Off topic I need to VENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tazz3069]

I am an electrical contractor in Vegas. Yes things are a little tough right now. I can honestly say that I am one of the very few that do honest good work. I have a customer that took advantage of me when I was out of town. He had one of my employees work against my wishes. I was out of cell phone range. Now it is time for the billing. Since it was a holiday weekend, I charged the customer overtime for my employee working. He told me that he did not authorized the overtime nor all the extra electrical that he wanted. WTF!!!! Do people actual think that we do this for charity. He said that he tried to contact me. I pulled all my cell phone records. What a surprise to call at the time nor from my employee. I think that my my employee was told that I ok'ed the work. Well now for the fun part. Since he said that he never ok'ed the extra work nor the extra material and overtime, I took my framing hammer and started to ripp all the extra stuff out of the walls and ceiling. He was pissed. He wanted to report me to the contractors board. I reminded him since there was no signed contract nor did he authorize the extra work, it should not be there. You should have seen the look on eveybodies face. I said if it was not authorized and nobody wants to pay for it, then it should not be there. We are not a charity and this is not extreme makeover. Well I did not get the privilege to rip everything out of the wall. I did make two holes in the walls and removed a plug. Now I have a signed contract and a check in my hand. Sorry I needed to release this and I feel alot better now. Thanx for letting me vent. Needless to say, that employee does not work for me anymore. I understand that he was doing what the customer wanted just to please him. By law I need to pay him overtime, if not I can get into tons of trouble. The customer is no longer a friend and never want to do business again with him. This has probably been the worst customer I have ever delt with in 22 years of doing this.

It kind of funny how things work. I deal with a wide range of people. I mean people that have and do not have a lot of money. For example, I did work for a lady at her house for the power company. She wrote me a check with no problem. This customer does not line in a $500,00.00 house. Now for the customer in the above mentioned. He is worth 6 figures and lives in one of the million dollar condos in Vegas. He is the one having a problem writing checks to the subcontractors such as myself.

[tazz3069]

HMMM $100,000.00 seems like 3 strikes to me. I just do not understand the work ethic anymore. When I was in my teens, I loved to work to see that paycheck at the end of the week. The harder that I worked the more money I get. Still the same way today. I can not pay and electrician $25.00 an hr and babysit him. I can maybe see an apprentice at $10.00hr but not a journeyman electrician. The the heck is wrong with people now a days. I am tough on my sons. I love him very much and I want him to have a good head on his shoulders. I do not tach laziness. I teach responsibility and for 15 years old, he is very responsible. He also knows how to be a teenager that is normal. In the real world, he is a smart kid. We need more people like that. He knows what it takes to make a dollar and knows what it takes to spend a dollar.

[mmandley]

I hear all of ya. I feel the same way when it comes to the public.

My friend explained it to me very well. Check this out.

At Buffalo Wild Wings for Monday night football. This friend of mine always orders tons of food and beer. Always wanting his food hot, beer cold, and expects it delivered fast. I can understand and respect this. At the end of the night his tab is generally 60+ bucks. So he happily pays the tab and tips 2 bucks.

WTF?? 2 bucks for close to 10 trips to our table just for this one customer?

So last week Claudia and me had enough of this as it embarrasses us because we go there every week for the last 2 years, I know the manager and we always have the same table waiting and its the best table IMO. Its right by all the screens. You can see the football game, from any direction without craning your neck or moving, see the baseball game, and see UFC fighting. Awesome seats.

So back to my friend. Me and Claudia decide to confront him on his < what we see as cheap, non appreciating behavior. We ask him why he tips so little? I mean he works for the same company as me, is paid higher then me, had a more expensive home then me, and a new car. I know he can afford a lot more then 2 bucks.

His reply is its owned to be served hand and foot. That's the waitresses job.

We checked with the waitress and made sure she is paid the normally 2 bucks an hour a waitress is paid and she is. She said she works for tips and thats her income.

