I love Karma (lol)

gerry gill

so this lady who stiffed me a year ago 2k on a boiler install, calls a no heat call in today... my side still hurts from laughing so hard...i only wish it was colder...

Fred

Did you tell her the service call would be $2K plus any time/materials required to fix it? $2K due in 10's and 20's and can be dropped off at your office and a tech would be dispatched immediately thereafter. Some people's children.

Tinman

2K plus a year's worth of juice.

ChrisJ

I'm betting he said go scratch.

DanHolohan

ChrisJ said:

I'm betting he said go scratch.

Knowing Gerry, I gotta go with that.

Good.

JUGHNE

I would apologize for being so high the first time and then recommend the worst possible steam person you know of who could fix her up good and cheap. O by the way mention that you think you left her pressure sitting too low and her new guy would know how to fix that, now that the break-in period is over you can run it at higher pressure, say 5 PSI.

nicholas bonham-carter

What possible excuse could she have had not to pay the bill?--NBC

gerry gill

I basically did what Fred said..NBC, the job smelled fishy from the start..she had a fairly new boiler that failed due to system leaks..original guys wouldn't come back..that should have been a clue..it was installed well, permitted and inspected..she is just one of those wackos us business people have to deal with from time to time..she isn't the first..sure she won't be the last..had one recently call me who didn't realize the company she owns had stiffed me for a whole 160 bucks...had fun with her when she called too.

delta T

Funniest one I ever had was a woman who watched us like a hawk while we were doing a bunch of misc plumbing repairs and a few repairs on the boiler. My Dad and I started to notice it seemed weird that she always had her arms crossed in this really funny way. Well we give her the bill (I think we were there for about 4 hrs), and she said that the labor was too high. Well she had been told what the labor rate would be prior to us even going out there so needless to say we were a little confused, and she explained that she had been timing us (turns out there was a stopwatch in her weirdly folded arms the whole time), and that we were only actually "working" for 2.5 hrs. All the other time we were either going to the truck to get tools, cleaning up, turning the water on or off, walking to the thermostat to turn it up or down, checking for leaks, etc. That stuff wasn't "work" and she was not going to pay it. That turned into a battle, at least she did eventually pay about four months later once we threatened to send her to collections, and our lawyer sent her a letter explaining how much court fees and litigation would cost.

Don't know what some people expect.

property and house were probably worth 800k to 1m. go figure.

BobC

Funny how the ones with the most money are the worst tightwads. You expect the ones at the low end of the ladder would be the worst but they understand what work is so they grit their teeth and pay the piper.

Bob

gerry gill

yup, i have to say, i've never been stiffed by a poor person. Maybe its just an integrity thing.

ChrisJ

Hatterasguy said:

gerry gill said:

yup, i have to say, i've never been stiffed by a poor person. Maybe its just an integrity thing.

Obviously, you've never been a Landlord.

Speaking of too much money......

FranklinD

My family isn't what you would call well-off...I was the sole provider for 7 years while my wife was a stay at home mom (a harder job by far - twin girls and a boy 2 years older). She just recently got back into the workforce. But we scrimped and saved to buy a house, and again to replace the boiler, and again to replace the roof, and once the quote is agreed upon and the work done, I almost never haggle on price. I agreed to it, after all. As long as it was done to the specs that we agreed on and is correct, I pay. That's the way the world works...and the way MY career works as well.

I've had customers get snippy about bills (for car repair) in the past. And, I have to say, they're usually the ones in the Audis, the Cadillacs, and so on. But I can't say an average age. Cheapness knows no age.

On the landlord front, I had one that demanded to repair everything himself. And he was a lifetime car salesman by trade. Everything he did had to be redone, usually by me in the middle of the night, after a pipe joint came apart or a water heater tipped over (seriously). I hated that guy.

He also replaced the little 80k btu forced air furnace, when it died, with a USED furnace even older than the one that split its HX.

We have no mandatory safety/code inspections of rental properties in my town. Slumlord's dream.

JUGHNE

I had a job for a customer whom I have know all my life. His son was one of my best friends. But everyone knew how he functioned with money, his and other peoples'. Did a building for him and when it came to the final payment he said I paid my teenager too much per hour. "we can't be paying these kids that much money" The kid was cutting & threading pipe to the exact measurements I would give. I knew this would catch his eye and was prepared. I had to trim $30.00 off a bill of over $12,000 just to give him the satisfaction of being ahead. I come out ahead as I had added in well over $100.00 (misc charges) to cover this inevitable situation. I would have just paid my kid out of pocket to build a work ethic at that age. This type of person will always want to "win" at the "beat you down" game.....so I always let him think he won in the end. Also he was one to never pay until the last minute. Might give you a check on Jan. 10, predated to Dec 30 to get the tax deduction and keep the money in his account earning pennies of interest. They are everywhere. And have the most assets.

unclejohn

I was also the recipient of a " stop watch " home owner when I first started out. Also had the mysterious vanishing customer twice. They are there to let you in and tell you the problem and then they disappear.