Public Transport Annoyance

I am relatively lucky that work starts a little later than the regular 9 to 5, so there isn't always a huge crowd when I board the trains or buses, but there are still passengers and most of the time, when the train reaches my station, all the seats will either be taken up by passengers from the last few stations, or they will get bombarded by impatient aunties who are waiting for the train at the same station as me.

Yesterday was no exception, available seating was scarce but standing space was aplenty, so I decided to just stand at the corner right next to the MRT doors like I normally would and just remain at that position until I reach my stop.  

My personal space was pretty much respected as more and more commuters started entering the train, and since I was standing at the side of the train door that won't open for the entirety of my journey, it felt like a pretty good spot, that was until this one old man boarded.

When I first saw him enter, I didn't really pay much attention to him, there was still plenty of standing space around and seeing how feeble he looked, I assumed someone who give up their seat for him, but then as I was using my phone, I could see from my peripheral vision that he was coming closer to closer to my corner, he grabs the pole right beside where I was standing and then just stands right in my corner, with his back facing me. 

 Like this, one hand holding a walking stick and another hand grabbing the metal pole right beside me. 

There was plenty of standing space with handles to grab, I have no idea why he decided to stand where he stood, but it was extremely uncomfortable because it was so bloody close and because his back was facing me, he wasn't really aware how close he was to me, or he really just doesn't give a fuck, but I didn't want to ask him to fuck off, so I just accepted the fact that I was going to be trapped by him until I reach my destination.

As the train started to move, someone finally stands up and offers her seat to the old man, she gets up and slowly makes her way over to him, to usher him to her seat and normally, the one being offered the seat will move forward and head towards the seat, but for some reason, this old man decides to move backwards, as if trying to give way to the girl, which made the amount of space I had available even tighter than it already was.

At this point, the whole thing just got extremely uncomfortable and I was getting really annoyed by this old fart who wasn't moving towards the seat that was offered to him, so I used my phone and kinda nudged at his backpack, to kind of indicate to him that someone was standing behind him and he should really stop moving backwards unless he wanted to get shanked by my Samsung phone, he stops moving backward but he doesn't make any attempt to move forward to get out of my personal space.

The girl that had offered her seat was standing beside me at this point and right in front of me, well not really right in front of me because what was right in front of me was the back of this old fart, was this empty seat that was offered to the old man, but where was the old man? Still standing right in front of me and at this point, he was just way too close for comfort, so I slowly tried to inch my way out awkwardly, pushing his bag away from me so I could make a big enough space to leave the small maximum security prison cell he had created for me with his body, and as I was awkwardly standing midway out of the prison of his body, he finally inches forward and heads towards the seat, my hands were on his bag at this point, so I slowly pushed him away from me and got him out of my personal space, a small part of me wished I could have just pushed him and shouted "Get the fuck outta here!', but I'm not an asshole, so I didn't do that.

But nothing much happened really, I was just really irritated by the old man so I was in a mood when I finally reached my destination and as I was taking the escalator, I had to be standing behind two foreigners who were hold a big bag of stuff, their friends were a few meters in front of them and some were already at the top of the escalator waiting for them at the side.

Now this is pretty much common sense, but once you have gotten off the escalator, you either continue moving forward or you move to the side if you are planning to wait for someone, what you don't do is stop right where you got off and block the fucking traffic.

This 2 dumb fucks, the moment they reach the top, instead of moving to the side, they just stop right in front of the fucking escalator, I actually had to take a step back when I reached the top because they were blocking the way, but I quickly inched forward and pushed their bags away with the tip of my phone, making sure to make a very loud "Tsk!" sound as I moved past them and was cursing at them under my breath, needless to say, I got even more irritated after that, luckily I only had a bad morning, the rest of the day went by relatively smoothly, met some clients and had a very late lunch, just mundane work stuff.

Speaking of mundane work stuff, I will be starting my third project tomorrow. At this point, I still haven't receive any of my commission yet because the first project is currently on a standstill and I didn't realize that I actually had to inform the finance department of the projects I have completed. 2 weeks I waited, thinking the company was processing and calculating my commission, turns out I actually had to tell them about it.

