Worst Client

Anybody interested in briefly describing the worst client they ever had? lol (this would be a hard one for me) :)

Reply to
Jude Alexander
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A couple with a ready for the register Egyptian revival house that was irritated that it wasn't Greek revival and so methodically went about tearing out all the Egyptian elements and replacing them with what THEY thought was period detail. Oh, and they had a stone mason in their pocket and tons of cash. The lovely little early 19th c. ice house? Well, you don't want to know what happened to it.....

How to get out of dealing with such people? Bite the bullet, make the job design only and send a low bill. Smile when they describe how they realized their dream with the help of someone else at the next auction where they are paying three time too much for a....

Reply to
++

The woman it took two weeks to realize we'd fired her. She came to us with a design. We told her it was terrible (in a polite way) and started over. She kept forcing back to her design. We finally asked us why she hired architects instead of draftsmen (no offense to Don).

But I think I can come up with worse...

Reply to
3D Peruna

Pair of doctors who used a draftsman, who used obviously flawed measured drawings for a permit on a century old street building, and then instructed an incompetant contractor to ignored the permit drawings and build across both side property lines, and cut existing joists that reached past the property lines to bear on their neighbors structure in order to fiddle with the plan in a way that would have contravened exiting provisions in code in countless ways. They got a 'stop work order. I came in, saved their butts (negotiated an encroachment agreement with the one neighbor while he was in China, but had to tear down the other offending wall and rebuild on their property, and used as much of the aborted construction as possible), got their tenants a coordinated permit for a 60 seat restaurant (since reviewed by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand), did it in 6 weeks beginning to end, and *they* questioned every decision *I* made, every step of the way, and complained about how long it took. *I* fired *them*, but continued the work for the tenant until occupancy, who then stiffed me out of my last (small) invoice.

Small fry, I know. Apparently small restauranteurs are reknown for stiffing everybody. Beware. As for doctors, well,

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sometimes applies.

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

Ironically, I get an email from tagged.com TODAY asking to confirm that the restaurateur is my "friend".

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

"Jude Alexander" wrote in news:G2chj.29191$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews9.bellsouth.net:

Learned very early to avoid doing work for relatives :-)

I once did a house and depot for a rather feral haulage contractor. Business was mostly hauling pine logs. His "builder" got the house up more or less ok, except they messed up the ventilation requirements for the solid fuel fireplace and back boiler. The Code required fixed air vents with a cross-sectional area at least equal to the cross-sectional area of the flue - eg to prevent room occupants blocking all the air sources and suffocating themselves. So to avoid draughts, the vents were brought in under-floor to open in front of the fireplace. Only they terminated them under the fire basket. Fortunately I discovered what they had done before the whole thing blew up.

He made a big fuss about the portal frames for the vehicle workshop. I over-specified these because I knew what he was capable of. On one occasion they rolled one of the semi-trailers and bent the steel framing of the timber cage. So they put a chain round the cage, hooked it up to the column of the spf, coupled up a prime mover, and pulled ...

I'd told him the frames weren't designed to carry hoists, and he'd have to put up separate frames to pull out engines and the like. As soon as the place was finished, there was a 6 litre turbo-diesel engine/gearbox/driveshaft swinging on a chain from one of the portals.

There was a planning condition requiring one side of the site to be landscaped. OMG what the hell could we plant that would survive what these guys were capable of spilling on the ground. Found an answer to this one - Lawson Cypress. The species doesn't mind if diesel fuel is spilled around it - seems to thrive on it ...

After a while he got caught running his road rigs on 'pink' diesel (excise-free for agricultural purposes only) and went out of business.

Reply to
Troppo

To Everybody:

Those were interesting problems basically describing the height of ignorance in some people. Thanks for sharing those stories. Now, I feel like some of my experiences aren't so far off others.

Reply to
Jude Alexander

LOL

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

You're wrapping the thread? What about the guy who wanted *every room* in his house to face the ravine at the back of the lot, but wanted his house to be traditional?

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

Aha, not a worst client, a design challenge...

Reply to
++

Your optimism is inspiring!

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

BTW, Hristos se rodi!

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

Again? Where?........

Reply to
Secretia Green

Navistina se rodi. Ego go slavi! (Not what you expected, huh!)

I sang both the old calendar and new calendar Christmas although we follow the old. So baiscally I did that huge canon vigil and liturgy twice in slavonic with buncha other people in DC. Son was in Virginia, shining a laser light on the pavement to keep our wonderful local priest from stumbling on his way to toss his branchlet in the Badnjak fire.

Reply to
++

Christ (Hristos) is (he is, se) born (born, third person singular), according to the Julian calendar, on the 25th of December which ends up on the 7th of January on hte civil calendar, the Gregorian one. Holiday is called Bozic' (means "cute little baby God - Bg - day"). Particular Serbian name, derived from Iranian and Sancrit (peoples are from adjacent territories in the Near East prior to the third or fourth centuries) is related, Bogdan, God's gift. Same thing as Theodore in other languages, Bozhidar in lother languages. Dan also means day in a number of languages. Night before evening serivce is called Badjak, which features the Christmas fires, done throughout Romania, Balkans, northern Greece

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There is a native softdrink made almost exclusively by Boza makers called Boza which is fizzy and often served on holidays.

Bozic (kind of pronounced Bohzheech except the ch is slightly different) is also a common last name in Serbia:

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Merry Christmas (number of countries) = Srekjen or Srekjan (Happy) Bozic'

g ---> zh after certain phonetic changes.

Bulatovic is a Montenegrin, but Serbs like to think that Montenegrins are Serbs:

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Fish Soup (Ribja Chorba ) for Christmas Eve (and 11 other dishes) but Serbs don't own the recipe:
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Reply to
++

I think you underestimate SG, ++.

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

Take my word for it. Your worst client is your wife. ( new or existing modifications )

CID...

Reply to
Chuck News

If your wife is your worst client, then you are in line for honors as "first husband", a classification of people that women knowingly smile about.. :)

Reply to
++

My wife's an amazingly patient woman, and she pretty much lets me do what I want, and I try to return the favor.

Reply to
Michael Bulatovich

........................seems that whenever I do a home design, what I usually get is a job to deal with somebody else's psychotic wife for a year or so,.................

Reply to
<gary

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