They were probably all playing the salami game with her. Find a new
f-buddy and be done.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
Aaaaaaack! It must be a trend! A few years back, a female acquaintance began
offering to play frequent rounds of hide the salami with me. Two weeks
later, she announced she was moving to a new apartment in a week, and asked
if I would help. I agreed, but noticing the unbelievable amount of crap she
owned, I suggested that she go get boxes immediately, and start packing. She
said that could wait because she had a dozen friends who'd also agreed to
help on the day of the move. I pointed out that this was less than ideal,
but she was unmoved.

The morning of the event, I got there about the same time as her other
friends. She had done absolutely NOTHING. She hadn't even washed the dishes
that needed to be packed. She assigned someone to go get the U-Haul truck
and boxes, but that didn't fly because she didn't have cash to cover their
credit card charges, and nobody trusted that she actually had the money in
the bank. It was 90 degrees outside, no breeze, and the house was even
worse. She had nothing for people to drink. Several people suggested that
she stop at a store after getting the u-haul truck, and pick up at least a
gallon of water and/or juice per person, and a ****load of cups. She did
neither. Things did not go well. Around early afternoon, she also pointed
out that she was expected to clean the place before vacating, and "if
someone could help with that, it would be great". Too bad she'd packed all
the sponges & cleaning products. I left around that time, along with about
half the other people. No salami game is worth that kind of inconsideration.


"EXT" wrote in message
anews.com...
I agree with you. I had an experience with my sister-in-law. Got an
emergency call, she had hired a painter to paint her apartment. He left 2
weeks ago and never came back half way through the job. Would I please help
her out.

To keep the wife happy, I agreed. When I got there, I saw why he never
came back. She had done NOTHING to the place in preparation for the
painter, and she had lots of glass and china junk all over the place. I
said I would finish painting but she would have to do some work.

I did the painting, and some repairs and other things to make her
apartment nice. But, it took both myself and my wife constant haggling
with her to get her backside out of her chair. I went to move the fridge,
and asked her to empty it. She didn't do anything and said it wasn't
necessary as it would move OK. So I lifted it on the 2 wheeled cart and
tilted it back to move it through the door and everything spilled out onto
the floor, eggs, drinks and whatnot all over the place. I parked the
fridge and made her clean up. To move a bookshelf, she whined and grumbled
about moving the books. I passed them to her to take to the finished
bedroom, when I turned around she had only walked 5 feet and put them on a
table that was also to be moved. The grumbling changed to bitching when I
insisted she move them out of the room that I was about to paint. This
went on for weeks, the job took over twice as long because we had to
browbeat her everyday to do her share of looking after her stuff.

When it was all over, I think she hated me, and certainly complained of
everything including the paint splatter on her dishes that she was too
lazy to move from the cabinet that I painted.

I see why the painter walked out on her, I would have also if she wasn't
my wife's sister. I am sure that is why many tradespeople will refuse to
return to some jobs.

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
"cm" wrote in message
...
I have ditched a few customers over the years because I didn't like them
or their house was gross. I never left in the middle of a repair,
although I may not have finished their list of repairs. I also never got
paid for those jobs. No regrets.

cm

I don't blame you, although it would probably be good to explain why
you're leaving. My dentist said he occasionally gets a patient who
doesn't brush their teeth before coming to his office. Their logic is
"Hey...I'm here for cleaning anyway". Wrong. Probably the same kinds of
people who don't clean under the kitchen sink before they expect a
plumber to work under there.

wrote in message
ups.com...
They were probably all playing the salami game with her. Find a new
f-buddy and be done.

I would've liked to watch all those girls! In any case, I took the game
elsewhere two days later. The future was obvious.

In article ,
says...
I agree with the "troublesome customer don't bother to show up" thing.

Some people are *never* satisfied with your work and will complain about
anything and everything. They want you to do the work for below cost, then
expect perfection and top quality.

