Tscarborough

Background:

A contractor I had never heard of or seen came in on Friday needing concrete pavers. No problem, he picked two colors (pewter and charcoal) from the samples, paid for them and scheduled delivery for today. The first clue that there might be an issue was when he told me he needed the "white" ones first. They were not white, they were concrete gray. "I am color blind", he said in response to my question about that. Still no problem, since he took samples to show his client, right?

Saturday, he sent his guys in to pick up a partial of the delivery so they could get started. Still no problem, but this morning he called and said the pavers they picked up were the wrong color (our fault of course, even though they were the exact ones he picked in person), and his guys brought back the 2 pallets they had picked up. I put his delivery on hold until the issue was resolved, since I am not big on picking up material.

He called me 3 times within a 5 minute span around 3:00PM while I was on a jobsite discussing brick with another client, and of course, I did not answer the phone.

As soon as I got back in my car, I called him, and he was irate, "Answer your Damn phone, I have to get this resolved, I have guys standing around, and I need those pavers today". Riiiigggghhht, that is going to happen.

In the first place, piss poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Secondly, I am not going to hold up my delivery truck while you figure out what you need. Thirdly, I do not answer the phone while I am otherwise occupied, nor would I expect you to do so.

Most importantly, if you give me ****ty attitude, I will refund your money with a smile and recommend another supplier.

Sorry, just a rant and a lesson in how to not deal with your supplier.

POOLMANinCT

he's color blind and ordering decorative materials? did he have the smarts to label the samples w/ chalk, befoe presenting them?
I bett his customer pointed to the selected color, he threw them on passenger seat & sped off in his truck.... guess he forgot which one ,, and make a 50/50 guess..

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Tscarborough

I have people trying to match brick over the phone every day, "It is a kind of pinkish red, with some orange, do you have that in stock and how much will that cost me per pallet?"

First, you can not match color over the phone. Second, what the HELL does it matter what a pallet/cube costs, since that has no reference to to anything other than an dollar amount?

Another one I get several times a day is, "Hi, I live at 1408 Dum Bass lane, and my house was built by fly-by-night-contractor in 1986, can you tell me what brick is on my house?"

Ted W

Now why would you want to do that to a fellow supplier?

It's people like that guy why I'm really picky about who I work for, and why I could never work with the general public. I don't have the patience for idiots like that. More power to ya, keeping your cool with jerks like that. You're a stronger man than I.

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Carpentry and Woodworking - Chicago / North Shore - Ted's Carpentry

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Tscarborough

"Now why would you want to do that to a fellow supplier? "

For a reality check. The other supplier would have scheduled him 4-5 days out, would not have allowed him to pick up material from the delivery ticket, would charge him a hefty restock for the material returned, and would have no one that would accept personal accountability for the order.

shelf guy

that guy sounds like a real dumbass. i hate those types.

skylands

Cell phones are a great thing, but for business reasons, the beeper was a hell of lot better.

It use to be that when I called the lumber yard and asked for my salesman, his secretary would just say that he would call in later and she would give him my message. And she was instructed to not give out his beeper number. (he was most likely sitting accross from her, but that's beside the point). I just knew that it was a dead issue until sometime later.

This new age of "we want and we want it now" is just nuts.

Tscarborough

It was resolved today when the GC came in and picked a color, which I had on his jobsite within an hour. He apologized for the confusion and for his sub. Now the check will bounce.

WNYcarpenter

I asked or posted something similar....is it monitarily beneficial to keep your doors open to the general public as a supplier? I couldn't imagine our local lumber yard offering installs. From my understanding your first priority is to provide the best quality product from install to material, but you have enough inventory to act as a supplier. Which is more proffitable? Is it worth the hassel dealing with the occasional jerkoff?

Tscarborough

So long as the owner understands the dynamics and will back up the sales, dispatch, and counter people when it comes down to telling a customer that we do not want their business, it is not a problem dealing with the whole spectrum of customers.

For a company to do installs and also pretend to be a supplier, it is a hard road. Why would a contractor support his competition?

Magnettica

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Magnettica

Unless, of course, you add an emergency fee.

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Tscarborough

I have had people ask me that, to which my response is: "Sure, but make the check out to the customers who planned their work out and will have crews standing around waiting because you didn't"

orionkf

A lot of landscape supply yards are run that way, at least around here.