Soil Ha Ha

A few months ago, a couple walked into my company's showroom requesting for renovation works to be done to their space , at that time, because I was seated in the front of the showroom, I automatically up went to attend to them.



When I was informed that they wanted to renovate a commercial space, I immediately backed out and got my colleague to serve them instead, which she did and after an hour of consultation, my colleague walked them out and then came up to me and ask me if I was interested to come up with a design proposal for that commercial space since design wasn't really her strongest suite and also because she didn't have a lot of time to prepare the proposal. The idea of just coming up with the design and nothing else is pretty much my dream job, I hate the project coordination portion of Interior Design, so I agreed to her request under the condition that I will purely be in charge of the design aspect of it and that is it, she will handle all the nitty gritty renovation stuff.




I came up with a proposal within an hour and then passed it to her, the following week, she meets up with the clients, goes through the design proposal and they were very impress with the design, but they decided not to go forward with my company because they felt that the price was too high for them, so they told my colleague that they will be engaging another designer instead and that was that, the price my colleague prepared for them was pretty much non-negotiable because if you do not want a cookie cutter design, then be prepared to pay the price to achieve that look.




About a week after the rejection, surprise surprise, the clients actually messaged back and decided they wanted to engage my colleague after all, it was really out of the blue because the last time they messaged my colleague, they told her they will be engaging another Interior Designer, and then all of a sudden they are back again? We didn't think too much about it and were just happy that the project was clinched.




They were still a little tight on cash, so my original design was altered to fit their budget by my colleague and I really didn't like the final result because a lot of what made the space looked good in my opinion was removed, like a concrete wall that was meant to give texture to an otherwise flat looking space, and instead of painting all the walls with stripes like I had originally envisioned, only one wall was painted and the others were left stark white, which ended up making the place look half done and really cheap, but the clients didn't really have too much of an issue with it because for them, budget was more important than the overall aesthetics I guess, which also makes me wonder how bland were the designs proposed the other interior designers they visited.




The project finally starts and in my company, we have a very strict payment policy, the renovation itself can only commence once the client has paid 50% of the total renovation fees, this is a policy that is pretty much practiced by any legit Interior Design firms in Singapore, and after the owner has paid up 95% of the entire renovation fee, then we can do proceed to actually complete the entire renovation and really finish up the space. These clients told my colleague that they were tight on cash, so they can't make the 50% payment yet, but requested for the renovation works to start first because they had to make sure the place was done in time for them to operate 2 months later. My colleague took pity on them,so she proceeded to arrange all the renovation works with the contractors without informing our finance side.




At this stage, if the company found out about this, they will have the right to cease all the works and my colleague would have gotten into trouble, but fortunately for her, this wasn't brought to the company's attention until much later on when the client finally paid up, but it wasn't even 50%, they only paid about 30% and claimed that once their other shop closes, they will have the money to pay up.




This dragged on for a while and then when the carpentry was finally done and the clients were suppose to pay up to 95% of the renovation fee, same excuses again, that they still didn't have the money and couldn't pay up the full amount, so they just paid up to 80% and my colleague proceeded with the carpentry installation, once again out of pity and goodwill.




During this period, my colleague would reach out to the clients and ask them to pay up till the 95% because the company had found out about it and was already pressuring her , but the clients would come up with the same excuse, that they didn't have enough cash on hand and requested her to give them a bit more time,  and it was this constant back and forth until finally one day, the clients suddenly had a change of tune and decided to play the "workmanship is unacceptable" card and it is just fucking disgusting the way they were nitpicking on even the smallest issues.




First issue that they brought up to my colleague was about a power trip cause by bad electrical works.


1. Power Trip

According to them, when they turn on one of their mini fridges, it would short-circuit the entire shop, and they blamed it on the bad wiring done by the electricians. The problem is the shop's electrical works has already been approved by the shopping center management, there was zero issue during the inspection so there was no way it was due to bad wiring, all the power outlets were tested prior and it just didn't make any sense. The client even went and told my colleague that they got the "fridge" supplier down to inspect and the supplier told them it was due to the bad electrical works.