I'm estimating a meager $1,200 commission from that project, that will be my first pay cheque since January 2017, really kind of insane how I have not been receiving any sort of income for the past 9 months, gosh, it's this kind of realization that really makes me question the viability of this career path in the long run.

I have been considering looking for a career that would offer me a much more stable salary once my all my project has been completed, which will tentatively be after Chinese New Year, because it really isn't a realistic option for me in the long run.

Roadshow Happenings

Just got back from a roadshow event that was rather happening, I was suppose to leave the event at 1 pm, but my boss kept asking me to "cover" for my colleagues, the ones who were going to stay the whole day, while they went for lunch, so I ended up leaving at 3.30 pm.

I was able to get my hands on a few new customer leads and it's nice to get customers who are actually looking for an interior designer and not just emailing in looking for free quotations that being said, there was a couple who were pretty blatant about looking for a quotation, just right off the bat...

"Let's get to the point, we are planning to start work in 2 weeks so we are really looking for the an interior firm that will offer the best quotation at this stage."

... they weren't rude about it, in fact they were really friendly, but looking for an Interior Designer and expecting them to start work in 2 weeks, that's pretty much an impossibility, this stage should have been done at least a month ago, I mean they will probably only really confirm a designer next week, and that only gives them about a week to confirm the design, to shop for the tiles, to apply the necessary renovation permits and have those approved, there is no way in hell they will be able to start work in 2 weeks, even if they were to confirm a designer tomorrow, there is still no way they are going to start renovation work that soon. 

So they were pretty straightforward with a few of their cost related enquries and at this point, I just kinda lost any interest in running their project for them, I really wanted to get the conversation over and done with so I can move on, and since they were only really looking for cost figures, the conversation was pretty much them asking me...

"How much do you charge to hack a wall per foot run ?"

"How much will hacking the floors cost per square feet ?"

"How much will it cost to lay floor tiles on the walls and floors?"

... and I just gave them whatever information I knew, marking up the price slightly higher than I normally would sell to other customers, I did not give them figures that would be specific to their home measurements, instead, what I gave them was unit price and they just jotted everything down on this stack of paper with all the measurements written on it, it is really quite amazing to see the amount of effort they have put into their renovation, but alas, I just can't see them starting work in 2 weeks.

Whilst at the event, I also managed to catch a glimpse of my old customers speaking to other designers from the other design firms, well not very old, literally met them 2 weeks ago, not too sure if they saw me, but I saw them making their way towards the lower floor, didn't bother to go up to them and greet them, I wanted to, but decided against it, I don't think they would have been too excited to see me either because they stop responding to my emails.





I get that customers normally don't respond back when they are no longer interested because they are not comfortable at rejecting an Interior Designer, but I feel that not responding back is even ruder.

The first time I met them, I asked them if they had visited other Interior Design firms before, to which they replied I was the first one and they really didn't know what to expect from such a visit.

Since that was the first visit, I shared with them the services I will offer them for free at the early stages and told them I will email them the quotation when I was done, so they could take a look at the final figure and decide if my price was within their budget, we spoke for a little over an hour and then they left, I emailed them the quotation, thinking if they were interested, they would email me back to schedule a follow up appointment, and I wrote in the email that if the price is within their budget and they were still interested, we could schedule another meet up to discuss further....

Well, one of them emailed me back and asked...

"I noticed the carpentry dimensions aren't complete, there is only the length and height."

Really have no idea what she expected from the quotation to be honest, a fucking attachment of the custom carpentry blueprint maybe?

So I replied back that the purpose of the quotation was for her to get a rough idea of how much her renovation requirements would cost her, that getting more information is a benefit only paying customers will get (which isn't particularity true, but I just didn't really see a lot of potential in her to want to put in too much effort) ,to which she replied back...

"I can't decide based on the quotation, please advise on what I should do next?"

... I have already advised her on what she should do next in the first email, which is to schedule a follow up appointment with me if she was still interested, but I guess she must have missed that part, so I wrote back asking her more directly...

