It Happens—Remdal Anecdotes
I see a red door and I…
We sent one of our painters to an office to paint the entry door of the reception area in an office building. Our Manager had already matched the colour. The painter arrived, began preparing the door. He was friendly and chatted with the receptionist and the many people coming in and out of the office. Everyone seemed happy to see the door being painted.
When he was half way finished our painter called the Manager: “The paint colour is just not matching…”
The Manager told him that he had personally matched the door colour and checked the match himself: “The match is bang on. I know it is!” our Manager said.
“I’m telling you it doesn’t match,” said our painter.
There was a period of silence.
“Describe the room you are in,” said our Manager.
The Applicator described the room. This was followed by more silence.
“I want you to finish the door, clean up, smile, and leave,” said our Manager. “You are in the wrong building!”
During the early years of Remdal’s history, our estimating methods were not always very accurate.
We were awarded the painting of a newly constructed town-home project. The Estimator had bid this off the drawings and had never been to the site.
The day came when our crew showed up to begin the job. They were sitting down for a coffee break when the Estimator drove up. He got out of his truck and stood looking at the buildings.
“Oh!” he said. “They are two story buildings.”
Seven—The Number of Completion
One of our Property Managers asked us to paint the exterior of his own house. We assigned it to one of our best and most experienced Applicators. The job went well, with one exception, the front door…
The door, it turned was not your ordinary door. Apparently it had cost some $3000. Furthermore, the customer wanted us to use a certain kind of paint—one that we probably would not have chosen for the door.
The first time we painted it, the paint went on fine; but alas, two tiny bugs landed on the door.
The next day, we came back and sanded out the bugs. We tried to touch it up, but our touch up did not match the existing spray finish.
We ended up building a spray booth outside, and during the course of the day, we repainted the door 6 times!
At least two or three times, as we were doing the last pass with the sprayer, it spit a tiny blob on the door. We would get the blow dryer out and redo it again. We stayed there until the door dried with a blow dryer.
The door had 7 coats—and it looked perfect.
Misquoted
Rob Beck, one of our Managers, has a great sense of humour, and he loves to poke fun—in a good natured sort of way—at the others in the Remdal office.One day we hatched a scheme to exact revenge.
The scheme involved the cooperation of a long time customer and Property Manager named Suzzane. As it happened, Rob had just recently submitted a quotation to Suzzane for the exterior painting of a multi-residential building. The quote was for $24,800. We told Suzzane of our plan:
We reprinted the quote – taking away the “2” and substituting a “1” - making the quoted amount $ 14,800. We changed the Word document and saved it with the changes.
The next step was a call to Suzzane; she laughed and said she loved the idea.
She called Rob: “Thanks so much for the quote. I’ve sent you a purchase order. Thanks for the good price. I’ve really been wanting to get this building done for a long time, and $14,800 is a really good price…”
Rob didn’t immediately reply. When he did, there may have been a slight tremor in his voice: “I don’t think $14,800 was the price… I’m pretty sure it was over $20,000…”
Suzzane replied: “Oh, no, I’ve got it right here in my hand – it says $14,800 + GST… You haven’t made a mistake have you? I really hope not because I’ve already had my boss approve this and I would hate to have to go back and tell him it was a mistake…”
Rob swallowed and said: “I’ll be back in the office in about an hour. Can I call you back then?”
Meanwhile Suzzane called us to tell us of the conversation. All of us howled with laughter.
Sarrah, our Office Administrator said: “I can hardly wait until he gets back and checks his file and his computer.”
Rob did come back. He said hello, but wasn’t his usual gregarious self. He went straight to his desk and looked up the file. We flashed tight-lipped smirks at one another.
A good while later he came out and said to Ken – “Um, I think I’ve got a problem.”
Instead of concern and sympathy, the other people in the office roared with laughter – much to Rob’s amazement.
We let him in on our joke; he joined in the laughter.