10/02/2015
I ran into a situation today, that really pi**ed me off. Because I have a small dog, I usually keep, a gate across the double door entrance of my shop, with a sign indicating, that if the gate is blocking the entrance, for the visitor, to HONK their horn, or call my business phone number. Today, my dog "Critter", cut loose barking profusely, I went to see what her problem was, and see a person walking around the side of my building. He had entered a non-public door, and walked around in my living quarters. When I called out to him, he exited my living quarters, and proceeded toward his truck, that was parked on the road shoulder near my mail box. (an area, not normally used by a customer of my business). When I called out to him, he reluctantly approached my main entrance, and when asked what he wanted, and why did he enter my business as he did, he responded that he didn't see my main entrance. Come on people. Look at my photo above. How do you miss such an entrance? He then claimed, he was a "Contractor", and needed some "Court Room Benches" refinished. He wanted to know my "Price" for such a project. I responded with "How many, How long are the benches, What finish is on the pieces now, Typical questions, to determine what would be involved in such a project. He appeared reluctant, to answer my questions, giving me vague responses to my questions. Because of his disregard for my shop integrity, by entering by other than my main entrance, and his vague responses to my questions about project needs, I told him, that I wasn't interested in working with/for him. I do not deal with any third party interests when doing my work of repairing/restoring furniture. I take in jobs, only requested, by the actual owner of the piece. When I told the man (whom throughout the entire encounter, never identified himself to me, nor did he tell me the name of his business) When I told him I was not interested in working any projects for him, he got incensed and proclaimed "I'm a Contractor", I told him, his self-proclaimed title made no difference to me who he was, and I demanded he leave. He left my shop, proclaiming that "you'll never see any work from me", which actually pleased me. My reason for this long dissertation, is that from my view, for him to gain entrance to my business by trying to enter through an open back door to my building, and his not identifying himself to me, by name and or business card, caused me to question his validity. To me, his actions were suspicious, and insulting to me. His reluctance to respond to give me details of the project, namely quantity of items to be restored, condition of the pieces, how they were currently finished, and other details I needed to estimate costs and charges needed to be developed for the project, I felt the man was phony. I have no reason to do work for any "Contractor", who tries to get a special price, represent that the work was his, and charge his client above what I felt the work to be valued at. I feel people who represent themselves as he did, are leeches on the trade.. They never fulfill their end of a contract, and usually the craftsman is left holding the bag. No Sir. I may have lost money by not taking his project, but to me, I've limited my loses by turning the man away.
