# Crazy Things Customers Ask



## jmic (Dec 10, 2005)

Cole said:


> I had a great call today from an RE investor.
> 
> He called and told me he had purchased an investment property and it was in need of an extensive remodel. We talked a little bit, I was asking questions he was asking questions etc... He then said I will also need "investor" pricing on this remodel. I played dumb and asked what investor pricing is, he then says well I will need some price cuts because I don't want to spend too much money and not get it back at the end of the sell. I said so you are telling me, you want me to do the same amount of work but you want me to make less money so you can make more money? He had the nerve to say yes!!!! So I questioned him again, I said where have you heard about this investor pricing, he said well this is my first flip and my mentor said to ask for the "investor" pricing from contractors. I said no thanks and hung up the phone.
> 
> Some people.......:blink:



I would have added 20% to what I would have given him before his request. Hey you never know! :jester:


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## TempestV (Feb 3, 2007)

Elijah said:


> A few years ago I went to give a lady a bid on a bathroom remodle. She wanted to move the fixtures to different locations. I gave her the bid and I thought she was going to pass out. She wanted to know why it was so high. I explained to her that we would need to jackhammer up the slab in bathroom to move the toilet and tub. She stopped me right there and asked why I couldn't just unbolt the toilet and bolt it down in the new location since after all it only has 2 bolts holding it to the floor it should be easy.
> 
> Elijah


That is one of the funniest yet


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Oh Ed the Roofer,

When you get done measuring the roof, please give me a detailed materials list so I can give it to my husbands friend who we are having do this job this weekend. That was the reason we requested you to do a measurement in a hurry, and its supposed to rain next week, so can you get that done in a hurry.


Or, 

Okay Mrs. xxxxx, I am done meauring your roof now and will have a very detailed proposal ready for you by tomorrow. Can we set up a time to get together and go over the specifications tomorrow sometimes between 5:00 and 7:00 P.M. when your husband gets home from work.

She says; Oh that won't be necessary. We don't need a proposal, just the price. We just wanted to check and see if the other roofer we already hired gave us a good deal.

Or,

Ed, Can you come in here to check out the leak, its over her in my bedroom, after she answers her door in a loosely tied robe. Then when she bends down to point out something to me, it comes completely untied and opens up to her birthday suit.

I was fresh in business and just wanted the job. 

Ed


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## TempestV (Feb 3, 2007)

Used to do a lot of remodels, and of course you often find some kind of damage in the walls that you can't see until you open them up. anyways, it's one of those days, and we rip off the sheetrock to find that the insulation had gotten wet somehow and the studs were pretty badly rotted. Call the HO to say that the wall needs to be replaced because the studs are rotted though, and the HO says "It can't be that bad right, can't we just ignore it?"

We got another similar answer on a roof we replaced, and we ripped off the shingles and discovered the roof had been sheathed with 3/8 plywood. (we told her it was a possablity when the roof was so spongy)


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## PressurePros (Jul 3, 2006)

Ed the Roofer said:


> Ed, Can you come in here to check out the leak, its over her in my bedroom, after she answers her door in a loosely tied robe. Then when she bends down to point out something to me, it comes completely untied and opens up to her birthday suit.
> 
> I was fresh in business and just wanted the job.
> 
> Ed


Can I get that tape on the internet somewhere? :laughing:


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## funk5stacks (Mar 19, 2007)

I was operating a TS-14B (Terex twin engine Scraper) making a cut in retention pond in a local development. I see a guy walk out of an attorney's office adjacent to the property and start heading toward my machine. When he gets close i stop and ask him if i can help him with something. With a puzzled look on his face he asks me who is hiding in the back of the machine running the rear engine. :laughing:


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## POOLMANinCT (Oct 7, 2006)

a chimpanzee


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## wolffhomerepair (Jan 27, 2006)

Did a small job for a women who I told it would take me about 5 hours to complete. Job was a bid price not T&M. It took me 4 hours. She wanted to know how much I would be taking off the price because I was done early. I told her that depends, how much more would you have paid if it took me an hour longer.


