Your “friend” is not a “nice guy”, he’s a narcissistic assH, the enemy and a thief. I ALWAYS take 50 percent up front PRIOR to work or buying materials. That 50 percent covers materials and labor, so if things go bad I’m not paying for their benefit. I always have a contract, even if it’s just a signed estimate, which lists stipulations. Finally NO DELIVERY without final payment up front FIRST! I have had a couple bounced checks back in the day (no longer take anything but cash - NO CC, PayPal, Venmo, Bitcoin, or anything else. and always sue and follow up until I get my money I earned.

Honestly you failed on the job, never do work like this until you view item, second tell them that, never do a quote until you view item, then give quotes in writing to customer, friend or not, and up front if agreed upon take half down and half before deliver of item, then you are protected and court wants to see documentation if it goes there, you were you worst enemy on this and lost a friend due to your misunderstanding, yep you did it to yourself, they wanted $1500 table redo. call it what every but that is what it was. You can go on line and download at minimal cost a legal binding agreement contract for your work.

Happy New Year #KeepPunching #Slabs2025

Some people just aren't worth the friendship 😢

You keep saying "he's a really nice guy," but he screwed you over. He's a POS, not a nice guy. And friends don't screw over friends. You're the only good person in this.

It's good to weed people like that out of your life, consider yourself lucky it was on $1500. A life lesson that was well worth the knowledge. Richard or Dick from what I watched shows entitlement, narcissisms and felt justified to belittle you wanting to devalue you so he can show his superiority over you. I watched and liked your video hoping you get some money back.

At a bare minimum he should at least pay you the $1,500.

Never ever even for your best friend do anything in the construction industry without a signed contract with a dollar amount......EVER

Shared this on my social media page, I hope it gets some views for you.

Sell the table to someone else. Everybodys mother and brother do these epoxy tables now,so no longer nothing special about them.

I'm sorry but no table is $10000 worth

What if you were bidding on the project against other bidders. Your friend takes your bid and goes with it because you were his friend, but the other bid was 1500$. How would you feel if someone raised the price after you got the bid. You got lazy, unprofessional, and are now trying to make excuses for your behavior. Your customer might feel like you’re a conman. How can he have moved forward knowing that you can change your mind in every action. Now this is all speculation on my part, but this is a what if. Going forward you have now learned something, how not to be ambiguous. You in your mind feel that you have not been wrong but what you do not know is what would have been the outcome if you never raised the price and stuck to your original quote. It sounds like this guy was a contractor and you could have potentially lost a lifetime of work from this guy amounting to hundreds of thousands.

Never quote from a pic , I absolutely screwed myself doing it . Never again

It's sad to see old friends turn out to be miserable dicks. But here we all are.

So do you still have the table? And he was the one who bought the slab?

That's someone i definitely would unfriend, More than likely that you're not the first person he's duped ! By the way that's a great looking table..........

You keep saying he was a friend. You must realize he was an acquaintance know the difference. Wasted my time with acquaintances for years.

I just subscribed because of this video. Hopefully it will help. I know it's not much.

Did you deliver the table? If not, can you sell it?

Drop his name bro. Don't let someone else get screwed. If he did it to you, imagine what he would do to a stranger

I’m seeing a glimpse of your great workmanship, but this is a sad video under the circumstances. That’s still a lot of money to kiss off and I think if I if it happened to me, I would make a video similar to yours and send the link to that ‘friend’ as a lesson in trust and respect is definitely in order

Yeah, I understand, people at work found out I do sewing repairs and would bring me their clothing to mend, which took much time to repair (my machine alone cost $4700), and they wouldn't pay me anything at all. I made the mistake that they would offer me something when I brought them their finished work. I quit doing repair work completely after a while. I don't tell anyone I sew! 😒

I've had clients that make sure I am well compensated, I've had clients that took advantage of me in any way they could. It gets particularly difficult when your work is creative and personal because you're also looking for that special relationship where you are recognized and appreciated for all that you do. You could have the tightest contract in the world but are you ready to go to court to wring a few bucks out of deadbeat Dick? That's not my idea of a good time. All the joy of creation is lost when you have to fight for what you're due. As an artisan craftsman, you rarely get compensated for all the time it takes to do the project never mind running the business. Chances are, you put a great deal more into the project than you were asking to be paid for and Dick still stiffed you. I have little doubt Dick is a friendly, personable kind of guy that stiffs anyone he can. Some people get through life by taking advantage of others and they don't lose sleep over it. After nearly 50 years in the business, when I find a good client, I hang on to them. If you have 4 or 5 clients that appreciate what you do and keep coming back with occasional projects, that's probably all the business you can handle. Dick will live to screw somebody else. Don't lose the love for what you do.

When a job takes a long time, customer finances can change. Money to spare when it starts, may result in multiple financial commitments with others, when your finished. People do it all the time. Finish the job as quick as possible and get your pay now.

