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View Full Version : when work is slow why do the crazy customers come out of the wood work



huggytree
06-27-2012, 09:01 AM
ive always found that when im slow and desperate that the bad and crazy customers start calling me.

ive decided this year that i will still turn down work from the bad ones, but i am still taking jobs from crazies

Definition of bad= wants lowest price/ renegotiate after the job is done
Definition of crazy= willing to pay full price and a good repeat customer, but calls 4x a day

had 2 bad crazies just yesterday

1 has called 8x now over the install of a water heater....called at the end of the day to tell me he has a gas leak now...i drove 30 mins each way, sprayed soapy water on all my joints==no leak....then i used my $500 gas leak detector just to show him its ok...i tightened a union also just to show him i did something....nothing was wrong, i just did several steps to show him things were good(to calm him down)...he's a 3x customer and bought the most expensive unit with ALL the extra's....i still made $$ even with the extra 1 hour trip, but it was getting to the point of not answering his phone calls....

another i did yesterday told me the fumes in her basement almost made her pass out....i barely glued any pvc there...she's just sensitive and wanted me to do something about it...i dont know how i remove chemical fumes out of a basement??? i told her to give it 24 hours and it would all be gone....she's a 7x customer and always is goofy to work for...last time she locked herself out of her car...i had to spend 15 mins finding her a lock smith...another time she asked me to drive her to the local post office and back....i go above and beyond for her, but she's got a touch of mental illness

i work good with the crazies(maybe im one too)...i hold it together, but my wife gets to hear my complaining....i need to start charging these customers more and make a crazy customer list.....

crazy customer stories?

vangogh
07-05-2012, 12:16 AM
I think the kind of customers you're describing are always there. You just notice them more when the customers you prefer aren't around so much.

One of the "craziest" clients I ever had was when I was first getting started. He showed up for a meeting with his shirt open to his waist. He has asked me to come up with some preliminary ideas for a design for his site, but 2 seconds after I showed what I had done, he was no longer interested. He kept asking for changes that didn't make sense. One change would completely undo the previous change. After about a week it was obvious things weren't going to work out so we went our separate ways. A few days later he was emailing and accusing me of hacking into his site. I told him I hadn't touched it and that seemed to be enough for him as I never heard from him again. It was all very strange.

MissesBeatriz
07-06-2012, 09:33 AM
My world revolves around 'crazy' customers, I have a lot of stories! I used to rent apartments and actually lived at the private residence in order for tenants to have me at full availability. My long term tenants were great and generally stuck to 7am-7pm work hours for general customer service. But when I rented smaller apartments to weekend guests, I would get the crazies at 3am knocking on my door and ringing the bell which would scare me out of bed! Apparently, they thought I didn't sleep. Why were they ringing my bell at that time you say? Well they had wild nights out and lost their keys. Apparently, I was also a 'hotel' and '24 hour concierge'....bad bad bad!

vangogh
07-06-2012, 12:59 PM
I've had people call me at all sorts of hours too, even though it's clearly marked next to my phone number what my hours of availability are. Some also expect I'll work on their sites 24/7.

I had one client who would always email me change requests around 6:00 Friday evening and needing them first thing Saturday morning. One year she contacted me about 2 weeks before I was heading out on vacation. I told her when I was leaving and let her know when she needed to get me the information she wanted changed. Naturally she didn't. She called the day before I was leaving (after the time I told her to get me the info). I told her if she got it to me by that afternoon I'd still get it done. Again she didn't. I told her my first weekend of vacation wasn't going to be busy and if she could get me everything before the weekend I could probably still get it done. Again she didn't send anything. She finally send everything the day before Thanksgiving and then proceeded to email me a dozen times to see if I'd had to time to get the work done.

Not long after I decided not to keep her as a client. There were several reasons, the above being one.

billbenson
07-07-2012, 04:18 PM
I've had people call me at all sorts of hours too, even though it's clearly marked next to my phone number what my hours of availability are. Some also expect I'll work on their sites 24/7.

That's why I like email. It's not real time.


My world revolves around 'crazy' customers, I have a lot of stories! I used to rent apartments and actually lived at the private residence in order for tenants to have me at full availability. My long term tenants were great and generally stuck to 7am-7pm work hours for general customer service. But when I rented smaller apartments to weekend guests, I would get the crazies at 3am knocking on my door and ringing the bell which would scare me out of bed! Apparently, they thought I didn't sleep. Why were they ringing my bell at that time you say? Well they had wild nights out and lost their keys. Apparently, I was also a 'hotel' and '24 hour concierge'....bad bad bad!

Lived in a strange place after falling on hard times a number of years ago. It was a 20 unit one level complex. All kinds of drug deals went on in the apartment next door. Then they moved out and two hookers moved in. Woke up one morning with some ***** chick at my door.The funny thing was this was on a one block street in the middle of a very nice neighborhood...

vangogh
07-07-2012, 07:12 PM
I prefer email too, but some people want to call. I used to have my phone number more visible, but now it's only on a single page of the site.

huggytree
07-12-2012, 07:36 PM
still slow, still getting more and more bad/crazy customers

got 4 calls yesterday...not 1 turned into a job...typically i get almost every one....one almost hung up on me when i told him the price and one turned into the craziest guy of the year.....i went to bid on a project where they have no water pressure....no running water in the house....a trickle out of the bment laundry tub...and they have lived this way for 6 months....they share a driveway w/ a business, i walk in the house and they have 1/2 a bag of cat food spread over their kitchen table, cat poop all over the basement, the floor has 1/16" of dirt on it...when i left the house i could see my mud tracks in the driveway...the basement floods and there was about 1/8" of water(even though it has only rained for 2 hours in 2 months here)

i had to tell him its a well issue and wish him good luck...i told him expect $2,000+.....i could tell he has nothing...i think he had me over just to tell him what the problem is...free advice......i was sooooo happy this guy is only 10 mins from my house....ohhhh how id be PO'd if i had to drive 1 hour to be used

Steve B
07-13-2012, 05:15 AM
This heat wave and drought are killing me. This doesn't compare to your story, but yesterday a lady called for a quote on a repair. She told me she had the orignal installer fail to show up for 2 different appointments and now he wouldn't return her call. I gave her my estimate (which is very much in line with what everyone charges - and perhaps a bit cheaper than some). I happened to have an opening and told her I could be there in two hours. She said she was calling around to other places and would get back to me! I can't imagine what she was hoping for from someone else. She never called back and I'm glad.