Referral Problem

[DTOREC]

I have to word this like an NSPE story, it's too complicated otherwise:

Gosee Him (engineer but not a P.E.) normally refers new clients to Tom Consultant (not an engineer) to do what is essentially a report. Tom then hires me to do the engineering portion of the work (minor sizing calculations and equipment specs), and Tom does the operations portion (a title search, chain of responsibility delineation, operations procedure, things of this nature). Note that this report was legislated recently to require the engineering portion (and only the engineering portion) to be performed by a P.E.

This time, Gosee Him referred a new client directly to me. I don't know why he left Tom out of the picture. I have been in more contact with Gosee Him recently for other work not involving Tom. So I'd like to think my reputation for good work is growing, but I also don't know if anything else is coming between Gosee Him and Tom (Tom does an order of magnitude more work that Gosee Him sees than I do). Tom also raised an eyebrow last year when I mentioned that Gosee Him had called me a few times to give me the heads up on some possible projects that Tom had no idea were in the works.

Obviously I'm going to tell Tom everything.

Would you:

a. Give Tom the referral, and you do the engineering portion
b. Do the work yourself in its entirety
c. Do the engineering portion, and sub the operations portion to Tom

I'm wrestling with this.

 

[Ron]

Since Tom subs the engineering work to you, why not sub the operations work back to him, assuming there is some....unless of course there is a particular reason that Gosee Him does not want Tom involved in the projects.

 

[beej67]

I'd start by asking Gosee Him why he didn't go to Tom first.

Could be he's just price shopping, in which case it might be in both your and Tom's best interests to have a discussion about how much you should charge as a team.



Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[rbulsara]

Just ask Gosee, who would do the Tom's portion? May be he would then no need to involve Tom. If not, "c" appears to be the sensible option, after talking to Gosee.

Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[DTOREC]

I reached out to Tom, and let him know what was up. I'm opting for (c). I'm an engineer first, and Gosee made it a point to refer the client to me, not Tom. But I'm also a business owner, so I want to maintain a good relationship with Tom.

The thought also crossed my mind that Gosee wants to see what kind of total product I put together. I've never seen Tom's, so I can't compare my output to anything he's done. But like I said, Gosee has seen other packages that I've put together on my own.

 

[casseopeia]

I don't know if I'd read so much intent in you getting the call for the new project first. Sometimes people call the last person they spoke with on a similar project out of habit, laziness or lack of time and organization.

I'm in favor of option C with a call or email to Gosee that this is what you are planning to do. You can even add something to the effect of 'I trust Tom implicitly with this portion of the work due to his many years of experience and having completed numerous such projects for you already.' If Gosee has had a change of heart about using Tom, he will let you know. That way, you can keep your relationship with Tom fairly untarnished and make Gosee the bad guy. Tom will have to figure out what he did wrong if that's indeed what happened.

"Gorgeous hair is the best revenge." Ivana Trump

 

[cry22]

Know that gosee has done this to more than once for sure.
So tom may have known about it from someone else anyway.

As a business owner, your word and ethics is your life line. You should tell Tom the whole story, and chances are, he will let you go ahead and deal with Gosse directly with no heart feelings.

I had a client going to my subs one time for work and by-passing me.
One of the subs calls me right away and told me the whole story, the other didn't.

I let both of them get their extra dollar, no sweat.

But when I had more projects, the guy who came forward got all the projects from me, he became my go-to guy on that trade and did not even bargain his numbers down. for me, he was a trustworthy guy.

The second guy keeps calling me to see if I have any work for him. Needless to say, I never used him again.