I told my colleague that it was pointless for her to solve the issue on her own, and it would be best to ask the clients to arrange a date for the electrician and the fridge supplier to meet, this way, the 2 experts can really determine what was actually causing the short circuit, and she did, but then a few days later, the clients suddenly said the supplier couldn't make it and they had to cancel the appointment with the electrician.


The electrician and the supplier never met, the shop is currently in operations, I am guessing that means the fridge is also working fine in order for the shop to be operational, and so far, there hasn't been any short circuit, the fridge issue has not been brought up since. My colleague and I then came to the conclusion that the "supplier" was completely made up, the clients didn't get anyone down to check their fridge, they were blatantly lying about being told that by the supplier that it was bad wiring.

Liar Liar

2. Bad Carpentry Workmanship.


After unsuccessfully finding fault with the electrical works, they decided to set their sights on finding issue with the carpentry work.



So for their place, what I had proposed in my design was to do suspended shelving that would act as tables, where customers could sit down and place their bags and drinks on, it wasn't meant to be a heavy duty table, and this was reiterated by my colleagues to them multiple times.


Nothing heavy was to be placed on the shelving tables because it is not meant to be used for heavy items. They went to put 2 safe deposit boxes on it.

2 SAFE DEPOSIT BOXES. 

And then they have the audacity to message my colleague and tell her that the shelving are bending due to poor workmanship, and then accuse my colleague that they weren't inform about not putting heavy items on it.


They then requested for the shelving to be removed, which I don't think they meant and was trying to force my colleague to settle with a monetary compensation instead, but then my colleague agreed to it and got the carpenter down to actually dismantle the shelving, so they no longer have the built in shelve cum table, which is great, except for the shameless fact that the client then requested for a refund for that shelving. 




Extremely disgusting individuals.




My colleague has since given up on this project and requested for another colleague to take over because she just couldn't handle the clients anymore and as far as I am aware, that other colleague is also currently going through the same shit as her, with new issues being brought up and the best fucking line the clients said to that other colleague was...

"I don't know what I did to deserve this from you guys, I don't think we have underpaid you for the renovation works."

FUCK YOU! You only paid 80% when you are suppose to have paid 95%! THAT IS UNDERPAYING! And then the earlier sentence about being undeserving of going through their current predicament.

This perfectly describes the current predicament they are going through.




It is just really disgusting how ungrateful these 2 clients are, after all the help my colleague offered them, the discounts she ended up giving, starting the renovation work before they have made the proper payment to ensure they can operate their business in time, this is how they show their gratitude.



2 Fucking Ingrates.

Right now, everyone who is aware of this 2 pieces of shit at work are theorizing that they are stirring up all this shitstorm to void their final 20% payment and also to get even more refund.

GROSS!

Before starting the renovation, I was still joking with my colleague that we should be getting special discounts whenever we get drinks from the shop, but looking at the current state of the working relationship, fuck no am I ever going to support their business.

New Projects Soon?

I am suddenly getting an influx of clients who are showing interest to engage me for my services just when I have a new project that is about to start and am going to be at my busiest.


This new project is slated to start tomorrow, it is my biggest project to date and it is going to be one of those complete makeover types that I love to do,  I have done complete makeovers before and it was extremely satisfying when the place was done, but compared to that other complete overhaul project that I did earlier this year, this one has a lot more renovation works that needs to be done and I am extremely worried about things going wrong.



Right now, I can't really foresee any potential problems, but I have pretty bad foresight when it comes to this kind of things so I have been in a worried state for probably the past week, and when you throw that with the ongoing haze for the past few weeks, it is a recipe for getting sick, which I did end up getting, the triple combo of fever, cough and runny nose.



What worries me about this project and what makes it so difficult is the unavailability of my clients, the husband is overseas 80% of the time and I honestly am not putting a lot of hope in the wife to make any important on the fly decisions on her own. I can call the husband or text the both of them to confirm certain changes, sure that works fine, but sometimes, there are aspects that would be best discussed in person, for example, should a tile they choose suddenly be out of stock and a new one has to be found to replace it within the next 48 hours, I would prefer for them to be present at the tile shop to look through the tiles together with me and make the decision then and there, rather than me taking a picture of tile A, sending it through Whatsapp, wait for their opinion, look for another tile, take a picture of tile B, send it through Whatsapp, wait for their opinion, look for another tile, take a photo of tile C, repeat, repeat, repeat for the next few hours because both of them are busy and can't respond immediately, and then to have them tell me...

