In the world of construction, it can be hard to move forward with a project if some of your supplies are stuck in customs.

In today’s story, one general contractor’s superintendent is fuming about the delay and is also unreasonable about a proposed workaround.

As revenge, the project manager gives the superintendent exactly what he asks for, but it’s not what he expected.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

Just as you said, Chief!

This happened two years or so ago. I am a project manager, in a multinational furniture firm. We do a lot of contract jobs (hotels, offices, resorts etc), mostly in Europe but with some overseas contracts every now and then.

In that particular job I was working in the US, supplying furniture for a private business center. I was there to supervise installation of our goods and to ensure that everything went smooth from delivery to installation.

At the beginning, the General Contractor (GC) was great, the GC’s fitters were -contrary to any expectation and previous experience- skilled and cooperative, the project was just one week or so behind schedule: pretty common and recovery plans were already in place to meet the deadlines. Everything was going great.

The superintendent refused to move forward.

One of our shipments, the only one yet to arrive into the US, was held in customs and delayed a few days due to mistakes in the paperwork.

This was definitely our fault but -as is common in this kind of projects- all the parties were expected to adapt a bit and try to work around similar problems, as long as it does not imply excessive delays or costs.

This was particularly true there, since the client strongly pressured everyone into collaboration after a subcontractor played some dirty tricks and was let go.

Time came to install the wall units on Room 2 (the project consisted of 8 main rooms and several secondaries), the ones held in customs.

No big deal, we discussed with GC the possibility to move ahead with Room 3 instead, but unexpectedly GC’s Superintendent firmly refused.

He insisted that a delay in installation effectively did not allow him to proceed with the rest (not true); he claimed GC was due monetary compensation from us for lost working hours and forgiveness for the week-long delay from the Client.

I was astounded, but Client was literally fuming after this meeting.

The superintendent yelled at OP.

Other subcontractors warned me the GC Superintendent idea was to blame on us the delay because his boss was asking questions and he needed to take some heat off his tail. He was also trying to recover some extra money on the project since his team did some mistakes on purchases and he was running over budget.

On a subsequent meeting things quickly became hot between me and the GC’s Sup, with him making a scene about the delay in a very unprofessional way.

Luckily I just got news the last shipment was ready to deliver in 2 days, and told him so.

He cut short yelling “JUST DELIVER YOUR STUFF AND GET THE H*** OUT”.

OP was so over this ordeal.

Now, i was pretty tired of the whole deal. Our job was practically done with the last shipment coming in, I was ready to fly back home in 2 days for a short holiday and this idiot deserved a teaching.

“You sure, Sup”?

“JUST DO IT, WE TAKE OVER FROM HERE”.

“Sure thing, Chief”, i replied and cut the meeting short with a fake phone call.

OP boarded a plane and was bombarded with missed messages when he landed.

On a business lunch I come to an agreement with the client not to allow the GC pass any cost on us for this whole situation, since we were evidently not at fault.

I asked copies of the transcript of the meeting, got them and started my plot.

Fast forward two days, Friday morning. I board a plane for a day-long flight, turn the phone off. I had previously set an out-of-office notice on my email, with no backup contacts.

While waiting security and boarding I made some calls taking final agreements with our US logistics partner, then I was ready for a dozen hours of business class pampering high above the Atlantic.

I landed with over fifty calls from Sup, his boss, his boss’s boss. A few voicemail message starting with “you jerk!” and gradually evolving in a broken-voice plead of “for god’s sake please just stop!” .

You see, the Superintendent did not know we had all our goods already delivered and custom cleared, sitting in a warehouse 50 miles out of town.

On that Friday morning, he got “our stuff” delivered. All of it. All at once.

Everything was delivered all at one, just like Sup had requested…

Several trucks full of large wooden crates, effectively filling every possible storage space on the site, and requiring part of the the parking lot for temporary storage.

Our logistics was explicitly instructed not to allow any missed delivery and in case just drop crates on the tarmac. I had a truck crane brought in for unloading, to speed thing up and further state my point we were not kidding around.

All the documents were done with a single bill of lading, so Sup signed unwittingly the single Proof of Delivery while the first truck was unloading and just before the rest showed up.

From then on, to do any real work he would have to move around several large crates to free some space, he had full liability for any possible damage and eventually he had to pay the landlord a fine for unauthorized use of the parking lot, because we had the signed proof of delivery and could prove he accepted the shipment in full.

The weather made Sup’s situation even worse.

Unplanned but not unwelcome, Saturday night a storm was supposed to hit the area and he had to scramble to find some warehouse and some trucks to move the crates in a covered space.

He had to do most of it in overtime, and at his company’s expenses.

Having finished the deliveries, my job was effectively over, saving a good few thousands dollars in future travel expenses.

I got “thank you” messages from several subcontractors, who had the chance to bill the GC for the extra time needed to move around the crates.

We got some explanations to do toward our client; we discounted from our bill part of the supervision cost as a sign of goodwill, and ultimately he agreed that GC deserved it and their PM was very collaborative in pushing the blame to GC’s Sup.

Never heard from that GC or his Sup, anymore.

Be careful what you sign and what you ask for, that’s a big lesson the Sup hopefully learned from this revenge.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader thinks OP is a “genius.”

Here’s a similar story on a cruise ship…

This person ended up laughing.

Another reader also loved the story.

Hopefully the supervisor learned his lesson!

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.