Con artists are great at wearing a facade, but sooner or later that facade breaks apart.

It’s so satisfying.

But it takes a tough cookie to get to the point where the jig is up.

Check out how this contractor did it.

No, I’m not freely giving you the data files because I’m not legally required to

Many years ago I was a freelance Computer Aided Design (CAD) specialist.

I did work for places that needed proper plans drawn up from and idea.

House plans, remodels, store demolition and remodel, venue lighting and audio systems, drainage plans, manufacturing machinery, and so on.

If it was being used in construction or manufacturing of something the odds were pretty good that I could put it on paper.

All seems promising for a while.

Cast of characters: me, Big Al (business owner), Harry (Big Al’s right hand), Fran (awesome secretary).

Big Al worked in the construction industry.

Primarily housing but some other stuff occasionally.

His primary job was managing the development of a subdivision for a major home builder.

Big Al and I had know each other socially for a few years.

He was successful at his job.

Big Al called me about some drawings he needed done for building permits and custom home plans.

The company’s CAD person was backed up.

Additionally, and with the blessing (and investment money) from his boss, Big Al was starting up his own construction company and wanted to use me for his plans.

I was enthusiastic because Big Al is a strong type A personality and will rise to the top of whatever he takes on.

Which means he’ll make some serious money and I’ll get some coin along the way.

For two years everything went great.

The only contract we had at the start was a handshake agreeing to be honest with each other and treat each other fairly.

Big Al started his business as a one man operation in the loft of his house.

After several months he moved to a small office with a little old lady secretary/receptionist.

From there he moved to a larger office with a staff of several people to help manage the business.

The company had several subdivisions around the area and business was booming.

Big Al had developed about 20 base house plans.

Each had 5 exterior options (types of roof line, windows, etc.), plus all the siding/brickwork customization one could visualize.

So all the houses in each base model were very similar to build but they all looked distinctly different.

Big Al would allow some customization of the interiors, too, for a price increase.

People couldn’t move the load bearing walls but everything else was open to discussion.

I printed out some handout sheets for him with a basic floor plan on one side and the 5 exterior frontal elevations on the back.

Big Al needed a right hand man and offered me the job.

I would be pulling down about 3x more than I was making on my own.

I had no desire to work for him.

Big Al was a strong type A personality and I’ll be darned if I am going to be subjugated to someone like that guy.

I enjoyed working with him but did not want to work for him.

But I didn’t want to turn him down outright so I put some unreasonable demands on my conditions for employment.

Flexible hours, lots of benefits, bonus opportunities, and so on.

Nope, he wouldn’t budge. Thankfully.

Not sure what I would have done if he had accepted.

Big Al wanted an individual floor plan for each of the 5 plan options and a landscaped rendering on the back.

The landscapes had to be unique on each one.

They couldn’t look like I just dropped a house onto the same set of vegetation.

Not a problem but a bit involved.

I told him I’d need to do one to see exactly what was involved and then give him an estimate.

He agreed, and I gave him what I believed was a fair price.

Big Al gave me the green light at I started on the first 3 plans.

When I delivered the first 3 sets of renderings (15 total), Big Al wanted to introduce me to someone.

The guy’s name was Harry, and Harry was now Big Al’s right hand man. I would no longer be dealing with Big Al.

Harry would be my primary contact.

I really didn’t care as long as I get paid.

But here’s where the drama kicks in.

There was something off about Harry that I couldn’t quite nail down.

Something in the back of my mind was telling me not to trust him.

Big Al trusted him, though, and he knows a lot more about people in this industry than do I.

So I just put those thoughts aside and moved on with the project.

We had 17 more sets of 5 renderings to complete.

I would be getting paid for the work. Or so I thought.

I finished the next 7 sets.

That would be 35 renderings in the package, around $5000.

Harry was thrilled to have them, said to leave the bill with the secretary and they’d get it in the next round of checks.

No problem, that’s been SOP since Big Al hired his first secretary.

He now has a new one, Fran.

Several years earlier Fran had been the secretary for another client.

We had a good relationship. She was a real sweet person.

She knew Big Al for years and he had been trying to get her on board since he started the company.

Fran is they type that is sweet on the outside, but she knows everything going on and can read people.

Don’t mess with Fran.

