This isn't about a job badly done but about how desperate he is trying to push for things to be done, despite me telling him multiple times that we can't proceed until a much later date.
This is like a couple getting ready to birth a new baby without knowing the gender, but then going all out and getting a bunch of girly accessories and clothes, and when friends and families tell them not to rush because they have no idea what the gender of the baby is, the couple's excuse is...
"But if we don't buy it now, then we will be spending the next 8 months being unproductive with the shopping of baby stuff. We know we are having a baby, so why not just buy all these items first?"
... STUPID!
This is what is happening with my site right, I have told the subcontractor multiple times not to proceed with the tiling works for the bedrooms and the living rooms first because I need the electrician in to run the wiring before they can lay their tiles. Every time after that very conversation, he will tell me...
"Okay, no problem, got it."
.... and then the very next morning, he will call me up and tell me...
"Can we just do the living and bedroom right now, since my guys are already there?"
... and when I have to explain to him AGAIN about why he can't, he goes...
"But I already sent all my guys down and they need to do something..."
... twice, I had to relay this to him twice, and he guilt trips me like it is my fucking fault he has selective hearing. I told him to concentrate on just a few areas first and he sends down enough guys to do the whole house, and somehow I am suppose to accommodate him? Fuck! My electrician on the other hand is very accommodating though and told me he will find an alternative to the running of wires, but this is completely ridiculous and I think I might actually have to resort to reprimanding the tiler. if he keeps insisting on doing things his way.
Then earlier today, he told me there wasn't enough tiles, that I had to order more, so I did and it will be delivered tomorrow. Normally when I order extra tiles, his workers are the ones who will go down and bring it up to the apartment and seeing how he has been sending an excessive amount of workers the past few days, probably not going to be an issue getting them to bring those extra tiles up, but then he sends me a voice memo going...
"Contact your other sub-contractor to bring those items up."
.... and I was confused, so I asked him why his workers couldn't do it, seeing how they have been doing it for all my past projects, and he goes...
"My guys don't have a push trolley, so it is not convenient for them to bring all the extra tiles up."
.... I was on site in the evening and I saw a fucking push trolley in the fucking house, luckily for me, I also happen to have taken a picture of the apartment before I left with the push trolley in it, so I send that picture to him, circled the fucking push trolley and just wrote under that picture...
"Isn't this a push trolley?"
... and he doesn't respond for the next 20 minutes, trying to concoct some sort of excuse, until finally, his voice message comes in and he goes....
"I won't be sending so many guys tomorrow, so I will be low on manpower and will need you to contact the other subcontractor to bring those tiles up for my guys."
... HOW VERY FUCKING CONVENIENT!
On the days I told him to not send so many guys up, he sends up a battalion of them, and on the day I need his manpower, he decides he will only send a few.
It's like he is trying to drown me in his bullshit, I am already desperately trying to tread water in that bullshit, to not drown, and he dumps even more on me.
I have used this tiler ever since I started working in this company and he is the default tiler everyone in my company automatically goes to when they have a new project, and even though his workmanship isn't the best, I can still close one eye and accept it, what drives me to use him continuously despite the declining workmanship is really his responsive, that to me is the most important factor, but lately I am really finding it really hard to close an eye and accept not only his declining workmanship, but also his constant need to find excuses to try and shirk responsibility for his poor workmanship.
When the Sly Fox issue came up, I told myself I wasn't going to give this tiler a chance anymore because his guy FUCKED UP really badly, but then another project came in and I went back to him out of habit and familiarity and I didn't really have any issues with those other projects that came after as well, so I thought of it as a one off thing, and that it was purely bad luck of Sly Fox's part, but with the way this current project is going, it's becoming extremely difficult to accept his standards anymore.
The ones who should be giving me problems and stressing me out are the homeowners, not the subcontractors, the subcontractors are suppose to be helping me alleviate the complaints the homeowners have, to lessen my stress, not add it in and make things worst.
For the next project, I really have to start reaching out to another tiler who has been receiving a lot of praises from my other colleagues who have made the switch. They have zero complaints about him despite him costing more, in fact, they are praising his workmanship and constantly asking me why I haven't switched yet, and well, it really is time to move on. My current one has gotten extremely complacent and needs to be taught a lesson.
I actually wanted to use the other tiler, but unfortunately he was already busy, but for the next project, I will make sure to book him in advance, even if I do end up earning less from the project, I really need to raise my standard for the tiler's workmanship.
UPDATE :
So the additional tiles were ordered today and I had to contact another sub-contractor, my hacker, to uplift those additional tiles.
My tiler told me yesterday he will contact the hacker on my behalf and update him on the uplifting for the additional tiles and since I was already having some trust issues with the tiler, I decided to personally contact the hacker this morning to double check. Lo and behold, he told me he wasn't inform about the uplifting nor was he contacted by my tiler.
