guys' umbrella as I was brisk walking through a traffic junction.




When I finally reach the place, my bag was wet but thankfully I was pretty dry, I decided to text the client again and let her know I had reached the place, unfortunately because it was lunch time, the cafe she wanted to meet at was packed to the brim, I was also too lazy to stand around and wait for a seat, so I headed to the office lobby and waited at the sofa area.


Both text messages were not read and at about 12.35pm, I decided to actually give the client a call to see what was going on, if she was still going to appear or not.



Doesn't pick up the call.




I pretty much had it by 12.45pm, so I lied and texted her that I had an appointment elsewhere, so I was not going to wait for her any longer, if she wanted to reschedule, then we can meet at my showroom. I would have preferred not to but it is much safer to let her know I was gonna leave lest she actually shows up, thinks that I had ghosted her and calls up my company to complain about me.



This is why I do not like meeting customers I have never met before outside at their convenience, because they may potentially be a huge waste of time. I traveled all the way down to the CBD area, braved the rain and in the end, I got ghosted by the client.



Needless to say, I was pretty peeved and was about to Insta-story the situation when the client finally responds back, and her first reply was...

"Sure, catch you later!"

... I would have expected the first text message to be an apology, but she then goes on to explain that she was stuck in a meeting and couldn't leave, and apologizes for not responding sooner.



She apologizes for not responding sooner, but not for that futile trip I made to see her.



That's like me accidentally running over your dog and then apologizing to you for dirtying it's fur with my wheel while you dog is bleeding from it's asshole and missing it's entire head.



I really didn't want to respond back and was really contemplating not to, but had to be professional and lied that it was no big deal, I told her not to worry and that was it, normally I would ask the client...

"No worries, just let me know when you are available and we can arrange another meeting."

... just to keep the conversation going and actually actively attempt to schedule another appointment, but I just stopped at "No Worries" because I didn't want to drag on the conversation, she also didn't response back with a new meeting date and time, so WHATEVER~ 

New Laptop Soon?

The urge to get a new tech has come and now I am itching to get my hands on a new laptop. My current Aftershock has served me really well for the past 4.5 years and it will continue to serve me until the day it dies, but carrying it around in my bag to work has not been a very pleasant experience for my shoulders.



If there are projects that are happening, I normally like to drop by those sites first to take a look at what is happening before actually heading to the office and it is something I do all the time until very recently.



Travelling to multiple sites in the past with a 2.5kg laptop sitting in my bag was always a pain, but the rotten icing on top of that cake was that sometimes, I wouldn't even take out the laptop from my bag because by the time I have visited my last site, back when I had 4 sites to run at one time, it would already be 5pm, and returning back to the office just to sit around for 2 hours until closing was pointless.



So now, when I have the laptop sitting in my bag, I no longer have the mood to visit my sites before I go to the office and that really isn't a good thing, I am becoming lazy because of the potential strain my shoulders will be in, add the horrible weather into the equation and that laziness suddenly feels justified.



I was looking at the Microsoft Surface a few months back, before my trip to New York, contemplating whether I should invest in a new laptop or go on a holiday, and I honestly do not regret picking New York because it was a really good trip, but what I do regret is getting the Nintendo Switch for the trip because I barely touched the console there, and for weeks now, it has been sitting in it's dock, in perpetual charge and I paid $500 for it, such a huge waste of money, even got a copy Breath of the Wild, thinking I will really get sucked into the game, but don't have the time nor the mood to play it for more than an hour at one go. My declining interest in video games is a sign that I am getting older.



Anyways, after I came back from New York, I immediately felt broke, so the thought of getting a new laptop completely left my mind, but a few days ago, that itch suddenly came back and I started researching online again. I have lost interest in the Microsoft Surface because it's too expensive for me, now my eyes are set on getting an Apple Macbook Air, but I am currently a little worried about the OS transition from Windows to Apple, it will take awhile, I know I will get used to it eventually, in fact, I am really keen to try Apple's operating system, but my biggest concern is the software compatibility with Windows because my main need for the new laptop would be it's ability to run Sketch Up, I don't need it to render because I can use my current Aftershock laptop for that, but in order to be able to render on my Aftershock, the file has to be compatible with Windows OS.




Decisions, decisions, decisions.



While I take time to contemplate on the laptop situation, work has also been feeling a bit messy, J&J's project is happening right now, things are going according to plan, there are a few minor changes with some of the renovation works and I have been getting the occasional text messages from Jenny sharing her concerns about how everything has been going on site, but overall it is still manageable. Took some time yesterday to really break down the cost of their project just to see how pathetic my profit margin would be and it is pretty bad.




