Leaving jobs before completion

[ipf]

As the title, anyone here got experience of leaving jobs part way through?

I've a client we've been doing some major work for that is pi$$ing me right off. Making all sorts of unreasonable demands and is now saying that the work he's been really happy with up to now is a load of crap and has taken us too long and cost him too much. All payments so far are up to date so I'm not out of pocket, but in his mind I'm being unreasonable, in my mind he's being unreasonable.

I'd rather do without the aggro so have essentially told him to find someone else to second fix the project as I'm no longer interested. Things is, if I bail, he's pretty much buggered as he'll have to find another spark to start in a weeks time which is highly unlikely.

That im not so much bothered with, but it's the bovine excrement he's likely to start spreading about me that I am.

I can go into real detail if anyone wants.

Any thoughts?

Leave him hanging, mate......who's to say he's not going muck spreading even if you do complete.....I think the odds are he might.

 

[Delboybully]

I was subbying for a sparks who had problems with a customer, loads of aggro and relations between the customer and the sparks deteriorated completely. Eventually due to payment not being received on time we left the site. The customer tried to get another sparks to finish the job but obviously found it difficult to say the least.

So a project manager was called in. He liased with the customer in regard to every question and relayed that to us, the sparks and the customer would not even talk relations were that bad. The project manager was also impartial and if the customer was wrong, he would tell them so. An agreement was put into place that we would spend 3 days a week on site with payment before we came back. The project manager had the final say on the amount billed for and if it was correct for the work done according to the sparks initial quotation.

The job got completed, everyone got paid and although the customer doesnt know it, the sparks and the project manager were actually doing the customer a favour by trying to get the job completed. This worked out so well that the customer even called the sparks a few months later to do some more jobs! The sparks declined, he didnt burn any bridges as he told them he was busy for at least 3 months.

So maybe you and the customer should get an impartial advocate to liase between yourself with regular payments (maybe even daily) to limit any potential losses- the customer pays the avocate!!!

 

[richy3333]

Karma says walk away.

ive walked away from jobs and declined work and it's never hurt me. I ain't a charity.

 

[ImpededLoop]

Regardless of anything else, if he has resorted to insulting your family, I would walk away whilst the going is good.

You could do this politely and offer to spend a day with the new contractor to show them how you've wired the job - payment for your time in advance of course.

 

[uksparks]

I think it's possibly best to finish what you started to just keep your name clean.

Talking of annoying customers, I put a mirror in a bathroom this afternoon, electric illuminated thing.

Anyway, it was 600mm wide and 2mm lower on the right hand side, my god the customer kicked off big time, I explained it was quite tricky due to the plasterboard fixings etc Nd lack of adjustment. I did offer to have another go at fixing it but doubted I could get it any better, it looked absolutely fine, but all he would say is that he has an eye for lines and it's not straight.

 

[shanky887614]

I think it's possibly best to finish what you started to just keep your name clean.

Talking of annoying customers, I put a mirror in a bathroom this afternoon, electric illuminated thing.

Anyway, it was 600mm wide and 2mm lower on the right hand side, my god the customer kicked off big time, I explained it was quite tricky due to the plasterboard fixings etc Nd lack of adjustment. I did offer to have another go at fixing it but doubted I could get it any better, it looked absolutely fine, but all he would say is that he has an eye for lines and it's not straight.

couldnt you have used penny washers on the mirror etc?

 

[Geordie Spark]

I think it's possibly best to finish what you started to just keep your name clean.

Talking of annoying customers, I put a mirror in a bathroom this afternoon, electric illuminated thing.

Anyway, it was 600mm wide and 2mm lower on the right hand side, my god the customer kicked off big time, I explained it was quite tricky due to the plasterboard fixings etc Nd lack of adjustment. I did offer to have another go at fixing it but doubted I could get it any better, it looked absolutely fine, but all he would say is that he has an eye for lines and it's not straight.

2mm on the cant??? ............ Dear God man - that's like a country mile!!

Sorry like but I agree with the punter on this one.

Stay back after class and write a 100 lines - "I must try harder to get things square, level and plumb"!

( cant = not level. )

 

[Marvo]

( cant = not level. )

Thanks, I thought it might be an attempt to give the swearword filter the runaround

 

[Geordie Spark]

Thanks, I thought it might be an attempt to give the swearword filter the runaround

I knew you would - that's why I stuck the translation in

The other one is "on the s****" and the swear word filter won't like that but I'm not swearing



Edit: .. Nope - it didn't!

 

[Geordie Spark]

Plasterboard fixings - LOT'S OF THEM!!! >>>>>>> Plasterboard Fixings | Fixings & Fasteners | NoLinkingToThis

 

[GMES]

Damien only you can decide the best course of action here mate, you have to go with your gut feeling on this one.
I would imagine that acting on your gut feeling and being able to read people well is whats got you a successful business to date, don't go against it now.

We can all try and advise you and of course we will do that with pleasure, but we are not you and we are not in this situation, For what it's worth I would personally walk away unless he is willing to pay upfront and also put something in writing to say that he is completely happy with your work so far.
Finally just don't think about it too long because that's when doubts set in, make a decision stick with it and have no regrets!!

 

[TJ Anderson]

lol...

I like that. "What would I do if I was playing GTA V"........ and then do it for real!! It's a good formula lol.

 

[bigbaddave]

I walked out on a restaurant eicr a while back. The bloke was really grating on me, why do you have to turn the power off? What's wrong with that it works perfectly? Why can't I have this, that or the other? The final straw was when he asked if I was sure I knew what I was doing.
I said "the great thing about being self employed is, I get to do this" packed my gear up and walked away. He was houting and bawling about how he was going to make my name mud among the local asian community.
It's done me no harm whatsoever.
I'd do it again if necessary

let me guess o road??

 

[trev]

How did you guess mate?

Btw, might have an oven and hob for you to fit in Killingworth

 

[pennychew]

Btw, might have an oven and hob for you to fit in Killingworth

He will need his ladders for the hob mind...

 

[D Skelton]

Just an update.

I took Marvos advice and did a risk assessment. I've walked away.

Too much aggro for not enough money. I've bigger fish to fry. On to the next job.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Good decision I think Mr DS.

I imagine you have a large client group and a pretty solid reputation. Even if he does choose to express his view about your work, I doubt verymuch it's going to reach many people so will have zero impact on your workload.

I expect you will move on from this very quickly!

 

[D Skelton]

Thanks for all the input guys.

Really appreciated.

 

[topquark]

A good decision IMHO. If you had decided to stick with it, putting a new contract in place would be the best thing to do before continuing. That way the courts would look on it more favourably if it did come to the crunch, as it couldn't be validly claimed that they were unhappy with the work up to that point.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Good call Rommel - leave the ---- pots to get on with ----ing their pots while you move on to a more appreciative punter.