Suspicious

[mreynolds]

Here is an interesting little twist to our building project. We decided to go with an ICF foundation and I called a dealer we met a year ago for a quote. This was 2-3 months ago. Within two weeks from that contact we had a printed list of all the materials we would need, it was very detailed and I decided that we would go with them. Well as we got down to the wire, I wanted to have the ICF stuff on site as soon as the footers we done(last Monday). So I am calling him daily about 3 weeks ago not having a good feeling about things (Couple days would span between him returning my calls). Well it turns out he hadn't even reviewed our plans since we sent them, months ago. So I went to a home show, found some other dealers and got some quotes. The last straw was I called him a week ago last Monday, left a message for a bottom line price and he made no contacts for 10 days!!!!! In the mean time within three days I had everything I needed to purchase a competitors wall system, and the deal was done. We purchased it and we have a delievery date schedule directly from the manufacture. So comes this morning, I get an email from the original guy stating he was in a car wreck and just out of the hosipital, I would like to believe him, but he lives 2 hours away. Either way it is too late for him. Here is what I don't get, he mentioned before how they are selling lots of wall systems, they opted not to go to a regional home show because they were so busy. If your business is growing and you are so busy you can't get back to everyone, why don't you hire a secretary? If you can't get to venues where you can push your product isn't this a problem? The worse part is that they are selling a product, one or two consults and then let someone else do the grunt work of ordering and setting up delievery. Just had to vent a little :evil: .

[roger g]

It must be a bitching morning for me today. I guess I am very time oriented ( my wife hates it) and when I say I'm going to be at certain place at a certain time I move heaven and earth to get there even at the expense of a lot of other things. I f by some shear fluke I am late or can't get there (very rare) I appolgize profusely. And I mean it! I return every message. I never let anyone wait. I'm always concerned about "the other" person. I've told my wiffe many times that if she worked for me I woud have fired her 30 years ago. Some people have no clue about time and how it affects others. I even have friends who expect YOU to be on time but not themselves.
I' ve come to realize that you can't expect people to think the way you do or even have the same expectations. They are not going to change and neither are you . I've driven off leaving my wife as she was still getting ready even though she had just said " I'm ready!" I paid dearly for that!
I now say to be people: I went somewhere else because you didn't respond in time. or I left because I thought you weren't coming. or you think your time is more valuable than mine so I'll give you more of your time because I'm going elsewhere.
Never ever presume people think the same way. I remember taking a management course and we were all told to think of an apple. You would think that we would and could all think of the same thing. WRONG! Some people thought of red apples, some green. Some visualized eating one others a pie or an orchard, smell etc etc. Everyones brains are screwed on by different threads.


Roger

[mreynolds]

That seems to be the root of the education I am getting working as a general contractor for my house. As I call around and get quotes, there is such a difference in the service you get from person to person. I got a reference on one of the well quotes and I was told by more than one person, if you have this indivudal work for you, they will show up the first day and disappear for 2-3 weeks on other projects. Either way, you are right, we all have these expectations we carry and that seems to be important factor in deciding who we pay to carry out services. Like grumpy mentioned with the subs on the roofing jobs, he expected them not to be there on one day, but when they disappeared for 3 days someting was up. I really came out smelling like a rose on this one, we got a product that is easiser to use, less bracing and reinforcement, and it's $1000.00 less.

[Rich]

Is what it says to me is that my time is not important to that person... and they have a lack of respect for my time. I don't deal with it either.. on to the next one. I've fired many subcontractors and arch/eng firms because of it.
I have zero tolerance for it.

[grumpydasmurf]

I dont believe in home shows so weather busy or slow I probably wouldn't advertise in one.

If he is as busy as he claims I think he should have a secretary.

Your calling around for quotes, your architect should have specified what needs to be done and everyone would bid on the same thing.

[mreynolds]

As far as the quotes go, it wasn't rocket science, thats why I couldn't understand why it was so heard, 9 feet tall, 54 feet long and 34 feet wide. We kind of dropped the ball in the beginning because we talked to this guy and had a "good impression". As far as the home show, I could see how it would be a waste of your time, as that survey mentioned, word of mouth is most important. But in this guys case, his market is different. The most common foundations in this area are block and poured wall. The precast concrete is becoming more commonly accepted because of the speed factor(4-5 to erect your whole basement), but the ICF's are still not commonly used.

We found them apealing because they were
1. cheaper than the precast
2. Have higher insulating values
3. Similar in price to having a regular poured wall, but added value with built in furring stips and insulation
4. Can erect forms in 2 days and pour the walls in 2-3 hours.

So in the home show sense, this is were they can reach the residential market and hit consumers who thought they didn't have any other options. I was seriously considering pouring the whole house from concrete, but I don't have the guts to pull it off.

[grumpydasmurf]

Home shows are good for people with unique products or services IMO.

[mack]

In my experience, home owners who are their own GC's don't get near the same consideration as GC's or CM's who do it for a living.