You can't get the customers these days.......

[The Medway Handyman]

Last two days I've been fitting laminate flooring; bathroom, downstairs cloak & kitchen. Key job, customer at work in London all day.

Started on the bathroom on Thursday, removed old wood effect laminate, removed skirting, installed new tile effect laminate, replaced skirting.

Tricky fitting this tile effect stuff, you have to match up the 'grout' lines & make sure they are parallel. Cutting around the toilet & wash basin took a while to get spot on. Had to remove the door & architraves to get the new floor down, then replace them.

I have to say I did a really good job, well pleased with it. Lovely cream coloured tile effect.

Ripped out skirting in downstairs cloak, removed old wood effect laminate.

A good days work. Whilst sorting out the packs of laminate I suddenly find several packs of grey slate tile effect laminate, which I assume is for the kitchen - since they have grey worktops. First time I've heard there are two colours involved.

Arrived this morning to find a note from punter "Sorry, forgot to tell you, the grey stuff is for the bathroom & downstairs cloak, the cream is for the kitchen".

I had to take the skirting off again, remove all the carefully laid laminate & start again - at least I could use the boards laid yesterday as templates.

To say I was a little miffed is an understatement :-(

[ARWadsworth]

Wankers. Most customers are not wankers (99.9%are fine). Having fitted a load of s**te brass B&Q fittings the customer now says I have fitted the wrong lights in each room. The rules were they left the light in the room they wanted light fitting in.

Adam

[Andy Hall]

Didn't you suspect something the moment that laminate floors were involved? ;-)

[Lurch]

On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 22:33:07 GMT, "ARWadsworth" mused:

Heh, I get that on an all too regular basis.

Also, somehow it's your fault that the light, that you said looked like a bag of shit, actually does look like a bag of shit now it's up.

[Rob]

That's why you need to speak to the customer, check what they want and make sure you understand. It avoids you making a mistake. People are busy and can forget things, you should check what the job is.

[Brian G]

Did they pay the extra for wasted materials and wages for the additional work?

From past experience, get the instructions down in writing after talking to the customer and then get them to sign that they agree that these instructions are what they want - and particularly, if they won't be around when you are doing the job, to leave a contact telephone number.

Brian G

[Jason]

The key is to make sure it is the people who 'forget things' that subsequently pay to put the misunderstandings right. Everything in writing...

-- JJ

[judith]

and you should f*ck off unless you have anything worth saying

and I bet Dave is really pleased that you've pointed this out to him I bet he has never thought of that or used that approach in any of the jobs he has ever done.

[The Medway Handyman]

I am now a wiser man Judith. I shall start speaking to my customers. I'll start in a small way, just by saying 'hello' at first them move on to more complicated things :-)

[George]

It was probaly right in the first place...he probably didn't like the look of the grey stuff in the kitchen now that it was down and changed his mind with that excuse. Personally as others have said you need to know what is going where and so forth so basically you failed the all important rule on the job...COMMUNICATION. :0)

[The Medway Handyman]

Indeed he did. As I said, no mention at all of two types of flooring.