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Vent: a job site in Tucson taught me to write down every verbal promise, after losing $1,800 | Anonymous Work Confessions - Rigidtalk

the_dylan•8d ago

Vent: a job site in Tucson taught me to write down every verbal promise, after losing $1,800

Last month I was on a site in Tucson doing punch list work, and the lead guy there shakes my hand and says "don't worry about the little stuff, just get the big pieces done and we'll square up later." I take him at his word, put in about 22 extra hours over three days patching and touching up stuff that was never on the original quote. When Friday comes, he's gone, and the office tells me they never authorized any of it, so that $1,800 just evaporates. I've been burned before, but this one stung because I could see it coming and still didn't stop to get it in writing. What kills me is I had my phone in my pocket the entire conversation, could've sent a two line text saying "confirming those extra hours" and he probably would've replied "you bet." I told my brother about it and he said that's just how the trades go, but I don't buy that, I think we just don't protect ourselves because it feels rude or whatever. Now I keep a little notebook in my chest pocket and I write the date and time and what was said, and if someone promises money I screenshot the text. It's not that I don't trust people, it's that memories change when the invoice shows up. Has anyone else had a foreman or manager promise one thing face to face and then act like it never happened, and did you ever get them to pay up?

1 comments

1 Comment

sarah_kelly786d ago

Man, come on now, that is just not how business works and deep down you know it. A handshake and a "we'll square up later" is worth exactly nothing when the invoice lands on a desk, and the office guy who never heard the promise is not going to hand over $1,800 because you say a foreman said so. Think about it from their side, they have a quote, you did work outside that quote, and now they have zero paper trail showing they agreed to pay for it, so of course they say no. If you want to get paid you have to make it their problem to say no in writing, not your problem to prove a conversation happened. Your brother is basically right that this is how the trades go, the only part he got wrong is that it is on you to fix it, not on the trade to change.