The total project is about $27,000, this is after all the miscalculations and that giant discount I gave them, if I hadn't miscalculated and gave them the giant fat discount, the project should have been at around $30,000, which means a project of that scale should be netting me with at least $3000 in commission, but after some calculations, I am looking at about a $1,400 commission, it's not great. I do hope that J&J are at least aware of the fact that they have gotten a really really good deal from me. It's really such a newbie mistake for me to make with them, I have been in the industry for 2.5 years and I still made such a huge calculation mistake.





There is another project in sight that I might potentially get, the large one that would amount to $80,000. From my conversations with the homeowners, I can tell that they have pretty much decided to engage me, but they just haven't finalize that decision on paper yet. We have met SO MANY times, I would be surprise if they suddenly choose to back out and engage someone else.



The problem with that big project is that they have zero idea how little time they actually have left and the husband is actually no longer in Singapore to confirm the design details, so everything has to be decided with the wife and the whole arrangement just feels really really messy. There really isn't any sense of urgency on their end and because they haven't officially engaged me yet, I also don't really feel all that obligated to rush them, which I should. We'll see how it goes I guess, I might have to convince them to delay the renovation because starting it in 2 weeks time from now is going to be a huge bloody mess.

Celebrity Run-In At Work

A mini celebrity came to the showroom today to request for a quotation and I was presented with the opportunity to serve her because I happen to be the nearest to the entrance.



So what happen was this afternoon, as I was busy doing my work in the Showroom, I heard the main door of the Showroom open and close and initially, I thought it was maybe one of my colleagues who had entered, but when no one walked past, I realized it was actually a customer, I didn't really want to get up and greet the customer who had walked in at first, but because no one else was around to greet them and I assumed the customer who walked in had prior arrangements with another designer, I begrudgingly got up and went up to the husband, fully expecting him to go...

"Yeah, we have an appointment with so and so..."

... at this point, I was only focusing on the husband when I was walking towards them, it was only when I actually started asking them if they had made an appointment did I find the wife very familiar looking and it took me a split second to realize who she was.




She isn't a household name and she isn't someone that everyone would immediately recognize, or even recognize at all, literally no one else in the Showroom recognize her or knew who she was, but I knew who she was because I watch a lot of Youtube videos and she happens to be a host of one of those shows that I watch. Honestly, aside from that Youtube show that she host, I have never really seen her anywhere else, I heard she does act on Channel 5 shows, but no one really watches Local Television anymore, so once again, not a huge celebrity, but she was famous enough to get me flustered and when she told me they didn't make any appointment, instead of asking someone to take over like I normally would, because I was legitimately busy, I actually told her and her husband that I would serve them and brought them to the table I was seated at.




I quickly ran over to my locker to grab a name card, passed it to her and we began the consultation. Throughout the session, I felt like she had a friendly but distant vibe, we didn't really click at all during the consultation session and when I get this kind of vibe from a regular client, my immediate action is to not bother following up. I just felt uncomfortable around her and not because she is unpleasant, I mean she was as pleasant as a regular person would be when we were talking, but I guess because she is "famous" in my eyes, I wasn't treating her like a regular client, I was treating her like a famous person, and it just got me really flustered and I really did not like feeling, I felt like I was walking on egg shells around her because I really wanted her to like me but I also didn't want to come on too strong and try too hard to make her like me.



I was comfortable around the husband though, but I just can't with the wife. I'm too socially awkward for this working relationship to work, not like I had any chance to clinch their project to begin with, I mean I did give her a lot of misinformation, shared with her all the wrong pricing, gave her the wrong ball park figure for the overall renovation cost. She told me I was their first Interior Designer, I must have set the ball really low for the other Interior Designers, now I am just contemplating whether I should even bother preparing the quotation for her or not, there is no doubt that the other Interior Designers she visited after me enlightened her on my many pricing errors, if she visited other Design Firms after me that is.




To prepare or not to prepare, that is the question, I am just afraid that if I don't prepare a quotation, she might talk about it on social media or maybe down the road, might bring it up as a passing remark about her renovation experience in some random interview or maybe even on her show, it's highly unlikely but not impossible, maybe one day when her internet show runs out of content and they make her do a house tour, she might bring it up. I don't follow her on Instagram because I am not really a huge fan of hers to want to do that, but now maybe I will just stalk her on Social Media a little to see if she has any updates on her Interior Renovation journey.