After talking with my friend for most of the game about this he just keeps reverting to his idea its owed to him and there's no reason to pay her with a Tip. All of us at the table were just floored with his attitude to this. He is a bit younger at 29. Im 36 and was raised with the older style of parents that believe in tipping, truth, loyalty, honesty, dignity, respectfulness, manors, and all that good stuff. I still to this day open the truck door for Claudia, wait to eat till she sits down with me, and thank her for cooking and cleaning the house.

To make this long story short, my friends behavior is the same reason you cant get good service at most places, same reason why when you hire a contractor you have to hover over them, same reason i have to check my garden shed for my shovels, rakes, hoses when the landscaper is done. Its a different world in the 2K then it was in the 80s, and 90s.

Ohh yea, needless to say but we don't invite him out as much as we used to, and when we do i feel obligated to tip her more now to make up for his lack of it. I just cant stand our normal waitress to look down on us because of him.

[NCSUmoomba]

You guys are forgetting the fact that one of the reasons these people have more money, is that they take advantage of and stiff people whenever possible.

[tazz3069]

I agree. I think that we all have friends like that. Now out of those 22 years of being an electrician, I use to be an Executive Chef. Being in the restaurant business is not the easiest thing to do. Both the front of the house and back of the house work their tail off daily. We paid our wait staff nicely. They also worked for tips. Its all about the service and not was is owed. Being an Executive Chef, I used to get lots of tips for the food. I turned around and gave it to my cooks. Yes I created the dish but these guys recreated it for the customer. Now my wait staff went out of their way to give the customer an experience that they will never forget and get when they come back again. They also were tipped very well. I worked in a restaurant were the sommelier took home about 125k a year. And that was just so selling a good bottle of wine. Now mind you, the majority of that money was in tips. He made suggestion of wine to go with the food. At bringing home that money, yes he knew his stuff. Now that been said, I know what it take to work in a restaurant. Now if the service is outstanding, I give 20%. If the service was just OK, then I give a lot less. It all really depends on the service. In my restaurant, the front of the house and the back of the house always worked together to get the food out hot and in a timely manner. Without the teamwork, you might as well just shut your doors. That goes with any business IMO

[tazz3069]

You guys are forgetting the fact that one of the reasons these people have more money, is that they take advantage of and stiff people whenever possible.

So very true. I also have clients that are worth 6 figures and they have no problem writing checks at all. I will give you and example. My mother-in-law has a great deal of money. As a matter of fact her and the entire family has a great deal of money. She is very generous when need be. She also shop for bargains she does not need that real expensive stuff. She had taken my wife, son, and I to Washington DC and paid for everything. Really nice of her. She just wanted the entire family to go on this trip with them. So thee are people out there with sense of reality and some out there with a sense of fantasy.

[skiyaker]

Atlas will shrug!

[sandm]

hey tazz, nice post threatening pulling crap out of the wall, but why not just file a lien for the money owed? might take a while to get paid, but that can cause a ton of issues for the guy...

my uncle is an electrician in mojave valley and got hosed by a guy doing some work on an indian reservation in parker earlier this year.. there's scum everywhere always trying to take advantage of people they think they can..

[tazz3069]

A Lien was filed with my wholesale house. Something like $6,000.00 is owed to them. I have already spoken with management at the building and told them what is going on. Here in Vegas, commercial properties are giving an incentive to move it. They paid $XX.XXsft for a build out. All the sub submitted their proposasl to the owner, He then submits them to management. Well this is were it gets good. My proposal for the job was 31K He took my proposal and added 20K to it. management wrote him a check for 56K for the electrical work. He did this with all the subcontractors. Basicaly he is gaining and extra 100K from all the work that was done. He said that he did this so that he has money to open his doors. By the way, all the subs left the job except for me. I am a fighter and will not back down for what is right. I hope this POS get it in the end. I would love to see hiom in jail.

[sandm]

sounds like some shady deals going on there. guessing that there will be some way around this for him. no one will care in the end if everyone gets paid. now if someone is left hanging, then it gets interesting.
hows business there? mum moved to henderson(macdonald ranch) last spring and seems that there's quite a bit of new commercial going on. can't believe the lots going up the hill behind her. should be some high-end work up there soon
hoping to get down to vegas in january for a weekend to build her some shelves..