The hacker was still very helpful though, despite the last minute request, he just told me to let him know what time the tiles will arrive and he will send his guys down to bring them up. I gave him the timing the tile supplier gave me, which was between 2pm to 3pm, fully expecting the hacker to send his workers down earliest at 4pm to help me bring everything up.
By 3pm, I got a call from the hacker asking me where all the tiles were because his guys were already there and they couldn't find any tiles, getting a bit worried at this point, I quickly called my tiler supplier contact to double check and she is pretty fucking useless, doesn't pick up the phone and didn't bother to reply the text message I send to her, so I directly called her company and they told me it will only arrive at 4pm due to traffic.
I then called my hacker and informs him about it and he told me to update him again when the tiles arrive.
I got to the jobsite at about 3.30pm and waited until about 4pm when I finally got a call from the tiles delivery guy, he told me he was there already, so as I was making my way over to the lobby where he told me he had placed all the tiles, I called my hacker up and told him the tiles were here, that he could send someone over now.
Here is the deal. My current project is a Private Condo, that means any tiles or building materials need to be left at the main gate outside the estate, I had requested for the tile supplier to leave the tiles INSIDE the estate because if I could get them brought up to the apartment on the same day, there won't be any issues and the Condo Management will close one eye.
My hacker was unfortunately not able to rush down in time because the management won't let any construction workers in after 5pm and it was already about 4.15pm when I finally contacted him again. I then told him I had specially requested for the tiles to be brought in because I was expecting him to be able to get everything up by today, he really couldn't make it, so he kept telling me he will come tomorrow instead and to leave the tiles outside the estate instead of inside.
I understand his predicament and also my request being a little too last minute for him, but when I contacted him, it was to inform him that the tiles were already delivered, not that it was in the process of getting delivered, what are you expecting me to do? Carry the tiles outside by myself?
I couldn't be bothered to reply to him and quickly made my way over to the lobby area and THANK GOD the tile supplier was still there, I could do two things at this point, either ask him to put the tiles outside the estate for me and have the hacker drop by tomorrow to uplift them, or I could simply uplift those items myself, there is the push trolley in the apartment and if there tiles aren't too many, I am sure it would be fine. I asked the tile delivery guy how many boxes there were, he told me about 10 and it sounded manageable, so I told him I will be bringing it up myself, he was nice enough to lend me his push trolley, puts all the tiles up and I was fully expecting him to deliver it with me to the apartment, but he leaves me at the lift and tells me that is as far as he will go, that once I was done, to bring the push trolley down.
The lift door opens, he pushes it in for me and I thought, great, this wasn't so difficult, press the level I was headed to and then got really worried because now, there isn't anyone to open the lift door for me when I am at the top, then the lift door opens and that was when the struggle began.
As I tried to push the trolley out, the lift doors kept closing and opening because I was outside the lift and the trolley was too low for the door sensors to work, and what made things worst was the fact that one of the wheels of the trolley got stuck between the gap of the lift opening, so that means not only was the lift door constantly opening and closing , I was also struggling to push the trolley out and also make sure I wasn't going to damage the lift doors. I literally wanted to scream out loud...
... to get the tiler's worker's attention because they were in the apartment still doing their thing, but then decided not to because I didn't want to neighbors coming out, so as I was pushing the trolley out, I was starting to get really really pissed off at the whole situation that I just didn't give a fuck anymore and just really shaking the fucking trolley out with all my might until it finally got loose.
In my head, I was having a mini celebration, that I was able to do this myself, and also cursing at my tiler for being so fucking unhelpful and putting me in this situation because he was too lazy to ask his workers to help me.
I pushed the trolley towards the apartment, open the door and asked the worker who was doing the tiling work to help me get the tiles in, he immediately stopped what he was doing and started bringing them in, and as I was helping him move the tiles from the push trolley into the apartment, I noticed that something was not right, the lift door wasn't closing for some reason.
So I stopped what I was doing and had the worker just carry everything in himself, went into the lift and started pressing the "Close" button and it wouldn't close fully, it just closes 20% and then gets stuck.
FUCK!
Then I remembered one of my own colleague getting into a similar situation before with the lift door suddenly not working, which lead me to exclaim "Shit" out loud because my colleagues' condo management ending up requesting a few thousand dollars for compensation because for his case, the sensors were damaged and had to be completely replaced, luckily for him, he wasn't the one who damaged it, it was one of the sub-contractors who ended up forking out the money, but I am the one who damaged the lift doors, that means if there is any compensation, it will be coming from my commission, which would be horrible because it's fucking expensive and I don't think I am earning much from this project after all the cost absorption I have given to my clients.