The Dumbcunt

I honestly have no fucking mood to respond to Jenny.
No fucking mood to respond to her fucking text.



She just send me pictures a few minutes ago of one of her neighbor's house, completely covered in protection sheet, and it is a pretty excessive level of protection, every single surface is completely covered and taped really tight, and she asks me if I will offer that level of protection for her house.



I have been in this Industry for 2.5 years and for all my projects, I have never wrap the house up like a fucking Christmas gift before, so I told her that I will definitely be laying the protection for her, but not to that extent because it was a little excessive, I knew she wouldn't be satisfied with that answer because it is Jenny I am dealing with after all, and she responds with...

"This is what my neighbor shared with me, this is the standard."

Who made you the fucking queen to decide what is the standard, please kindly go and ACTUALLY FUCK YOURSELF!



Proclaiming that this is the standard when this is your first renovation, when you have only seen your neighbor's house, like what the actual fuck?



So if I go to a high end chocolatier, pay top money and have an amazing piece of chocolate there, suddenly that is the standard that every chocolate bar should have? Suddenly I am a chocolate connoisseur and have the right to go to Cadbury to start pissing at their quality of chocolate?

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! 

That client probably paid extra to get that level of protection because it's not a normal corrugated cardboard sheet, it's the thick plastic protection sheet.



Out of all the clients that I have met so far, Jenny is the first one who doesn't give a shit about my commission, which is shocking because she just made me realize how nice all my other clients who offer to pay more actually are. Even if my other clients are difficult to deal with, at least they have some sort of empathy.




This relentless fucking bitch woman really pissed me off when she accused me of overcharging her 2 days ago and she is pissing me off again today, I have never actually gotten so angry at a customer before until Jenny.


I was literally typing a response along the line of...

"No Jenny, this is NOT the standard."

... but quickly backspace and had to put the phone down to cool off.




I guess feeling anger rather than fear towards a customer is a good thing, when I am fearful of a customer, I am placed in this inferior position of wanting to please the clients, but when I am pissed off at them, I don't feel entitled to please them, I just need to exercise more self control and not send a response full of expletives.




I did not bother to respond to her, but she later asks me to increase the size of a particular carpentry and I just told her that if she wanted to increase the size, the price is going to increase, to which she goes...

"But I just want to increase it by a little."

.... no bitch, you ain't getting any free upgrades from me anymore. I had to say "my carpenter will charge more" instead of "I have to charge you more" to let her know that I am not the one who wants to charge her more because this bitch thinks every additional charge I am adding into their quotation is my attempt at trying to earn back the discount I gave them, she thinks every upgrade she request is free, like I am running some sort of charity organisation for her.

Le Piece of Shite

During my last meeting with Jonny & Jenny at their site on Friday, I had to break the news to Jonny that I have accidentally undercharged them for quite a few items and needed to recoup my losses, so I could no longer honor the original price I had promised them for a few of the newer items they wanted to add to their renovation. Jonny was really understanding and said he didn't mind me charging him a little extra because he didn't want me to run the project at a loss.



At that point, I was only speaking to Jonny alone as Jenny was still at work and would only arrive about an hour later, so the conversation was mainly about the design changes that had to happen after we learn of the restriction the management has set for renovation. Jonny didn't have any protest towards the new changes, he was accepting every one I had to implement and never once did he bring up the increased pricing for discussion.



So after briefing Jonny through the changes, we made some small talk and then Jenny arrives, and the first thing Jonny tells her is about the price increment, he explained to her the reason for it and it was not so much in a tattle-tail sort of way, but more of just letting Jenny know about my predicament. Jenny was clearly a little unhappy with it, I could sense that she wasn't really all that empathetic towards my situation when I explained it to her myself, she kept playfully whining about it, but the whining was pretty short lived and we soon went back to discussing and finalizing the design.



After going through the changes with her, Jenny, being the indecisive person that she is, requested for me to prepare more 3D drawings for her, to update the colours of the carpentry so she can compare and choose between the different options, and as we were talking about the drawings, Jonny suddenly goes...

"Actually I find that your 3D looks really fake, it looks really toy-like compared to the 3D prepared by other companies out there."

... my initial thought to that comment in my head was...

"Someone finally said it."

