gunsmoke on 16/7/2009 at 13:44

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Damn, nigga you needs ta move.

Koki on 16/7/2009 at 18:29

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Amazingly, I still don't give a shit.

Because I'm not there.

Renzatic on 16/7/2009 at 18:33

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I'm currently going through the biggest business pain in the ass of my life at the moment. Things had been a little slow about 3 weeks ago, so I sent my salesman, a good friend of mine who has a gift for the art, out to do some lowball CCTV systems at little locally owned businesses and gas stations. Nothing too prestigious, but it'd make for some decent money in the meantime and make a couple people happy. Well, he got em. An entire chain of gas stations recently bought by an Indian family.

It sounded like a pretty simple series of jobs. 8 cameras each, simple computer system, just enough to catch a guy running off without paying for his gas or catch a crook robbing the front. I figured we'd be done with them in a week. My initial introduction with the owners went well enough. "I'm not satisfied until you're satisfied. We'll do whatever it takes to make you happy", I said. They smiled, nodded their heads, and then proceeded to take advantage of my good will over the course of the next three weeks.

So I said they'd be simple, right? It started out that way, but they decided they didn't like the lower end stuff we originally quoted them (they didn't want to pay much). So now half of these little stores have systems in them equivalent to what I've put into big 10,000 square foot warehouses. We've got one little place, about 400 square foot at the very maximum, so well covered you're seen on at least three screens at any given moment. We've upgraded the cameras twice, from they low res items we demoed for them and said they liked for the price, to these high dollar cameras that can pick the pubes off a fly's nuts from a million miles away and cost roughly three times as much. They want to record 24/7, so I had to upgrade them to 2TB of HDD space. They want 22' widescreen monitors in all the stores instead of the 19' 4:3s we originally provided. Why? I dunno. They look nice, I guess. We're talking complete overkill here. Systems in tiny little backwoods gas stations that rival the one I put into the damn Mercedes Benz dealership a couple months back.

Now this wouldn't be so bad if:

A. They stayed happy for more than 3 days. We're constantly being called to move something a little to the left, a little to the right, or all the way across a store. Sometimes they'll tell us exactly where to put something, we'll do it, then they'll turn around whining NO THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED AT ALL.

B. They're constantly asking for free stuff. Now I'm not too opposed to doing the occasional favor. It sometimes makes for good business. But when you ask me to upgrade all your cameras to models that cost three times as much...for free, I find myself getting a little irked. I don't care how many times they say "comeon, man. I scratch your back you scratch mine" and offer me up a box full of bootleg movies as payment, it ain't happening.

I haven't done any of the other jobs for 3 weeks due to trying to make them happy, and they still have yet to pay me because they're not happy. Right now, I'm glad I had the forethought to add a few appropriate lines to the contract before they signed, or I'd probably be severely screwed by all the confusion and discrepancies in the end.

They're about the most indecisive group people I've ever met. At least offset the annoyance by being polite about it.

Also, I've been working on (http://users.chartertn.net/greymatt/nouv_door.jpg) this in my spare time. 3D modeling always makes for good stress relief. Kinda makes me wish I did this for a living. :P

Renzatic on 16/7/2009 at 19:12

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You'll read it and LOVE IT! :mad:

june gloom on 16/7/2009 at 19:24

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Vhat a tweest!