Honesty is the best policy/The lawnmower.

Honesty is the best policy/The lawnmower.

Strange title huh?

I have a pretty good scrap gig going. Yeah, it sucks that commodities are down across the board, but it is what it is. I'm still making it work.

I was basically handed my scrap accounts on a silver platter. I had just quit my real job as a video editor at the top rated (at the time) TV station in Bismarck, ND. I was chasing the dream of being self employed (sometimes I wonder if that was the right move).

So I was going to be a freelance video guy. In the meantime my dad died. He owned a tractor salvage/scrap yard/fur buying operation.

Well, us kids had 400 tractors in various states of disrepair to scrap. When I say tractor I'm counting just a rear end and a seat as a tractor. Some more, some less. This all went down in 2007 when prices were good.

These events got me into scrapping as the dollars were very good and I was having lots of fun. I had grown up at the tractor salvage/scrap yard/fur buying operation, but absolutely hated it because my dad was such an a$$hole. So I went to college and got into TV.

Anyway, while we were cleaning up all the tractors my brother Stan passed away. He was a scrapper, and had landed the accounts that I have today. Like I said I was handed my accounts on a silver platter. In the right place at the right time I guess. Since then I have picked up a few, and lost a few. Had Stan died a year earlier, I would have never got into scrapping as I was still working full time at the TV station.

So what does this have to do with honesty or a lawn mower?

Well, when I showed up as the newbie scrapper at one of Stan's accounts, there was almost a sense of "we don't know you, and we don't trust you."

In fact, one of the higher up's said "if you do "X" you will lose this account". Basically he was warning about a payola type situation.

Time went on, and one day I was loading scrap. There was a heavy I-beam with some other stuff attached to it. They throw their scrap in a 7'X 7' or so bin. I lifted this big monstrosity up, and set it on the edge of the bin. I was trying to syke (SP?) myself up to muster enough strength to throw it over the side of my trailer. Well, I pulled some other stuff out of the bin, and lo and behold I knocked big I-beam off the bin, and onto my client's riding lawnmower. I cracked the rear fender and broke the cruise control knob (or so I thought) off of it. This was a John Deere lawn mower, and if you have ever bought parts for a green anything, you know they don't come cheap.

So there was a little guy sitting on one shoulder saying: "don't say anything, they'll think somebody else dropped something on it" and there was another little guy sitting on my other shoulder saying "you should tell them you broke their lawnmower".

I mulled it over for a few minutes, and believe me I wanted to just let it slide, but my conscience wouldn't let me.

So I called one of the higher up's over, and explained what happened and told him I would pay for the damage. Send me the bill, yada, yada, yada. Meanwhile I'm thinking to myself this scrap load is going to cost me a lot of money.

So this higher up calls the shop mechanic over. He looks at it and says "the cruise control knob was already broken, and I can just throw a little JB Weld on the fender and patch it all up".

Whew, the mechanic saved me a lot of money right there. But something more valuable happened that day. I went from: "we don't know you, and we don't trust you" to "this guy is alright".

Maybe it's all in my head, but that lawn mower day seemed to change things. This client has come to trust me to the point of offering me the key codes to get into their buildings when they are not there, leaving me alone when they leave, etc. "Just lock up when you are done."

So I would even go so far as to say it's a friendly relationship. They have invited me to their Christmas party (I've never gone) and I have invited them to come Pheasant hunt some of our land (they've never taken me up on my invite).

I was loading scrap today, and that lawn mower thing just popped into my head. Thought I would post the experience here on SMF.

If you have a "Honesty is the best policy" story, I'd love to hear about it. I'm sure other members would too. Who knows, maybe it will influence a lurker or member to do the right thing.

Sorry this post got so long-winded. I thought the background was important. LOL.

Honesty is the best policy/Lumber
Overbought material for a project. now this was for a multi millionaire who always paid the bill no questions asked, one of our long term customers in my other business. The material was true 4"x6"x12' Douglas fir along with some 2''x12'' and a few other smaller sized boards to build a very nice set of stairs and a large arbor, miscalculated the amount needed and halfway through the project with most of the wood stained realized..we got waaayyy too much lumber here..
same deal, guy on one side said he'll never know he's rich, just take it home..guy on the other said let him know as he works for his money just like you .as we wrapped up I did the math and $980 worth of lumber was a tough pill to swallow for our small company... but let the man know what happened and told him I would be removing that amount from his bill. He was very happy to hear how honest we were and said many other contractors have tried to screw him over in the past. We were the first to ever admit we were at wrong before hand without "legal persuasion". Few years later we no longer work with that developer in that area and they have new contractors (Moral issue) BUT we still have that customer and he gives us several big projects a year and will not let the other company's do ANY work on his property. value way above that $980 worth of lumber.
Gotta do what's right... even if it costs you short term, In the long term it always pays off..Always

Thank you for those stories.
You lifted up my day!

Rented a truck. My hey asked if I needed moving blankets or a dolly. Said no thanks, I have my own. Okay, we won't put any in the truck then.

I never looked inside the truck til we got to my storage unit. Looked inside and what do I find but twenty moving blankets!

I took them out so as not to stain them as we were doing a messy job. When we finished I had one of my guys clean and return the truck.

What do I find in my storage this morning but twenty moving blankets! I sure could use them, but dammit! Off I go to return them...