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## In_Mexifornia (Mar 7, 2007)

After installing 5 windows in this house on a Friday with silcone, moistop flashing, the customer says, "That looks great." 
Monday morning customer asks, "Can you move all those windows up 5 inches?" After all of this, the only thing you can see is the house next door five feet away.

The same guy wanted me to move an interior sheer wall that was already in that had 3x studs and 3x bottom plate, was lag bolted to a psl below with 3/8 lag bolts every 8" and two mst60 straps on both ends strapped to the beam below, and had 1/2" osb nailed 4 and 12 with 10d's. He wanted it moved 2". This guy sat there and watched me build this wall and didn't say a word until the last nail was in. He finally got his two inches, but he definately paid extra for it.

HO sits down with an architect and gets everything he wants onto a set of plans. An engineer figures out where all the posts and beams and steel are going to go. Then the when it gets built according to the plans he thought up in his own head, has to change everything because he can't visualize what the house will look like until it's actually built. I actually think we built the whole house twice. Needless to say, this guy spent over $80k in change orders. If it was some rich person they would just get charged and we'd move on, but this guy was definately not rich and had to nickle and dime everything.


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

Ed the Roofer said:


> Ed, Can you come in here to check out the leak, its over her in my bedroom, after she answers her door in a loosely tied robe. Then when she bends down to point out something to me, it comes completely untied and opens up to her birthday suit.
> 
> I was fresh in business and just wanted the job.
> 
> Ed


I'd want a job of sorts after something like that as well:laughing:

(as long as she wasn't nasty that is)


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## Kristina (Apr 21, 2006)

dirt diggler said:


> I'd want a job of sorts after something like that as well:laughing:
> 
> (as long as she wasn't nasty that is)



Mmmm the sad thing is, usually the ones who are giving it away for free, can't get it any other way.  

My husband had a job like that where the NASTIEST woman walked around half naked in front of them. Now being a dude and having basic standard requirements of women such as breathing, he said it even made him nauseous. Ick. Just ick.:blink:


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

Cole said:


> I had a great call today from an RE investor.
> 
> He called and told me he had purchased an investment property and it was in need of an extensive remodel. We talked a little bit, I was asking questions he was asking questions etc... He then said I will also need "investor" pricing on this remodel. I played dumb and asked what investor pricing is, he then says well I will need some price cuts because I don't want to spend too much money and not get it back at the end of the sell. I said so you are telling me, you want me to do the same amount of work but you want me to make less money so you can make more money? He had the nerve to say yes!!!! So I questioned him again, I said where have you heard about this investor pricing, he said well this is my first flip and my mentor said to ask for the "investor" pricing from contractors. I said no thanks and hung up the phone.
> 
> Some people.......:blink:


LOL



Was his "mentor" some cornball motivational speaker from an infomercial at 4 AM on a Sunday morning??



tha's just ignorant all the way around the board though - ugh!!!


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## Kristina (Apr 21, 2006)

Umm the thing is, wouldn't "investor pricing" mean the CONTRACTOR was giving a discount because he was "investing" therefore getting a piece of the profit?

Did this motard just not "get" that? 

I could never do what you guys do. I'd have bruises on my forehead from all the slapping!!!


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## Mud Master (Feb 26, 2007)

Kristina said:


> Umm the thing is, wouldn't "investor pricing" mean the CONTRACTOR was giving a discount because he was "investing" therefore getting a piece of the profit?
> 
> Did this motard just not "get" that?
> 
> I could never do what you guys do. I'd have bruises on my forehead from all the slapping!!!


