# cut my throat..need help!!



## profinish (Oct 7, 2005)

As I said before I rarely do drywall other than patch work here and there.I recently took on a job a referal from some one I have done work for in the past I orinally qouted .65 cents asf to hang and finish however im not real fast so I qouted a flat labor rate..The problem is that this is a add on that the home owner is running hisself and ofcourse is very unorganized has cost me time and money and has sliped extras in on me thinking he would be fair I did them now trying to get paid for them and hes crawfishing any suggestions??I havnt finished the job and am not sure im going too..Thanks for your help


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## housedocs (Jan 10, 2005)

Tell me you have an "extras" clause in your proposal/contract and I'll tell you all is fine. Learned my lesson on this long ago and added a clause to my proposals that basically says, we'd be happy to perform any additional work that may come up during the course of the project, be it from unseen damage, (i.e. termite damage) or an add-on by the client, be advised it will be charge at time & materials at usual rates at $XX.00 per manhour.

Otherwise, best bet is to just make up an invoice immediately with charges for all work done, list each item and the cost and time and present it to the homeowner. If he crawlfishes then, just say fine here's the bill for what I agreed to do, I need my check by the time I finish packing up my tools. 

Some clients I do written change orders for but alot of times I just give them a verbal price and add it to my invoice at the end of the job. But always get an agreement on $$ before the work is done.


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## profinish (Oct 7, 2005)

*good advice*

The problem is This is the father of a lady I have painted for for years we only had a verbal I know better but here I am do I just take the loss or is there a better way to aproach it?


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

HInd site is 20/20.

The only thing you have going for you now is the power to walk away. It's going to be based on how willing you are to walk away and how willing the customer is to let you or not.

Stop all work and get the payments in order, let him know that he needs to resolve it and get you squared away to your satisfaction. Let him know that the only course of action he has is to clear the books with you or you are done. Hopefully he wants you to finish the job so you have some power over him at this point.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

Oh oh, after I posted I saw your last post. Well now it gets even more complicated, now you have to weigh the future value of jobs from this lady into the equation.

God ,how simple this all would have been if you just did your work with everything in writing.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Well there is not much that can be done now about past actions other than to learn from them. I highly suggest having the customer sign a change order, but I will be honest I do not always. BUT what I ALWAYS do is at least verbally inform the customer that there will be additional charges. It's the hard thing to doo but it is right for you and the customer.

Like Mike said , you have the power to walk away and cut your losses. Now you have to make a business decisions. At your current point will you lose more walking away now or will you lose more completing the job and being paid the original agreement with the extras being free? I'd go for the lesser of the two evils... which ever would lose me less money... Translation which every way I'd make more money. Obviously like Mike said, you have to weigh all values including potential lost jobs from the original customer.

There are ways to handle lost work from the original customer. Perhaps give them a phone call. "Mrs Original Customer, I want to thank you for referring me to your friend. I always appreciate referrals. However I want to tell you that things are not going as smoothly on this job as they have when I work for you. (Insert general ass kissing comments here)"


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## GMW (Apr 27, 2005)

I just went through the same thing with a family member. No written contract( first mistake, I won't make again) and the job got out of hand. He wan't happy with the work and kept adding to the list. I ended up cutting my losses and walking away. I figured it would get worse between us and didn't want to ruin a relationship, and I have other jobs to do that are paying more. Like Grumpy said, it's a business decision you have to make. Good luck and let us know what happens.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

This hits home because I just went through a bit of this yesterday, with my same customer I wrote about who sent my granite installer away because he thought he was selling magazines.

They had numerous change orders on this job and this job spanned almost 2 months from start to finish with only about 20 actual man hours on the job itself.

But presenting the final invoice which was actually a last progressive payment once again the customer got loopy. He had confused himself into thinking he had to make an issue of some charges.

To make a long story short I simply pulled out all the paperwork, we sat down at the kitchen table and we went over it, I went over each change order and document one at a time not going on to the next until he would acknowledge the document was correct and he understood it, at the end it was just a matter of adding them up and then asking him if he had any other questions, which of course by then he couldn't have and he wrote the check.

I left that job thankful it was over and thankful I never did anything with out a signed change order.


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