She knows where the bodies are buried.

A week after I dropped off the renderings I get a call from Harry.

He tells me they will not be paying this bill at this rate as they’ve found someone who can deliver the same product for less than half of what I’m charging.

I told him they were certainly within their rights to use someone who can do the project at a cheaper rate, but I expected to be paid at the rate Big Al had agreed to pay.

Harry informed me that they didn’t have to pay at that rate because we did not have a written contract.

He was right. Big Al and I had worked for years on a handshake.

I’m trustworthy enough to do that and I thought Big Al was as well.

Harry said Big Al was no long involved in the business at this level.

So I hung up and called Big Al.

He said it was indeed Harry’s issue to handle and wasn’t getting involved.

I emailed Harry and copied Big Al, informing them that I expected to be paid at the agreed upon rate and would not be doing any more work for them until that happened.

Harry accused me of ripping off the company from the beginning and that I was mad because he had just found my cash cow.

Big Al said nothing.

Harry contacted me a week later wanting the data files for all their floor plans.

They were working with a new CAD person and didn’t want to pay him to redraw all the floor plans.

I told him no, those are related to work product.

Since we didn’t have a contract, and our verbal agreement was only for printed plans, I am not legally obligated to turn those files.

His lawyer would say the same thing, I said.

No contract, no files.

The irony is that I would have just given them a copy of the files if the relationship hadn’t soured.

They had paid me to create the drawings and those files were just sitting on my hard drive doing nothing but taking up space.

People have asked for their drawing files in the past and I have no problem with being a nice guy.

But this was an unexpected bargaining chip.

A week goes by and Big Al calls.

Says he values our past relationship and we need to work something out.

I let him know I was not pleased with how I was treated.

I told him to pay the $5000 I’m owed and we’ll talk.

And he digs his heels in.

Big Al balks at that, says he needs to do a deal that doesn’t make Harry look like an idiot.

I told him nothing would change the fact that Harry is an idiot and I can’t believe he’s trying to cover Harry’s butt.

Big Al makes a counter offer: $2000 for the renderings and $3000 for the drawing files.

I agreed, with conditions: I would come in the following week to deliver product and get the check from Harry and give him the files; Harry would also apologize for the way he treated me. Big Al took the deal.

The big day comes and Fran holds up an envelope with a check in it.

I said that wasn’t what I agreed to.

She smiled, said she tried to tell Harry but he wouldn’t listen.

Fran called back to his office, told him I was here to drop off the drawings, and wanted my check.

10 seconds of silence as Fran listens to Harry.

He’s so loud I can hear his voice coming down the hallway from his office.

Fran tells Harry I said he needed to hold up his end of the deal or I’m walking out the door.

She smiled, hung up the phone, and said in a loud voice “Harry will be here in a moment.”

I was momentarily confused, then realized there were several offices within earshot of the reception area.

I could see into 3 and those people perked up so they could listen in.

All I could figure out is that this was not the first time Harry is having to eat some crow in the lobby.

Harry came in, took the check from Fran, gave a half hearted apology, and gave me the check.

I set the renderings and data files on Fran’s desk and left.

I later found out that Harry was regularly apologizing to someone in the lobby, much to the delight of everyone in earshot because I wasn’t the only one treated badly.

Fran told me when we ran into each other a few months later.

She also expressed her disdain for Harry and hoped he would screw up bad enough for Big Al to fire him.

Big Al did indeed fire Harry about a year later.

It turns out that Harry changed a lot of Big Al’s contractors to companies and people Harry has worked with in the past.

These subcontractors would funny up their bills and give Harry a piece of it in the form of a kickback.

Harry and Big Al ended up in a lawsuit over it.

Big Al won but it nearly cost him his business and he lost a lot of personal relationships with contractors due to Harry’s idiocy.

I managed to get paid for the work I had done but missed out on the rest of the project. $5000 worth of work.

That always stuck with me. Big Al and I still bumped into each other socially but we kept our distance.

I vowed to get even with him if I was ever in a position to do so.

Here is what folks are saying.

You’d think, but no.

Or don’t make handshake deals?

Sounds right. You have options.

It sounds so shady.

I’ve been freelancing for years and I wish I’d read this when I started.

Don’t be a Harry.

What an absolute loser.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.