coruption
this is a long story, but I will try to paraphrase,once upon a time , i was asked by a spanish building company to attend a meeting that required my skills... ok i agreed to meet.
I turned up, in my working clothes, every one else was in suits and ties..
there was the building contractor, the estate agent that sold the house to the people that were paying the bills, and the "project manager" ..hmm i thought?
then there was the two really elderly people that were going to be paying for what ever was going on... I knew nothing at this time about anything that was required of me. However the builder man had already had a word in my ear that whatever i quoted, he wanted 20% for his office..
The plan was for an extension build of very small requirements to the house, plus landscaping.
the elderly lady took me on a tour, explained everything to me, whilst the "suits" brainwashed the owner of the house.
She was a lovely lady, and i could see that they were being ripped off because of their innocence and naivety ..
She said. because of the planning permission regulations, we have to have two big planters at each side of the door (this made no sense to me at all !) but luckily , she said, our estate agent can get them for us for €900 each
I thought, i can get them for you for just €50 each, and why would the planning office stipulate such demands ?
The whole deal stunk of rip off a poor british couple who are in their twilight years.... so sad
i gave my views, and advice, and then left, not wanting to be part of any of this.
Should i have informed them more of what I had sussed ?
or is it a case of "you mustnt get involved"?
Comments (8)
I am not sure what many of us would do in that situation, only what we would like to think we would do.
Heres what i would like to have done.
I would do 2 quotes, one for the builder guy who asked to add 20%, and a second one that i would have handed the dear elderly couple, that way they would know they were being ripped off and then they may have sought other advice.
Tuff question.
I am wondering how long ago this happened, as you said 'once upon a time' if it is recently, you still have time to act, but if it was a long time ago, I am wondering why address it so late, has it played on your mind?
Did the views and advice you gave, give the full picture, or when you say 'should I have informed them more' which important piece did you leave out.
thanks for your comment, unfortunately, i had to go to bed, hence the late reply.
im not sure of the question that you are asking.
however, this incident happened, about 10 months ago, and its something that i will always remember, and what bought it to the front of my mind was an event that happened recently, so i just got to thinking as to how so many sad crooked people there are in this world, as this kind of thing just keeps cropping up...far too regular.
thanks
If u didnt agree to be apart of it, they wud find somebody else
the system is rotten and any fresh link doesn't make it any better
Since you say it happens all the time, the very reason you're raising it shows it's not sitting right with you, the question is how do you deal with it, as these guys unfortunately are possibly your network into work in some form or another, you have to be pragmatic, and not alienate yourself from work sources.
Perhaps you should work backwards, ask yourself what you want to achieve, I'm thinking you don't want people to be ripped off and exploited, that's good. Next is, how can you achieve that whilst still protecting your work interests, when you are in a similar situation again. You should be able to come up with some solution there........good luck