# know-it-all customer



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

well im installing two metal roofs, side by side, on two homes, only problem is that every day i get to hear from a old, 75 + years, retired guy who had a small plumbing company when he was young, tell me how i should do this and do that, one suggestion is that i should carry a few of every shingle and tile on my truck so i could just pull up to a job and fix it right then. told him that would be a very large truck to do that, semi truck. i tell you that after 6 hours in the arizona heat im in no mood for any know-it-all telling me how i should do things. two more days and im done. well theres a thought, when im done i can tell him what he should do, PAY ME, lol, just venting. some of these people are a joke, why dont you do this, why dont you do that, i say, why dont i just get the job done.


----------



## ReubenD (Sep 22, 2014)

LOL - yes - It is great when they hire you to do something they cannot do themselves and then spend the whole time telling you how you should be doing it. Makes me wonder why they are hiring me if they know so much more about it then me......


----------



## 1985gt (Dec 21, 2010)

I've had to ask people to shut up. I've had to ask people to get off of their own roof before also. "sir while I understand you want to watch us do the job and make sure it's done properly. Our insurance would have a fit if you were injured during our course of work."


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

get this, he use to have his own plumbing business, employees and all. told me yesterday if a customer tells me what he thinks i should do i should listen to them. i asked if, when he was doing his job, a customer told him how to do it would he listen, he quickly said yes, i then thought, whaoo that customer would think = what a idiot to know i have to tell him how to do his job. that customer wouldnt have much confidence in him. i told him when a potential customer starts telling me how to do what im telling him, or her, need to be done i simply say = your just wasting my time and walk away, i usually dont make it to my truck door before they change there mind. and if they insist, after signing a contract, for me to do it a certain way, and they never have, id say = ok, bring out the contract and we will add to it, = there is NO WARRANTY on this work because it is the owners request to do it, i think that would stop them right away, in fact when i told him this he shut-up right away. hes harmless and pays right away, together both jobs total $15,000.00, so i can tolorate it for another day, then im finished. reminds me of the contractor that insisted on no metal drip edge on a stucco house with a tile roof. i told him the water is going to go right in there, he didnt care, he liked the looks of it with out it. like i said, one more day and i get my balance, then im DONE.


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

and yeah, telling yu how it should be done sometimes can take a hour, i figure = GET IT DONE, then we can bit*h about it and talk about how it could of been done better, mean while its DONE.


----------



## 1985gt (Dec 21, 2010)

Not a lot of things are worse then a customer telling you how to do your job and you are sweating your ass off all day for him. The thing is, if he knows how something should be done why is he paying you to do it? 

I'm guessing just a old man with nothing better to do now? Sometimes they aren't bad, sit there quietly and watch you work, maybe every once and awhile ask you a question. But then there is the case like yours.


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

just bugging me is all. point is he says it looks real good.


----------



## roofermann (Jul 7, 2012)

We had a retired couple set up lawn chairs under the shade tree and watch with binoculars, I was thinking "oh no, one of THOSE customers". Asked a few valid questions during the day and bought pizza and beer for the whole crew when we finished. You never can tell.....:thumbup:


----------



## Seabreezeroofing (Oct 15, 2014)

That sucks but its part of the deal. Keep your cool and be professional. These people are so used to getting jerked around by out competition that I can empathize with their relentlessness to micromanage evey little detail. http://www.seabreezeroof.com


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

well i messed up and forgot to order 8 = 7' panels, no big deal because i did charge for the small section, just messed up on the order, anyway it gave him a week to look things over while i waited for the panels. guess he was happy, as i was cleaning up he came outside with a check for me.


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

had another pain, retired contractor form Hawaiian, gave him a price, figured out per square what i was charging, ordered one square less, no waist with dimensional shingles, he noticed it and mentioned it. but as i was putting the ridge on it went over and put a check in my truck. so some of them start out with a = i dont want you to make any money attitude, but in the end they change there mind and everything is good. either that or the fact that i wear my 45 on my hip the last day, just kidding.


----------



## ReubenD (Sep 22, 2014)

The customers that I hate the most are the ones that still insist on a layover and explain in great detail why I can just lay new shingles without stripping off old first. I will not do it anymore as ALWAYS turned into a problem down the road but we get that a lot. 

Last post also reminded me of all the engineers and math wizards- when they decide to do the math and cannot understand why I say we need more than the exact square footage of shingles. "My roof is 1600 square feet- I am not paying for more shingles than that"....


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

yeah hear you. use to love it when i had a bundle or two left over, hey im getting credit for them right ?, i say = funny when there are left over shingles abut when im short i never seem to remember any home owner saying = hey let me pay you for that, yeah thats a dream. i just tell them its much easier for me to take back a bundle or two then to go and get one to finish. they understand. anyone that would ever tell me they were going to only pay for the square footage they have, well i tell them that they can then pay some one else, that usually does the trick. where i live, mohave valley arizona, we have a lot of rich weekenders, we have the colorado river and a lot of casinos across the river in nevada, and most of them are only here for the weekend, that way they dont know how long the job takes or what is used, makes it nice. as for removing the old three tab shingle to install new dimensional shingles, well i tell them thats up to them, ive seen a lot, and i mean a lot, of reroofs over three tabs with dimensional shingles and the roofs are 15 years old or more, look like they held up perfect. when they hear the extra cost most say go over it. one thing we do is roof around the flashing like the original roof, not like the old days with the good old roofing cement smeared around them. the less roofing cement the less chance of a leak down the road. that and paint the flashing to match the roof. still like working for so many different types of people, make my job interesting, and i only have to deal with them for a couple days.


----------



## rodash (Feb 8, 2015)

The retired ones are the worst because they're at home all the time. The clients that go to work are my favorites.


----------



## Hardt Roofing (Feb 7, 2015)

Great to see you got paid! I found that after the client starts that, there is nothing I can do but listen and keep my commits as limited as possible. Yes no yes no yes ok 

Here is what I can't stand, the client starts the old " can you do this while your here "
Change Order ! 
If I give in and do one thing without charging, it's over, they wont stop.
I getting better @ saying nothing is free, but it still is hard.
Anyways hang in there, there are a lot of great customers don't let the 1 out of 10 get you down.www.hardtroofing.com


----------



## hotrodo351 (Mar 18, 2012)

agree, has that problem a while back. did a metal roof and the clown decided to go on the internet and see how they do them in other parts of the country, hey why dont you do this, or why dont you do this, finally i explained to him i hadent charge for all these accessories he thought he should get and would be happy to do them, just pay for them, that changed his mind. that guy just scr*wed himself because no one else here does metal roof and now his garage needs to be done, NOT BY ME. tole him good luck finding someone. also agree about the 1 in 10, or even 20, that are a pain.


----------



## Maxon100 (Feb 11, 2015)

HAHA:laughing: Yep we get this a lot too. I found that if you just listen to them but don't really say anything useful back they stop after a few hours. But sometimes they just keep going. Either way you're making money so thats all that matter. :thumbup:

http://stormproofroofing.org/


----------