 
You would STILL be beautiful...:laughing:


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## Kristina (Apr 21, 2006)

AWww thanks!!! :innocent:


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## TempestV (Feb 3, 2007)

In_Mexifornia said:


> After installing 5 windows in this house on a Friday with silcone, moistop flashing, the customer says, "That looks great."
> Monday morning customer asks, "Can you move all those windows up 5 inches?" After all of this, the only thing you can see is the house next door five feet away.
> 
> The same guy wanted me to move an interior sheer wall that was already in that had 3x studs and 3x bottom plate, was lag bolted to a psl below with 3/8 lag bolts every 8" and two mst60 straps on both ends strapped to the beam below, and had 1/2" osb nailed 4 and 12 with 10d's. He wanted it moved 2". This guy sat there and watched me build this wall and didn't say a word until the last nail was in. He finally got his two inches, but he definately paid extra for it.
> ...


the home owners on both houses the company I'm working for are putting up seem to have this problem. they come and see it after it's framed and say that they want such and such changes, so we do that, sheet rock it, and they see it again, and decide that they want it changed back. in many cases it seems like the first time we build any thing, we should just temp it in so that when the HO gets in, we can adjust things. both houses were designed by architects- don't these guys have programs that allow the home owner to visualize what it will look like before we build it and make it perminent? one of these houses was bid as 3 million, but it will probably be over 4 after the change orders. one wall has had the wall covering detail changed five times- from sheetrock, to wood paneling, back to sheetrock, to wood on the bottom, sheetrock on top, to sheetrock on bottom, wood on the top. hopefully we won't be changing it again. At the other house, we have reframed some sections of the house three, four, even five times.


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## Mater (Feb 21, 2007)

_the home owners on both houses the company I'm working for are putting up seem to have this problem_
:surrender: :surrender: What are you attempting to say?:laughing: It sounds like multiple prepositional phrases with a couple dependent clauses. I read it about 5 times and still couldn't get it:laughing: . Thanks


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## Kristina (Apr 21, 2006)

_the home owners, on both houses the company I'm working for are putting up, seem to have this problem_

I added some commas to help translation.

Ideally I think it should say,

"On two of the current projects my company is working on, the homeowners seem to have this problem"

Or something. :thumbsup:


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## AmeliaP (Apr 22, 2007)

AmeliaP said:


> On a $7200.00 job the customer's wife calls and asks "can you drop your price $2000.00"....hmmm, let me think, "uh no"....


This freaking lady is back! We already told her no on the price reduction. Then I vetoed the changes they wanted to make to the contract. She hung up on my husband over that. Then yesterday she calls and leaves a nasty message that she wants to fax something over (fax machine is being funny so we have taken it offline until I figure it out). 
WTF - go away.
The funny thing is, the husband is a carpenter so you'd think he'd just get the contractors worked out. It seems the wife is 'handling' the construction for the house. I think she under the misguided assumption that we are in desperate need of her money. :no:


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## Ed the Roofer (Dec 12, 2006)

Of course we could lower the price by $ 2,000.00. 

Which $ 3,000.00 worth of work would you like to have removed from the specifications to achieve your desired savings?

Once you have an agreed upon signed contract, you are still entitled to the gross profit margins for the work that has been contracted for and any additional time for the inconveniences created by changing scheduling and implementation of the modified version of new specifications.

Ed


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

There is a market out there for a new company called "Can You Do Me A Favor Construction, Inc." I am sure it would be the busiest out of all of us. Next time they want a break, find out what they do for a living, attend their place of business and start hammering their prices (Provided you need whatever it is they do)

Chris


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## LNG24 (Oct 30, 2005)

dirt diggler said:


> LOL
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You Guessed it! Ask him what he paid to get mentored...They charge between $5k and $7k and the government dosn't do anything to these crooks.


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## LNG24 (Oct 30, 2005)

PressurePros said:


> Can I get that tape on the internet somewhere? :laughing:


My g/f didn't believe me when I told her that these situations do happen. She goes with me on estimates every now and then. One night she joins me and we are running 30 minutes late. Again LATE. 

