Some people prefer to do their business dealings with a handshake.

However, these types of deals require a level of integrity that’s clearly hard to come by.

When a verbal agreement with a shifty boss goes sour, one contractor is handed an opportunity for petty revenge that would teach their boss the true value of keeping their promises.

Read on for the full story!

Boss chiseled me out of $100 and paid the price

I’m a contractor.

He first sets the scene.

While working on a project in a very remote location, I arranged to buy and bring two rounds of breakfast tacos for the staff of the county facility where I would be working for the next week.

In exchange, I asked for free copy privileges.

The boss seemed amenable at first.

The boss gave approval on the phone and the total for the tacos that week came out to just over $100.

A great exchange, as the copy budget was upwards of $1,000.

But it didn’t take long for the contractor to realize the boss had no interest in following through.

My receipts (along with the supporting CC statement I submitted at the end of the billing cycle, between a week and 2 weeks after he’d verbally approved the expense) was declined.

I wasn’t too angry, but a deal’s a deal.

The contractor tries to call him out, but he’s unrepentant and downright snide.

I called the boss to remind him he’d approved the expense.

His response, “You should’ve gotten it in writing.”

This ticked me off royally, but I finished the project as promised and was working on another project, for another client, less than a week later.

After the project is finished, the contractor gets a call from the same boss.

A couple of months go by and the boss who’d chiseled me out of the money called to see if I was available to work on another project, beginning on the first of the next month.

After some haggling, I agreed.

A lot would be on the line for this project.

The work schedule would be tight, and, in his words, this was an all-hands-on deck project with nights and weekends expected.

(I was also told this was a new client and they wanted to impress.)

A couple of days before the project was set to begin, the chiseler called to tell me the engagement paperwork was on the way and check my email.

This set the contractor up to deliver his highly anticipated revenge.

I told him I had decided not to work the project after all and he was furious.

He screamed, I mean screamed, “You agreed to work on this project weeks ago!”

I repeated his words verbatim.

“You should’ve gotten it in writing.”

Looks like the contractor got the last word here.

What did redditors have to say?

This contractor’s story really painted a picture for this reader.

It takes some audacity to expect the contractor you swindled to work for you again.

The revenge may have felt good, but this contractor should watch their back.

The boss probably didn’t think twice about his wrongdoings.

The boss finally learned that even verbal agreements are worth keeping.

He may have forgotten the deal, but he’ll never forget the lesson this contractor taught him.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.