"Can we trouble you to help us shortlist more option?"

... have me walk back to the tile shop, shortlist a thousand more tiles, repeat the process, only to have them then decide on tile A or worst, not be able to decide on anything because they can't feel how the tiles actually feel.




So far, this couple have been rather easy to work with, but in the early stages, a lot of them always are, it's normally during the renovation stage that they start showing their ugly side and I am really scared of how ugly they can potentially get and how much I might end up hating them during the reno, which happened to my very first clients. They just get really really particular with every single detail and the chat group would just suddenly get an influx of messages asking me stupid question.



My colleague recently had a client message her telling her our carpenters did a poor job because one of the shelving the carpenter did started wobbling when they put their safety deposit box on it, AFTER my colleague told them the shelving was not meant for heavy things. When I get this kind of message, the first thing that pops in my head is...

"Are you fucking dense?"

....I mean we can't scold them for being fucking stupid, even though they absolutely deserve to be called out for their stupidity, all we can do is explain to them that we have warned them before, but when we do that, they deny ever hearing us said that, demanding that it is a workmanship issue. This literally happened with my colleague just a few days back and when I heard her sharing this story with me, I actually felt angry for her. 

But back to my client. 

I do feel like I have a responsibility to make sure the renovation for this clients project goes as smoothly as possible, I honestly do for all my project, but more so for this because they were referred to me by my other client, who actually told me that he highly recommended me to his friends, and I feel like I have to live up to that expectation, but then there is that availability issue with them that makes it a little bit challenging and also a very very tight schedule I have to follow as well.

A part of me is dying to get this project started, just so all this pent up anxiety can go away once we actually get things moving. It has been a long time coming, this project was first brought to my attention the middle of last year, so it has been more than a year since then and it just feels a little surreal that it is finally happening on Monday. I am hoping things will go smoothly, but I am also anticipating there to be some minor hiccups, just don't be large bumps on the road that will affect my mood too severely because I actually have a client to meet the day after who is interested to engage me for my services.

And speaking of clients who are interested to engage me for my services, I will most likely be getting a new project on Tuesday, on hand right now there are also another 2 that I think are shortlisting me as well, one of those 2 I really don't want to work with, was really not expecting him to message me after I send him the quotation, but he did this morning much to my dismay.

There really isn't anything wrong with that particular client, the main reason I don't want to work with him is because I didn't click with him or his wife during our consultation, that's all, and if I don't click with them, I don't want to work with them, but he requested to meet me again and I can't really say No, so I lied and told him I was busy tomorrow and can only meet him next weekend because I want a break tomorrow, he then requested to look at my portfolio, which I shared with him and then replied back about 20 minutes later with...

"A lot of your past works are not really in the style that we want."

.... not really sure how to respond with this, I would have loved to tell him to go and look for more interior designers and get the one he feels can deliver the style he wants because it sounds like he is indirectly telling me he doesn't want to engage me if I have never done the style he wants, but how I am suppose to tell him that, am I suppose to grant him permission to take me out from his shortlist ? He then replies about 2 minutes later with....

"We can discuss again when we meet."

.... I honestly would rather not waste his time and him not waste my time. I mean I can do the style he likes, as long as I have some good examples from his end, I know I can extract the different elements to make it work. I will probably just grant him the time to meet up again, but I am not going to have a repeat of what happen with J&J, and end up working on a project I didn't want to touch in the first place and actually hating almost the entire renovation journey.





Not too long ago,of of my army friend actually referred his own friend to me for renovation services and I had quite a good chat with him, but I really do not sense any potential in him despite our chemistry.



He was very honest and told me he had already visited multiple designers and gotten their quotes, and even told me that he had visited one of the designers project that was in the residential area where his new house was located at, showed me a video he took of that house and then shared with me that the house the designer did was pretty much the style he wanted for his own place and what not.



You have found your designer...



1. They did a project at the same residential area as your new apartment
2. They brought you to that exact project.
3. It was done in the exact style you wanted.



.... just engage them already.



I feel like when he visited me, I had already gotten the short end of the stick.



