Hey all, new to the forum.
New to Central BC and worked hard in winter sales to get spring going.
Was approached by a man who wanted his house wired for
- 13 zone Concerto - 7 keypads
- 2 home theatres - up and down
- 13 phone lines
- 7 HD satellite locations
- 5 data locations

So I (being from South Ontario), called an old aquaintance of mine to assist in the prewire of this job. He agreed and I gave him the contact info of my client to see if anything may have been overlooked.
John in Ontario, convinced my client to send him $15,000.00 at that moment to buy all gear needed to do the work. Also needed airfare, etc.
John told me that he had invoiced already and had recieved the money.
John told me that he would split 50/50 minus gear, airfare ...
I was upset but needed to continue to impress this builder who does great work.
We got the prewire done, recieved $2000.00 and was told the rest is coming.
I knew there was a trim out to do so I continued through my other jobs and one night I got a call from "John", "I spent the money on a new ensuite".
$15,000.00 minus $3000.00 minus $2000.00 = $10,000.00
I still had $3000.00 coming to me. - Gone
I explained to the client that he sent the money into a bonfire and as I was not on the hook per se, I told him we would work it out and he could and will sue John.
I worked for about 5 days, tweaking here and there, running to get new parts, advising and answering questions patiently not recieving but trusting.

After the job was done I asked my client for a whopping $3000.00 and was rejected cold.
Keep in mind, I did 3/4 of a 50/50 job.
He told me based on electricians $45.00 an hour and (to his estimation) a 20 hour work period, I will recieve $900.00
I refused the payment and would like your rough estimates on what I have described as well as if it is worth going after this individual based on those estimates. Not what an electrician gets paid, but what we get paid per job. Trim-out only
This house is mint, I was cut out but finished.
Any thoughts. Please go easy, I know how stupid I was.

Thank you for your help.
Chris.

Unless I read something wrong. You brought your aquaintance into the mix. It is not the customers responsability to make up the loss you incurred because your aquaitance was a scumbag. Sounds to me like you should both be suing him.

Sorry, just my 2cents.

Too bad so many dirtbags are in this industry... I've tag teamed a few jobs over the years and had nothing more than minor disagreements that were easily solved transparently to the customer. Lucky me.

I would not have bought the customer into it unless my final and well documented total bill exceeded the 15K. I'd be suing John on my own... or I'd be cutting my losses and moving on like I did with an ex partner who screwed my business up royally. Your time is too valuable to waste it on something that will most likely never get resolved totally fair. My advice is to sign in to the school of hard knocks and learn a lot from this. Next time you run into a pre-wire that's slightly (or a lot) out of your scope... get design help from Nuvo or whatever manufacturer. Professor Mega-Watt would have gladly helped on this one as it really is kind of small. They'd have also helped with trim.

Once you get the job it is yours... any subs go through you. Obviously John stepped way over his bounds but he never should have dealt directly with the client or been given the information on how to contact them.

I won't call you stupid because we all make mistakes... me especially. What you expected was that you could trust this guy and you both could have profited. I picture John like the guy in Animal House who said "Hey... you f---d up...you trusted us". In my perfect golden rule world this guy will get the crap stomped out of him by someone else or end up with his unit getting lopped off by a stray piece of HVAC tin in a crawlspace. Unfortunately he will most likely never fall in to the cesspool and his lack of morality will allow him to sleep at night even though he's a really rotten piece of crap. You should be less trusting but in a way that covers your ass... don't let your belief in people be tainted because there are a lot of good ones out there...and you don't want to miss out on the better business and personal relationships because you are dwelling on this.

Good luck in the future!

OUCH! So, what you are saying is you are still owed $3,000?

I would distance myself from the aquaintance - and let the h/o & builder know this, and make it clear to the builder exactly what happened. Builders see this crap happen a lot with other trades as well, and since you finished the job, hopefully he'll keep working with you, based upon your integrity - although chances might be pretty slim.

Did your aquaintance invoice the customer using YOUR company name, or was he representing himself as a contractor???!!!

Basically that is fraud / theft... if he didn't supply any materials or do any work on the job... If you take him to court, he'll get a good spanking, but will he have anything or be able to pay you back anything??? He sounds like he's pretty out of control, if he is willing to screw an old friend, and put you in such a bad position... (Any drug or alchohal problems)??? Maybe if he loses in court, you could take his car or any other stuff of any possible value..?

Find out where he lives, and key his car at least! LOL

I hate to be so dense, but what is an "ensign"???

I had an aquaintance pre-wire a huge home for me once... He ran speaker wire to all of the ph & network locations (same color wire)... Then he disappeared, and I was stuck with the repairs, and lost the builder forever...

I should have had him sign a sub-contractor agreement of some sort to cover myself, but I always used to like to do things on a handshake basis... Pretty dumb I know!!!

Chris,

You sound like a good guy - too good - and that can be bad in business. Good luck and stick up for yourself in the future - starting at the BEGINNING of the job. You let yourself be taken advantage of from the very beginning and continued to let it happen to the end.

I worked for a guy who loudly proclaimed that the best deals, the most reputable deals, the deals best for everyone all around, are done with a handshake. He said he wanted to partner with me, but was supplying the work, parts and equipment, and he told other people before he told me that we would never be partners. I had my problems at that time, but he silently slipped his hand out of the handshake without telling me a thing.

You know, when a deal is done with a handshake, you might just get the finger four times. Then you still have to figure out what to do with that thumb.

By the way, he owes me parts for a job where I forgot to invoice him, some seven years ago, and when he recently wanted to subcontract my wizardly ways, I got his email address, told him I would start on the job after we got the email worked out, I sent him the invoice telling him not to worry about how old it was -- I wasn't going to ding for any interest. That was two months ago and he hasn't called back. Or emailed.

This is mildly amusing, since he told some people, when we split 6 1/2 years ago, that I did not do business reputably...you'd think he'd at least call to keep his repute up, wouldn't you? I've thought of calling and telling him, it's okay, all the installers I talked to who knew him bet me that he wouldn't pay.

WOW!

So much for trust!

Money IS the root of all evil after all.

I think its time for a road trip!

Contact a lawyer and go after your partner and chalk up a loss to the home owner. The home owner and builder are where you get future work from. Burning those bridges is a loss loss manuenver (sp).

Hopefully you have learned a painful and valuable lesson in the the process. Show the client why our industry is a little bit more expensive than the other trades. It looks like you will lose some cash, but you might be able to show that no matter what comes along you have a satisfied client.

I agree, compartmentalize the builder and the client. Go after John yourself; but, it's $3000. How much time do you have to sue for $3000?

Better yet, spread the word about what a great guy John is.