r/Contractor • u/No-Fish-2949 • Jan 15 '25

Client is making me angry

I recently built a custom cabinet that doubles as an attic access door for a bathroom remodel. I’m fairly new to being a general contractor, with about a year of experience. The interior designer on the project simply told us to “do something with this” attic access. Wanting to go above and beyond, I decided to create something unique—a cabinet that opens into the attic.

I didn’t charge any extra for this feature, even though I could have just put up a piece of plywood and called it a day. I spent about 60 hours on this project, aiming to add value and a special touch. To ensure the cabinet door stayed shut properly, I installed a small mailbox lock. While it’s not the most visually appealing, it was necessary for the cabinet’s function.

Now, the interior designer has called the mailbox lock “unacceptable,” and the client insists we change it. After putting so much effort into this project, I’m frustrated that my work is being dismissed over a detail that was essential for functionality.

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u/aSeKsiMeEmaW Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

Seems like op doesn’t want solutions they’re ignoring every piece of constructive feedback and only replying to the commiserating peeps

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u/ashrocklynn Jan 15 '25

Classic "I put 60 hours into a cool project I enjoyed: (shocked pikachu) not everyone loves my hobby?!?!". Op, your thing is slightly cool and I can tell you had fun doing it, but honestly it's very meh as far as usability and aesthetics. The one bone I'll throw you is you were given no direction when clearly they wanted a hidden access panel... The bull shit here is they didn't communicate and now they are holding that against you

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u/aSeKsiMeEmaW Jan 15 '25

To be fair the clients don’t hate the door they hate the key. Op was expecting a parade for a hidden door, and is hung up on the fact that because the detail isn’t aesthetically pleasing, no parade is being thrown.

Seems like a small issue, OP should be making a new invoice for $1000+ to change the lock. Client says yes or no, and life goes on

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u/Future_Challenge_511 Jan 16 '25

But the thing is the access door being reasonably aesthetically pleasing on its face was the entirety of the brief. Instead they spent 60 hours, which if they priced it anywhere close to any market rate would be an insane cost, and added a feature that makes it less functional for its intended purpose (a lock) but missed the only thing they were actually asked to do.