I immediately called up my condo management office to report the lift door not closing and my biggest concern, aside from the potential compensation fee eating up my entire commission and then some, was how pissed off all the neighbors would get once they realize that the moron who has been disrupted their tranquility for the past 2 weeks has also damaged the fucking lift, the lady on the phone told me she will send a technician up and since the lift was not working, I ended up carrying the fucking push trolley down 6 flight of stairs to return to the delivery guy, who after realizing what had happened, could only laugh at my bad luck.
A little worried about the lift situation, I then headed to the management office in person and told them about the lift door, the lady then assured me that a technician has already been send down, so I went back to see if the technician was already there or not. I don't really know what happen afterwards because when I went up to my floor using the working lift, the damaged lift door actually got unstuck and closed on it's own, but it wouldn't move, so I ended up taking the flight of stairs down again and then realized that the lift had gone one level up. Not super sure what happened, I am hoping the technician was able to fix it and I don't have to pay any compensation for it, something I won't know until tomorrow I guess.
I blame my tiler for putting me in this situation. Not going to use him for my future projects anymore, he has put me under so much stress and also hugely inconvenience me today. I also found out that one of the worker he had send to do up my current project was the same guy who fucked up Sly Fox's place because of his horrible workmanship. I would very much like to ask my tiler to get someone else in, but then he probably won't listen because he gives zero shit at all, all he cares about is getting things done asap, which is why despite me telling him not to do the tiles for my living area, he has ignored my request and instructed his worker to do the exact opposite of what I told him not to do. I might have to bring this issue up to my boss very soon and have him do something about the tiler because this is honestly just unacceptable.
When the Sly Fox issue came up, I told myself I wasn't going to give this tiler a chance anymore because his guy FUCKED UP really badly, but then another project came in and I went back to him out of habit and familiarity and I didn't really have any issues with those other projects that came after as well, so I thought of it as a one off thing, and that it was purely bad luck of Sly Fox's part, but with the way this current project is going, it's becoming extremely difficult to accept his standards anymore.
The ones who should be giving me problems and stressing me out are the homeowners, not the subcontractors, the subcontractors are suppose to be helping me alleviate the complaints the homeowners have, to lessen my stress, not add it in and make things worst.
For the next project, I really have to start reaching out to another tiler who has been receiving a lot of praises from my other colleagues who have made the switch. They have zero complaints about him despite him costing more, in fact, they are praising his workmanship and constantly asking me why I haven't switched yet, and well, it really is time to move on. My current one has gotten extremely complacent and needs to be taught a lesson.
I actually wanted to use the other tiler, but unfortunately he was already busy, but for the next project, I will make sure to book him in advance, even if I do end up earning less from the project, I really need to raise my standard for the tiler's workmanship.
UPDATE :
So the additional tiles were ordered today and I had to contact another sub-contractor, my hacker, to uplift those additional tiles.
My tiler told me yesterday he will contact the hacker on my behalf and update him on the uplifting for the additional tiles and since I was already having some trust issues with the tiler, I decided to personally contact the hacker this morning to double check. Lo and behold, he told me he wasn't inform about the uplifting nor was he contacted by my tiler.
The hacker was still very helpful though, despite the last minute request, he just told me to let him know what time the tiles will arrive and he will send his guys down to bring them up. I gave him the timing the tile supplier gave me, which was between 2pm to 3pm, fully expecting the hacker to send his workers down earliest at 4pm to help me bring everything up.
By 3pm, I got a call from the hacker asking me where all the tiles were because his guys were already there and they couldn't find any tiles, getting a bit worried at this point, I quickly called my tiler supplier contact to double check and she is pretty fucking useless, doesn't pick up the phone and didn't bother to reply the text message I send to her, so I directly called her company and they told me it will only arrive at 4pm due to traffic.
I then called my hacker and informs him about it and he told me to update him again when the tiles arrive.
I got to the jobsite at about 3.30pm and waited until about 4pm when I finally got a call from the tiles delivery guy, he told me he was there already, so as I was making my way over to the lobby where he told me he had placed all the tiles, I called my hacker up and told him the tiles were here, that he could send someone over now.
Here is the deal. My current project is a Private Condo, that means any tiles or building materials need to be left at the main gate outside the estate, I had requested for the tile supplier to leave the tiles INSIDE the estate because if I could get them brought up to the apartment on the same day, there won't be any issues and the Condo Management will close one eye.
My hacker was unfortunately not able to rush down in time because the management won't let any construction workers in after 5pm and it was already about 4.15pm when I finally contacted him again. I then told him I had specially requested for the tiles to be brought in because I was expecting him to be able to get everything up by today, he really couldn't make it, so he kept telling me he will come tomorrow instead and to leave the tiles outside the estate instead of inside.
