megloff11x
Senior Member
My Dad told me this story.
A regional mall developer, whose grease to zoning boards makes Jack Abramoff look like a boy scout, would always stiff his contractors. Apparently he also had an envelope for the men in the fedora's because he's still alive and walking on unbroken legs.
He was building a mall on a toxic waste site, and it was ready to open. The Electrical Contractors knew his reputation, so a few days before opening weekend, with the mall site still on a temporary permit, in the Contractors' names, they summoned the developer and the power company hookup man. Then they laid down the facts of life.
They wanted a certified check NOW. Since the permit was their's not his, if they walked, the power company man confirmed that he would be obliged to cut the service off and no amount of grease would turn it back on to someone without a license until the inspection was done - many weeks away, and who would do it for him?
They got paid, the only contractors to get paid. The rest are probably still in court twenty years later chasing bankrupt ghost firms for payment overdue. They said that the developer may have broken his hand punching the walls so hard.
Not sure if it's true, but it's one way not to get stiffed.
Matt
A regional mall developer, whose grease to zoning boards makes Jack Abramoff look like a boy scout, would always stiff his contractors. Apparently he also had an envelope for the men in the fedora's because he's still alive and walking on unbroken legs.
He was building a mall on a toxic waste site, and it was ready to open. The Electrical Contractors knew his reputation, so a few days before opening weekend, with the mall site still on a temporary permit, in the Contractors' names, they summoned the developer and the power company hookup man. Then they laid down the facts of life.
They wanted a certified check NOW. Since the permit was their's not his, if they walked, the power company man confirmed that he would be obliged to cut the service off and no amount of grease would turn it back on to someone without a license until the inspection was done - many weeks away, and who would do it for him?
They got paid, the only contractors to get paid. The rest are probably still in court twenty years later chasing bankrupt ghost firms for payment overdue. They said that the developer may have broken his hand punching the walls so hard.
Not sure if it's true, but it's one way not to get stiffed.
Matt