Jodi Wallace

Monarch Solid Surface Designs

I’ve spoken to a couple of other small business owners lately, and we seem to agree that we have felt a definite shift in the attitude of both customers and general contractors.

Things are happening that are so crazy, that if I didn’t see them myself, or hear about them from my employees, I would think someone was just messing around. For example: multiple instances of people pulling out lighted magnifying glasses and flashlights to examine finished seams; customers who drive you crazy with constant emails and phone calls looking for an install date, and then complain when you call to set up a time, saying, “But we don’t get up that early;” customers who had (2-1/2) weeks to decide where they wanted the faucet (and other holes) drilled, and then spend 45 minutes arguing with each other, as your employee awkwardly stands around waiting  for a decision; (obviously he didn’t call to tell me this!); and last but not least, the job site where one of my guys was recently told, “Yes, we know the general contractor’s guy didn’t screw in the underlayment correctly (as in the screws are coming out through the top and sides of the plywood), but he told us it’s alright, it’s your (meaning Monarch’s) job to fix it!” In this situation, the customer didn’t understand why I pulled my guys off the job and told the customer to call me when the contractor had redone his job correctly!

In past years, having problems like these with jobs was more the exception than the rule. Now, I do try and pay more attention to the jobs we take, and I have politely backed away from several jobs lately because there were red flags before we had even signed the contract. Unfortunately, the red flag warnings don’t always go off as quickly as they need to. Does this next situation sound familiar?

For your sake – I hope not.

A Case Study in Frustration

Sarah visited our showroom several times, looking at samples for her kitchen. She was struggling to find the right color to work with her “unique” wall colors, and I let her borrow several 10 x 10 inch samples – which I rarely do, because samples loaned out tend to “disappear.” Finally, after multiple tries, she settled on a color. 

The first issue (red flag) arose when Sarah’s sister came to visit from out of town. The particular Hanstone color Sarah chose was a Group 4 pricing. To my surprise (and without even a “hello”), her sister looked me straight in the eye and said “the re-facing company and the new cabinet are coming in more expensive then she thought, and so is the plumber. You need to lower your price.”  (How’s that for a new one!!)

As politely as possible I informed her I had shown Sarah several other colors that would have saved quite a bit on slab costs, but since she didn’t like any of them, the color she had chosen was the price I provided – period. Sarah stood there not saying a word as her sister literally tried to stare me down. I stood there casually leaning on the island top and didn’t say another word. After two or three minutes of complete silence in the showroom it became apparent I wasn’t going to budge, and Sarah finally spoke up. I should have stepped away from the job right then and there, but I still believed we could reach a reasonable understanding.  So I proceeded with the job.

Sarah lives in a converted-to condo, meaning it was an apartment building for many years, but was converted  into condos, where the property owners could make much money in a place with a shortage of affordable housing.

The building is at least 30 years old and has the original, cheaply-made apartment building cabinetry and white laminate countertops. The plumbing is still the original, and to none of my guys’ (or my) surprise, the shut-off valves wouldn’t cooperate, and continued to leak, regardless of our best efforts. We had already done the tear-out when I was not-so nicely informed that my employees were obviously inept and didn’t know what they were doing, since we obviously started this leak. I called up the plumber I often use, who is one of the nicest, most courteous people I know. I explained the situation, and Gary was there within an hour and fixed the problem. To my surprise, I received a call back from him telling me that they would absolutely not go back to work on her plumbing when the new countertops were installed. That said a lot, as Gary has never reacted like this in all the years I have been working with him.

Sarah’s kitchen cabinetry was simply awful – old and sloppily installed, and my guys spent way too much time struggling to level things. The countertop on the left side of the stove was a half-inch out of level with the top to the right of the stove. 

Sarah wanted a four-inch backsplash. There was a phone outlet that fell within the area of the taller backsplash, and at  the time of the tear-out and templates, my templater, Mark, suggested a shorter backsplash that would come up to, but not above the existing phone jack. That would have given her an approximately 3.5 inch splash. She was adamant she was going to have the phone jack moved and wanted a four-inch splash. As they say, the customer is always right (until they aren’t). She told Mark she would find someone to help her move the outlet before our install date, and her new backsplash was measured for four inches.