I understand his predicament and also my request being a little too last minute for him, but when I contacted him, it was to inform him that the tiles were already delivered, not that it was in the process of getting delivered, what are you expecting me to do? Carry the tiles outside by myself?
I couldn't be bothered to reply to him and quickly made my way over to the lobby area and THANK GOD the tile supplier was still there, I could do two things at this point, either ask him to put the tiles outside the estate for me and have the hacker drop by tomorrow to uplift them, or I could simply uplift those items myself, there is the push trolley in the apartment and if there tiles aren't too many, I am sure it would be fine. I asked the tile delivery guy how many boxes there were, he told me about 10 and it sounded manageable, so I told him I will be bringing it up myself, he was nice enough to lend me his push trolley, puts all the tiles up and I was fully expecting him to deliver it with me to the apartment, but he leaves me at the lift and tells me that is as far as he will go, that once I was done, to bring the push trolley down.
The lift door opens, he pushes it in for me and I thought, great, this wasn't so difficult, press the level I was headed to and then got really worried because now, there isn't anyone to open the lift door for me when I am at the top, then the lift door opens and that was when the struggle began.
As I tried to push the trolley out, the lift doors kept closing and opening because I was outside the lift and the trolley was too low for the door sensors to work, and what made things worst was the fact that one of the wheels of the trolley got stuck between the gap of the lift opening, so that means not only was the lift door constantly opening and closing , I was also struggling to push the trolley out and also make sure I wasn't going to damage the lift doors. I literally wanted to scream out loud...
"HELP ME!"
... to get the tiler's worker's attention because they were in the apartment still doing their thing, but then decided not to because I didn't want to neighbors coming out, so as I was pushing the trolley out, I was starting to get really really pissed off at the whole situation that I just didn't give a fuck anymore and just really shaking the fucking trolley out with all my might until it finally got loose.
In my head, I was having a mini celebration, that I was able to do this myself, and also cursing at my tiler for being so fucking unhelpful and putting me in this situation because he was too lazy to ask his workers to help me.
I pushed the trolley towards the apartment, open the door and asked the worker who was doing the tiling work to help me get the tiles in, he immediately stopped what he was doing and started bringing them in, and as I was helping him move the tiles from the push trolley into the apartment, I noticed that something was not right, the lift door wasn't closing for some reason.
So I stopped what I was doing and had the worker just carry everything in himself, went into the lift and started pressing the "Close" button and it wouldn't close fully, it just closes 20% and then gets stuck.
FUCK!
Then I remembered one of my own colleague getting into a similar situation before with the lift door suddenly not working, which lead me to exclaim "Shit" out loud because my colleagues' condo management ending up requesting a few thousand dollars for compensation because for his case, the sensors were damaged and had to be completely replaced, luckily for him, he wasn't the one who damaged it, it was one of the sub-contractors who ended up forking out the money, but I am the one who damaged the lift doors, that means if there is any compensation, it will be coming from my commission, which would be horrible because it's fucking expensive and I don't think I am earning much from this project after all the cost absorption I have given to my clients.
I immediately called up my condo management office to report the lift door not closing and my biggest concern, aside from the potential compensation fee eating up my entire commission and then some, was how pissed off all the neighbors would get once they realize that the moron who has been disrupted their tranquility for the past 2 weeks has also damaged the fucking lift, the lady on the phone told me she will send a technician up and since the lift was not working, I ended up carrying the fucking push trolley down 6 flight of stairs to return to the delivery guy, who after realizing what had happened, could only laugh at my bad luck.
A little worried about the lift situation, I then headed to the management office in person and told them about the lift door, the lady then assured me that a technician has already been send down, so I went back to see if the technician was already there or not. I don't really know what happen afterwards because when I went up to my floor using the working lift, the damaged lift door actually got unstuck and closed on it's own, but it wouldn't move, so I ended up taking the flight of stairs down again and then realized that the lift had gone one level up. Not super sure what happened, I am hoping the technician was able to fix it and I don't have to pay any compensation for it, something I won't know until tomorrow I guess.
I blame my tiler for putting me in this situation. Not going to use him for my future projects anymore, he has put me under so much stress and also hugely inconvenience me today. I also found out that one of the worker he had send to do up my current project was the same guy who fucked up Sly Fox's place because of his horrible workmanship. I would very much like to ask my tiler to get someone else in, but then he probably won't listen because he gives zero shit at all, all he cares about is getting things done asap, which is why despite me telling him not to do the tiles for my living area, he has ignored my request and instructed his worker to do the exact opposite of what I told him not to do. I might have to bring this issue up to my boss very soon and have him do something about the tiler because this is honestly just unacceptable.
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