The Two Brick Walls

Had an appointment with a brand new client today who had actually requested for me specifically when he called the company to schedule an appointment.




When I first received the call from the client, I was in the toilet taking a dump, which has got to be some sort of sign of how shitty this whole project will be. He requested to meet the next day, and I was agreeable to it, I also asked him which of my previous customer had referred me to him, and he told me he came across one of my customer's testimonial through one of the renovation portal online.




The last time someone found me through that means, I ended up having to reject the client because of how incredibly stubborn she was, it was impossible to work with her.




Well, this new client is EXACTLY the same and I'll be damned if I actually take on the project.




So prior to the meeting, I had already arranged with my colleague that I will cover the morning shift and he will take the afternoon shift because I had Christmas dinner at home to attend to at around 6.30pm. The appointment with this client, whom I shall refer to Mr Tee, was scheduled at 3.30pm, I was expecting the consultation to last maybe an hour tops and I would be on my way.



3.30pm comes, and he is nowhere to be seen, so at 3.45pm, I send him a text, but he doesn't respond, and after 30 minutes of waiting, as I was planning to give him a call to let him know that I wasn't going to be available anymore because I already have plans, he struts into the showroom accompanied with his wife, who looked a little displease.




Mr Tee then starts lamenting to me about how difficult it was to find parking near my office and his wife was visibly annoyed as he was complaining about having to park so far away just to see me, which just brought me back to the time I met Jenny and Jonny, except then, it was Jonny, the husband, who was the one was who very upset about being unable to find parking.





Making the connection between them and J&J was a horrible start.



So the consultation starts, I get a copy of Mr Tee's floorplan and we started running through the space planning and as we were talking, I could sense a great deal of hostility coming from Mrs Tee, who was obviously still very annoyed by the fact that she had to walk such a great distance earlier. She was very impatient during first part of the consultation, every time I tried to explain certain things and she did not understand my advice, she would just stare at me with this very annoyed look on her face, and I would have to explain it to her again until she finally gets it and moves on to the next thing to get upset about.




This went on for about 5 minutes until I finally had enough of her attitude and became really annoyed with her when she couldn't understand what I was saying, I would just look at her after I have explained myself and give her this incredulous look, an expression of...

"HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU ARE SO FUCKING DENSE?"

.... and she slowly backed down a bit because bitch I am not here for you to be annoyed at, you guys were half an hour late, so don't give me a fucking attitude just because you didn't know where to find a space to park.





When I first saw her giving me the attitude at the start, I had already made up my mind that I was not going to allow them to engage me because I have zero interest to run their project for them. First impression is extremely important to me, if you show your cunt-ness even before we have introduced ourselves, you are out!





But anyways, after Mrs Tee finally put her attitude in check, we were able to have a proper consultation session that lasted way too long for a project I didn't want to take on.



Aside from the attitude problem I was receiving from Mrs Tee, another factor that just made me shirk away from the idea of running this project is the fact that Mr & Mrs Tee are both insanely stubborn individuals who did not think the advice I was sharing with them as an Interior Designer, who has been working in this industry for 3 years, meant anything.



I told them some of the works they were requesting were not possible because it was either not safe or just straight up impossible to be done, such attempting to switch the toilet bowl position with the sink, but they were do insistent on doing it, telling me...

"It can be done!"

... based on what? It can be done because you, a layman who has no expertise in the construction field, said it can be done even though I, the professional, am constantly telling you it can't be done? I was so close to telling them to fuck off and find someone else to do their project if they were so insistent to do things their way, but was able to control the urge, and then when they asked me how much certain items were, and I shared the prices with them, the husband just stares at me, rest his arm on the table, leans in and goes...

"Why is it so expensive? The space I have is very small and we need this to be done, but you are charging me so much for it!"

.... in an almost confrontational tone and I was so pissed off I just told him straight to his face...

"I am simply sharing the price with you! You asked me how much it cost and I am telling you how much it cost! I am not forcing you to do any of these works, you are the one who is requesting for it, if you think it is too expensive, then don't do it!"

... and Mr Tee slowly takes his arms off the table and leans back into his chair.

Mrs Tee then offered alternative suggestions that weren't feasible and I was so bloody frustrated trying to explain why her way wouldn't work, but she kept insisting it could be done, and after a while, she also does the same thing as Mr Tee, telling me...

"But my space is already so small and you are telling me that it can't be done, then you tell me what to do? Where to put all my accessories in the toilet? You tell me! "

.... I wanted to punch her in the fucking throat! It's not my fault the developer decided to give you a badly design toilet, why the fuck are you taking it out on me? So I told her in a very exasperated tone...

"THIS IS THE WAY YOUR TOILET IS BUILT! I have no control over how your developer decided to design your toilet"

... but she was still very stubborn, so in order to move the conversation along because I was already late for my Christmas dinner, I told them I will ask my contractor if what she requested can be done, which honestly I don't think I would because I already know the answer from them is going to be, and even if by some Christmas Miracle, they tell me it can be done, I will still tell Mrs Tee it can't be done because I am not about to make my services more attractive for them to consider engaging me.

I was planning to leave the office at 5.00pm the latest, but I ended up leaving at 6.30pm because I spend so much time talking to 2 brick walls. I told them I will prepare a quotation for them within a week, but I don't really want to bother, it just feels so pointless. I will most likely just charge them an exuberant amount for a lot of items to scare them off and that is it.





Right now the calculated figure is at $80,000, which is honestly insanely high for the works they want to do, but that's really the whole point so fingers crossed that they will get scared off by the price and go elsewhere, bypass all the price negotiations with me and be like that last customer who wasted my time.