Any fellow contractors here? Looking for some advice.
When I landed this client I had to buy a bluetooth for the first time because he stays on the calls with me for practically the whole service call. We get along (or did) quite well, engage in lots of conversations professionally and personally. However, his thoroughness is becoming a problem. I am unable to arrive on site and figure out the problems on my own without him constantly asking me to check this, check that, take a picture of this, that, talk to the manager for 40 minutes...talk to me for 30....
Typically a service all should not take more than an hour but I can never do it because of him and his thoroughness. He's usually good on time for the job, gives me 2 when it's only an hour with travel for example but the other day things went sideways. Arrive on a job which should only take 20 minutes and it turns into 2. So I invoiced him a batch of jobs for 2 hours and then he says this "these jobs should only be an hour and now I have to put some techs under the microscope, we're losing money on these jobs". His demeanor changed and I started getting defensive. I told him on the phone, no I pleaded "Let me hang up and go fix this, PLEASE" Dammit the frustration. I could be in/out already.
Then the other day I'm doing a survey for him on a large warehouse just completed. I do the telecom stuff and he's asking me to take pictures of all the areas where there isn't any telecom, just high voltage. Makes me drag the site super around with me on speaker phone asking questions about where all the pipes are going. Wants me to verify one end of a TV cable in a pipe is the same cable on the other side of the warehouse 2nd floor ffs. OF COURSE ITS THE SAME CABLE. Frustration building from both of us, I can hear him sighing. I ask "you want me to tone it out?" NO he says. Well wtf??? It's in the mechanical room, goes through the wall to a junction box, into a conduit travelling the length of the warehouse and goes to the 2nd floor! "Ok", he says "Sounds like that must be the same cable". NO fucking shit!
So, the tension is rising between us. I find myself interrupting him, we're both talking over each other. He's a smart guy but he also talks like everyone else is stupid. Including me. I'm just in a position where the more I let him control my service calls, the more he feels he must be in control.
So, now when I do my invoices, I itemize all the time it takes to do a 20 minute job. "Manager in conference call" check. "time on phone" check. "time talking to manager' check. He drags out these calls so much then infers I'm taking too long. Speaking of too long, it takes 60 days or more to get paid and every invoice I send has a reminder to pay off outstanding.
What do?
Any fellow contractors here? Looking for some advice.
When I landed this client I had to buy a bluetooth for the first time because he stays on the calls with me for practically the whole service call. We get along (or did) quite well, engage in lots of conversations professionally and personally. However, his thoroughness is becoming a problem. I am unable to arrive on site and figure out the problems on my own without him constantly asking me to check this, check that, take a picture of this, that, talk to the manager for 40 minutes...talk to me for 30....
Typically a service all should not take more than an hour but I can never do it because of him and his thoroughness. He's usually good on time for the job, gives me 2 when it's only an hour with travel for example but the other day things went sideways. Arrive on a job which should only take 20 minutes and it turns into 2. So I invoiced him a batch of jobs for 2 hours and then he says this "these jobs should only be an hour and now I have to put some techs under the microscope, we're losing money on these jobs". His demeanor changed and I started getting defensive. I told him on the phone, no I pleaded "Let me hang up and go fix this, PLEASE" Dammit the frustration. I could be in/out already.
Then the other day I'm doing a survey for him on a large warehouse just completed. I do the telecom stuff and he's asking me to take pictures of all the areas where there isn't any telecom, just high voltage. Makes me drag the site super around with me on speaker phone asking questions about where all the pipes are going. Wants me to verify one end of a TV cable in a pipe is the same cable on the other side of the warehouse 2nd floor ffs. OF COURSE ITS THE SAME CABLE. Frustration building from both of us, I can hear him sighing. I ask "you want me to tone it out?" NO he says. Well wtf??? It's in the mechanical room, goes through the wall to a junction box, into a conduit travelling the length of the warehouse and goes to the 2nd floor! "Ok", he says "Sounds like that must be the same cable". NO fucking shit!
So, the tension is rising between us. I find myself interrupting him, we're both talking over each other. He's a smart guy but he also talks like everyone else is stupid. Including me. I'm just in a position where the more I let him control my service calls, the more he feels he must be in control.
So, now when I do my invoices, I itemize all the time it takes to do a 20 minute job. "Manager in conference call" check. "time on phone" check. "time talking to manager' check. He drags out these calls so much then infers I'm taking too long. Speaking of too long, it takes 60 days or more to get paid and every invoice I send has a reminder to pay off outstanding.
What do?
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