The Workermonkey

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

People are amazing 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 7/19/2006 02:41:00 PM

I have this customer. It was one of the first jobs I got that I had quoted when I first started here. I was excited, this guy seemed cool, his project seemed easy, they liked the price and asked us to do it. Great. Well, it came at a time when we were very busy and no one in the shop wanted to touch this thing. I couldn't get the coil guy to coil the tube, I couldn't get tom to test it, I couldn't get anyone to actually work on it. Well, it came time to ship this thing back and we hadn't touched it. I begged Hot Bosses husband who does stuff for us to just take care of it, I had more important stuff to do. I was busy, and at this time a bunch of people were on vacation so I was running around like a maniac. Well, I like HB's husband do it and when it was done, it wasn't right, it didn't work and i was left with a bunch of crap i couldn't use. WTF.

at first, this customer was understanding. When we were 3 weeks late, and now that we were done, it didn't work, he was pissed. i didn't blame him. We kind of screwed him and did a shitty job of it. When our production meeting came around that week i asked everyone what i should do since i had everyone in the office in one place. My boss, Ken, literally said "who the fuck is (company name here), we shouldn't even be working on this". He told the foreman to stop working on it, mean while we're now very late, this guy has been screaming at me every day to get it done and i'm being told to not work on it. i told Ken that maybe he'd like to tell this customer what he just told me and he said to "forget about it, who cares about this guy? We've got other stuff thats due!"

well this was what really tipped me off with him. The next day he had told another crazy customer to come down and see what we're doing for them, well this guy showed up looking for my head on a platter, while Ken was nowhere to be found. i had a day from hell between the crazy guy yelling at me in person and the other crazy guy yelling at me over the phone. Ken called at the end of the day and i told him it was bullshit he had his guy come down and then didn't show up, him line was "I'm in NY, what do you want from me?" the least he could have done was tell me this guy was coming and then maybe scheduled it for a day he was going to be here, not one were i was already by myself in the office and stressed out. After he said that to me over the phone i was pissed, i told him so, nicely (really), and he rattled on about my other responsibilities around here, "yeah ken and you're not the only person i work for around here, i have other responsibilities too" and hung up on him.

well, when he got back on that Friday, i was asked to have a "meeting" with him and HB. it happened to be just after lunch so when Ken strolled in, i could tell he'd had a few drinks at lunch. Well he laid his case out, and ripped into me for not doing something else. i let him have it in return and made myself very clear. HB sat in amazement that i didn't take his shit and that i was actually 100% right about everything while Ken as woozy and just being a giant dick. After that, HB said she was going to have a talk with him about how he treats me. Since then, he's just not talked to me. Period, we don't even say hi in the morning. I've asked him for stuff in front of other people, and he stands there and claims its not his job, or he wants nothing to do with it. I've made a spectacle out of this in front of our secretary, she likes it. its funny.

well anyway, it was a shitty week capped off by a shitty boss and yells from a customer. we finally finished the thing, it took 3 more weeks, some expensive parts by another machinist and lots of angry phone calls. This job came back twice because of something stupid, and once because the customer thought they had not sent it back yet when really we turned it around before he noticed.

well, its been a few months and now this thing is broken again. I got a call from this crazy guy last week, when i picked up the phone and said hello, he stated his name plainly and all i could say was "oh". His response was "it leaks, I'm sending it back." me; "I can't argue with that" and we both hung up. This unit showed up on Friday. I've kind of stopped answering the phone at all because of a bunch of things, so now i just collect the 20 messages i have once a week and sort through them. Well, this guy has called and left 3 messages just today about his unit. The first one was simple enough, where is it, call me back. No problem. The second one was amazing, "matt, this shouldn't be that hard, all you have to do is the same thing you did last time and have it ready by Friday" the same thing we did last time? What you mean the project we bucked up and took weeks on, now is easy and has to be ready in 3 days? Not possible. The third call was just plain creepy. "matt, I know you're in today, why aren't you returning my phone calls, i don't appreciate this and it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling that you're working on my coil" wow. He knows I'm here? Huh.

well after this, i decided to call him back. When he answered the phone, everything was great. He was happy and understanding and i told him we might test it today but it certainly wasn't going to be ready by Friday, and maybe not even next week. He said "OK, but its for the power company and they're screaming for it because of all the heat" ok i understand all that, but this was the guy who hours earlier had said he knows where i am and sounded ready to rip me apart for not answering the phone. People are amazing.

wow reading back on this, its just a rant, with no point other then i deal with crazy people. And most of the stuff i wrote has nothing to do with that point. fuck. well it feel good to spit it all out somewhere, and at least some of you were suckers enough to read it. HA!

2 comments

"matt, I know you're in today, why aren't you returning my phone calls, i don't appreciate this and it doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling that you're working on my coil"

matt, beware. sexual predators come in all forms, not just on the internet.

but seriously, that sucks. glad you laced into that other guy though. and ranting is what the blogs are all about, feels good to get it out, eh?

an attorney for the adverse party in one of our cases was being a huge dick yesterday about when his client could come here for a deposition. it basically ended in him sending us a letter saying that our notice must be sent via certified mail, and he refuses to go pick up his certified mail. so we're slapping him with a motion to compel. it's just how we roll. he's gonna be pissed.

By  josh, at Wednesday, July 19, 2006 3:58:00 PM  

yeah, never piss off a lawyer, they can mess with you in ways we've never even dreamed of.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Wednesday, July 19, 2006 4:26:00 PM  

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