I know a couple of women that I will never do any work for. I have seen
these people complain about every single bit of work *anyone* has ever done
for them.

If I have to do any work in these situations, the price goes WAY up!
(Additional stress and grief fees!)

The opposite is true. If someone is nice to me, offers me water/soda, use of
their bathroom, maybe a snack, the price goes down. With some of these
people, they get free or reduced price service.

If it's an all-day job I offer lunch and a beer while they're
cleaning up at the end of the day. We did that with two ends of a
move some years back. We got some service! What's a pizza or a
couple of subs some soda and a can of beer cost?

Another situation I will avoid is doing any work on manufactured houses.
Always a royal pain. So I am too busy when anyone wants work on their
manufactured home done.

Manufactured ,as in mobile home or as in factory built (to the same
code as a stick built)? A friend had a lower-end factory built
house. While there were certainly things about the house I didn't
like (popcorn ceilings, etc.), all of the infrastructure looked
pretty normal.

--
Keith

"Eigenvector" wrote in message

Have you actually worked for someone who WON'T allow you the use of the
facilities? Isn't that just basic human kindness?

Most people are OK, but a few will not let you use their bathroom. I once
worked in Arizona - 120 degrees in summer. Some people would not give you a
glass of water.

Again, most people are OK.

wrote in message
.com...

Why do guys do this? It's an instinct. You just know that the job
isn't
going to go the way it's supposed to and you are never going to
satisfy the
customer. What better time is there to leave than in the beginning
of the
job?

Bill

yeah i get feelings sometimes and respect them. fixing office machines
for a lifetime its a gut feeling sometimes

Sure, no problem with following your instincts, but at least let the
customer know up front, and don't tell them you're coming back when you
aren't, and definitely don't start something and then just leave
whatever it is you're doing torn apart and unfinished.

Cheri

"Goedjn" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:57:21 -0500, "RBM" rbm2(remove
wrote:

Correct, they choose not to honor their agreement, because to do so would
cost them money. Not every contractor can calculate, estimate, and
articulate what they will do and for what price, and I think this scenario
occurs often under those circumstances. I'm not trying to legitimize it,
just my theory on why it happens


It's not a contract until they actually take your money.
Until then, it's just an offer. And anytime some
worker looks at a job he's supposed to do for me and
decides he's in over his head, I'd PREFER that he backs
out and tells me rather than goes ahead and screws
it up.



You wrote, "It's not a contract until they actually take your money. Until
then, it's just an offer."

Actually that is not exactly true... One can form a contract without payment
immediately conveyed. A CONTRACT - An agreement between two or more
competent parties in which an offer is made and accepted, and each party
benefits. The agreement can be formal, informal, written, oral or just plain
understood. Some contracts are required to be in writing in order to be
enforced. (2) An agreement between two or more parties which creates
obligations to do or not do the specific things that are the subject of that
agreement. Examples of a contract are a lease, a promissory note, or a
rental agreement.

This term, in its more extensive sense, includes every description of
agreement, or obligation, whereby one party becomes bound to another to pay
a sum of money, or to do or omit to do a certain act; or, a contract is an
act which contains a perfect obligation. In its more confined sense, it is
an agreement between two or more persons, concerning something to be, done,
whereby both parties are hound to each other, or one is bound to the other.
Blackstone defines it to be an agreement, upon a sufficient consideration,
to do or not to do a particular thing. A contract has also been defined to
be a compact between two or more persons.

Contracts are divided into express or implied. An express contract is one
where the terms of the agreement are openly uttered and avowed at the time
of making, as to pay a stated price for certain goods.

Express contracts are of three sorts: 1. By parol, or in writing, as
contradistinguished from specialties. 2. By specialty or under seal. 3. Of
record.

A parol contract is defined to be a bargain or voluntary agreement made,
either orally or in writing not under seal, upon a good consideration,
between two or more persons capable of contracting, to do a lawful act or to
omit to do something, the performance whereof is not enjoined by law.