"Would you be free this weekend for a follow up appointment so we can discuss further?"

... that way, we can move past the quotation and roughly discuss the designs and overall theme she wanted for her home, well, no response after that, and then I see her and her friend at the event today. So I guess my advice that was emailed to her got translated into ...

"Stop disturbing me and look for other Interior Designers to entertain you."

Enough of that customer...

So I will be starting 2 new renovation projects soon, both of which are presenting their very own set of problems, which isn't great.  Really giving me quite a bit of headache to be honest, my first project hasn't even completed yet and I have recently signed 2 new projects to run, one of which belongs to a customer I was talking about in the previous post.



I am really not looking forward to working with that particular customer from the previous post, just because he takes so long to reply to my text messages, especially when it comes to scheduling an appointment, I always get inform last minute and I always feel bad because I always have to reschedule with him. For example, I would text him on Tuesday asking if he would like to schedule an appointment over the weekend so we can discuss his renovation requirements, and he will always write back...

"Will let you know later."

... and later isn't the end of the day, it's always the night before he wants to meet, it's horrible because on one hand, now that he is a paying customer, I have to prioritize my appointments with him, but on the other hand, I can't be leaving my weekends open just for him and ignore all my other appointments.

Slow Responders

Reservist is finally over and I am back at work. Getting more customers that are slowly but surely wasting my time.



Sincere customers are few and far, but time wasters are always in abundance. The very first customer lead I received from my company after my reservist was one such time waster...

"Will be busy over the next few weeks so I won't be able to come to the showroom for any consultation appointments."

... Oh really? So why did you bother sending in a renovation enquiry when you are going to be too busy over the next few weeks to meet up with any designers.

I had another customer, whom I first met in March, recently contacting me again.



Back then, he had requested to view a completed project, but since I didn't have any at hand, I told him it will be a while before I could grant his request, he didn't really seem too bothered by it because he wouldn't be getting the keys to his flat until the end of the year, so I also didn't really bother to keep in touch with him, I assumed he was also going to forget about me and start a brand new hunt for an Interior Designer once he got his keys.




I was honestly quite pleasantly surprise by his email for an updated quote, so I updated the quote and send it his way, and he once again requested for a site visit. Well, I have a site now, so I was more than happy to oblige, I drop him a text asking him if he was available, but we had a bit of trouble finding a time that would be convenient for the both of us, so he tells me he will discuss with his wife on their availability and then get back to me shortly.



He never did.



So the very next day, fortunately for him, another customer of mine decided to reschedule an appointment with me, and that opened up my schedule for him, so I dropped him a text, telling him I would be available for the time he had initially requested and asked if he would be interested for the site visit.



No response.

He has responded positively to my request, like 36 hours later. Not very sure if I would actually want to run his project for him, just base on how responsive he is. I really do not like to be left hanging when it comes to confirming an appointment.







Also had another customer who texted me, asking if I could send her the space planning proposal via email because she had forgotten what was discussed. Obviously, I wasn't going to give my space planning proposal to a non-paying customer, so I asked her if it was alright for me to just send her the quotation instead so she can look through it and kinda roughly remember what was discussed, to which she just replied with...

"Hmmm."

... I waited for a proper reply after that because what am I suppose to derive from that vague response. We were suppose to meet this coming weekend, a date has been confirmed, but no timing has been set, and after the last exchange, I really wasn't expecting to hear from her anymore, but then here she was, asking me to send her the proposal, and once again, ending the conversation by not really ending it.



So I waited for a while and then decided, fuck it, I will just send her the quotation, hoping she will actually respond once she has gotten something from me.




No response after that.

She did request for the quotation like a few weeks ago, mere days after our first appointment, and seeing how I had actually wanted to run her renovation project at that time, I denied her request and instead urged her to come down for a second appointment so we can actually discuss the details again in person, and because the quotation had exceeded her budget, giving her a copy of the quotation would be the equivalent of scaring her away permanently, so I kept it to myself and was planning to use that as a motivation to get her to come back, and she went silent for a while until she contacted me again...and blah blah blah, I have talked about this in another post so I am just gonna skip that part.




