Leaving jobs before completion

D Skelton said:

Work ain't the issue. Got plenty of it. Money ain't the issue either. Got plenty coming in.

It's as if I feel some sort of moral obligation towards the fella.

Weird seeing as that ain't the sort of person I normally am.

Usually, burning bridges is something I find solace in.

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Then you need to search long and hard to find the real reason you're feeling this way and only then can you decide whether to stay or go!

Quite apt given the circumstances
[video]https://youtu.be/xMaE6toi4mk[/video]

Leesparkykent said:

I think this would be best, apart from the last bit lol

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Oh I don't know - I thought the last bit was the best! :devil2:

my penny worth is walk away head held high and look forward to the next difficult client with the Knowledge from the the last noob

Ive got one on the go atm who is a total xxxx and going to court over £150 quid after £5k job completed 6 months ago

I went self employed so I could choose my client, choose the work and enjoy life. I don't take %hit from anyone nowadays and would not think twice about dropping a difficult client. If the monies are tied off its a no brainer. Un=reasonable people have a reputation themselves so would not worry about him bad mouthing, could even be a perverse recommendation. lol - BTW , wheres the job...lol

Your not a registered charity, that's a vat number on your invoice.
Your in business to provide a professional service at a fair price and to date that's exactly what you have done.
Its all even at the moment, don't let your heart rule your head on this one.
Weigh up pro's and cons, put your points to him, if he's giving off bad vibes, walk away, and tell him why.
But do not go too deep into his pocket, that's when it comes right back and bites you on the proverbial.
My thoughts for what its worth Skelts.

Marvo said:

Well you're in a very fortunate position that you can make this decision without financial implications of almost certainly not getting any monies that are owed if you decide to call it quits.

I'm sure you know there's no right or wrong answer, only your gut feel. You'll probably laugh but sometimes if I'm in the kind of position you are at the moment I do a full risk assessment. List the worse case scenario if you carry on with the job and it goes south then figure out what you'll stand to lose. Then look at the general trend of the deterioration of the relationship over the last few days or weeks and based on that make an educated prediction on how likely it will be that you will be able to finish the job and get paid given the history so far. Weigh the likelyhood of a premature departure along with the worst case cost scenario and shoot the b'stard!!

We've prematurely parted company with clients a couple of times in the last 10 years and I don't regret either instance. At least if you are the one who decides to pull the plug you get the opportunity to exercise some damage control before you inform the customer.

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The AutoGeordie correct has corrected this for you at no charge to yourself.

If you have a one to one site meeting he might "have an accident" that might make him rethink his position and his attitude to you Damian. Dangerous places them building sites mate, you never know what's waiting for you just around the corner

trev said:

If you have a one to one site meeting he might "have an accident" that might make him rethink his position and his attitude to you Damian. Dangerous places them building sites mate, you never know what's waiting for you just around the corner

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lol...

Sleeping on it is always a good idea.

Marvos suggestion of a written risk assessment is also very good.

The act of writing it down clarifies your thoughts etc. etc.

You mention that you are feeling bad for the guy even though he's being a prize muppet.

Is he behaving out of character due to the stress of the situation?

Or is he just a prize muppet and you are being uncharacteristically kind natured.

D Skelton said:

As the title, anyone here got experience of leaving jobs part way through?

I've a client we've been doing some major work for that is pi$$ing me right off. Making all sorts of unreasonable demands and is now saying that the work he's been really happy with up to now is a load of crap and has taken us too long and cost him too much. All payments so far are up to date so I'm not out of pocket, but in his mind I'm being unreasonable, in my mind he's being unreasonable.

I'd rather do without the aggro so have essentially told him to find someone else to second fix the project as I'm no longer interested. Things is, if I bail, he's pretty much buggered as he'll have to find another spark to start in a weeks time which is highly unlikely.

That im not so much bothered with, but it's the bovine excrement he's likely to start spreading about me that I am.

I can go into real detail if anyone wants.

Any thoughts?

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Leave him hanging, mate......who's to say he's not going muck spreading even if you do complete.....I think the odds are he might.

I was subbying for a sparks who had problems with a customer, loads of aggro and relations between the customer and the sparks deteriorated completely. Eventually due to payment not being received on time we left the site. The customer tried to get another sparks to finish the job but obviously found it difficult to say the least.

So a project manager was called in. He liased with the customer in regard to every question and relayed that to us, the sparks and the customer would not even talk relations were that bad. The project manager was also impartial and if the customer was wrong, he would tell them so. An agreement was put into place that we would spend 3 days a week on site with payment before we came back. The project manager had the final say on the amount billed for and if it was correct for the work done according to the sparks initial quotation.

The job got completed, everyone got paid and although the customer doesnt know it, the sparks and the project manager were actually doing the customer a favour by trying to get the job completed. This worked out so well that the customer even called the sparks a few months later to do some more jobs! The sparks declined, he didnt burn any bridges as he told them he was busy for at least 3 months.

So maybe you and the customer should get an impartial advocate to liase between yourself with regular payments (maybe even daily) to limit any potential losses- the customer pays the avocate!!!

Karma says walk away.

ive walked away from jobs and declined work and it's never hurt me. I ain't a charity.

Regardless of anything else, if he has resorted to insulting your family, I would walk away whilst the going is good.

You could do this politely and offer to spend a day with the new contractor to show them how you've wired the job - payment for your time in advance of course.

I think it's possibly best to finish what you started to just keep your name clean.

Talking of annoying customers, I put a mirror in a bathroom this afternoon, electric illuminated thing.

Anyway, it was 600mm wide and 2mm lower on the right hand side, my god the customer kicked off big time, I explained it was quite tricky due to the plasterboard fixings etc Nd lack of adjustment. I did offer to have another go at fixing it but doubted I could get it any better, it looked absolutely fine, but all he would say is that he has an eye for lines and it's not straight.