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How have you been conned, misslead or let down?
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:32 pm
by DarkHelmet
This thread is a new one to stop us from hijacking Morpheus build project with irrelevant banter not pertaining to the post.
I replied to Morphs post
viewtopic.php?p=40094#40094
Lets keep the off topic stuff here.
DarkHelmet wrote:Not nice to hear Morph - hope Boet has good news at the end of today!
As for hindsight? a bit O/T - I paid a contractor upfront to redo my pool. I expect full upfront payment from my clients, so I thought everyone is as honourable as me. Took him ages to complete! It is looking worse now than it did before! Cement is rubbing off and the coating inside as well! (Obviously only noticed this a few weeks later).
Moral of the story - never pay in full if you don't have the goods or the job is not yet completed! Hard lesson to learn
Barnstormer wrote:DH
I used to see things the same way you did.
I learned the truth the hardway. I had about the same problem Morph is having, but with our supposed to be engagement ring which became a wedding ring because it was only finished one week before the wedding. It only took the guy one year to make it to the specifications he helped set and proposed. He is from a very reputable jeweller and he is very good and the business has been going for three generations etc. etc.
Anyway, advice from my laywer was this: There are always risks in business. Make sure the risks are devided equally.
In my case, I was trusting this guy to do everything correct, perfect and on time. I paid him a deposit (50%) so I couldn't run away. Problem was, in no way was I protected. He had my money, he did just what he wanted without taking me, my planning and his promises into concideration.
Fact is, next time I will not pay a deposit. My deposit is the fact that I am trusting whoever to do what he said he would. His deposit is the fact that he can sell his goods to anybody else.
A few weeks ago I had our house treated against ants and wanted to pay immediately, but realised the whole house wasn't treated as agreed and decided to wait and see if the ants are really gone. Guess what, they (or their brothers and sisters) appeared one day after the treatment. I phoned the company and they said I have to wait two weeks to see I the ants are gone or not and then phone them. Guess what? The ants just became more and more. They now have the opportinuty to come and do what they were supposed to do the first time, before I pay them.
Hoe sê ons? Skoolgeld!
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:39 pm
by DarkHelmet
Problem in my business is cash-flow - A client orders a R200,000 solution of which 25k is labour and profit and the rest is cost off sale. Cannot fund that, but I have a reputation and all my business is by referal. Clients don't mind paying for the cost of sale up front. On big deals I sometime encourage my clients to transfer my COS directly to the supplier. I am transparent with my margin and labour component.
Learnt the hard way that not everyone operates with the ethics I do.
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 8:41 pm
by DarkHelmet
As for the ants? Who did you use? I have an ant problem myself and would appreciate to hear the outcome!
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:41 pm
by RV4ker (RIP)
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:16 am
by Tumbleweed
Swaer climbs in my bakkie and says" Whats with the baseball bat?"
"Oh, when I find my door contractor, I'm gonna f&%^k him up"
"Great, I must bail you out, doctors, lawyer, embarrasment, just start smoking again"
Thing is, only safeguard is check out credentials and not just one referral.
Whip out his invoice book from him and phone the okes 2 months previously, you'll know whether he's finishing his work or funding his business with new 'deposits'.
Pay deposit only on material DELIVERED and don't deal with okes trading just from a CELLPHONE and no address.
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:38 am
by Tailspin
I do a bit of IT support after hours to cover the flying addiction
but my policy is if and when i have finished the job your are happy with the work i have done then and only then will i invoice you and you pay me.
You buy the equipment i just do the schlepp work to install and make it all work together.
Have had client refuse to pay cos machine not working, but after format and reload of kid's pc all worked out fine. (recently removed the deepfreeze program from kids machine
)
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:10 am
by Tumbleweed
Ants. Use Blue death powder. If you don't have crawling kids, just shake into carpets, on skirting boards and into suspect 'entry ' brickwork and around house.
Won't replace the fumigator service though.
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:17 am
by DarkHelmet
Bluedeath and Chlorpirifos - does not do it coz I don't get to all the holes!
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:25 pm
by Barnstormer
DH
We mostly do business with government, they do not pay upfront. If you're lucky you might get paid in three days, or sometimes three months. It sucks. The problem usually lies with some dude playing solitaire.
I have great customers who actually pay immediately, wish there were more of those around.
Then you also get those, in every industry, that use the "since" reasoning. Take their car to have brakes fixed, two weeks later the aircon packs up and they come with the reasoning: "But since you fixed the brakes the aircon wasn't working lekker"
Oh and this is so much fun in IT! I love fixing pc's used by kids (teenagers) to play games. You upgrade the RAM, three weeks down the road they phone you with some complaint about the screen not displaying properly. You drive there to find the kid tried to install a different display driver. Cause if you load a better cards driver it makes the card better!
I just love working with decent hardware, there is no substitute for quality!
Delta VV we used to use Bluedeath and simply after applying it on the outside of the house wet it, sommer with the hosepipe, which cause it to go into every little hole. This worked great!
We now have a dog we really love and can therefore not take any chances.
I'll keep you posted on my ant problem. (Wait till I show this thread to the ants, they will be thrilled!)
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:35 pm
by Barnstormer
DH
We mostly do business with government, they do not pay upfront. If you're lucky you might get paid in three days, or sometimes three months. It sucks. The problem usually lies with some dude playing solitaire.
I have great customers who actually pay immediately, wish there were more of those around.
Then you also get those, in every industry, that use the "since" reasoning. Take their car to have brakes fixed, two weeks later the aircon packs up and they come with the reasoning: "But since you fixed the brakes the aircon wasn't working lekker"
Oh and this is so much fun in IT! I love fixing pc's used by kids (teenagers) to play games. You upgrade the RAM, three weeks down the road they phone you with some complaint about the screen not displaying properly. You drive there to find the kid tried to install a different display driver. Cause if you load a better cards driver it makes the card better!
I just love working with decent hardware, there is no substitute for quality!
Delta VV we used to use Bluedeath and simply after applying it on the outside of the house wet it, sommer with the hosepipe, which cause it to go into every little hole. This worked great!
We now have a dog we really love and can therefore not take any chances.
I'll keep you posted on my ant problem. (Wait till I show this thread to the ants, they will be thrilled!)
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:35 pm
by Bennie Vorster
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:16 pm
by Barnstormer
Interesting www Bennie!
So who will be first to add the CAA?
Re: How have you been conned, misslead or let down?
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:14 pm
by Duck Rogers
DarkHelmet wrote:
As for hindsight? a bit O/T - I paid a contractor upfront to redo my pool. I expect full upfront payment from my clients, so I thought everyone is as honourable as me. Took him ages to complete! It is looking worse now than it did before! Cement is rubbing off and the coating inside as well! (Obviously only noticed this a few weeks later).
Moral of the story - never pay in full if you don't have the goods or the job is not yet completed! Hard lesson to learn
Serves you right for not using a proper, honest, hardworking, ethical contractor with integrity such as yours truly :D
Have a look here at some of my work and tell me what you think :
http://web.eject.co.za/seffriken/real_rock_pools.htm
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:26 pm
by DarkHelmet
I will post a 3yr and R17,000 later pic for you tomorrow! Those pools look awesome duck!
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 8:27 pm
by DarkHelmet
I will post a 3yr and R17,000 later pic for you tomorrow! Those pools look awesome duck!