Well, now that she has finally seen the quotation, I was right into believing that the figures were going to scare her away because she is no longer responding to my messages.



I have tried to confirm our appointment this weekend but she isn't replying, leaving me hanging to let me know she is no longer interested. Awesome! Gotta love customers like this. They can go fuck themselves. 

Joys of a Talkative partner

Reservist has officially begun and I have started doing my guard duties on Monday.



Prior to the start of my guard duties, I was already hearing horror stories of how the ICTs are being mistreated by the active soldiers, such as throwing horrible emplacements for them to cover, getting threatened with charges for the smallest mistakes and in general just being a prick to the all the reservist personnel, which has never been an issue when I was still an active solider, so a lot of shit has changed since the last time I went back.



Thankfully, my reservist commanders were nice enough to help us speak to the active commanders and that really helped us a lot in terms of the emplacements we were assigned to guard.



Originally, I wasn't really too bumped about being place in this particular guard house to do my sentry duties because the last time I came back, all the active soldiers I was paired with were all friendly and open to conversation,  the 6 hour shift was a pain to go through, but the active soldiers made it very bearable, well, that was last year, this year, I had the unfortunate privilege of doing my very first sentry duties with the most disinterested active I have ever fucking met.




Every time I tried to initiate a conversation, he would reply without attempting to carry on the conversation and every attempt of a joke I make gets responded with a dry laugh. His response are always very deadpan to the point where it just comes across as rude and after the first 5 minutes of doing my duty with him, I knew for sure the next 5 hours and 45 minutes was going to be hell.




I made no attempt at trying to converse with him after the first hour of trying because it was just pointless, it was like talking to a wall that I would like to punch every once in a while and after our duty was over, he just bid adieu to me really awkwardly and left. It was a really long and arduous 6 hours, but I made it through, I'm just really really really hoping I won't get paired with him anymore.





So far, my reservist hasn't really affected my work or at least not in a disruptive manner, during my down time, I was able to get my friend to drive me to my job site to overlook some work and then drive me back to camp right after, which was great. The project is almost coming to an end and I was really expecting to start getting my first commission by the end of the month, but my clients suddenly told me they were only able to get certain items delivered by the end of next month, so fuck my life.




Bad news is I won't be getting paid anytime soon, good news is that I will be able to use their flat as a showroom for all my potential clients for the next 2 months.




A few weeks ago, I was ranting about a customer who stopped responding to my text after I turned down her request to email her the quotation, well, she actually dropped me a text a few days ago asking me when we were going to meet for the 2nd appointment.

Luckily I did not delete her sketch up files off my laptop, but then she did that thing again where she stops responding, which is really confusing.

Her : So have we set a time yet.

Me: We have only decided on the date so far.

Her : I see...

Me : Maybe we can confirm the timing again a week before the appointment?

No response after that.

It wasn't my intention for the last question to be rhetorical, and that "..." at the end of her last message is really quite confusing, it makes her message come across as an expression of disappointment.

If she had just written "I see" without the "..." then it would have come across to me as

"Oh, I see, so we will schedule a time then!"

But because she added that "..." in her reply, it just came across to me as....

"I see... so you couldn't even be bothered to confirm a timing with us."

... and it really is coming across strongly as the latter because of how she chose to completely ignore my last question, that "?" I left at the end of the sentence is my way of asking you to confirm something with me, not to leave me hanging so I can assume you might or might not be interested.

I do have a few more potential clients on hand, but honestly, with the next project starting soon and me realizing how much money I am going to get from that project, I just don't feel like this career would be taking me very far financially. 

For this current project, which was closed at $34,000, I am estimated to take in about $2,500, if I'm lucky and don't incur any additional cost.

For my next project, which was closed at $39,000, I am only estimated to take in about $2000, if I'm lucky and don't incur any additional cost. 

Those figures are extremely low, especially for the latter project because by right, I should be raking in $3,400 for the first project and $3,900 for the second project, those figures are healthy profit figures and right now, all my current projects are running at an unhealthy profit margin, which is quite dangerous for me financially. 

