Its Monday!!!

sheepslam · Post by **sheepslam** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:21 am

Do any of you guys ever have to deal with idiot clients? I want to laugh at them sometimes.

I have this new client that is building a three million dollar house...I am the landscape architect, so i have to design everything outside: walls outdoor kitchen, bbq grill area, water features, pool, plantplan...you get the idea.

a good rule of thumb is to budget 10-15% of the value of the house to landscape.

well this guy wanted to spend 40k!!! pool and all. i just wanted to laugh at him. if you cant afford to landscape the house...dont build a 3 million house.

do any of you have any good work stories

Post by **BOHNTR** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:08 pm

Well, don't know if they qualify as "clients", but since I got promoted to Lt. and left SWAT I command a fairly large jail.........yes I have a jail full of "idiots".

Boy do I ever miss being a sergeant.

sheepslam · Post by **sheepslam** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:15 pm

well, I am sure some of them could be clients...it just depends on how many times they get to see you.

Post by **MuleyMadness** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:31 pm

I teach school, PE & Health so I guess I see lots of 'clients' all day long. Some excellent, some average, and some that may end up being taken care of by BOHNTR some day.

IRONHEAD · Post by **IRONHEAD** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:19 pm

I,m a builder so I can relate real well with people wanting more than they can afford. No offense to you but the worst I ever had was an architect. He worked for one of the biggest firms in Seattle. His firm designed multi, multi million dollar homes all over the world. He was a junior partner, and although he helped design these 10 and 20 million dollar residences he couldn't afford one. He wanted a 20 million dollar home for about 2 million. Every detail was top of the line and every fixtuure,appliance or finish was the most money could by. We finally built him a home that he could afford but what a battle.

New rule :if building for architect add 20%

sheepslam · Post by **sheepslam** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:52 pm

you are right!!! sometimes our eyes are bigger than our wallets!!! The thing is that we are spending a clients money and not our own.

You must also note that this was a "junior architect" not a principal. They dont even address project budgets.

IRONHEAD · Post by **IRONHEAD** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:59 pm

Sheepslam, thats true I think the little buck was trying to run with the monster bucks.

Meathunter13 · Post by **Meathunter13** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:00 pm

Alright Ill bite... I work in the IT deptartment for a major engineering firm. I work tech support for engineers, architects, nuclear power plant personell even rocket scientists. Yet they call me for computer/server/network support. So heres my complaint, If you ever call any kind of helpdesk, we dont expect everyone to be happy and content we know things are broke and its affecting your productivity. With that said we dont want a history of your life or how long youve been using your computer, I dont care how special you are or how brilliant you think you are... If you call someone for help then answer their questions and do what the suggest, We get paid to do this for a good reason. Dont rant about things that wont help (it just wastes both of our time), dont be difficult because your day sucks or refuse to try what we ask or just dont even call. Thats all, hope all the rest of you make it through your monday.

AGCHAWK · Post by **AGCHAWK** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:00 pm

Well, being in the military for 17 years now I've seen my share of "idiots" and certainly have my fair share of sea stories. However, for this forum I'll keep it "clean".
While on WESTPAC in 1993 my ship pulled into Singapore for four days of liberty. However, before we were allowed to head ashore we had to break down stores (Bring on supplies). As you can imagine, we were in quite a hurry to get it done and apparently I was not fast enough for my Leading Petty Officer because he started screaming about how "I was taking too long cutting the boxes down after they were emptied." He said "Hawk, let me show you how to get that done in half the time" and proceeded to set the box upside down on the steel deck. "Now ya just punch through the tape on the bottom of the box" he said and hauled off and punched as hard as he could right through the tape on the bottom. Problem was, he punched WAY TOO HARD and went through the box before impacting the steel deck of the ship. I just stood there and stared while thinking to myself "I'll be DARNED if I do it THAT way!" as he danced up and down the passageway screaming like a little girl.
His little "shortcut" ended up breaking 4 bones in is hand and cost him every day of liberty in Singapore. I was off the ship an hour early and didn't miss a beat!

out2hunt · Post by **out2hunt** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:30 pm

This is my first post on this forum and it couldn't be a better topic.Sheepslam,I feel your pain on a daily basis.I am the head of sales for Prodigy customWiring here in Phoenix Arizona,and I am bombarded with clientel from custom home builders we work with about the cost of audio video Equipment be way to exspensive.Example:I recently turned in a bid to a customer who purchased a custom home we wired.The home sold for 1.2 million and is wired to the hilt for whole house audio and other features normally sought after.This particular customer wanted our company to tear apart his casita and turn it into a theater room.He was very specific of the equipment to be used and we gave him a great price.Normally we shoot for a 28 to 40 % profit on our bids to cover overhead and such,but in this particular case my bid was at a mere 18% profit(I felt at this price the word would spread through this wealthy development)and he called me a few days later and stated that the cost was "way out of his ballpark"!I couldn't cut anymore corners if I raced grand prix.