The boss of the interior design firm I turned down actually called me again a few days back and tried to persuade me to reconsider my decision.
The call lasted about 30 minutes and it worked, I was persuaded, so we had agreed to meet again and this time, it was to hash out any concerns and sign the contract, he told me to give him a good timing for us to meet again and I told him Monday would work for me. A few days before we were suppose to meet, he messages me again to confirm the timing and I realize that I couldn't do Monday because I had showroom duty that day, so I requested to meet on Tuesday instead. I ask him what time he was available so I could meet him at his preferred timing instead of mine, but there was not response on his end after that.
He didn't get back to me about the timing, it is already Tuesday night as I am typing this out, so I guess the contract offer has be rescinded. He must have gotten annoyed at my request to meet a day later so he just completely ignored the text message, which is "super" professional.
But everything worked out in the end I suppose because after I had my call with him, I instantly started to regret my decision to agree to meet again, he is quite persuasive but ultimately, I still don't feel 100% sure about leaving my current company to join his, and after seeing how he has chosen to respond, or the lack of it, to my legitimate request to meet a day later...
... that being said, I would pick getting ignored than getting an angry text or call about leading him on about my interest in the position.
-----
Anyways, now that is is closing towards the end of the year, almost all my current projects on hand are completed, but I do have this final one that is getting a little frustrating to deal with, not because the client is unpleasant, but because the client is a little bit dense.
There is this blur-ness in him that was endearing at first, but has started to get a little bit annoying to deal with recently. I have found myself having to constantly repeat things I have said multiple times before, one of which being the light installation, I told him multiple times over the course of the renovation that it will only be installed after the carpentry is up, but it's like every week for 3 weeks before the carpentry is up, he will ask me...
"So the electricians are coming next week?"
"Your guys are installing the light this week?"
“Let me know if you electrician can come in earlier?"
... every single time I tell him it is only after carpentry installation is done, he will, without fail, ask me the stupid question again a few days later.
But other than that blur-ness, he has generally been quite pleasant, although I did run into a bit of a carpentry fuck up today.
I was at his site today, taking a few pictures of the place to show him the current state of the apartment, which is move-in ready, I even walked him through the space via a video and everything was great, he thanked me for the video and after that, I decided to head to another place, which was all the way at the other end of Singapore. Taking the train felt like it would take forever because the train actually makes a huge loop and I really wasn't feeling it, so I decided to rent an electric car.
It feels nice to be able to drive again, but I was quite nervous to be on the road with a foreign car after taking such a long break from driving, so I was feeling quite stressful when I was driving, thankfully, my blur client was able to take my mind off the road when he dropped me a message, telling me that the carpentry looked wrong because the colour of one particular laminate was darker than he had thought.
It was like my stress from driving just went away and the stress from work took over and fucked my mood up in a different way.
I knew exactly what he was talking about because I had actually realize the laminate was wrong when I went to the site during the installation earlier last week, but I didn't bother bringing it up because it looked really similar to the original one we had chosen and I thought it looked fine the way it is, plus the original laminate was chosen by me after him and his wife sort of gave up trying to choose ones that they liked, you could say that they settled for it, so I thought if it was something they settled for, then they probably wouldn't mind if we ended up using another similar looking one.
The mentality I had was extremely unprofessional, but anyways, I shared my predicament with my colleagues and all of them thought the two laminates looked similar, that only if placed side by side can the difference be spotted, and that I could potentially get away with it.
Unfortunately, my client could see from the pictures I send that it was a different shade, and this is why I hate sending photos to my clients, because then they can scrutinize every single detail and catch errors that could have potentially been overlooked .
I didn't reply to the message until after I had successfully reached the carpark to park the electric car, because road safety and all, and I immediately called my carpenter to ask if he can re-laminate before I reached out to my client, it is doable, but this error is going to cost my project $200, so fuck my life, made such careless mistake indicating the wrong laminate code to my carpenter.
I offered to redo the lamination for my client and he was a little worried that it will affect the workmanship, so the agreement to re-laminate took a bit of coaxing and persuading, it's like trying to coddle a toddler and telling him everything is going to be fine after he accidentally broke his favorite toy or something. He eventually agreed to it and my carpenter pulled through and managed to find a guy who can replace it for me by this week.
If I had been upfront and brought this issue up from the start, I might have been able to convince them to stick with the wrong laminate seeing how the color is very similar, but unfortunately, because it was my client who brought the issue up, if I tried to convince him to stick with the wrong laminate, it would look like I was trying to shirk responsibility after getting called out for it,.
I am literally paying for my mistake. $200 to be exact and I guess my client's trust in my capabilities by that little bit, the latter always very shitty to experience.
---
After that whole fisaco was dealt with, I had to take a bus and then walk to the new site, which is a landed property and landed properties are always a pain to get to because there aren't any direct buses, if you can afford a landed property, you can afford a car, so why would the government bother planting bus stops nearby.
I really did not want to entertain this site visit because of how far it was and because I know I am never going to touch landed properties, too many things can go wrong and I do not want to deal with the stress of having to work on a single project for a year.
But this was a referral so I really had no choice.
For this site visit, I actually had to postpone the visit by a day, it was a bit last minute but thankfully, the client agreed , so much more gracious than the Interior Design firm's boss.
The client is a nice lady and at the start, it was quite simple, all she wanted to do was renovate her toilet and kitchen cabinet, but then as the consultation carried on, it just became more and more extensive, she started requesting to hack off her existing window at her bedroom to create a balcony and to move the plant outside her house to another location, in my head, I was trying very hard to think of ways to tell her this was not within my scope, especially the replanting of a tree part, albeit it was a small one, but still, that is not within my scope AT ALL.
But I didn't because I felt like there wasn't a need to clarify anything with a client I wasn't really keen on working with, I will just quote whatever I can and then state that whatever is not quoted isn't within my scope via text message. I also don't think she understands how intrusive everything will be, especially because her whole family will still be staying in the apartment during the renovation.
I was in the apartment for like an hour and I wasn't offered any drinks, would be nice to have some water seeing how I had to walk quite a distant, I saw her taking a cup and cleaning it when we first stepped into the kitchen to discuss what she wanted to do and I had thought that she was going to offer me a cup of water, but she poured herself a cup, drank it, clean the cup and then put it away without offering.
You don't have to, but I just think that it should be common courtesy to at least offer your guest a cup of water, especially when you are grabbing one for yourself.
So yeah, it was a waste of time.
The whole of today just felt like shit, the only upside is being able to drive again and my carpenter pulling through and being able to help me settle my issue by this week, but everything else that happened today work wise...
... a pretty shitty day.
No comments:
Post a Comment