Right now, I can still sustain myself financially from my own savings, but I am now spending way more than I will be earning back and the constant decline in my savings account is starting to worry me. I had told myself in the beginning, should my savings drop to a certain number, then it is probably time to look for a job that offers a stable salary, well, now it is getting really close to that number, so I guess that time is coming soon.

Interior & Army Stuff

Just went through the additional costing with my customers over the weekend and it was as painful as I had imagined. My aim at the beginning was to stay firm with my price and not falter to their constant bargaining methods, but in the end, I lost that battle and gave them a pretty hefty discount ,which led to a reduction in my overall profit margin.



It just got really exhausting because they were literally running through each item one by one, comparing my price with the prices of a contractor they found and just constantly gasping in horror at the cost difference, I mean just looking at their face was enough to know that they were not going to settle for the price I had quoted them, so we made things easier for each other and agreed on an overall discount.




It sucked that my profit margin dropped, but I was also relieved by the fact that I no longer have to sit through another round of bargaining with them.





The carpentry works are finally up and the empty flat is starting to feel like a home, the once bare kitchen is now lined with cabinets, the hallway is now made even tighter with the full height cabinets and the wardrobes in the room has been installed as well, it's really quite exciting to see my designs come to life, not that there's much design to be honest, I would have loved to explore more complex detailing, but the clients aren't too crazy about it, especially with the additional labor cost that will have to be incurred with designs that are too complicated.





This project should really be catapulting my interest in the field, and it is, because the satisfaction that I get from seeing the house slowly come together is pretty amazing, but when I actually think about how long it has been since I joined the company, I can't help but be worried about the long term prospects of this job.





I joined the company at the start of the year, and since then, I have managed to close 4 different projects, but it has taken me a total of 7 months to be almost done with one single project, a project I will not even be making much money out of due to the constant discount I have been giving my clients. If I'm lucky, I will only be able to make a measly $2500 from this project, $2500 after 7 months of work, that's equivalent to a little over $300 a month.





I've come to enjoy the process of Interior Designing through my short 2 week stint at ID3 and I was able to feel like a proper Interior Designer working at my current company, but the rate at which I am actually closing deals with new clients is abysmal, individuals who have joined the company much later than me have already signed upwards to 7 different contracts while I have only managed to sign my 4th contract 2 weeks ago... a very small contract that also won't be earning me much money.




The success that is able to come from this career is a little difficult for me to achieve because I am someone who always tend to pick and choose the clients I want to work with, if the first impression I have of a customer is bad and if we don't click at all during the first appointment, the bad taste that they leave in my mouth will normally signify the end of our partnership. I am someone who likes to plan ahead, so if I can foresee the trouble the clients will cause for me in the future, then it's better to nip them in the bud. My seniors on the other hand are always telling me to just sign as many as possible, to treat the horrible customers as learning experiences, but I honestly don't really see why I should make my life difficult and choose to work with potential assholes for 4 to 6 months, if I get a couple and I click with the husband but the wife is a complete cunt, or if the wife is easy to talk to but the husband is a complete dickhead, then...

The leads provided by the company, while useful, most of the time tend to feel like a waste of time. I have just been getting wave after wave of customers who just aren't interested at all, I don't see any with potential and it's honestly really demoralizing when they just straight up turn down my request for a second appointment. I only make second appointments with customers that I like, and those customers are far and few between.





I'm not sure if its me or if the customers that are coming in right now are just not good, I mean the company hasn't really been signing as much contracts these past few months, so it can't be just me, right now, I would like to believe that the recent customer drought might be due to the upcoming Ghost Festival, since almost every Chinese family avoids  renovation works during this period because it's inauspicious or something, hopefully the customers will get better after the Ghost Festival period is over because I am really itching to start exploring and selling designs.





Another reason why I'm not personally putting too much effort this past month is because of the last mobilization that happened 2 weeks ago, as well as my upcoming reservist cycle.




I couldn't plan any appointments for the past few weeks because I was afraid the mobilization will clash with my appointments, and I won't be able to schedule any appointments for the next 2 weeks because I will be stuck in camp for my reservist.




