09-02-2008, 06:27 AM
Jay, I agree with your post 100%. LOL, I suppose I agree with it because that is how I think too.
A breach of contract lawsuit can be a real pain in the okole. All lawsuits can.
You said:
>>>Frankly, if someone wanted me to sign a contract for some trivial job of a day or two's work, I'd assume I was the one getting scammed, that they know there's some lurking problem like massive termite damage and they want me on the hook for it. That sort of thing does happen. . .and it starts off as an adversarial relationship.
Yes, and even though I'm kicking myself in retrospect for not getting the scope of the job in writing, this is the reason I didn't. It starts the relationship off with a declaration that "I don't trust you to come up here for three days and do what you're promising to do, so I need you to sign paper and nail it down."
Then the person gets freaked especially if not the most literate person, because for all he knows I am inserting little clauses that are going to entitle me to run him around.
I always try to engage people I know or that people close to me have worked with. That's my number one.
In this case I extended my trust to someone that a nice member of Punaweb has worked with more than once, and he didn't rip off the property or flake. If the person were consistent, it would have worked out. But he seems very Jekyll and Hyde.
I prefer to work with someone who actually posts on Punaweb and has a track record of his philosophy, such as yourself, and I'm sorry that I didn't call you, in hindsight. The reason I didn't is that you clearly do projects that are very artistic, which is usually a plus, but this was more about getting down and dirty getting rid of invasive ferns and tulip tree seedlings. Not rocket science and not even a design project.
I do take your words to heart about people who come to scout the property for theft. Lucky for me I don't live alone and my property has a nice attribute that a thief can't see if anyone is home until he dares to come up the driveway ... and normally someone is home and will be all over it. And we have a back neighbor, and we have a big farm next to us where our other neighbor works and can see what's up, and he's our friend. So we have a good deal of surveillance ... still, I don't just call people out of the newspaper.
Well, live and learn! I sure wish I hadn't let him cut up the materials I bought though. I let him so he could save the gas for one trip from Pahoa to north of Hilo ... but again, when in the midst of an amicable job, for me to take the position I didn't trust him to take the materials off property, which would have cost him $$ in gas and two hours drive time, would have made things appear adversarial rather than mutually beneficial. He DID bring the materials back, too. It's just that he cut the rebar too short for it to be useful.
Back to Jay -- thank goodness there is someone willing to do small kine stuff like fix a window ... those services are much needed! I KNOW you are not getting rich on jobs like that, but I hope rich in good karma. [
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A breach of contract lawsuit can be a real pain in the okole. All lawsuits can.
You said:
>>>Frankly, if someone wanted me to sign a contract for some trivial job of a day or two's work, I'd assume I was the one getting scammed, that they know there's some lurking problem like massive termite damage and they want me on the hook for it. That sort of thing does happen. . .and it starts off as an adversarial relationship.
Yes, and even though I'm kicking myself in retrospect for not getting the scope of the job in writing, this is the reason I didn't. It starts the relationship off with a declaration that "I don't trust you to come up here for three days and do what you're promising to do, so I need you to sign paper and nail it down."
Then the person gets freaked especially if not the most literate person, because for all he knows I am inserting little clauses that are going to entitle me to run him around.
I always try to engage people I know or that people close to me have worked with. That's my number one.
In this case I extended my trust to someone that a nice member of Punaweb has worked with more than once, and he didn't rip off the property or flake. If the person were consistent, it would have worked out. But he seems very Jekyll and Hyde.
I prefer to work with someone who actually posts on Punaweb and has a track record of his philosophy, such as yourself, and I'm sorry that I didn't call you, in hindsight. The reason I didn't is that you clearly do projects that are very artistic, which is usually a plus, but this was more about getting down and dirty getting rid of invasive ferns and tulip tree seedlings. Not rocket science and not even a design project.
I do take your words to heart about people who come to scout the property for theft. Lucky for me I don't live alone and my property has a nice attribute that a thief can't see if anyone is home until he dares to come up the driveway ... and normally someone is home and will be all over it. And we have a back neighbor, and we have a big farm next to us where our other neighbor works and can see what's up, and he's our friend. So we have a good deal of surveillance ... still, I don't just call people out of the newspaper.
Well, live and learn! I sure wish I hadn't let him cut up the materials I bought though. I let him so he could save the gas for one trip from Pahoa to north of Hilo ... but again, when in the midst of an amicable job, for me to take the position I didn't trust him to take the materials off property, which would have cost him $$ in gas and two hours drive time, would have made things appear adversarial rather than mutually beneficial. He DID bring the materials back, too. It's just that he cut the rebar too short for it to be useful.
Back to Jay -- thank goodness there is someone willing to do small kine stuff like fix a window ... those services are much needed! I KNOW you are not getting rich on jobs like that, but I hope rich in good karma. [
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