Fired yet another customer today!

[huggytree]

I have a guy who likes to waste my time

He calls me for bids 1-2x a month...refuses to give me a last name for my record keeping(i think he thinks im going to steal the customer)
He has called me probably 30x over the past year
He has delivered TWO jobs in that time resulting in $500
Both jobs were horrible and rigged

last week he finally sold another job...this time $300
He called me 4x last week asking for free info, wanting me to come fix things for free, asking for parts advice
I have the job scheduled for 2 days from now
Today he called and said the homeowner hired a friend to do the plumbing

He is a time waster and a idiot/user
I have typed his name into my phone as :BAD so i dont answer his calls anymore...his file is in the garbage

I should have recognized this problem long ago

it feels good once again to fire ANOTHER bad customer

[Business Attorney]

Good for you, Huggy. I don't always agree with you but this customer sounds like it was all pain and no gain.

[Steve B]

I'm surprised it took you so long. It was good that you gave him so many chances. I think I'd probably give him a little feedback before ignorning his calls. Perhaps you could help the next contractor he might try to take advanatage of.

[huggytree]

he always seemed to call when i was slow, so answering all his questions didnt seem so bad....he's more of a handyman that flies by the seat of his pants than a real contractor...no permits and everything was rigged.....i didnt feel comfortable with one of his projects...i felt it was extreme poor quality the way he did it to save $

this time i was busy...thats why im so annoyed....and the fact that he wanted me to help him solve a issue for free on a $300 job....and he kept bugging me about the issue he was having which should have been easily solved by him by himself....he couldnt even find the houses main shut off valve

he is from Germany and speaks with a heavy German accent...its very hard to understand him...

what kind of feedback should i give him? there's not much to say without being blunt......ignoring his phone calls is the best way to let him down...he wont be angry that way...just confused

[Steve B]

How about, "I just wanted to let you know I won't be interested in working with you in the future because I feel I have been taken advantage of. You call me often for free advice, yet, for whatever reason I haven't received very much business from you. The few jobs I received were not the type of work I like to be a part of. I wish you the best of luck, but I can no longer justify spending time on the phone with you or putting together bids on your future work. Again, I wish you the best of luck, but I won't be available to take your calls anymore".

[huggytree]

first off he's first generation German....so id have to repeat and explain 1/2 that paragraph to him....because of his broken english i try to keep our conversations very short.

id be calling him a user....but in a long/nicer way....how's that not going to make him angry? even just a bit?

if i ignore him then there's no hard feelings....he will wonder why?, but i dont think it has any chance of making him angry...just confused

i would have no problem being honest with him and blunt....i just dont see any advantage in doing so.....the advantage position is just to not answer his calls...

Steve: have you had to tell a customer 'how it is' before?

[Steve B]

You're right. There's no upside for you, I was just trying to think of the next guy and even as some constructive criticism for this guy. I was never a success in the corporate world because I wasn't good at ignoring things and people that I might have been better off ignoring.

My situations are always different because most of my customers are basically a one-time thing. They either like my quote and my pitch and hire me or they don't. If I'm hired, I'm in and out in a half a day and it's easy for them to see they got what they paid for. When they do need me in the future, it's for simple repair work. The only things that come close to me firing a customer is during the quotation part of the process. Once in a while, I get somebody calling me that seems to think they know more than I do. I give them my quote and get off the phone quickly. One time, I walked off the job when I was doing a repair for a lady that wanted to argue with me over the potential causes of her problem - it was a long back and forth conversation before I finally just told her to call someone else.

In the pet food delivery business - we only had to fire a few and it was due to lack of payment. We just stop delivering to them and there's no discussion - other than the e-mails telling them about their outstanding balance. We now only sign people up who will be giving us their cc info. or direct payment authorization before their first delivery so payment problems have practically gone away.

[huggytree]

ignoring isnt the nicest or most honest way to do business, but its the best way to let someone down easy.....i learned this method from a few girls i tried to date in my early 20's....it always worked well on me!

i had a customer looking for free advice the other day...i blew him off in less than 30 seconds...i told him to call someone else...it was hard to be so blunt, but i was busy and he pretty much said im looking for advice on how to snake a line.

when i get the 'engineer' type of customer (which i sometimes am too) i always raise the price....ive had some present me with a plumbing diagram and tell me how im going to run it...ive had (3) customers sit in a chair and watch me for 8 hours.

most problem customers also seem to be cheap, so as ive raised my prices i get less and less bad customers

[billbenson]

Huggy, no info can be kind of like mis info. It sounds like the homeowner wants something done cheap and the guy providing that service probably does it wrong. I'm pretty sure you have had some slow times recently. When you do, why don't you answer this guys questions in the form of a blog on your website.You can simply say I don't have time to answer you right now, but I"ll put it in my next blog.

That way hopefully nobody or fewer people get screwed by bad workmanship, he learns something, and you gain something as well by improving your web site.

[huggytree]

Huggy, no info can be kind of like mis info. It sounds like the homeowner wants something done cheap and the guy providing that service probably does it wrong. I'm pretty sure you have had some slow times recently. When you do, why don't you answer this guys questions in the form of a blog on your website.You can simply say I don't have time to answer you right now, but I"ll put it in my next blog.

That way hopefully nobody or fewer people get screwed by bad workmanship, he learns something, and you gain something as well by improving your web site.

98% of his calls are about a job he is bidding on....which he never gets

the calls i got recently were about turning the water off to the house...he didnt even know how to shut the water off and unthread a valve under a sink...things that were sooo basic.......im sure 100% of people could figure out how to turn off the house main shut off if they had to

[billbenson]

98% of his calls are about a job he is bidding on....which he never gets

the calls i got recently were about turning the water off to the house...he didnt even know how to shut the water off and unthread a valve under a sink...things that were sooo basic.......im sure 100% of people could figure out how to turn off the house main shut off if they had to

Point taken, but my wife probably would't (or doesn't want to know and calls me) know how to turn the water off at the street. For valid questions it could be a way to turn it into a positive?

[huggytree]

Point taken, but my wife probably would't (or doesn't want to know and calls me) know how to turn the water off at the street. For valid questions it could be a way to turn it into a positive?

ill bet in an emergency that your wife would figure it out for herself within 10 minutes if she had no choice...if your house was flooding she could do it

my wife isnt handy at all and i guarantee she'd do it

you need to give your wife more credit.......she just calls you because its easier and she knows you know

[billbenson]

ill bet in an emergency that your wife would figure it out for herself within 10 minutes if she had no choice...if your house was flooding she could do it

my wife isnt handy at all and i guarantee she'd do it

you need to give your wife more credit.......she just calls you because its easier and she knows you know

Completely accurate!

[huggytree]

Completely accurate!

3:42 AM????

couldnt sleep?

[billbenson]

Ya, I get that sometimes and it's a real pain

[huggytree]

Ya, I get that sometimes and it's a real pain

i wake up with horrible headaches around 3am sometimes....i drink (2) caffeinated soda's and take a night walk around the neighborhood for a 1/2 hour. they are typically stess headaches....then go back to sleep