I have never despised my reservist so much until now, just the amount of time it takes up and the inconveniences it is causing me....

 ....and my friend who was suppose to go through the reservist with me has recently attempted to defer due to work commitments, his request has been denied but he is going to appeal again, so there might be a chance that my reservist this time is going to be a solo experience. I'm selfishly hoping his appeal gets rejected because I'm a horrible friend.

An electrical job well done

I will have to collect additional payments from my clients soon and I am not looking forward to it, there is no doubt they will try to negotiate the prices down and just thinking about them bargaining the prices with me is making me feel exhausted.



My electrician also isn't being of much help as well, since the start of July, I have been requesting for him to break down the electrical cost for me so I can issue out an accurate bill for my clients, every week I will drop him a text to ask him to break down the electrical cost and every week, he reads but chooses not to respond to my text, it's extremely infuriating and there is no doubt that this will be the last time I ever use his services.



Out of all the contractors I have liaised with for my first renovation project, the one who has been giving me problem is this fucking electrician, every other contractor whom I have engaged arrives on site at the date I have set aside for them, complete their work within the stipulated time, sometimes even earlier and leaves without giving me much of an issue and even if they do, they are very quick to rectify the problems, this fucking electrician on the other hand has been nothing but problem after problem and what really infuriates me about this whole situation is that I have been warned by my colleagues about how difficult it is to actually work with him, but still I went ahead and engaged his services anyway, so fucking stupid.




To list a few reasons why working with him has been the greatest displeasure of my renovation journey....


1. His doesn't instruct his workers on what to do. Instructions I pass to him doesn't get passed down to his workers.


2. He hasn't been replying to my text messages.


3. He gets his workers to come down and do the electrical works when it is convenient for him, works that should have been done in 2 days took him 3 days to complete because he decided that he wasn't going to send his workers down to my site on the second day.


4. He sends his workers down to do renovation works at my site without informing me about it in advance.


5. His main worker is just a complete buffoon. Carries on work without waiting for my instructions and even when instructions are given, still manages to fuck things up, and then has the audacity to complaint about how much of a greenhorn I am to his colleague, thinking I am not aware of it, saying things like...

"This designer, simple thing like this also don't know."


only for his colleague to reprimand him, saying...


"He now don't know, need time to learn right?"



 .. which zipped him up, I like his colleague because his colleague knows what to do, waits for my instructions before doing anything and is able to offer valid suggestions.


If you want to talk shit about me, do it when I am not around, not when I am literally standing 5 meters away from you, just because my back is turned doesn't mean I can't hear you.





Back to the boss, so I just dropped him a text today at around 3.30 pm, informing him that I will be issuing the electrical bill to my client tomorrow and I will need his help to tabulate the cost for me, he reads the text 6 minutes after I send it out but doesn't respond to it, so at around 5.00 pm, I decided to actually call him up because I really needed the cost break down for tomorrow,  if he wasn't able to do a full break down, at least tell me the cost of some items that are not stated in the price list so my bill can be as accurate as possible, but not only does he not pick up the call, he outright rejects it and needless to say, I'm infuriated.





Prior to the last text I had send him, I had actually also send him another text telling him his worker did not wait for my instructions and carried out drilling works, and recently also learned that he has pulled an additional lighting point that I did not ask for, so are you actually going to turn down my calls because I drop you a text telling you how incompetent your worker has been? Your worker did a shit job and I was just pointing it out to you, you failed to pass down the instructions I have given to you to him, so that is on you, I was simply stating the facts, so don't get all upset about it and not reply to my text and calls, take some fucking responsibility.



This means I won't be able to charge my clients for the electrical works tomorrow and will have to bill them again at a later date, that is going to be fucking fun to have to sit through another round of bargaining again.




I have been chasing him for the electrical cost break down for 3 weeks now, first time he said he was outside and couldn't prepare for me, fine, the following week I asked again and he responds, asking me how many lights I was going to install, so I told him how many lights I was going to install, thinking I will get a full cost breakdown soon ,but after that, no response.




