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How to dump a job that just sucks

ewlsey

Diamond
Joined
Jul 14, 2009
Location
Peoria, IL
We're about 30% of the way through a job that I just hate. Tedious little parts with way too many features. Everything has to look perfect. no crazy tolerances, but appearance parts suck. I should have doubled my quote.

At this point I know that following things:

1) It's taking forever
2) We're not making any money
3) They're still not going to be happy with it
4) I'm ready to be done with it

We have plenty of other work that I would rather be doing. This other work will make us more money. I don't like this customer anyway.

Job consists of about 30 part numbers in one assembly ranging from 50 pieces to 1000. We've run everything before in single quantities for prototypes. Now, the customer wants 5 complete assemblies ASAP. Apparently, they thought we would be done with the whole job by now, which is insane. We've been working on the project since the middle of January.

I figure that's about 9 weeks, or 45 working days. That means we would have to complete one whole part number every day and a half. That's just not feasible for a small shop. Not with finicky parts like this.

So, I'm thinking about bailing out. I've never done anything like that before, but I've really had enough with these guys.

Has anyone been in this situation? I suppose the honorable things to do would be to finish the job as quickly as possible and then ditch them. That's probably what we will have to do, but I'd rather just walk away. I'm even willing to take a lose on the parts that are completed.
 
As much as you hate to, finish the job then politely fire the customer. Maybe you could farm some of it out. I would not quit in the middle of the job, bad word travels 10x as fast and as far as a good word. If your average person has a bad experience with something they will tell anyone who will listen a good experience gets way less press.
 
Fire them after you get paid. If your terms are Net 30, sounds like they might pay after 90. (Everything's a rush except payment, BTDT.)

Subbing it out adds another level of uncertainty, and you'll no doubt lose more money.
 
I seem to go through this with every job ,I get all worked up half way through ,half hoping the customer will turn nasty so I can tell him where to stick it but always get through in the end, got a cheque through this morning which does help.
 
Eat it , be done with it , STUFF happens . Been in this business for decades , had several jobs , do me the same way . Its called (bad), experience my friend . Learn from your mistakes.

This. Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted.

I had a shop bail on me when it was too late to get them done elsewhere, I had an entire product line held up by that shop waiting for one part to be made, caused me great financial distress. I wouldn't do that to someone for anything except non payment.
 
Hope you're just venting. Also hope none of your customers are on this forum. Someone that gives up part way through a job will have on heeel of a hard time finding work once it gets out that you quit. Very bad idea.

Athack
 
We're about 30% of the way through a job that I just hate. Tedious little parts with way too many features. Everything has to look perfect. no crazy tolerances, but appearance parts suck. I should have doubled my quote. We have plenty of other work that I would rather be doing. This other work will make us more money. I don't like this customer anyway.

So, I'm thinking about bailing out. I've never done anything like that before, but I've really had enough with these guys.

Before you walk away you should call your other customers and explain your situation to them and the possibility that you could immediately become available to take on their work. They might like knowing that you could be available to do their jobs if you walk away from another job that you are dissatisfied with and apparently misquoted.
 
I seem to go through this with every job ,I get all worked up half way through ,half hoping the customer will turn nasty so I can tell him where to stick it but always get through in the end, got a cheque through this morning which does help.

Quoting too low will do that to you. You have to quote like you don't care if you get the job: that means, really high to keep it away, but at which price you will be delighted to do it; medium high: you make your standard shop rate for every hour worked; medium: you want to do the job competitively (and will toss in some hours) to keep it away from other shops; Low, let it go unless it is a really good match for your shop and can be made mostly with minimal attendance to machine/program tweaking.
 
Do you have an up-and-comer employee who would like to please the boss by shepherding the job through? I have done that, warning said employee up front that the customer is a PITA. The goal is to spread the pain, but with fair warning to those likely to feel the pain.
 
Sometimes you just need to hold your breathe and put your head in the bucket o shit........Finish the job......but if you are going to fire them when completed then take a deep breathe and go about the work at YOUR pace....no matter how much they scream and jump up and down. Sounds like the worst part is the stress on you.....no need to stress if you are firing them.
 
I don't understand this 'fire the customer' BS, that's a dumb approach.
Just be nice, explain the delays, beg for more time, and the NEXT time
they want a quote, or they place another order...

Adjust your price accordingly without drama.

They'll either pay the price you require and you'll make money on the job this time,
or they'll run like hell and you'll be rid of them anyway.

I used this on a customer about 2 months ago, raised the price about 60% on a PITA
repeat order for them, and they paid the invoice in 1 week, with no comments.
Now at the new price (I made good money at the old price) I'm OK with the job......
for now.

PS at some point in time, this customer might have OTHER work that IS desirable.
If you fire them, you won't get it...
Don't be to quick to shag customers in this economy.
 
If someone underbids or is struggling with my parts and they're honest and explain to me the issue, I'll give them the opportunity to re-quote or I'll find someone else to make them. If in the past they've delivered other good parts and these were different and gave them issues then I'd know next time not to send those types of parts. Honesty and a phone call goes a long way. Dumping the job in the middle without an explanation would not go over well.
 
if i'm the customer, and i needed that stuff right away, i'd have no problem with you calling me and explaining the situation and talking about money.

Sometimes with rush parts (from customer's perspective): time is greater than money.
 








 
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