So it wasn't 6 months of hard work. It was 6 months of little bits of work here and there. Aside from not having paperwork, the time it took to finish was also a factor. Doing the job in such small increments makes it look like you're just helping a bro out. Also, telling him you don't have the proper tools to do the job makes you look less professional. He probably thought you took way too long to finish . 6 months to do this inside a clients house is a long time. Day after day...week after week, he walked past that unfinished slab in his beautiful house. He still should have paid you, but sometimes Richard's just can't stop being Richard's.

A man is only as good as his word, a handshake used to be all it took and I still believe that sadly those days are gone

as a contractor for 50 years, I've managed to avoid this scenario for the most part... I'm sending this on with the hope you can recoup ... best to ya, and nice table from what I saw... he had a good deal and it's too bad the money had more value than a friendship. I would consider him the real looser in this

Next time have your wife record him while he’s on your speaker phone. You know back in my day (62 now) this would be grounds for a good ass kicking! But now days i guess not so much. Anyway, great job on the table!!

Appreciate you bro. I'm a handyman and I go through the same stuff ...it doesn't happen very often... in fact it's rare. The worst loss I had was $2,400 to put skirting on a mobile home. The customer never paid me anything... he was crooked. I just let him go. Thank you for sharing about doing business with friends ...I avoided people in my church for reasons like that... I followed my intuition. But yeah I love doing entrepreneurial service provider work even though there are some rotten egg customers out there. It's encouraging to see guys like you out there tough through that stuff. It seems like some of these people think they have a right to be hard or crooked with us service providers. I base my business on trust. Without trust there's no such thing as business. But yeah you're right you got to put down some kind of documentation and text or email. I use square and they have a format to make up detailed contracts... but it takes too long making up those Square contracts ...at least in my opinion... Maybe that's because I don't use the contract feature very often. One reason I do handyman work is that most of my bills are under $1,000 ...so your neck is not stuck out so far with handyman work as it might be with general contractors...or even other trades contractors.

Hopefully you kept the table or sold it elsewhere.

It took you 6 months to figure out you weren't getting paid.

Some of these comments are ridiculous. I have won and lost as a professional carpenter and other. The error here is not getting a signed work order. With that said, you already specified in your vid all these errors. In the end, you cannot buy that kind of education in business, it's not a loss, it's a lesson. Next time you will be fully prepared. Hope it all works out and with friends like that, love them out the door.

You didn't get compensated for 6 months work? Well, if the work you did actually took six months of your time, this is the problem! Or, are you mischaracterizing (you know, exaggerating)?

Aw, man. I’m really sorry to hear this story, Chris, but I’m more than happy to share it. I’ll spread it around as best I can, hoping to add a moderately silver lining to this story.

Did he just keep the table then and basically steal your time and products? Screw that! I'm too devious to let that go!

I wouldn't pay you if you kept jacking the price up either. Sounds like you tried to take advantage of your "friend" because he has money and he didn't let it happen.

Where's the table? If you gave it back without being paid thats on you. If you still have the table and he doesn't pay. It looks like you got an expensive table.

Friends 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 he was NEVER that..🤙🙃

Chris, he is a man of poor character. He does not value friendship. I am sorry to see you go through this. He was never your friend. He used you and then tossed you out.

I hope my post didn’t come across as a criticism of you. I’ve been there. Have lunch on me.

No ill will?? You should post his name - or tell him your experience is going to be posted as a documentary including all factual information that any genuine documentary contains. By the way, he is most definitely NOT a good guy. He is a snake who broke his word to a “friend”. If you watch this video again ask yourself why you see him as a “nice guy”.

That came up a treat mate. Some good tips too. Take care.

Dick is either a real Dick, or there is something else going on in his life.. my gut says the former. Over here a verbal contract is binding, so if he admits he agreed to the $1500 you could go after that. But it's a lot of dicking around...

You’re being too understanding. You are taking his side at points. He’s not a really nice guy. He’s a scumbag

Not your friend. Not a good guy.

Been there.done that. Lost 6 grand to a supposedly friend. Its all good. Ask me for help again.

Sorry. Everyone's been there.

Always have a written estimate. If your gut says an estimate will kill the project that’s the most important reason to get a signed estimate. And get a significant deposit. If a customer balks at deposit good Move on A few grand lost is your business education.

Love the mechanical base and the wooden top finish, he did not appreciate your work or respect you as a true friend.

Man that's a tough lesson to learn from a very dishonest person. It sounds like you handled it the best you could, including all of the take aways. In business it must be in writing, no matter what. When I have an important business conversation, I have learned to send an immediate follow-up email that starts with "this email is to memorialize our conversation from earlier today...", if there is anything in here that is not clear or not accurate, please let me know." Anyway, hope you sell that table to someone else and make a huge profit.