...because I know that my 3D drawings are not the best, but my past clients have never had any issues with them before, and even if they did, they have never let me know about them, when I do bring up the 3D being not as good as what my In-House designer can do , almost all of them will tell me it is good enough for them, that they don't mind a slight dip in quality if it meant that the drawings could be churned out faster.



But the initial shock I felt from that "truth bomb" was soon replaced by a sense of annoyance because of the sheer number of 3D Drawings I have already rendered for them, a total of 44 drawings.

44 FUCKING RENDERS!!

The market rate for a single 3D drawing is about $80, 44 drawings would equate to $3520, and I am essentially updating the changes for them for free, so to have the audacity to request for more changes, and then criticize my drawings. Am I suppose to feel bad that you think my drawings aren't up to par, so I should feel even more incline to prepare those drawings for you to make up for what you have deem to be of inferior quality drawings ?

Just when I finally have a good impression of Jonny, he had to make that comment and smear a huge chunk of shit all over positive image I had painted of him earlier, like a huge "Fuck You" for having the audacity to even think of him in a positive light.



So after that diss and a few more design related discussions later, we were finally done. Even though I was criticized for my drawings, I did feel a weight being lifted off my shoulder after hearing how accepting Jonny was to the extra charges. This project is a mess and I still wish I hadn't accepted it, but to be able to recoup my losses is just one of those small little victories that made me feel a little better about it.




When I was finally home, Jenny sends me a text, requesting to have a copy of the new quote, saying she wanted to have a closer look to see if everything adds up, so I send it her way and then there wasn't any further replies from her end.



Saturday came, and things were pretty quiet on their end, I still owed Jonny and Jenny the 3D so I was honestly expecting them to rush me for it, but they didn't, and Sunday rolls around and things were pretty peaceful as well, my plan was to send all the new 3D on Monday because I just wanted to have a nice and quiet weekend with no disturbance from Jonny and Jenny, and that wish was almost granted,  ALMOST, because at 10 pm on Sunday, Jenny sends me a text message, accusing me of overcharging her for the new items.




I have explained my situation to Jonny and he understands my predicament, he then explains it to Jenny and even though she was whining about it, I thought she would at least be empathetic to my situation, but I was wrong because of course she has to drop my a text message at 10pm on Sunday to accuse me of overcharging her and ruining my almost perfect weekend.

It took me an hour to finally send back a reply explaining to her the "overcharges" because it's really difficult to respond back with...

"I ain't overcharging you, you dumb fuck!, I had undercharged you previously and now I am not!"

... and not piss her off. I mean I wish I could send an angry text to her and just tell her that if she ain't happy with the price, she is free to terminate the contract, or if she thinks the items are too expensive, then take it out, simple as that, but I tried to reason with her, and I told her that is she was up for it, I will lower the amount more, not to earn, but to reduce my losses and she is FUCKING relentless.




I told her that charging her HIGHER for certain items isn't me trying to earn more from said items, it's me trying to reduce the losses instead because I undercharged them, and then I told her that I hope she would understand my predicament, and she comes back around and accuses me of charging her higher for the new items to make up for the huge discount I had given her from the start...

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK !?!?!

.... it's like she is not even taking the time to actually read what I am writing to her, there is a fucking huge difference between me earning extra and me trying to reduce my losses, I am the latter, I explained to her that I if I sold it to her at that price, I will be making a loss, and she doesn't fucking get it, this has nothing to do with me earning more to make up for the huge discount I gave them, she keeps thinking I am out to cheat them off their hard earned money. It just fucking pisses me off when a client would picture me as a this calculative person who is out to scam innocent homeowners, FUCK YOU!




She keeps going on about how my price is higher than the other Design Company ,claiming that because the other company is supposed to be more high-end than mine, my price should be lower. I checked the price and realized that the "high-end" company was selling them at a slight loss and they are able to do so because everything else in the quotation is jacked-up, of course Jenny suddenly gets selective-reading when I try and explain that to her, and wouldn't stop yapping about how my price is too high.



In the end, I had no choice but to lower it down, I didn't want to get into an argument with her, so this was the only way to shut her up and Jonny didn't contribute to the conversation at all. Jenny then begrudgingly thanks me for being understanding and tells me she will refer her friends to me if I do a good job, like bitch go fuck yourself, I don't want to deal with any potential Jenny 2.0 and Jenny 3.0, once this project is done, we are done!



I don't want to owe you any fucking favors.
The project hasn't even started yet and I am already getting pissed off by them, I can't imagine the shit show that will ensue once it actually begins.