Another irate customer.
 

Not really a customer, never done work for him before. He comes in a few weeks ago, and wants me to work on his 1990 fleetwood. this thing is a total pos. He has no money, wants to buy his own parts, and has to wait while I work on it.
I would rather make no money, and play on the computer all day, than to tear into this pos, and deal with this guy. I told the guy, I currently had work scheduled for the next two weeks,( not bs. ) and that I do not like to schedule out any further than that. He demanded to get on my schedule. I told him that I would write him in, but it was unlikely that I would be able to stick to it, and that I would call him, and let him know if something changed.
I called him early this week, to inform him, that there was no way I could get him in this week. I thought it kind of me to let him know, instead of blowing him off completely.
Checking my messages this am, I see that he left me a threatining message, and told me that " I will fix his car today" .
I really hope he does not show up.

I have learned that saying "no" to business you don't want is much better that trying to put people off until later. Much less stressful in the long run as you only have to deal with the person once.

Lock your door.

With those kind of people it really does make sense to make it clear that they should go somewhere else. It's one thing to be polite and try to do good service, but this guy seems to think you "owe" him something. I'd hate to do the work and have him at the door every week trying to connect the work you did and the trouble he's currently having. Good luck with it.

"wants to buy his own parts"

If I learned anything working at my BIL service station it was to never do that.
Jim

Tell him your shop rate is $400 per hour.

Yep, in less than 3 minutes, he hit every target for me to not want to do work for him
#1. Piece of shat Cadillac that probably needed $2500.00 worth of work, but the guy is short on money, and sounds like he wants me to spend my day welding, his exhaust back together, and putting bandaids on things.
#2 He cannot drop it off, ( I rarely do wait jobs, and keep it down to small stuff first thing in the morning ). So he wants to wait, and watch over me like a hawk, while I get frustrated trying to unbolt his rusty jalopy .
#3. He has a good source for parts, and would like to provide his own. ( I will do this in special circumstances like for Porshce , or hot rod work ) but not spark plugs, mufflers, and brakes, c'mon . Not only do I loose money on the deal, this will surely slow down the whole process.
#4, He got really pushy, and demanding within the first 5 minutes of meeting me. I can only imagine what is going to happen when I am not finished up at 5 o clock,and want to go home.

Run, not walk away from this guy. You are "simply too busy" and tell him to find another shop.

Fred - When "this type" of person (NOT a customer) rolled into a shop where I had control over workflow / admin, I always offered a great analogy to this situation.

I would say...........OK..... Have you ever walked into a restuarant and asked them to cook the steak you brought with you, then wait in the kitchen to watch them cook it?

Guess what their answer (almost) always is.............................................

I then would politely, but firmly tell them that HERE I provide complete service for you; on your vehicle as soon as my schedule allows and then stand behind my repairs. YOU are trying to dictate to me how YOU are going to circumvent that proven process. That is not going to happen.

So............would like me to make an appt for you?


Most just walk away, because (and this is important) they were never customers in the first place - they are leeches. A few concede and become OK customers

As a small business owner you have to be on constant vigil to safeguard your reputation from leeches like this. I agree that I would and have rather made no money for the day then to let that type of cancer into my wallet

Wonder what kind of work the Caddyman does?

I think an out comes under the theme of a "partial repair." You agree to put the car on the rack and then note any safety issues. You tell the customer that you either fix it all or nothing. Your parts (it's a safety issue) and labor by the book. Tell him your insurance won't allow you to drop a car that still has an un-repaired safety issue.

Here's your estimate.

State law might even be on your side on that one.

.................................................. ....................

Funny, I had a '90 Caddy and it started acting up. It was a leaking mess that I took when my mother died. I worked on it until I couldn't do any more, so I took it down to the local mechanic. He putzed around with it and finally came up with a grounding issue of the block to chassis. Says he fixed that and handed me the bill with, "Get that leaker out of here."

It lasted a couple months before having a catastrophic ECU meltdown. I left it at the side of the road and walked away. Told AAA don't bring it to my house. Push it over a cliff.

Stupid because I could have gotten 200 from the tow away guy. But I digress.

I talk too much.

Yep........level with the guy and tell him you are not going to work on his car, sorry but that's the way it is......refer him to the local pepboys or other chain shop in the area.
You don't owe him **** other than a push out the door.
And make sure you have a sign that reads you reserve the right to refuse work somewhere, then stand by it....
Good luck, don't hesitate to call the cops if he gets loud...

