Subbed out a repair job, contractor botched the job, still wants to get paid?

It was a simple table weldment, brushed stainless finish. Got damaged in transit, customer still signed for it, so the freight company denied a claim. Whatever. It would be poor customer service to refuse to do anything, and it was partially my fault for not packaging it better, so I offered to find a local to repair the table. I found someone who had great reviews, their project gallery was great looking, lots of attention put into his work, etc. Well his repairs on the table were awful. I attached some pictures for reference. Two of the legs were bent and split the corners open, so I sent him two new legs to replace the old ones. He cut them off and welded on the new ones and was supposed to blend the welds. He delivers the table back to the customer and she tells him the finish is unacceptable, he basically says it is what it is and that's how it was when he got it (not true). Then he sends me a bill for $300 and says that's for the time he has in it so far and if she's not happy it's going to be more to fix it again. But the customer is now saying she doesn't want a repair, she wants a new table. The table top is the exact same size as the table base. The edge of the metal is supposed to accent the top apparently, so it's not hidden under the table.

It's an annoying situation and I wish I would have just sent her a new table to begin with instead of trying to save a few bucks. My question is, am I still under the obligation to pay this guy? He didn't do what I asked him to do, and all he managed to do was piss my customer off even more. I'm not trying to be cheap, I'm all for paying people for what they deserve, but I don't think this guy deserves to be paid for this. Problem is he can't make it right even if he wanted to since the customer is now refusing to let it be repaired again. I know it's just a couple hundred dollars, it's just the principle of the matter, and the way this guy treated my customer with such disrespect that's bugging me.

Call him, Tell him how it is.. Send him 100.00 bucks..
That is all the job he did is worth..

Looks like the guy ran out of flap wheels. It would only take about 2 minutes more to shine that up and blend the weld seams flush. But, so much for 'farming stuff out'. Just send a new one, let the weldor have the old one for this trouble, I bet he'll fix it up then

If he didn't do the job you hired him for he doesn't deserve to be paid. I would not expect to be paid for something I screwed up but I like to think I am more courteous than some. You can't expect any money to come back from him, but I wouldn't pay for that work.

My brothers engineering firm had about 20-30K in some intricately machined parts with bogus amounts of inspection required. They sent it out to be plated and it was scrapped in the anodizing/plating process. The plating company offered some free service but that's it. I don't think their insurance even help out.

I'd go over and above with your customer...offering replacement, an apology, some sort of good bonus...small thing you make or 25% off future order.

Him...I wouldn't want to pay but would try to discuss further. To some people that looks fine, unfortunately. Expectations were not matched, obviously.

jamscal said:

I'd go over and above with your customer...offering replacement, an apology, some sort of good bonus...small thing you make or 25% off future order.

Him...I wouldn't want to pay but would try to discuss further. To some people that looks fine, unfortunately. Expectations were not matched, obviously.

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I'm pretty much in this park. There's two "live and learns" here; one about the packaging/shipping and the other about the "specs" on the weld job. It's not as much about whether or not you find the weld/grind acceptable but whether or not he did work that should get paid for (which he obviously did), even if it doesn't meet your standard (which apparently was not documented?). I'd put this one into the "CODB" (cost of doing business) and/or the "live & learn" category.

The Dude

unfortunately finish is everything in a product like that. From the pictures, that finish is not acceptable for what looks like a prime location in a house where all will see the crappy finish. What a shame that 5 more minutes of proper work by the repair place, would have made all the difference. No way to win this one. I would give the table to the repair guy for work done. He knows he came up short. Or settle with him as others suggested for $100 max.

jamscal said:

To some people that looks fine, unfortunately. Expectations were not matched, obviously.

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I made tall sides to a cargo trailer out of similar material years back for personal use. I did a better job than that and I consider myself to have very poor welding skills and it was a trailer that would take a beating for God's sake.

HuFlungDung said:

Looks like the guy ran out of flap wheels. It would only take about 2 minutes more to shine that up and blend the weld seams flush. But, so much for 'farming stuff out'. Just send a new one, let the weldor have the old one for this trouble, I bet he'll fix it up then

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That's actually not a bad idea. I wonder if he'll go for it. He should be able to sell it for more than $300 if he cleans it up properly.

