February 7. Tuesday Night.

Hi Journey.

Joni has this uncanny radar that uncovers any hidden layer of deception a vendor tries to pull on us.

Thank goodness.

OK, maybe deception is too strong a word. Sometimes vendors do overcharge and it's just an accident. If it happens once, then I can accept it as an honest mistake. But when it happens three times in six months, somebody is either too sloppy to deserve our business or they're trying to put a few extra bucks in their pocket at my client's expense.

Trust? It just shoots it all to blazes now doesn't it, Journey?

It was one of the paint contractors, Strew Brothers Paint and Siding. We've caught them three times overcharging our clients. Funny thing is, Journey, each time I initially reviewed the bill I missed it. Not Joni.

Problem is I hate to cut them off entirely. Their work is fast and good, but not cheap and I don't expect it to be cheap. I don't want bottom-of-the-barrel work and my clients are willing to pay a bit extra to have their homes properly pampered. But I've learned in this business not to burn bridges to any supplier simply because I never know when I might need them. I try to keep at least three good firms in our stable of vendors, and rotate the work among them.

No, Journey, I didn't learn this from Mattie or Dad; I learned it through fighting to get a client's home re-carpeted just four short months after I opened Crystal Designs. I'd used my favorite installer exclusively on every job but he took on a new apartment complex and was jammed for a month. Begging, pouting, bribing—nothing I tried worked. Nobody else I knew would work in an emergency job, because I simply didn't have any prior history with them. In the end I forked over $200 that I sure didn't have out of my own pocket for a tile installer friend of mine to come in and moonlight over the weekend and lay the carpet.

So no, I'm not going to fire those Strew Brothers, but I am going to phone up Lee Strew myself and let him know this is the third one of these padded bills that has crossed my desk and would he please tell his accounting department to make sure to double-check their work a bit more carefully.

No major crises while I was out. Checking email and voice mail and two conference calls with clients while I was gone to San Francisco kept the boat on an even keel.

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