Long Island Customs

About Long Island Customs

My biggest mistake ever

I went into this venture under dire circumstances and the result was horrible. I took in a partner that, first of all, didn't know the meaning of the word partner, and second, I had employees who thought they were on permanent vacation because I was sick at the time and didn't have the energy to stay on top of them constantly. It didn't stop them from holding their hand out on Friday afternoon, however.

My so called partner did more damage to vehicles than he did repairs, and he thought his screw-ups were funny. His last screw-up cost me $3,000.00, plus the remainder of payment on the job he botched, not to mention it was the final straw which caused me to have to close the shop. He not only thought setting a brand new truck on fire was funny, he tried to hide it, and get away without anyone finding out. Then, he suddenly had to get a job (in other words, he ran out on his responsibilities as part owner of a business). I had to explain what happened to the customer, and buy him a new harness, plus take money off the job. I lost a good customer and who knows how many more over this job. My partner, he went on to deliver snacks and sodas. He never took ownership of his failures, yet he acted like he was the sole owner of the business when the situation presented itself. Even though he only put in half of the initial down payment on the rent, he came back at night and basically stole half of the remaining supplies and equipment, while ducking out on half of the refunds and other expenses his poor workmanship caused. I had to deal with several customers who were unhappy with his handling of their vehicles, not to mention outright destruction of some of them.

I also had a very good friend who came to work towards the end of this nightmare. He left one day, in the middle of the day, while I was at home dealing with a family emergency. He never called me to tell me he quit, he never talked to me at all, he just left my shop and walked away, never to be heard from again. This was a guy I had known for over 20 years. We were great friends. I haven't heard from him since, with the exception of one returned e-mail after several attempts at contacting him. His excuse for leaving was, he didn't like dealing with customers. He was a guy who was in the service industry his entire career, so dealing with customers was basically what he did before.

I had other employees who contributed to the demise of this company. I understand that as their boss, I was ultimately responsible, but I had some severe health issues at the time and hoped that my trusted employees would take up the slack until I recovered. I was wrong. They instead milked it the best they could, so they could continue to get paid while I was home recovering. I had to get out of bed, against doctor's orders, and go back to work, just to get any work done. My wonderful employees simply held out their hand for "their money" while I did their work to make their money. They were ALL let go, with one exception. He said he'd stick around and "help" me get the remaining jobs out the door. He too became a turncoat at the end, looking for payment well above and beyond what he did to "help" me get the work out. He understood that there was no money, as most of it went to offset the damage the ex-partner caused, yet he still expected full payment for days worked, when we had agreed ahead of time that he was there to "help" me get out from under the remaining work to avoid any further lawsuits caused by the ex-partner. It seems that when push comes to shove, everyone is willing to shove you under the bus to get what they want.

I will never make any of these mistakes again.

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