FFR..glad you stayed cool.

a situation like this would invoke a head butt from Gandhi..

Fortunately, sounds like an irate non-customer.

KevinP73, Is there a thread for that one? I must have missed it.

Fred - this guys sounds like he's related to your neighbor - the one who wanted your help to cut up the tree but wanted all the wood. ;)

I don't care for pushy people -- and I really hate when people watch me while I work.

I'm OK if they don't have a lot of money to spend- I can always work with someone's budget no matter what it is. They may not get much but I will do what I can.

Yesterday we did a small job and the client was chatting it up the whole time asking stuff that didn't have anything to do with the job...while I'm trying to focus on my work - I just kept on going - you have to just get through it sometimes.

Fortunately 95% of my clients are great.

It's that annoying 5%....:mad:

Fred, what happened with the tree in yard guy? And Cadillac Jack? We need updates!

I had a customer that ordered $75-135 orders every week. This guy would pay late, forget to pay for his freight, claim shortages ( Like I can't count to 2?)

After realizing that I was spending too much time to earn $7 off of him I called him up and FIRED him as a customer.

As dtw asked, what happened with the tree that became part of your property?

We had a customer that wanted to come search through our historical archive. We explained that we are not a library, we SELL images for a living. He would not accept that he had to pay to to play. He threatened to sue us because he was involved in a law suit and NEEDED our images. He was paying mega thousands to attorneys, but did not want to pay us 80 bucks to buy an image. I can only guess his attorney told him our work belongs to us and he has no right to use it for free.

Happy to report that he was a no show, It was on the back of my mind all day. Hopefully I never see him again. I am glad, cause I did not want to make another " I lost my temper on a customer " , or an " I got the snot whooped out of me by a customer " thread.
My neighbor, really surprised me. He came over Saturday morning and said that he had hired a tree service , and they will be here Sunday to cut it all up, He offered to split the wood. They came and cut it all up except for the huge bottom section. Said they will be back sometime this week to finish. We are going to split all wood over the next week or so, and just make a community pile on the property line. Seems fair enough to me. I was sort of shocked at this one. A lot of locals do not like my neighbor. I had others in the neighborhood ask me why I even talk to him. I figured , that we have to live next to each other, It would be nice to be civil, and I am glad to report that it remains this way.
That is all the drama I have to report for now, if you want, I can go down to the rentals and stir up some trouble for your entertainment.
Once again, thanks guys.

Take the night off Fred.....besides...you will probably need some new material for next week's episode! ;)

Hey BTW - my neighbor drives me crazy too - so don't feel bad. I try to be civil despite their antics...gotta live with them as you say.

Fred,

Looks like a little good karma may have showed up for you! That is always a good thing. I have a neighbor kinda like yours and I have to admit that just when I think I can't take it anymore he does something unexpected. I sometimes think some things don't come easy to him in dealing with others, but he tries hard.

Good for the no drama!

"My neighbor, really surprised me.....He offered to split the wood."

The expression around here is 'even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while'.
You just never know how things will play out. Lots of times a good strategy is to lay low and let the other guy make the first move.
It's hard to get in trouble for for something you don't say.
Jim

The neighbor figured it out because you spoke up. If you had told your new potential customer that it looked like his car was going to need 2,500 $ worth of work, do you want me to book you an appointment, he would have figured it out as well.

First thing I do is mention price when I want to separate the serious from the time wasters.

Dan that's a good point. And we both know that approach is a "tool" for us - not necessary for all clients...only those who produce red flags.

I divide all clients into 2 distinct groups:

Collaborators
and
Competitors

The first group we want. The second group....eh....not so much :)

This little guy is the funniest thing I've seen in a while


As for the situation, any person who says that you ARE goin to work on his car has already threatened you. I would call cops as soon as you see him approaching. If his car was not such a pos I would assume he is mafia

Man THAT is sum serious redneck drivin thar 'mam!!!! I mean drifting a 5500lb FRONT wheel drive, Detroit convertable boat - Wheeeee!!!:D

isnt that boss hogg?

Blind squirrel. :)

Exactly... put 9-1-1 on speed dial... and hopefully you also have a CWP just in case.

He might be what is known as a low level wise guy.

I think it's Junior Driving.