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Tomorrow can only get better
I had one of those days today when everything went wrong 😕
This morning I headed out to install a new sign outside a restaurant – only to find the restaurant was closed all day Monday and I needed access inside to be able to start the job so I had to abandon it for today.
Later on I went to fit some etch glass vinyl and silver lettering to a beauty parlour. I fitted the etch glass OK but when I went to fit the silver lettering I discovered it was cut from etch glass vinyl instead. I had forgotten to tell Alison that this should have been silver instead of etch glass – so another job had to be abandoned. 😳
As I rushed out the door to go to the beauty parlour I suddenly remembered that the Van was due its MOT soon. I asked Alison to look up when it was due only to discover when I returned that it was actually out of date. It was due on the 15th so had already run out!! We hastily booked a test for tomorrow 😕
Then to cap it all some smartarse phoned to ask why in a recent quote that I had sent out – my fitting charge was higher than the cost of the sign I was supplying. I explained that in this particular case there was more work involved in fitting (working at height requiring a cherry picker or scaffolding) than in simply producing the sign. He was obviously in a mood to argue with me and wanted me to justify my pricing. I couldn’t be arsed to argue my case so simply told him it was an offer price – take it or leave it – I really don’t care 🙄 ……He left it 😕
Tomorrow can only get better right? 😕
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22 Replies
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no cos you got to go and fit the other stuff. after the MOT and repairs
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lets just hope the van passes the MOT.
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That,s a pretty crap day Phill, I’m terrible with my vans MOT, last year it was 2 mths out of date before I realised.
Unwork related I can beat that…. I drove to Ikea yesterday 1hr 20mins away in the van to buy 4 lots of wardrobes for the kids room took me 4 hours to buy, they weighed a ton, eventually got them into the van.
Got them home unloaded them, left work early today to make them up…made the draws up, unpacked the first wardrobe…went to stand it on it’s end and……………they are all 5” to tall, I didn’t take too much notice of the height in the shop, I naturally thought they would fit.
So got to repack what I unwrapped back in the van and take them all back.
Gutted 🙁
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i have had a bad day as well, had to take 1/2 day off so I could be at home for the Oil Boiler Engineer to come and service my boiler, which is making rather loud noises. Well the pump is knacked and the control unit that regulates the central heating and hot water is bust. This is going to cost money. But I still found myself in a happyish mood. I dropped my daughter off later at the club she goes to and went to kill an hour round Tesco before having to collect her again. I was completely in a world of my own and after I got out I realised that I had been humming AND whistling ‘The Birdie Song’ quite loudly all the way through Tescos. That is where my day went bad 😮
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quote Craig Bond:I realised that I had been humming AND whistling ‘The Birdie Song’ quite loudly all the way through Tescos. 😮I have that playing on my ‘music on hold’ at work. I’ve got this mental picture of everyone that rings me doing the same thing now…. :lol1:
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did the van pass ?
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Yes Chris – first time, no work required this year. And I got the Beauticians window done. Couldn’t do the restaurant sign though because I was without my van for most of the day.
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quote Phill:because I was without my van for most of the day.Why? an Mot only take 20 minutes….
Peter
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Phill, glad to hear the van passed, mine is due in a couple of months and as it’s an older motor is unlikely to go through with out something needing doing.
I take it you dropped the van off with them this morning for them to do at some point during the day rather than taking it in and waiting. -
Had a crap day yesterday myself and another 3 points on my license 😀 😀
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i was in london yesterday fitting a large sign…
drove down on sunday, stayed overnight, up monday morning and off to the job. sat nav took us straight to it. however, we came to roadworks with no through road. so we had to find the OTHER END entrance to this street a few miles long! this was in a very heavily built-up busy road with lights everywhere… could we find it… no… down one street up another and so on…
cut the story short we arrived at 12 noon, instead of 9.30am….now we are set to get the sign up quick…
nop, wrong cherry picker has been dropped. instead of a rough terrain cherrypicker with telescopic boom, we get a manual trailer one without a boom, or even a fly boom. 🙄
i think, bugger it… we are late, lets get on with it…
but, cherry picker wont start!
call the company that delivered it and they said a guy will be with you in an hour and a half. 😕
some time later he arrives and gets it going… by now its 2.30pm and we havent started yet. 😕3pm we are on getting the sign up in place when i receive an email to my phone to say that UKSB is down due to hackers. {just couldnt get any better} 😕
20 minutes on the phone to the hosts and the site is back up…on with the job…
i normally fit one of these signs in about 2hrs tops, so i should have been heading back home by 12 noon… but due to the road works, and mainly the cherry picker they sent us i was finished it at 6.30pm last night… still to drive part the way back and find a hotel for the night!
so i feel your pain phill… :lol1: :lol1:
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quote Andrew Boyle:Had a crap day yesterday myself and another 3 points on my license 😀 😀oops speedy one then andrew? 😕
nik
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quote Peter Normington:quote Phill:because I was without my van for most of the day.
Why? an Mot only take 20 minutes….
Peter
have you had a mot lately it takes them 20 mins to log on to the dvla computer 😉
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quote Robert Lambie:3pm we are on getting the sign up in place when i receive an email to my phone to say that UKSB is down due to hackers. {just couldnt get any better} 😕
so i feel your pain phill… :lol1: :lol1:
I feel ya pain too. I couldn’t get on to the boards for ages…. thought I was having withdrawals.
