11/17/2024
Follow up to the Daphne Project....
Sorry it's kind of long. Took me a few days to put this to social media...
A couple of weeks ago, I worked for what I thought was a legit excavation company out of Lucedale. They claim to be a "stand-up business," but let’s be real—if you can’t scrape together $600 to pay a general laborer for three days of work, you don’t have a business. You have a pipe dream.
Let me paint the picture: this “ground man” drove 40 miles one way for the job, only to get je**ed around for two weeks. Oh, and guess what? I'm getting the same runaround with my money.
Here’s where it gets good (or hilariously pathetic): Tyler, the so-called businessman, blamed the delay on the secretary of the GC, claiming the check was accidentally sent to the wrong address. Convenient, right? “Just a day or two more,” he says. Tyler also told the guy he's screwing over that the check would be in Monday and he'd get paid then.
But here’s the plot twist: I called Josh, the actual GC on the job (the guy with the permits), and guess what? Josh says he never told Tyler anything about a check being in the mail. In fact, Josh hasn’t even billed his client yet! So why is Tyler spinning tales about checks in the mail? Good question.
And let’s talk about Tyler’s expert advice: apparently, I “don’t know what I’m doing” because I can’t grade mud in pouring rain. Why is he paying me then, he wonders? First of all, Tyler, if that’s your standard for professional work, I’d suggest you Google “weather delays.” Second, I find it hilarious coming from someone who doesn’t even have a truck to pull a trailer, let alone any equipment of his own. Turns out, Tyler’s not just a dirt guy who can’t pay—he’s a dirt guy who doesn’t know how to dirt.
Now, let’s get to Tyler’s incredible planning skills. Normally, I bring my own ground man and pay them myself. Tyler promised one of his “project managers” would be at the site to help me. I get to Daphne, Alabama, and meet this so-called project manager. Turns out, he’s never met Tyler in person—just a Facebook connection. He had no idea what we were supposed to be doing. His exact words? “I was hoping you knew.” By the time I actually figured out what we were supposed to do, it was 3:00 in the afternoon. Oh, and I still had to scrape off 15,000 square feet before I could bring in the base.
Here’s the kicker: the base was scheduled to arrive at 7:00 the next morning—10 tri-axle dump trucks, all at once. When they showed up, it was still a muddy mess. The trucks dumped all the rock in one massive pile. I had to drag it around, but it was useless. The base just sank right into the mud. A total waste.
And let’s not forget Tyler’s amazing success story: he bragged to my partner about already making a net profit of $500,000 this year. Meanwhile, he told Jake, the so-called project manager, that he celebrated by dropping $5,000 at Bass Pro Shop. But wait—it gets better. Apparently, Tyler has a deal with his wife: whatever he spends at Bass Pro, he has to match it at Ulta for her. So, $5,000 at Ulta? What are we doing here, Tyler—putting makeup on the mud?
Tyler, my guy, if you’re going to run a circus, at least own up to being the clown.