That being said, I am also not that interested in his project simply because his new place is located at the other end of the island and I ain't interested to be travelling from Bukit Batok to Tampines every day for 2 months. I doubt he will get back to me as well because my pricing is probably going to be about the same as the other designers he met. The only thing I got going for me is that I am a friend of his friend, that's it, other than that, there is nothing else that would make me an enticing option for him.

Death of another tooth....

I have visited the dentist a total of 3 times during the last 2 weeks and I will be dropping by again tomorrow for my 4th visit.



The first visit was to fix rectify the pain from my molar, the next 2 was to go back and check why there was still pain radiating from the molar despite the issue being "fixed" and the visit tomorrow is to redo my frontal tooth filling because it literally fell off while I was eating fried mushrooms.



The 2nd and 3rd visit was bad news because I was diagnosed with what could potential be a dying tooth, getting aches in the middle of the night, sometimes would happen randomly in the day time, and there are only 2 ways to deal with a dying tooth, I could either extract the damn tooth or I can keep the tooth by going for a root canal surgery. The last time I had a root canal done, it was for my front tooth, so the cost was about $850, this time, because it is a molar, the cost will be double the amount, which is a whopping $2000, on top of that $2000, I will have to fork out another $1000 to get a crown done as well, which brings the total up to $3000, so I guess there goes my plan to get a new desktop.




The dentist that I visited are all different, same clinic but always a different dentist and I really don't like that arrangement, having the same dentist would help a lot because that dentist would know the severity of the issue I am personally going through, especially if I am dropping by so many times.



So the 2nd time I visited, the dentist told me to observe the pain for a few days, prescribed me with some painkillers and then send me off. She told me that the pain might be from my tooth still trying to get used to the new fillings, so I should take my painkillers when it starts aching and then give it a few days to see if the pain subsides, if it doesn't, then it means I might need a root canal surgery. I really don't want to mask the pain with painkillers, so I pretty much ignored her advise and tried to power through it for 2 days, which was horrible because the pain actually got more spontaneous and started happening more frequently, which probably was a very very bad sign. I have done fillings many times before and this is the first time the tooth took so long to react to a new filling because I was fine for 10 days after the filling was done and then the pain just suddenly came back.



So 2 days after my 2nd visit, I made an appointment for a third visit and this time, it was a different dentist again, she did the same thing the last dentist did, which was a cold test to see how my affected tooth was reacting, it was VERY sensitive, and then we took an X-Ray and pretty much came to the same conclusion, that I might require a root canal surgery, so I got the root canal specialist number and if the pain persist, then it will be a straight visit to that specialist.




I am trying to avoid the root canal surgery and am now seriously hoping it is just my tooth getting used to the new fillings, one can hope, so I am popping the painkillers as per instructed and giving it a few days, my sleep last night was painless, which was great, a part of me wishes it was the tooth getting better, but I know it is the painkiller doing it's thing. I will be popping them again before bed because fuck that molar.



Dropping by again tomorrow to redo a fallen filling, the whole piece literally came out while I was eating and it was a really big piece, that particular tooth is 50% filling, so I look like I am missing a tooth right now, which was why I arranged for the earliest time slot available tomorrow to get that shit sorted out. I am spending A LOT of money on dental works.




1st Trip  - $400
2nd Trip - $50
3rd Trip - $40
Tomorrow - $150 (estimate)

Root Canal Surgery - $3000


That would be a total of $3640!
And I feel like the initial $400 is such a waste of money because it only brought me 10 days of serenity before I am told that I will have to reopen that cavity and dig all the nerves out.


THAT IS HALF MY TOTAL COMMISSION FOR 4 SEPARATE PROJECTS I HAVE YET TO COLLECT! I really needed that commission to cover back my US trip expenses because the figures in my bank account is now free falling and I don't feel good about it.



UPDATE :


Just got back from the dentist and was given some very bad news about that tooth that had to be filled.


It has been "restored" and I was pretty accurate with the cost, it was $150 before GST, so I ended up spending $170 today.


During the consultation, I explained to the dentist what happened to my tooth and what I wanted done, which is to refill the tooth, so she asks me when the filling fell off, how long it has been that way and then proceeds to check up on it.


