rockfish
Titanium
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2006
- Location
- Munith, Michigan
I get a phone call this morning from a local customer. They are a plater, and one of their barrel lines is down and they need a part made right away. I'm busy as hell at the moment, trying to do a dozen things at one time, so I send my employee over to see what they need.
He comes back with a rusty, worn out shaft and a sprocket. He tells me that we need to turn the shaft down, half it's length, make a bronze bushing to fit the shaft and press it into the sprocket, and add some tapped holes. No brainer. He starts working on the project and finishes it in a couple hours and runs it right over. A few minutes later, he comes back and tells me that they are now saying that is not what they wanted and that they are telling him that he misunderstood their instructions. They gave him different instructions..........so now he has to make a brand new shaft, bigger bearing, and sleeving another sprocket. As he finally get's this accomplished, they call and the owner's grandson, who seems to be in charge of this project comes over with two of his employees. They look at what my guy has done.....and proceed to tell me that it's wrong again. By now, I'm absolutely friggin' pissed off. I've dealt with this tool before (the grandson) and not only does he not have a clue as to what he's doing, and spouts off dimensions that aren't even close to being to size, but I got the impression that he's a weasel that refuses to admit his own mistakes. He starts to blame my employee......and I promptly tell him that number one, I won't proceed with another project until I get some kind of drawing in my hand. Secondly, I tell him we're now finished with this project, since we seem to have a communication problem and I'm not wasting any more of my time. Even if it was my employee's fault, if you were down, and the first "repair" didn't work right, wouldn't you make 100% absolutely sure that everyone knew EXACTLY what the game plan was the second time around ???
My employee had too many details and dimensions in his head to have been completely wrong about what they wanted him to do and they were telling me that "four" of them were standing there when they gave him the instructions.
So..........we've got four hours into the project and a couple hundred dollars worth of Ampco 18 bronze, and a 2" bar of 1018 about 14" long that I'm sure I'm going to eat. They didn't sign the packing slip for the work that we had already done and I'm sure they're going to refuse to pay the invoice, since the owner told me that he'll no longer be needing my help and that I cost him to be shut down all day long.
Lesson learned: Never, ever do anything that doesn't have written instructions or a print, even if it's a sketch on a napkin.
Frank
Home
He comes back with a rusty, worn out shaft and a sprocket. He tells me that we need to turn the shaft down, half it's length, make a bronze bushing to fit the shaft and press it into the sprocket, and add some tapped holes. No brainer. He starts working on the project and finishes it in a couple hours and runs it right over. A few minutes later, he comes back and tells me that they are now saying that is not what they wanted and that they are telling him that he misunderstood their instructions. They gave him different instructions..........so now he has to make a brand new shaft, bigger bearing, and sleeving another sprocket. As he finally get's this accomplished, they call and the owner's grandson, who seems to be in charge of this project comes over with two of his employees. They look at what my guy has done.....and proceed to tell me that it's wrong again. By now, I'm absolutely friggin' pissed off. I've dealt with this tool before (the grandson) and not only does he not have a clue as to what he's doing, and spouts off dimensions that aren't even close to being to size, but I got the impression that he's a weasel that refuses to admit his own mistakes. He starts to blame my employee......and I promptly tell him that number one, I won't proceed with another project until I get some kind of drawing in my hand. Secondly, I tell him we're now finished with this project, since we seem to have a communication problem and I'm not wasting any more of my time. Even if it was my employee's fault, if you were down, and the first "repair" didn't work right, wouldn't you make 100% absolutely sure that everyone knew EXACTLY what the game plan was the second time around ???
My employee had too many details and dimensions in his head to have been completely wrong about what they wanted him to do and they were telling me that "four" of them were standing there when they gave him the instructions.
So..........we've got four hours into the project and a couple hundred dollars worth of Ampco 18 bronze, and a 2" bar of 1018 about 14" long that I'm sure I'm going to eat. They didn't sign the packing slip for the work that we had already done and I'm sure they're going to refuse to pay the invoice, since the owner told me that he'll no longer be needing my help and that I cost him to be shut down all day long.
Lesson learned: Never, ever do anything that doesn't have written instructions or a print, even if it's a sketch on a napkin.
Frank
Home