The " Advice was given, it wasn't followed, and this is the result" thread.

[OnTheBranchline]

I always shake my head that stories where advice is given to a person or group of individuals and then it's willingly not followed and the party is surprised at the result.

 

My story is that two people I know was selling a farm on behalf of a in-firm family member. The deed said 100 acres and they got an appraisal which roughly measured the farm as 115 acres and the appraiser recommended that the farm be surveyed.  The two people then decided to NOT get it surveyed and to sell the farm as 100 acres. Now they are being sued because they didn't sell the farm based on the acreage when they willfully knew there was a difference between the deed and what it actually was.

 

I want to be sympathetic but I can't. They got professional advice and they didn't follow it (on cost grounds, so they didn't want to pay a few thousand quid but then they potentially lost out on a lot more since they possibly undersold by 15%).

 

What are your stories?

Edited February 4, 2022 by OnTheBranchline
Added question.

[Classsix T]

Workplace higher-ups have decided that they can increase productivity, maximise, streamline, throughput, efficiency by blue sky blah blah. We're in full consultation with our workforce and have taken on-board concerns raised. But we're going to do it anyway, because the guy has already been paid to do the website page about it to impress other people.

 

A million people have stories like this.

 

C6T. 

[Stubby47]

We had a project end date created out of thin air, after extrapolating previous,  similar projects that were nowhere near as complex.

I advised the Project Manager the timescale was not viable. Having previously cancelled a holiday during a previous project, I took a week off and went to visit family.

When I got back I was told my role was now redundant,  and I could leave earlier than the end of redundancy notice period, but after the project was completed on the given end date.

 

I renegotiated and left 3 weeks before the project end date.

 

As far as I know the project still isn't complete.

[geoffers]

Many, many years ago my late father-in-law was a surveyor and quoted for a major council build and stressed that underpinning was necessary and priced it accordingly. The job went to another firm who were cheaper who then found that underpinning was necessary and the cost, partly through the project, ended up somewhat more expensive. He used to chuckle about it.

[Classsix T]

Someone asked on an internal email stream when notified of an ill advised, after work event, "Is this for real?"

 

Maybe you've heard how that's panning out?

 

C6T. 

[friscopete]

I once helped some truck drivers deliver Woods  kitchens  kits as the second man/porter for Securicor  as a fill in being freelance .There was simple rule. If the customer finds anything missing  its replaced no argument .That way we could get all our deliveries in that week .It worked well we could just drop it all off and go .One old boy insisted we get the whole kit of parts out and check every single screw.It was starting to be  layed out when we realised that instead of the low priced lot he had an expensive  super deluxe set costing far more .We insisted on packing it up and taking it away as the wrong item .He was furious and had  screwed himself  being distrusting and mean .As we left he was still swearing....

    I suppose I could count my daughters boyfriend .He insisted doing the driving down to Londn in her car instead of her driving it much to her annoyance . The last words I said to him was "dont forget you are only third party  insurance driving her car not fully comp"

Oh dear he whacked the back of another car ,probably a scam  accident looking back .

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, friscopete said:

 

    I suppose I could count my daughters boyfriend .He insisted doing the driving down to Londn in her car instead of her driving it much to her annoyance . The last words I said to him was "dont forget you are only third party  insurance driving her car not fully comp"

Oh dear he whacked the back of another car ,probably a scam  accident looking back .

ex-boyfriend?

[Bernard Lamb]

At a very early point in my working life I was told that when overseas, particularly so when in "dodgy" countries, to never even think about looking at a local girl, yet alone trying to take things further. It was trouble career wise and could lead to all manner of complications.

Being young and stupid I took no notice and got involved with a girl from a country where we did not have diplomatic relations and there were various ideological differences.

Later my boss appreciated my knowledge of the laws and customs of the country and in retrospect  I did rather well out of it work wise.

On a personal note things went well with the girl and we have been married for 47 years.

Bernard

 

 

 

 

 

[Ian Smeeton]

The best thing about good advice, is that you don't HAVE to take it.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Titan]

Best one I can think of at the moment was when my daughter was about 6 years old or so.  She was teasing the cat and I could see the cat was getting irritated, you know wagging tail etc.  I said to her, "if you do that again he will scratch you"  She did it again. He scratched her. 6 year old in tears with no sympathy from Dad what so ever...

[Matt C]

Advise to young son when caught short out walking the hills " Don't p1&& into the wind"  Advice ignored  and when admonished by the wife I refused to take responsibility for the blowback 

[friscopete]

18 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

ex-boyfriend?

Husband finally .She took his  beloved Type R instead.

[geoffers]

"...Advise to young son when caught short out walking the hills " Don't p1&& into the wind"  Advice ignored  and when admonished by the wife I refused to take responsibility for the blowback ..."

 

Or into a bank of nettles on a windy day....Been there, done that....

[Mark Saunders]

If in doubt and can’t make a decision; call a meeting and share the blame!

[OnTheBranchline]

2 hours ago, friscopete said:

Husband finally .She took his  beloved Type R instead.

excellent trade 

[Tankerman]

11 minutes ago, Mark Saunders said:

If in doubt and can’t make a decision; call a meeting and share the blame!

 

When all this 'hold a meeting' idea became popular in the early 1990's our regional manager at the time showed his opinion of the idea by having a poster printed and hung it on his office wall. It read "There is now an alternative to working, it's called holding a meeting."

[Nearholmer]

Someone once said to me: never join RMWeb; you’ll just end up wasting hours on it, getting drawn into commenting in fairly pointless threads.

 

Anyway, I didn’t listen to him ……….

[Enterprisingwestern]

22 hours ago, Ian Smeeton said:

The best thing about good advice, is that you don't HAVE to take it.

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

Only give it?

 

Mike.

[Tankerman]

21 hours ago, Matt C said:

Advise to young son when caught short out walking the hills " Don't p1&& into the wind"  Advice ignored  and when admonished by the wife I refused to take responsibility for the blowback 

 

It was worse for the first trippers (first ship as crew) when they didn't take the same advice regarding their stomach's likely reaction to the first rough weather the ship encountered.

[Ian Smeeton]

2 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Only give it?

 

Mike.

 

Tried that,

 

He didn't take it!

 

More fool him, very expensive, too.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[laurenceb]

7 hours ago, geoffers said:

"...Advise to young son when caught short out walking the hills " Don't p1&& into the wind"  Advice ignored  and when admonished by the wife I refused to take responsibility for the blowback ..."

 

Or into a bank of nettles on a windy day....Been there, done that....

Or near an electric fence, I am told that it is very painful

[Mark Saunders]

7 hours ago, Tankerman said:

 

When all this 'hold a meeting' idea became popular in the early 1990's our regional manager at the time showed his opinion of the idea by having a poster printed and hung it on his office wall. It read "There is now an alternative to working, it's called holding a meeting."

 

Also known as the practical alternative to work!

[SR71]

OT but consistent with the general grumblings preceding this. Remote working in the last two years meant I could attend meetings and work simultaneously. If it was worthwhile I could participate, if not I could half listen and get on with something useful.

 

Since it's been determined we must return 5 days in person they were told productivity would drop and did nothing about it...

 

O it was on topic.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, laurenceb said:

Or near an electric fence, I am told that it is very painful

 

No it's fine. 

Mythbusters did that one. It's just a string of disconnected droplets so there's no circuit. 

[62613]

11 hours ago, laurenceb said:

Or near an electric fence, I am told that it is very painful

can be quite shocking!