As she was checking, I could feel her digging and scrapping away, then she stops and just stared at my tooth for a while, like she was pondering what to do, I was very nervous because if she is pondering for so long, then it can only mean that she has bad news and is wondering how best to deliver that news to me.

"Actually looking at your tooth right now, there really isn't much for the fillings to hold on to, so even if we do the fillings, it will only be temporary, which is why I would suggest extraction."

When she said "extraction", I was honestly caught off guard. This tooth is the second tooth from the front right, if I extract that tooth, it is going to look EXTREMELY obvious, every time I talk, people are going to notice a missing tooth, every time I smile, people are going to notice a missing tooth, the point here is the missing tooth is going to be very fucking obvious every time I open my fucking mouth, I am going to look like Stu from the Hangover movie, permanently.




I was shocked when she suggested that, so I just stared at her for a while, and then said...

'Extraction?"

... and she nodded her head and then re-explain why she thought extraction was the best option and the entire time, I was just really confused because I think extraction is the most extreme option, it's the one you offer to your patients when there really is no other alternative, and she was offering it to me, so I then ask her if there way any other alternative, if crowning was possible and she kept reiterating that extraction is the best option, that refilling will only be temporary and crowning is impossible because at this stage, it is too late, which is really not what I wanted to hear, which then made me realize that there was another option, dental implants. I then ask her if dental implants was possible, and she finally told me that that was indeed another option that I could look at.

I mean SERIOUSLY !?!?

If you are going to offer such an extreme measure like extraction, at least let me know that I can still do an implant to cover that gap. I was just relieved then that there was still an alternative and despite it potentially costing me $4000, the important thing here is that there IS a solution for replacement, but when I think back now, it just really infuriates me how she didn't really give a shit about how missing what is almost as good as a front tooth would impact the patient.



Your clinic offers braces as one of the many services and the whole point of someone wearing braces is to get their teeth straighten and perfect their smile, it definitely boosted my confidence when I finally got my teeth straighten, a small group do it for medical reason, but a larger group do it for aesthetics, which is the reason why I went for it, so it just amazes me that she just doesn't care.



That being said, she did a relatively good job restoring my tooth with the fillers, it looks good as new now, but according to her, it probably won't last long, she said it would last max 2 years if I take care of it really well, but would most likely start to fall off within a year from now, I guess that is enough time for me to set aside $2750 for the dental implant, with a little help from Medisave, the main thing I have to worry about is just my potential root canal surgery.

Damn Tooth

I am currently experiencing some oral pain and it has not been a very pleasant experience.



The pain first started during my company trip to Malaysia, the trip itself was fine, there was a lot of waiting involved, like a fucking lot of waiting involved, but the overall experience was good, except for the part where I was unable to sleep properly because my toothache kept waking me up in the middle of the night.




It is one of those "sour" pain that only triggers when I am lying down, which is the default position everyone has to get into before they sleep, and for the first few minutes, it's fine, but then the pain slowly creeps up and covers the entire portion of the left side of my face below the cheek while I am asleep, which of course then wakes me up and I would just lie there, concentrating on the pain and attempt to will it to go away, but the pulsating sensation doesn't stop and it gets progressively worst until I get up.




Honestly had no clue what happened, but I did manage to fall asleep the first night, forgot about it and when I got home after the trip was over, since it is only a 2 day 1 night trip, I had completely forgotten about it and went to sleep, only to be given a painful reminder minutes later that the pain is still there and it is not going away on it's own, and somehow wearing my retainer seems to make it worst, so I got up at 4.00 am to brush my teeth with a pain relief toothpaste, which didn't really work, took out my retainers and went to sleep again, adjusting my head to make the pain more bearable.



It is a real bitch, so I had no choice but to set an appointment with a dentist today to see what the fuck is going on. The last time I brought this up to my braces dentist, which was about a few months ago, there was just a bit of sensitivity issue and he said it was nothing to be to concerned about and his reason was that my filling was simply getting a little loose that's why the sensitivity is happening.




At that time, I took his word for it and just left it alone, it was still bearable then and was only uncomfortable when I chewed on that side of the mouth, but after using a sensitivity toothpaste, it got better and I ignored it, I should have known better though and he really should have just told me to get that filling replaced if it was getting loose, but he didn't, which makes me wonder if his intention is for the problem to get worst, so I will go back to him months later in pain and require a more expensive procedure to fix.