Ask me how many lights I am going to install and don't send me the cost break down, then you ask for fuck?



I actually wrote to him yesterday, complaining to him about the amazing work his worker did for me at the site last Saturday, once again, he reads the message but doesn't respond to it.




I was intending to get him to complete the entire electrical work for this site before I never use him again, but these past few exchanges with him over WhatsApp, or lack thereof, is making me question the if that is even possible.




Still unsure at this point if I should just wing it and charge my clients the electrical bill as per usual, or actually wait for the fucker to send me the electrical costing breakdown. This fucker is really giving me a lot of unnecessary stress.

The Demoralization is real.

Another customer of mine has just slipped away from my hands and I did not appreciate how they did not bother to update me about their designer hunting status.



Am I disappointed that I wasn't able to renovate their home for them?





Honestly speaking, I'm not. There was a very obvious lack of chemistry between the homeowners and myself and when I first saw them walking into the Showroom, I did not want to serve them at all due to the fact that they are a PR couple from China and my Mandarin conversational skills just isn't up to par with theirs, obviously, but I did anyway and it wasn't horrible, but it also wasn't good.

I took down their requirements and decided to schedule a second appointment with them despite the lack of rapport because their budget was quite generous for renovation works they have requested, and also because I was itching to sign new contracts. 

So we were scheduled to meet this Sunday morning and I had told them that I will prepare a design proposal for them to see when we meet again, to which they were agreeable to, and we agreed to confirm the timing when we are closer to the date.

Fast forward to today, I decided to give the customer a call to confirm the time and at this point, I have not only prepared a quotation for them, I have also prepared a SketchUp drawing for their viewing, so I was quite excited to present to them what I have prepared, but when I called to confirm the time with the customer, he goes...

"We have actually already chosen an Interior Designer to work with."

... Hmmmm? Okay.

So even though we have already agreed to meet on Sunday for a follow up appointment and despite you and your wife CLEARLY knowing that I have been working on a design proposal for you guys over the past few days, it never crossed both your minds to have the basic courtesy let me know before hand that you guys have already confirmed an Interior Designer.

I mean great, good for you that you were able to find an Interior Designer you are comfortable working with, it's your house, it's your choice, but man, what a fucking waste of my time and effort.




Another 3D file to put away into my "Waste of Time" folder, it is really very upsetting when I open that file and see all the Sketch Up files I wanted to, but was never able to show my customers because they didn't want to return for a second appointment.

It's starting to get really demoralizing receiving this torrent of insincere customers, just yesterday, I received a new customer lead from the company and decided that instead of doing my usual texting, I will call the person up, I could tell from the get go that she was clearly not interested, and I was right because instead of scheduling a time for her to drop by the Showroom due to the location being too inconvenient for her, she requested for me to do a house visit.

"Can you come down to my house instead?"

Please. 

Don't. 

Waste. 

My. 

Time

We haven't even met once in person and you are already requesting for me to drop by your home for the first consultation session.



Hello! You are going to be paying for my travelling expenses is it? Want me to travel from the West to the North East region of Singapore. How fucking entitled can customers get? Fucking ridiculous, of course I couldn't say that to her over the phone, so I just told her that I will get back to her about it.

I'm obviously not going to grant her the request to meet her at her home, so instead I will probably ask her to drop by the other showroom, which is like 3 station away from her where she lives, and if she doesn't agree to that, then I will also not go out of my way to meet a customer at their convince for the first appointment, because I have converse with over 40 different customers and have only come across a very very small handful who are actually genuinely sincere, and those sincere ones are the ones who actually bothered to come visit the showroom, which means the chances of the trip down to her house has a very very high chance of being a complete waste of my time, energy and money. So .....

Update : Just send her a text this morning sharing with her the "bad news" that I won't be personally visiting her, she has read the text but hasn't responded to it, I doubt she will actually respond to it because she is clearly not interested.


If you are not interested to do any renovation works at the moment, don't send in your fucking renovation request through a renovation portal. I just feel bad for the companies who actually pay for the leads, mine included, I mean imagine paying almost $20 for a customer lead and then get presented with this kind of garbage customer.