We ran into a delay with the Hanstone distributor trying to get the custom color she wanted, and it added an additional week onto the project, not counting my normal 12-day fabrication time we were currently experiencing. 

Adding on an extra week of fabrication time is not the way I prefer to do things, so I called Sarah to explain about the delivery problem. I offered an opportunity for her to choose another more available (and less pricey) color. She declined and stated she still wanted the original color, and would wait.

Fast forward several weeks– Mark went back to do the install. The countertops and first three backsplash pieces went in with minimal pain. He then realized the last splash couldn’t be installed, because the phone jack had not been moved.

When he spoke to Sarah, she told him she didn’t want to pay someone to move it, and he should do it – at no charge of course! Our contract and work orders clearly state we do not do electrical or plumbing, and she and I had already discussed this at the beginning.

Mark finished what he could and left, per my instructions. Several days later I received an email from Sarah saying she wanted to cut the backsplash down to 3 inches.  OK, I could do that. There would be a charge for the modification, and per our contract, a charge for returning. I acknowledged the change, provided a cost and sent over a Job Change Order. Later that day she emailed me back saying she wanted ALL the backsplash cut down to 3.5  inches!

When I spoke to Mark about the change, he reminded me the main splash piece was seamed together, and if we tried to remove it, there was a good chance it would break.

I replied to Sarah’s email, explained the drawbacks and risks, and asked if she would like me to cut the smaller piece down, or if she was going to move the outlet as originally discussed. I received no response back to my email, but instead received a new thread asking when Mark would be back to pull everything off. I left multiple voice mails and sent several emails explaining what we could and couldn’t do, but received no response. 

………

It’s not always easy to know if and when we should pass on a job, especially when things are slow. Many times problems don’t arise until we are already in contract, and there is nothing we can do at that point. But there are a few things I try to keep in mind, even if I don’t always get it right. My list of “when to pass” on a job includes:

  • That little voice in your head is telling you something is “off,” even if you can’t quite put your finger on it. 

  • Trust your instincts. For most of us this is the hardest thing to do.

  • If someone tries to haggle over the price or continuously tries to negotiate the price down. These customers want the cheapest price, will expect the most hand holding and consume copious hours of your time. 

  • If someone displays an aggressive attitude or tries to intimidate you on pricing, fabrication time or delivery or tries to pit you against other companies.

  • Someone is rude or disrespectful. If they are like this before you even have a contract, you know it’s not going to get better.

  • Someone is passive-aggressive. I just had one of these. She was a past customer whom we tried to help out with a small job, at a nominal cost, and she ended up wasting HOURS of Ken’s time. When she recently contacted me, she ONLY wanted my husband to do the work and wouldn’t accept that Ken no longer works for Monarch Designs. She didn’t want any of my other employees because she “likes the way Ken works” and “couldn’t trust someone she doesn’t know.” Although I repeatedly emphasized my fabrication time and she kept saying “OK,” she kept pushing to adjust what could I actually do “for her” fabrication time.  It took three very nice but assertive “I’m sorry but we are busy and cannot help you” for her to get the point. I was never rude because that is unprofessional, but I had to stick to my guns because if I didn’t, I knew I would regret it later. 

As business owners, we take pride in providing a quality product and great service. We want the maximum amount of customers to know our name and reputation, and it’s not in our nature to walk away from a potential job –especially those instances when you just can’t put your finger on what doesn’t quite feel right.  But sometimes we need to remind ourselves that passing on a job doesn’t make us bad. It just means we need to look out for our company’s best interests. And sometimes, that best interest is a “thank you, but no thank you.”

Jodi Wallace is the owner of Monarch Solid Surface Designs in San Jose, California. She volunteers as a Disaster Responder for the American Red Cross.