It was offline for a while longer here tho, I was trying most of the day 😕 🙁 I really have to get a life….. 😉
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mine was quite boring tonight – just had a parking ticket thats all
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quote Robert Lambie:i was in london yesterday fitting a large sign…
drove down on sunday, stayed overnight, up monday morning and off to the job. sat nav took us straight to it. however, we came to roadworks with no through road. so we had to find the OTHER END entrance to this street a few miles long! this was in a very heavily built-up busy road with lights everywhere… could we find it… no… down one street up another and so on…
cut the story short we arrived at 12 noon, instead of 9.30am….now we are set to get the sign up quick…
nop, wrong cherry picker has been dropped. instead of a rough terrain cherrypicker with telescopic boom, we get a manual trailer one without a boom, or even a fly boom. 🙄
i think, bugger it… we are late, lets get on with it…
but, cherry picker wont start!
call the company that delivered it and they said a guy will be with you in an hour and a half. 😕
some time later he arrives and gets it going… by now its 2.30pm and we havent started yet. 😕3pm we are on getting the sign up in place when i receive an email to my phone to say that UKSB is down due to hackers. {just couldnt get any better} 😕
20 minutes on the phone to the hosts and the site is back up…on with the job…
i normally fit one of these signs in about 2hrs tops, so i should have been heading back home by 12 noon… but due to the road works, and mainly the cherry picker they sent us i was finished it at 6.30pm last night… still to drive part the way back and find a hotel for the night!
so i feel your pain phill… :lol1: :lol1:
Rob
Why did you not just sub the job out?surely you would have made more profit, and been more friendly to the environment than traveling down from Scotland? or dont you trust us that work down south? 😉
Peter
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quote Peter Normington:Rob
Why did you not just sub the job out?surely you would have made more profit, and been more friendly to the environment than traveling down from Scotland? or dont you trust us that work down south? 😉
Peter
Don’t know about Rob, but last time I subbied a job out like that, the sign co stole my work in that area by contacting my client offering their services for that area, and offered to undercut my price if they showed them my invoice.. 👿
Only satisfaction I got was that the sign co and the client both went broke a year or so ago. 😕
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It is a national contract that we have done for around 10 years now… had the customer nearly 17 years though… every depot he opens, the guys building it are all the same Scottish firms. i regularly meet the same guys building the places all over the UK. from the fencing to the building, plumbers, you name it… all from Scotland.
if i do a signage tour we make more money than subbing it out. no come back backs, more work done, then onto the next. yes problems occur from time to time, but i am there and dealing with them. e.g.
had the one that occurred yesterday, my bet would be the subbed fitters would have walked off site and told us to sort it and return when all was well. but… would have billed us for both trips and the time hanging around.
there are lots of reason for subbing work out, but also for not… -
Rob I understand what you are saying, but the wrong cherry picker still cost you in time, regardless of it being you or a subbie, and your time must be just as valuable as a subbie.
Anyway, if the client is happy to pay you for all that time travelling, to do 2 hours work, then good for you, just looks inefficient to me, Maybe you should consider the alternative, fly down, and supervise a subbie, far less stressfull, and a lot quicker?
Just a thought,
Peter
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i know where your coming from peter, but… each depot is priced individually, that’s down to the job and back with two or else 3 guys, that covers accommodation and all else. timing permitting, i normally do as many depots in one tour… e.g. i left at midnight a few months back, by the time i got to Portsmouth i had 5 depots done through the night on the way down. (not same size as yesterdays of course) i then did the large one in Portsmouth and was having lunch and a beer in the hotel restaurant by midday. early to bed and up next morning… making my way back up the country catching other depots with signs and lettering vans. the hardest part is the long drive, the signs are simple enough because we have done so many.
this only happens every couple of months for a few days at a time and there is good money in it.
like Shane says too, there is also the risk of loosing customers to the subbies… poor workmanship and more… as i said, we are only a small firm, the money is good this way and im only too happy to do it. i get to see most of the uk on my travels too… including driving through your area in luton on sunday and seeing all the floods. no wonder you need that 4×4 to pull you out the mud! 😀 ahhhh good to be back on the highlands! 😉 :lol1: -
quote Andrew Boyle:Had a crap day yesterday myself and another 3 points on my license 😀 😀NO! 😮 It’s last chance saloon for you now Mr Boyle!!!!!! :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
I ran around all day yesterday non stop – and achieved absolutely nothing! 😕 Hate days like that. Today I intend to get vinyls for a couple of vans cut, artwork done, catch up on invoicing and try and tidy the office a bit.
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quote Robert Lambie:i know where your coming from peter, but… each depot is priced individually, that’s down to the job and back with two or else 3 guys, that covers accommodation and all else. timing permitting, i normally do as many depots in one tour… e.g. i left at midnight a few months back, by the time i got to Portsmouth i had 5 depots done through the night on the way down. (not same size as yesterdays of course) i then did the large one in Portsmouth and was having lunch and a beer in the hotel restaurant by midday. early to bed and up next morning… making my way back up the country catching other depots with signs and lettering vans. the hardest part is the long drive, the signs are simple enough because we have done so many.
this only happens every couple of months for a few days at a time and there is good money in it.
like Shane says too, there is also the risk of loosing customers to the subbies… poor workmanship and more… as i said, we are only a small firm, the money is good this way and im only too happy to do it. i get to see most of the uk on my travels too…we do his all the time, I’m heading to the Orkney Isle’s in 2 weeks time to fit a pharmacy signage ( yes another one), all the contractors are from Northern Ireland, i love it, The wife gives me hell saying that i always get away on holiday and she doesn’t :lol1:
By the way is anyone from up that part of the world or know any contacts just incase i leave some silly wee sticker at home 😮
Ian
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