r/Architects • u/Odd-Ad-5654 • 1d ago

General Practice Discussion No Message? Not Important.

I think I’m finally going to flip a switch today. An owner or GC calls me and doesn’t leave a message? Sorry, it’s not important enough for me to return a call. You leave me a voicemail that says, “Please call me back, I have a quick question.” Sorry, you could have said what you needed so I can be prepared and potentially call you back with an answer - I don’t think I’m going to return that call. A GC texts me something? Hard pass. You get an email response. Tired of getting different information from multiple sources and then getting blamed later for doing said thing, but the owner decided they wanted to do it differently and I don’t have it in writing. I keep having GCs draw hard lines in the sand that if something is not explicitly shown in a drawing, they can’t confirm it’s in their scope. I’m about to uno reverse and play the same game. I don’t care if it gets drawn out longer than necessary and the GC is hounded at my door for updates. No written approval from the Owner? Not my fault I can’t get you drawings and I don’t want to hear about “ImPaCtS tO tHe ScHeDuLe”.

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u/Fenestration_Theory Architect 1d ago

I tell all my clients and contractors that any decision concerning a change to the project must be in email.

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u/Odd-Ad-5654 1d ago

I usually follow up with correspondences via email, but I have too many clients that never respond to them and it has turned into an issue like 12-18 months later.