Anyways, I decided to set the appointment for 6.30pm today with a different dentist, a more affordable one because my braces dentist charges a premium for his services and I will admit, I was a little skeptical about how the consultation would go. I am a little bitch when it comes to receiving orthodontic treatment, so to have a completely brand new dentist scour my teeth for black gold is unnerving.




At around 6.00 pm, I decided to leave the office, the clinic is probably a 10 minute bus ride away, but due to peak hour traffic and a confusing shopping mall layout, I ended up only reaching the dental clinic at 6.40 pm and waited all the way till 7.00pm for my consultation to begin.



The dentist looks to be relatively young, might be younger than me from the top half of his face because is was wearing a mouth mask the entire time and he was quite gentle with the whole thing, I had an X-Ray scan and the dentist came to the conclusion that I had a massive decay on my molar, and as he was enlightening me on that, I can't help but silently curse my braces dentist for telling me it was "nothing to be concerned about" 6 months ago. The decay was so big this dentist actually told me I might require a root canal if it has affected the nerve, which was extremely worrying for me because I ain't made of money anymore.



This could have all been avoided if my braces dentist had just redone my loose fillings 6 months ago.




After a few taping and putting cold cotton pieces around the affected teeth to see where the decay was, we finally got down to business and that included 2 oral injections to numb my mouth. As I have said before, I am a little fucking bitch when it comes to dental treatment, and oral injections is probably at the top of the list of things I fear during a dental visit, I had a very horrible experience back in Secondary School when the free dental service came by and the dentist kept injecting my mouth in a futile attempt to numb the many teeth he was filling, but to no avail, the damn injections only managed to numb my lips because I could feel every drilling and every digging he had to do to my mouth for the 2 hours I was stuck in that chair, it was a fucking nightmare, and every time that Secondary School dentist saw me flinch, he would take the needle and just start injecting more like it's water and it would fucking hurt every time.



So after hearing I would be needing an injection, I pretty much begged the dentist to apply some numbing cream first before he did the injection, and he did, but unlike my root canal dentist who left the cream on for a good 5 minutes to really numb the area, this dentist left it for maybe 10 seconds before he started the injection, which worried me immensely, so I just went...

"So fast?"

... and upon realizing the huge pussy I was becoming, he quickly assured me that he would go very very slowly because that is how one achieves a painless injection, and he took his time to insert the needle. I was anticipating that prick that normally happens when I get these injections, but there wasn't anyway, it was just this dull pain that slowly drags on for 10 seconds and he was done, with the first one, and when he started the second one, which was to be injected at the roof of my mouth, he did warn me that it was going to be a little more painful, so I became even more worried, and it did hurt a little bit more, but once again, it was a bearable dull pain and I think I accidentally drank a bit of the anesthetic when he pulled the syringe out from my mouth and some of it dripped in because now, the numbness is all the way to the back of my throat and it feels like I have a sore throat because I can't really swallow properly.



The rest of the procedure after the injection was pretty painless, every time the dentist asked me that I might feel a slight discomfort and there was nothing, I just felt happy and after about 20 minutes of drilling and filling, the repair was done. Unfortunately due to time constraint, because there was another patient outside who had been waiting for an hour, the dentist couldn't do all the decay and requested that I return in a month's time to get those fixed and I agreed immediately.




I was anticipating the bill to be quite high, maybe $200 to $300, but then I remembered the X-Rays I had to take and those aren't cheap, plus there was polishing and the decay repair work that was a bit on the more complex side, there was no way my wallet would be let off that easily.



When the receptionist called me up, she broke down everything for me using a calculator and there were multiple $80 and $70 keyed into the calculation, which brought the total figure to $400. I could have gotten a mid-range phone with that money, but when I think about the figure, it really isn't as high as it could have been had I gone back to my braces dentist, who would have charged me at least $600 for the same stuff, if not more.




Now that the numbing is over, I do actually have a sore on the roof of my mouth from where the dentist injected the anesthetic,

My price ain't high, your budget is too low...

