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I don't see anything wrong with adding more hours to the job, just don't change the rate is what I'm saying
Best way to dump a customer?
- Thread starter The motor guy
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I do this with wives.
Yes, that makes sense. Sorry, I live in a flat rate world. Each job has a price. There is no breakdown to the customer.
That's kind of where I'm at. You know why this only takes me five minutes? Because I've got the building, I wired the power, I set up 3ph conversion, I plumbed the air, I stocked the Huot drill organizers, etc etc etc
If you wanna try it yourself with no tools, go for it. Then tell me what my time and equipment are worth.
edit: oh and I went through two years of vo-tech
I have fired a few customers over the years. Mostly body shops where they kept demanding larger and larger discounts while returning so many parts we went in the red for collision sales. I just politely told them they I could not afford to retain them as customers and welcomed them to source their parts elsewhere. There isn't any money in collision parts, especially when customer pay and warranty work in the shop pays so much more. One shop I fired because they were verbally abusive on the phone to numerous people. They didn't get the hint until whenever they called we hung up on them. Then the ultimate backfire for them, they called other dealers in the area and when they badmouthed us they all got "well if you annoyed bdcardinal that much, we don't want your business either."
Another national chain collision center was fired when they returned all the parts on a $4k+ order because "just because we send you an order with a purchase order number via email does not give you permission to charge us for the parts we requested." A nice ending to that one is when they call to determine what a correct part number is because the dealer they buy from can't figure it out, I remind them that one of their corporate people emailed me saying that we were not up to their standards to be a vendor and they would be sending their business elsewhere. No business, no free info.
Another national chain collision center was fired when they returned all the parts on a $4k+ order because "just because we send you an order with a purchase order number via email does not give you permission to charge us for the parts we requested." A nice ending to that one is when they call to determine what a correct part number is because the dealer they buy from can't figure it out, I remind them that one of their corporate people emailed me saying that we were not up to their standards to be a vendor and they would be sending their business elsewhere. No business, no free info.
That may be true, but, that doesn't stop you from quoting 3 hours for a 1 hour job and/or telling them it will take 2 weeks instead of 2 days to finish.
Then there were the ones that you can't EVER make happy, I call them 1 percenters. I refused to do business with them and told them so. These people are relentless and you can be sure that they are making your competitors just as mad. A few times they would come back when I wasn't there to sneak-in behind my back, I had to flag them in my computer so that my employees wouldn't do business with them when I wasn't there. Furthermore, if I ever got in a dispute with a customer and they told me that if I didn't do such-and-such they weren't going to do business with me again, I was done with them, right then! Life is too short to put-up with this kind of nonsense.
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I ate lunch with my son today . He said that same difficult client changed her mind about the size of a driveway apron this morning . Hours before the truck was scheduled to arrive . He was able to cancel the truck and then had to argue with her over paying for the change order to extend the form .
Approximately 60 million adults in the US, which is just over 20% of the population, have diagnosable mental, behavior, or emotional disorders. One in five adults you meet will have an issue and five out of five are dealing with the crap sandwich that is life sometimes and are just trying to make it through the day. Any day could be the day somebody couldn’t hold it together.
Consider yourself lucky it doesn’t happen more often.
Consider yourself lucky it doesn’t happen more often.
Quote 3 times the normal cost. You have a three year backlog. I’ve been told flat out…”we don’t have time for you now” and wished me “the best of luck”.
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Tell your customer something I heard my grandfather say to one of his friends who complained about EVERYTHING. "If everywhere you go smells like sh#t, check you own shoes".
"We don't pay you to sit around!"
IT Boss - perfectly recites 25-digit CD key and puts it in server. "You pay for that."
Owen Lucas
$100 Site Donor 2023
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There is usually a pretty steep discount and a lot of margin for a body shop with Mazda parts IIRC. A greedy shop indeed.
Those will be the same people that give you a bad review. Losers.
Mazda is way better than Ford for collision parts. But once you factor in the restocking fee to return, gas, paying a delivery driver, and paying counter people to process the returns, you quickly are on the path to being in the red.
I have also fired shops for slow payment. I have limited resources and if they are going to not pay on time, I don't have time for them. Those also tend to be the customers that need their hand held for everything and demand instant delivery.
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When I used to run a mobile PC repair and service business I would generally fire a few clients per year. Sometimes I simply did nothing because it was unlikely they’d need me again and there was no point in formalizing it.
Other times though, it was for repeat clients who behaved inappropriately. An example is the lady who had trouble unplugging her laptop and called me 17 times in a row when I didn’t pick up the phone.
My approach was to be direct and honest. Something like “You called me 17 times in a row, which is disrespectful and annoying. Due to this behaviour I will no longer provide services for you.”
Being direct and clear leaves no room for interpretation and I never changed my mind d once the decision was made. Life is too short.
Other times though, it was for repeat clients who behaved inappropriately. An example is the lady who had trouble unplugging her laptop and called me 17 times in a row when I didn’t pick up the phone.
My approach was to be direct and honest. Something like “You called me 17 times in a row, which is disrespectful and annoying. Due to this behaviour I will no longer provide services for you.”
Being direct and clear leaves no room for interpretation and I never changed my mind d once the decision was made. Life is too short.
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I had a customer call me back after not using me for a year and he proceeded to call about 6 times in a row. I already knew I didn't want him back as a customer, so I just kept ignoring the calls. Pretty sure I blocked that number too.
About 5 years ago in the mostly poor mostly minority use to be a decent steel mill town of McKeesport, someone had their vehicle repaired by a shop, and shortly after they got it back it broke again. There was a disagreement between the mechanic and the customer about the second repair so the customer shot the mechanic to death. They soon caught that customer and found him guilty.
Sometimes it's not wise to fix junk that has aged out and is just going to break again soon.
Sometimes it's not wise to fix junk that has aged out and is just going to break again soon.
Don’t recall who said it but in a similar vein - If the next 5 people you meet are a-holes, it’s not them, it’s you
Refer such customers to your competitors.
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