RANDOM THOUGHTS #68
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself.
1. Being a success is a matter of defining goals. If your only goal is to show up at the office with a pulse, you can still be a genius when you achieve your goal.
2. I finally got to see the first episode of GRIMM and found it very entertaining. It's basically a rehash of Buffy with some more realistic combat and a couple of ideas borrowed from Charmed. (Some would say it's darker.)
3. The Gold Mining Morons are back in Alaska for another season of trying to find, well, gold. I know that my health could not stand the trip, but gosh, I wish I were with them! Being an engineer, and a successful business owner and military unit leader, I suspect I could set them right and point out some logical flaws in their plans. Leanna would never have let them miss a lease payment.
4. In a recent conversation, a friend who is a skilled tradesman remarked that times were tight and he wished that Company A would pay him for the work he had done. I asked him when was the last time he had asked them for payment, and he said he had never talked to them. This sent up a curious eyebrow, and he said that the original work order had come from Company B, which had paid half of the bill up front, but told him that Company A would pay the other half on completion. Repeated contacts with Company B had yet to produce any reason why Company A had not mailed a check.
I pointed out that he should never have undertaken the work without talking to Company A, seeing as how they were going to pay for half of it. (Just a friendly "nice to be working for you great guys" note would have been sufficient to trigger a response that would have signaled go-ahead or ask more questions.) He said that this wasn't necessary as both companies were highly respected local businesses that had a reputation for always paying their bills. I pointed out that, obviously, something was wrong, and pushed him to contact company A. He whipped out his smart phone, looked up their number, and contacted them.
Turns out, Company A had been trying to contact him, but not to find out where to send the check. It seems that the work was part of a deal that Company A and Company B were negotiating, but the negotiations were never finished and the deal is currently more or less dead (meaning that the work my friend did will never be used). Company A pointed out that as it had never signed the contract, had never authorized the work, and the work was not satisfactory, it was not actually obligated to pay him at all. Company A suggested that since Company B had told him to do the work, he should look to Company B for the other half of his payment. (Even if the work was not needed, Company B, alone, had entered into the verbal contract for it to be done. Company B had no authority to bind Company A to a contract.)
A few more increasingly upsetting phone calls, and more information came out. Company B had not told Company A that my friend had been hired until the work was complete. Company A said that if they had been asked before the work had been started, they would have pointed out some unusual special requirements (which my friend was never told about). Even if the contract were to be signed now, the work has been wasted and would have to be done over. (As Company B did not communicate the special requirements, Company A says Company B should pay. Company B says that Company A never told them there were any special requirements. Company A says it would have brought these up if Company B had done what the unsigned draft contract required and consult them before any outside contractors were hired.)
This sent up another red flag for me. Where there other outside contractors that Company B had (in their enthusiasm for the project) hired before the deal was signed? It wasn't my job to get involved in this, but I suggested a few lines of inquiry and it developed that there were three more people, hired, by Company B with the understanding that Company A would pay some percentage of the bill (in one case, all of it). All three of these people had done some things (ordering materials that might or might not be usable elsewhere). I'd say that Company B can expect to spend some time in small claims court after a judge tells the contractors (including my friend, who still won't believe it) that Company A never had a contract with them.
1. Being a success is a matter of defining goals. If your only goal is to show up at the office with a pulse, you can still be a genius when you achieve your goal.
2. I finally got to see the first episode of GRIMM and found it very entertaining. It's basically a rehash of Buffy with some more realistic combat and a couple of ideas borrowed from Charmed. (Some would say it's darker.)
3. The Gold Mining Morons are back in Alaska for another season of trying to find, well, gold. I know that my health could not stand the trip, but gosh, I wish I were with them! Being an engineer, and a successful business owner and military unit leader, I suspect I could set them right and point out some logical flaws in their plans. Leanna would never have let them miss a lease payment.
4. In a recent conversation, a friend who is a skilled tradesman remarked that times were tight and he wished that Company A would pay him for the work he had done. I asked him when was the last time he had asked them for payment, and he said he had never talked to them. This sent up a curious eyebrow, and he said that the original work order had come from Company B, which had paid half of the bill up front, but told him that Company A would pay the other half on completion. Repeated contacts with Company B had yet to produce any reason why Company A had not mailed a check.
I pointed out that he should never have undertaken the work without talking to Company A, seeing as how they were going to pay for half of it. (Just a friendly "nice to be working for you great guys" note would have been sufficient to trigger a response that would have signaled go-ahead or ask more questions.) He said that this wasn't necessary as both companies were highly respected local businesses that had a reputation for always paying their bills. I pointed out that, obviously, something was wrong, and pushed him to contact company A. He whipped out his smart phone, looked up their number, and contacted them.
Turns out, Company A had been trying to contact him, but not to find out where to send the check. It seems that the work was part of a deal that Company A and Company B were negotiating, but the negotiations were never finished and the deal is currently more or less dead (meaning that the work my friend did will never be used). Company A pointed out that as it had never signed the contract, had never authorized the work, and the work was not satisfactory, it was not actually obligated to pay him at all. Company A suggested that since Company B had told him to do the work, he should look to Company B for the other half of his payment. (Even if the work was not needed, Company B, alone, had entered into the verbal contract for it to be done. Company B had no authority to bind Company A to a contract.)
A few more increasingly upsetting phone calls, and more information came out. Company B had not told Company A that my friend had been hired until the work was complete. Company A said that if they had been asked before the work had been started, they would have pointed out some unusual special requirements (which my friend was never told about). Even if the contract were to be signed now, the work has been wasted and would have to be done over. (As Company B did not communicate the special requirements, Company A says Company B should pay. Company B says that Company A never told them there were any special requirements. Company A says it would have brought these up if Company B had done what the unsigned draft contract required and consult them before any outside contractors were hired.)
This sent up another red flag for me. Where there other outside contractors that Company B had (in their enthusiasm for the project) hired before the deal was signed? It wasn't my job to get involved in this, but I suggested a few lines of inquiry and it developed that there were three more people, hired, by Company B with the understanding that Company A would pay some percentage of the bill (in one case, all of it). All three of these people had done some things (ordering materials that might or might not be usable elsewhere). I'd say that Company B can expect to spend some time in small claims court after a judge tells the contractors (including my friend, who still won't believe it) that Company A never had a contract with them.
posted by Federation Commander at 10:35 PM
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