I can't tell from the pictures if there's just a lot of undercut in the weld, or if it's just not ground down all the way. I even sent the guy a drum sander attachment for a grinder to blend the brushed finish. If the frame were raw steel, I can understand thinking this was good enough. But anything brushed stainless is usually very decorative. He should have known better. Especially since it was in a 3 million dollar home.

It was very informal with this guy, just a couple of phone calls.

jamscal said:

I'd go over and above with your customer...offering replacement, an apology, some sort of good bonus...small thing you make or 25% off future order.

Him...I wouldn't want to pay but would try to discuss further. To some people that looks fine, unfortunately. Expectations were not matched, obviously.

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I am most certainly trying my best with this customer. Another big reason I went with local repair was because the customer had a photo-shoot coming up that I wouldn't be able to get a replacement there in time for, so local repair was also much faster. Guess that backfired though. I will make my customer happy, I'm just not sure what to do with this welder.

That was a joke repair right? the job is only part done

Econdron said:

That's actually not a bad idea. I wonder if he'll go for it. He should be able to sell it for more than $300 if he cleans it up properly.

I can't tell from the pictures if there's just a lot of undercut in the weld, or if it's just not ground down all the way. I even sent the guy a drum sander attachment for a grinder to blend the brushed finish. If the frame were raw steel, I can understand thinking this was good enough. But anything brushed stainless is usually very decorative. He should have known better. Especially since it was in a 3 million dollar home.

It was very informal with this guy, just a couple of phone calls.

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In case this guy doesn't know, he can get 4.5" diameter (or larger) flap wheels for an angle grinder. Those can blend to beat hell, albeit, controlling actual flatness is difficult. Then, switch to a straight flapwheel (maybe 80 grit) held in a long nose die grinder and run some parallel blending strokes to impart a somewhat pleasing grain to it.

Should have sent it to the PM member Matt@RFR(?)...

Sorry, I know that doesn't help.

One weld looks like the metal tubing was burned away and not filled enough to make up for it, the other one looks like it needs to be ground down more to be flush. Maybe the pictures are deceiving, needless to say since I could do better and I suck at welding that person has no business charging for welding services.

If I were asked to do the job, I'd be comparing my repair work to what was already there, I assume the other end of the table was just fine?

I am pretty sure I lost a recently quoted job because my expectations for finish were too high. Honestly not enough communication on my part with what they wanted and I think your problem falls in that as well. Not sure how much you talked to him on the phone, but if you were content with how the phone conversations went and honestly thought you were both on the same page, I'd be leaning toward leaving him the table without any further pay, especially if the other legs/welds you did are intact and show level of expected quality.

I see shoddy railing jobs walking around town that look better than that.

I agree with the other posters - Apologize to the customer, send a new table with some sort of bonus thrown in for the trouble, and offer the guy the old table or $100. Even that sounds a little steep - from what's left of those beads, it looks like there's some issues with lack of fusion. I'd sell all my equipment and get a job at Walmart before I took pride in that work.

EDIT: Thinking about it (probably shouldn't think too much over lunch), I think maybe this guy should be fairly compensated for his work. I mean, you must have sent him a drawing, right? Like this?



Only reason I can see to leave a surface finish like that on a piece where surface finish is so brutally apparent.

Awful work - I cannot imagine how he thought that acceptable. Have him return the table, he pays the shipping that you arrange. By coincidence it turns out to cost $300 for the return shipping ...

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I got to thinking, I really wonder if the pics posted on his website (I'm assuming that's where the "gallery" pics were) were his. I'm in the process of building a website and it's amazing what kind of pics you can select from.

The Dude

I'm pretty sure I would tell him he failed at making the welds look like the others, and that instead of paying him for work he didn't do I won't post a public review of his work, but that's just me. I'm also assuming you told him you want his welds to look like the welds that weren't damaged.

He was supposed to send me pictures before bringing the table over. Instead I just got an email from my customer stating how unhappy she was and I never even heard from this guy. I think we can all agree his work is terrible and he shouldn't have even thought to bring it to the customers like this, but does he deserve to be paid for what he did? If I were in his shoes, I would want a chance to redeem myself. I wouldn't charge more to fix the table like this guy is saying, but I would at least want a second chance. Not sure how I would feel if I was told I couldn't have a second chance and I wasn't being paid for what I did. I guess I do remember a time I made some parts for a customer that were out of spec and they never paid me for them or gave me a chance to remake them. I was upset, but I didn't feel like I was unjustly treated...