How I wish I can say they keep taunting me to take it back to the streets and mean it.. Now this street isn’t the fashion streets…..no…. its rumble in the jungle type street. Its president bush when he saw sadam in detention (I can imagine he saw him) it’s the Republican Party when they realized a negro or a female might run the country.. lololol.. anyway get my drift somehow the general workforce in Nigeria lacks common sense..
Now I will give u 3 stories that have happened in the span of 2 months and one just got resolved today and the other yesterday. (06/09/09)
First is my carpenter.. now with this dude, there is a love hate relationship.. I never ask for much but neat work and u deliver when u say u will.. when u don’t, I take it personal and I think u should be penalized for everyday u don’t.. cuz business is all about that..
anyway when he eventually delivered my tables.. there were cracks all over the surface that he then glued down and painted over …. Now I am lookin at him like are u serious.. u will deliver a job that isn’t 100% and u expect to be paid ur money in full???.. now fast forwardin the story.. accordin to him the top layer of the table cracked/broke when he was transporting it from the supplier.. so I am sayin slow down .. u finished the body of the table then u decided to put a broken layer on it… ????? can u imagine that.. it’s like u ask to get ur windshield replaced.. u go to the shop and because one of the morons there cracked one while they were unloadin it they still install it in ur car and they don’t get why u r upset? Na wa o.. even the legs of the table move in different directions when u carry the table.. accordin to him it’s because he didn’t “permanent it”?well so the legs shouldn’t be stable? And now the latest thing he is up to now is one of the shelves wasn’t sprayed for insects. So now I have small creamish powder all inside? They don’t realize if u do something well once.. u enjoy the profit.. but when u go back to a job u lose profit and goodwill.
Next..
Then the printer who makes the shopping bags.. now this story is a little more heated. Now I was down to the last batch of shopping bags so I call the guy who has done all the other bags and say.. dude we need more bags pls organize it.. he agrees I deposit 60% in his acct and balance upon delivery.. this was April 15 and its tops a 2 wks job… well this is his initial story.. the bags were incorrectly done but he doesn’t want to deliver a substandard product. I am like makes sense I won’t even take crap from u .. so get it right and get it done…. Now I asked him what the balance was and he is like a ridiculous amount.. I am like what r u talkin about he says I asked him to do 400 bags.. I am like na mennnn. I asked for 250 like we always do . u will get the correct balance when the job is done.. so already the dude was tryin to play me…
then a few wks after I get another call and he is like the bags will be ready he names a day.. a few days pass and we are on another story.. sayin of O god. The printers messed the bags up again but no worries by Monday it will be sorted out.. so accordin to him now that’s 2*400 bags that were ruined and not only that 2 separate jobs.. and I am like wow.. this dude must really think I am a punk .. but I am maintainin thinkin a reasonable man will eventually deliver… then next thing was he wasn’t pickin my calls.. then the next I heard was his phone was stolen.. wks passed me and I am boiling thinkin.. the least he can do is call or come to the shop.. explain his situation, I will most likely get upset but I am a reasonable man.. well he doesn’t call. Now the guy was still goin to get jobs at my cousins place so randomly I call and he was there and I did the.. “now I will catch him dance and sped there.. ( I wasn’t too far away .. I get there and u should have seen him sink in the chair.. so I am like mr man so what is the problem now. No call nothing.. no bags .. a month has passed n u r playin me like this.. what’s even more annoyin isn’t the money already deposited .. the bags were worth more to me in the store than the cost .. I needed to be able to give customers the whole experience.. anyway sha a few yellin and I am tellin him he has lost any future business with me.. cuz this isn’t a good look.. my cousin gets in cuz he is the same way with her.. now the dudes’ mentality is he uses new customers money to finish old job but somehow accordin to him he is cash strapped now meanin my job isn’t goin anywhere.. and he needed to be advanced.. imagine that bs…. I gave u money to do my job. Somehow u messed up and now since u don’t have money( accordin to u) my job and customer will pay for it….. they are all the same… the resolution now is he brings them by Saturday.. but btw u and I.. I honestly don’t think so. So Saturday has passed no call I call him and he is like he promise Tuesday that they are workin on the bags.. storiesss mehn
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Now the story of my tailor.. well this one I threatened and I took it personal.. I told him I quote “ I don’t have money oh.. but believe me I will spend money to find u and lock u up” this isn’t about money this is now principles and the balls u think u have to treat someone like this..” I swear to u I will spend money to make sure u r locked up” I am sure they were empty promises but these ppl turn u into monsters. U know it’s like u somehow thinkin hmm if I have a lion as a pet u know if I show it love and try to train it, it won’t one day kill me. We settle too much in this country.. and we are constantly fighting….. u will get charged exorbitantly to get things done right the first time but a more reasonable cost will cost u more in time and a few headaches if u r lucky.
So what’s the story with this one .. u know we have an NS linen.. so the tailor is in Ibadan.. now the linen isn’t on the top of my list of things to do eventho there are demands for it.. I just tell ppl my focus is now on t-shirts.. my in law was around and he needed to take some back with him this was sometime in April.. so I say ait no biggie I will try to see what I can do.. and being that the tailor is always callin me to see if I wanted to make more I asked him to come to lagos… anyway he comes we went to the market together.. I buy enough materials for 25 pieces 3 different sizes( side story the last order we did of 15pieces I believe were suppose to be of different sizes med, large and xl… they all came out the same size…. I realized it only at customers place L ) back to my story so he tells me 2 wks. He has ppl workin for him..
I say no p.. but pls make a trip next wk to at least give my in law the ones he needs.. the guy agrees..and I fall back and try to handle ns naija. So wks pass then I’d call him and most times he doesn’t pick up. When he does he pretends the phone isn’t clear and then I end up hangin up out of frustration.. so wks pass I eventually get thru he tells me he is in bayelsa …. What? I asked him for what he said work ??? first of all that’s like u r a pizza delivery guy in MD and somehow u head to ATL for a job and u def drove there.. I am sayin dude u had a job on ur hand unfinished and now u r runnin to get other ones.. he assures me his boys have been trained and they are workin on it… so days passed and when he gets back he tells me my job wasn’t touched that he has just 6 done… this is like 2wks ago meaning late may. anyway we make another plan that he should pls finish what he can and bring em to lagos.. now I had 5 ppl askin for the tops and I told them I’d get some last wkend.. storieeeeess. So I call the guy and he is sayin he is lookin for money to come to lagos … n I am like dude y didn’t u call me, I would have sorted that out.. at this point I just wanted my materials back and u kinda have to be calm to lure them back in otherwise he is gone forever.. plus I have no clue where he stays…. Fastword yesterday.. I call him and ask him so what’s the deal now. And he is tellin me he has decided to continue with the job and he has cut all the materials and he needs 2 more wks.. this is when I flip out and I made him promises of problems… I gave u the job mid April and now u r tellin me this nonsense
So the solution was for him to just go drop off what he has done at the house in IB and he will be sorted out his balance. now based on what he has done he owes me cuz the deposit I gave him covers a lot more than what he produced.. he initially claimed he had finished 12 pieces.. turns out he finished 6 cut 4 and 2 needs some work…. So that’s 12 pieces out of 25. Welcome to Nigeria oh…
Now one thing that is common thru out all the stories is lack of common sense and just some mentality that the customer isn’t king once u have the money and the job…
