Money is no object!

How often have you heard that before - I'm betting none, or at least a change of heart when they hear the price.
Yesterday I was told that at a new customers.

They had a conveyor marshalling system and since they had started some new products - the photo cells would not see them and chaos and log jamming was the result.

They wanted me to reprogram the system so that the photocells would see them???

All the photocells were 18mm barrel type and I remembered that I had an 18mm ultrasonic sensor in the car.
I replaced one with it and it saw everything. I didn't need to alter the sensitivity or teach it, it worked out of the box

They needed 45 changing and I took a guess at the price of the ultrasonic sensors - getting it wrong by over double. (they must have drastically come down in price since I last bought some)

I told them what I thought would be the price for the parts alone and then I heard the magic words - money is no object.
It makes you stand back a bit and confuses you.
I am not used to it.

I was told to go to the accountant's office and they would transfer the money for the parts and they would pay my final invoice within 7 days of it being submitted.
I'm sat here in my office after ordering and paying for them with a healthy profit sat in my bank - and I haven't started the job yet.

Be careful those are the ones that always scare me. The one that you know you're going to have to watch the budget on is okay.

Good for you Ronnie, they must be rich or ignorant lol.

Hopefully your customers feelings of euphoria will not dissipate before the check is in your account.

Ever get the "Oh by the way can you do............can you add..........can you change"

And it just seems to go on for ever and ever.

Eventually they'll see what they've done and will want recompense. It just a matter of time.

You are correct in being wary of the over zealous "OMG he can fix us" then they go corporate again.

I wish you good luck.

I an absolutely sure there is a back story to it.
Probably on the lines of - several have tried and failed.
I got the job through a chain of people that knew someone who might be able to do it.
I could see someone before me had fitted some reflectors but they had been bent to the side out of the way.
I assume they didn't know - or couldn't change the logic as the sensors with reflectors would be permanently on instead of off.
And anyway, parts of the conveyors couldn't have reflectors fitted.

As for the cash - it was transferred there and then and is in my account.
If they turned queer and didn't pay me for the work - I will still be ahead.

But they will.

Fumny you say that Ronnie.
I had a client use me for their first 2 sewage treatment skids. The first they insisted on relay logic. They changed how it operates so there's a bunch more time rewiring.
It was their prototype though. Skid 2 I convinced them.to use a click plc. We went over the cost of the original skid. By basically the programming. But they have a much better product. Many extra features a relay panel.can never provide. They paid for the wiring then took 6 months to pay the programming bill. Skid 2 was done last October.

This week i got a call from.the client. Stating that they used someone else to wire a relay logic panel. And it's not working. And they flooded it. And need me to come fix it. Money is no object was the tone but I'm betting it is. That they messed up and should have never stopped using us.
Kind of a good field when they come back and realize we know what we are doing. I fixed it. Found 8 different problems. Had to add relays to have enough contacts. 3 more than my panel on skid 1 did. I know for skid 4 i will be pushing for the plc again if we are doing it. It's simple and clean. And easy to troubleshoot or make changes. And is more functional. They just better pay this bill on time or they will end up up front payment only. Lol

I'm all for those magic words also "Money is NO object" BUT, what will keep them coming back to you - is if they are treated "fairly" also. As this is a two side street.

I have never heard those words, but similar project. Hotel platform for oil field, customer wanted to use same specs for hot water heater as production platforms. So we ended up using custom duplex steel hot water heaters, with titanium valves, some expensive *** pumps and ex rated instrumentation and junction boxes.
I am certain if we would have been able to use off the shelf hot water heaters and equipment, we could have done the project in 1/10 of the price. And it would more than likely work better too.

Other example was a hospital. Big control valve with actuator and positioner needed to be overhauled. We proposed to rebuild using new parts according to our current standard (this is a 30 y/o piece of equipment), for about half of the price. They could not do that, since they did not have budget for replacement, just repairs.

Oh. Also forgot to mention. Before I came in to save skid 3 they went double budget. Lol

Never quite those words, but I have had a few "Just send us a quote and we'll cut the PO same day." Usually because they have tried "everything" and hit the wall.

In one situation like that I had a client that had been working for a year, were looking at liquidated damages and lawsuits. We had them fixed in a week.

They bought my company a few months later.

I've never been on that side... it's always the other way where it has to be done cheap to the point that it can become a bit of an insult when asked to run Ethernet cable for 200 meter runs because fibre is expensive.

This being said, and obviously depending on the size and management of the company, it may lead to a severe drought that at times puts the installation at risk. I've seen this time and time again where people think money is no problem and wildly overpay (or overstock) and when the higher ups pick up on it they completely cut the budget to the point that there isn't money to fix things even if it's the lowest price for that problem.

This being said, anyone saying to a supplier that money is not an issue should not be in charge of money. Either professionally or personally.

damica1
Right on. I had customers that called and said "do whatever it takes" knowing that we would treat them fairly. They turned into long time customers.

I guess some people know the value of the operation. At $10k/HR for lost production, your $45k bill will have paid for itself before you get back from lunch on the first day of operation.

AustralIan said:

I guess some people know the value of the operation. At $10k/HR for lost production, your $45k bill will have paid for itself before you get back from lunch on the first day of operation.

Click to expand...

There you go, that's what they are REALLY saying. They want you to get on with it, because they already KNOW the cost of waiting.

I just had one where a 500HP VFD blew up and they "shopped" for one and found it from a vendor shipping from Brazil for $15k less than I had told them. They ordered it, then found out it didn't come with an Ethernet port and the adapter was going to take a week longer; the one I quoted was Ethernet ready and drop-in compatible. Then I said "Are they going to integrate it into your control system for you? 'Cus I'm not..."

They gave me the PO, because they were losing $100k/day while that drive was down.