This is a hard entry to write and for that reason no companies or people will be named. Like the last post mentioned, June has been a tough month. The pressure is building to get things built at work and the weather has not been cooperating.
I have a certain job that needs to be done and for a variety of reasons it is not a good one. I'm required to get competitive quotes from three contractors and despite the language in my bid sheet, low cost bid "usually" trumps all other considerations. In the bid I describe what I want, what is expected and what the conditions are. To be honest the quote I put out was not worded or explained as well as it should have been, however personal phone conversations I had with each of the bidders were used for further clarification before the job was awarded. That is an important point as you will discover later on.
The job consisted of half a kilometer of road and a lease location to be padded with hauled fill from a "borrow" pit on a muskeg (low-ground northern swamp) Due to some environmental concerns with the local wildlife I could not use the "borrow" pit I had selected and had to designate another not so suitable area for this purpose. There was some confusion because the eliminated "borrow" still appeared on the survey plan the contractors were using to bid from, but that had been cleared up.
Onto the job: The contractor involved was one I had a history with and I trusted them. The lead catskinner was one I know...I get along with him, but to put it simply he has a union mentality that doesn't go over so well in the oilpatch. We get started on the job. It's wet as expected and even wetter because of the recent rains. The material in the borrow pit is silty the first foot or three, gets better and then runs water as the hard shale layer is reached. Its not an easy problem to solve. I call the companies manager who happens to be the owners son, (I'll call him Junior from here on in). I tell Junior two days into the job that maybe he should come to the site and have a meeting. I'm concerned, I'm not out here to break contractors or see that they loose money, but in a competitive bid world you take your chances. I could see that if something wasn't done they could loose big time. We have the meeting, discussed things heatedly and found what I thought was a solution. It involved me paying for an extra machine, labourers and water pumps to help them stay ahead of the water infiltration while they dug for fill. Junior approaches me later and asks me if I would consider doing the entire job by the hour, I tell him that I don't like that idea, you bid the job, I'm willing to help but that's it. It's strange to me that the extra $100,000 Junior thinks they might be out would have put their bid in second place on the original bid list. I get a call from Lead Catskinner towards the end of the day, despite the meeting everything is impossible to him. We have another meeting between the two of us and I reiterate the plan that will work but he just can't envision it and continually tries to champion his plan that won't work without going by the hour.
That night Junior sends me a letter on their company letterhead. For the most part it outlines why they will not honor their bid. He had someone at head office help him write it. The language is very respectful but with a threatening undertone. The letter was bad enough. Not honoring the bid is strike two. The part that got me worked up enough to throw them entirely off the job was a little paragraph describing the procedure to de-water the area and what environmental authorities should be contacted beforehand. Seems logical right? Seems benign right? Just a helpful suggestion... No. I read between the lines. What I see is a contractor trying to bully me into hourly work. I see a contractor threatening to report me if by chance they don't continue to do the work by the hour and I go with someone else. It tells me that they will come out like a thief in the night and tattletail. De-watering was never a concern of mine. There are steps to follow. I don't need to be schooled by Junior (who worked on a job of mine just after graduating from diapers).
So I have been threatened...the reasons for reneging listed in the letter are false and only used to make their case for hourly work seem better than it is. What can I do?
I think about it for an hour and calm down. I inform my manager of the situation and write the following response email to their letter:
Please email field tickets for my signature reflecting the machine hours worked over the last 3 days along with subsistence costs, mob demob and travel time the operators may require.
You may demob your equipment at your convenience, weather permitting. Please abide by the 30kmph speed limit when driving past the residences on the gravel road.
As a side note I received a call from the owner a day later (He was out of the country). I got an apology. He said the letter should never have been sent. I said our friendship was still intact, I valued him as a friend, but the chances of ever working for this particular oil company again were over. Its sad, I hope Junior learned a lesson.
I have a certain job that needs to be done and for a variety of reasons it is not a good one. I'm required to get competitive quotes from three contractors and despite the language in my bid sheet, low cost bid "usually" trumps all other considerations. In the bid I describe what I want, what is expected and what the conditions are. To be honest the quote I put out was not worded or explained as well as it should have been, however personal phone conversations I had with each of the bidders were used for further clarification before the job was awarded. That is an important point as you will discover later on.
Onto the job: The contractor involved was one I had a history with and I trusted them. The lead catskinner was one I know...I get along with him, but to put it simply he has a union mentality that doesn't go over so well in the oilpatch. We get started on the job. It's wet as expected and even wetter because of the recent rains. The material in the borrow pit is silty the first foot or three, gets better and then runs water as the hard shale layer is reached. Its not an easy problem to solve. I call the companies manager who happens to be the owners son, (I'll call him Junior from here on in). I tell Junior two days into the job that maybe he should come to the site and have a meeting. I'm concerned, I'm not out here to break contractors or see that they loose money, but in a competitive bid world you take your chances. I could see that if something wasn't done they could loose big time. We have the meeting, discussed things heatedly and found what I thought was a solution. It involved me paying for an extra machine, labourers and water pumps to help them stay ahead of the water infiltration while they dug for fill. Junior approaches me later and asks me if I would consider doing the entire job by the hour, I tell him that I don't like that idea, you bid the job, I'm willing to help but that's it. It's strange to me that the extra $100,000 Junior thinks they might be out would have put their bid in second place on the original bid list. I get a call from Lead Catskinner towards the end of the day, despite the meeting everything is impossible to him. We have another meeting between the two of us and I reiterate the plan that will work but he just can't envision it and continually tries to champion his plan that won't work without going by the hour.
That night Junior sends me a letter on their company letterhead. For the most part it outlines why they will not honor their bid. He had someone at head office help him write it. The language is very respectful but with a threatening undertone. The letter was bad enough. Not honoring the bid is strike two. The part that got me worked up enough to throw them entirely off the job was a little paragraph describing the procedure to de-water the area and what environmental authorities should be contacted beforehand. Seems logical right? Seems benign right? Just a helpful suggestion... No. I read between the lines. What I see is a contractor trying to bully me into hourly work. I see a contractor threatening to report me if by chance they don't continue to do the work by the hour and I go with someone else. It tells me that they will come out like a thief in the night and tattletail. De-watering was never a concern of mine. There are steps to follow. I don't need to be schooled by Junior (who worked on a job of mine just after graduating from diapers).
So I have been threatened...the reasons for reneging listed in the letter are false and only used to make their case for hourly work seem better than it is. What can I do?
I think about it for an hour and calm down. I inform my manager of the situation and write the following response email to their letter:
Please email field tickets for my signature reflecting the machine hours worked over the last 3 days along with subsistence costs, mob demob and travel time the operators may require.
You may demob your equipment at your convenience, weather permitting. Please abide by the 30kmph speed limit when driving past the residences on the gravel road.
As a side note I received a call from the owner a day later (He was out of the country). I got an apology. He said the letter should never have been sent. I said our friendship was still intact, I valued him as a friend, but the chances of ever working for this particular oil company again were over. Its sad, I hope Junior learned a lesson.