We arrive and I ring the bell a couple of times. The woman (divorced) answers the door in a small towel saying she just got out of the shower. Hair wasnt wet and she has chicken frying on the stove. I think she was more than shocked to see my g/f there.

Anyway I just go into the kitchen and start measuring as she is talking. She was having more trouble holding that towel on but she didnt know what to do I guess. I finally asked her if she wanted to get dressed while we finished up measuring because the towel isnt hidnign much from down here. I was measuring the bottom cabinets.

I think I embarrased her and she left and put on a robe.

On another job, I was running wire in an attic which was accessable by pull down stairs in the master bedrooms walk in closet. A/C was on so I shut the cloest door behind me. Must have been up there for 1/2 hour or so when I came down and opened the door to find Mrs. Homeowner (luckily my friends wife) butt naked in front of the dresser. Since I know them both well, I just said "Sorry, we don't have time for that now, can I get a rain check" She was trying every trick to cover everythign with two hands. I just continued out the door after getting a good look. When I came back in, she gave me a friendly smack and said I scared the hell out of her. 

Her husband, my friend, teases her all the time about it at barbacues we attend.


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## JamesNLA (Jun 2, 2006)

> Her husband, my friend, teases her all the time about it at barbacues we attend.


See my signature.

:laughing:


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## liltrainerboy (Nov 16, 2006)

my neibhor is like that with his wife too ... i love it...


i get all the time : so looks like we have a lot of left over material, looks like i can finish some of my basement... (uhhhhh what))))?

Look here cheap ass, if i was short three sheets of drywall would u pay for the additional?


it makes me wanna go work in an office


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

Digger1799 said:


> You Guessed it! Ask him what he paid to get mentored...They charge between $5k and $7k and the government dosn't do anything to these crooks.


honestly, im sorry -

but anyone who would pay $7,000 to have a mentor suggest to them to ask for "investor pricing" (still can't get over that) - much less the fact they _do it_

deserves to be royally ripped off


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## brushworks prof (Sep 1, 2007)

dirt diggler said:


> honestly, im sorry -
> 
> but anyone who would pay $7,000 to have a mentor suggest to them to ask for "investor pricing" (still can't get over that) - much less the fact they _do it_
> 
> deserves to be royally ripped off


They watch way to much flip that house; seeing the dude from San Antonio in tx ( Montablano or something) screw all his contractors. Now they think we all can work for what they are willing to pay.


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## Celtic (May 23, 2007)

brushworks prof said:


> T( Montablano or something)


This guy? (The tall one)











I love it ..._be careful what you wish for_ :thumbsup:


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## ptnick (Sep 6, 2007)

after giving a customer a cut rate estimate on one cable outlet fished inside of the wall to pocket a little extra cash, he asked if i would do a second one for half off


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## dirt diggler (May 14, 2006)

dirt diggler said:


> hhmmm
> 
> one requested that I would be finished next week
> 
> ...


you know - sometimes i look back and read old posts of mine and think "wow, i was a real [email protected]@"

but THIS one was funny :laughing:


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## Magnettica (Dec 19, 2006)

Question: Do those panels come in white?

Answer: No, they gray paint is used to complete a solidly grounded system. :lol


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## Amber (Aug 20, 2006)

A little bit off the cuff, but a good friend of mine is in flooring. They receive a warranty call on a house which appears to have the glue seeping up through the carpet. A technician goes out to check it out and it turns out that the teenage son of the h/o was taking care of himself and had failed to clean up afterwards.


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## ModernStyle (May 7, 2007)

Amber said:


> A little bit off the cuff, but a good friend of mine is in flooring. They receive a warranty call on a house which appears to have the glue seeping up through the carpet. A technician goes out to check it out and it turns out that the teenage son of the h/o was taking care of himself and had failed to clean up afterwards.


that why you should do that in the bathroom, plenty of lotions in there and the tile is easy to clean. Kids just dont think sometimes.:thumbsup:


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