A few days ago, a client that I had previously blogged about, dropped me a message asking me when I would be available for a call, since I was still sleeping at 10.30am in the morning when I got the message, I decided to wait till I was fully awake to respond back to him, which was about an hour later when I finally gave him permission to call me for a chat.



When the client requested to talk, I knew for sure it was going to be about the price of the quotation, and I have been in this line long enough to know what the selling price for most of the renovation works should be at, so I wasn't worried about getting "called out" for being too expensive, because I know I did not overcharge them for anything and what I am charging is is actually lower than what my other colleagues will charge their customers.



So the call comes in and the client is very cordial at the beginning, asking me how my weekend was, if it was any good and I was already anticipating this conversation to take a huge turn once the niceties were out of the way, and it went according to how I predicted.




Let's just call this client Patrick.


So once the niceties were out of the way, Patrick starts going through the quotation I have prepared for him with me over the phone, going over the different points he had issues with and just straight up exclaiming that I was selling at a price point that was way too high to be acceptable.


He did his own break down of how much he thinks each item cost and then managed to calculate the total profit my company will earn, and I was quite impressed with his accuracy because he was just a thousand dollar short from the actual cost price.



The conversation went on for quite a while and he was progressively getting more and more aggressive with his tone, it sounded almost confrontational at one point, that I started to wonder if the whole point of this call was just him trying to "call me out" and make me feel guilty for trying to take advantage of him, so I got pretty offended with his accusatory tone and just told him straight...

"If you think my price is too high, I would advise you to hire a contractor instead."

... because I have not been engaged by him yet, there is no obligation for him to engage me if he thinks my pricing is unfair, and I just do not like the way he was speaking to me, it didn't feel like a respectful conversation and I do not want to work with someone who won't show me any respect, I have zero interest to work with someone like this, so I would prefer him to leave me alone, which made my "advise" to him come across as a very valid option. I am not trying to do some sort of reverse psychology and hope he would be scared and then adjust his tone, I just straight up do not want to work with him.

Upon hearing my response, he quickly changes his tone and goes...

"I hope that you understand it is not my intention to offend you. My wife and I like you very much, that is why I am calling you to try and work something out."

.... and then he goes on to use his position as an expat and a Caucasian as an excuse for his "bluntness" , and I honestly don't care if you are a Caucasian or an Expat, that is really not a valid excuse for being unpleasant.

Of course I did not tell him that, but instead told him I will rework the quotation and see if I can lower the price any further, that I will email the new quotation to him by the end of the week. 

The quote has been recalculated and the price is pretty much unchanged, I don't really plan on sending him the updated quotation because if he isn't agreeable with the first one, then this quotation isn't really going to make much difference. I also don't want him to call me again to negotiate further because I did not enjoy the phone conversation with him. If this is the attitude he is going to be giving me before an agreement has been signed, then I can only imagine how much of a nightmare he will become once the renovation starts.

At the end of the day, what I got from his phone call is my service isn't worth the money, simple as that. He calculated a $8000 profit from the project, so if we were to break down the commission based on his calculation, I will earn about $3200, which is honestly the average for a project of his size, and his exact words to describe the profit was...

"It is way too high"

... which really makes me wonder then how much would he be expecting me to earn, a few hundred dollars for 2 to 3 months worth of work?

If he does reach out to me, then I will just send him the quotation, just as a courtesy, but I am not going to allow him to engage me for his renovation works. I have turned down projects before and I am feeling very strongly against Patrick. I shall not let this be a repeat of the J&J fiasco.

Another waste of time...

A few days ago, I got assigned to a client who requested for a pretty last minute consultation session, and initially I wasn't too keen on the idea of meeting a new client because I am just really lazy af, but since no one else in the office was available, I decided to take it and just see how it goes, if the client is nice and we click, then I will follow up, if he or she is a piece of work, then the consultation will be all they get.



My HR then sends over the client's details and when I read through the requirements, it just felt like such a waste of time because the budget the client had set aside was not realistic at all. I have been in this line long enough to know of a rough estimate and running the project at her budget will incur huge losses on my end, but since the appointment has been set and I have been assigned to deal with this, I thought let's just get the consultation over and done with.



So 6 pm rolls around and the client finally arrives, she strolls into the office with her husband and when I saw the husband, I immediately got a bit worried because he was Caucasian, and the last time I spoke to a Caucasian homeowner, that old fart was just really unpleasant to deal with, so I was a little worried that this client's husband might be the same because they also look to be around the same age.



As I introduce myself to the wife, she immediately apologize for being a little late and also requesting for a consultation so last minute, I waved off her apologies and told her it wasn't a problem and she then introduces her husband to me and he was really nothing like that old fart I had to deal with early last year.




We started the consultation and they were a really lovely couple, very pleasant to talk to and it just made me feel better about this potential waste of time because the very first thing I ask the wife was how much she was willing to stretch her budget and she told me...

"$25,000 is the maximum we will go."

.... which is still extremely unrealistic and I really don't like it when a client gives me a maximum figure and that figure is still way too low to do what they are planning to do. So I told her that her budget is simply not realistic and then gave her a much more realistic budget, which was about $40,000.



I told them that I will prepare a quotation based on their requirements and then brought up the budget issue once again to mentally prepare them for the final figure, they both thanked me for my time and I honestly felt really hopeful.



Normally I will ask a client to give me 7 days to prepare a quotation for them, but since I like hopeful about this couple, I told them I will prepare one for them within the next 3 days, and I did. The final figure came up to about $40,000, which was exactly what I had predicted and told them about, so I send that quotation to the wife via email and then drop her a text to let her know that the quote has been send out.




Every time I send a message to a potential client about the emailed quotation, a client I have met, they will respond back with...

"Great, will take a look and revert back to you!"

... and they never revert back because their pants are on fire. From time to time, I would get ingrates some who wouldn't reply, like that "mini celebrity" I met a few weeks ago, I mean I also really wasn't expecting that celebrity to respond back because we did not click at all, but it would have been nice to at least send a courtesy reply back to me, I would have liked her a little more if she did that.



But anyways, I was fully expecting this client to send me a courtesy reply, but she did not, she read my text, it was double blue ticked, but there wasn't any "Thanks for the quotation", just left me hanging.



I am disappointed because in the end, she and her husband did ended up becoming a waste of time.

The inevitability of stepping into shit....

Just came back from work today and was originally suppose to meet a new client.



This client, which I shall just refer to her real name, called Teresa, scheduled an appointment with my admin side for a consultation session with an Interior Designer, and the date and timing was set for today at 2.00pm.



An confirmation email was sent to her and me to confirm the appointment.



I didn't have any showroom duty today, so when I went to the office in the afternoon, my intention was purely to meet Teresa. I went a little early than usual and reach the office at around 12.30pm, had my lunch, chit chat with my colleagues and waited until 2pm for Teresa to come.



2pm came around and Teresa was nowhere to be found, so my colleague started teasing me and told me that Teresa might have decided to ghost me. It was only a few minutes after 2pm, so I was still holding out hope that she might just pop into the office soon and then apologize for being late, and I will be like...

"Oh no worries, come on in."

... but then 10 minutes became 20 and by the 30 minute mark, I decided to text Teresa to ask if she was on her way. She didn't reply, so I told myself if she still isn't here by 3.00pm, then I am just going to leave because making me wait an hour for her without any text message to tell me she is going to be late or stuck in a jam is just plain rude.




At around 2.45pm, I finally get a text from her and she writes...

"I have already engaged another company to do my renovation, so I won't be coming down."

.... thanks for having the decency to send me a response text I guess, but this STUPID CUNT literally made me wait 45 minutes for her and then tells me she won't be coming down because she has already engaged another company, she had zero intention to update my company to cancel the appointment, I had to text her for her to inform me of her decision.



I would fucking spit at her face if I could, the level of entitlement this bitch has.
So my time doesn't matter?
My money for having to travel from my home to the office doesn't matter?



This bitch didn't even bother to apologize in her response, just simply stated that she won't be coming down and it just fucking pissed me off at how nonchalant her response was.



I read her text and I deleted the entire chat without responding to her, she is a customer, so I can't call her out for being an inconsiderate asshole, which is why I did the passive aggressive thing by making sure her message gets double blue ticked and don't respond to her because FUCK YOU TERESA!

Here's hoping you get scammed by the company you engaged.