seeing a problem customer ahead of time and turning down the work

[huggytree]

got a call at 8am...kitchen leak...i give him my price and he tries to get me to skip my trip charge...then he says he will call back in 5 minutes.....he's price shopping now

he calls me back in 20 minutes, then 1 min later, then another min later, then 10 min later

5 calls total....i didnt answer

i only had 2 hours of work today + 1 hour bidding...i decided id rather sit at home than work for a customer like this....i figured him for the type who would complain and try to renegotiate once the job was done....the excessive phone calling was stalker like

when i get a problem customer my wife has to listen to me complain about them...the bad ones take days for me to move on....id rather sit at home than make $150 from a customer like this

any similar storys to share?

when it gets slow all the bad customers come out..

[Steve B]

Often my stories like this would have a twist at the end. Usually the twist is, I was surprised when they turned out to be a great customer who ended up giving me three referrals. I am surprised at how people turn out different than a first impression I may have gotten. A lot of people seem to play hard ball at the negotiating part, but once they decide to hire you everything is different.

You may have made the right call on this customer, but you'll never know. You're in a good position to be able to turn down a small job because it wasn't worth your time, just don't lose sight of the approach/attitude that got you where you are. I've seen that with a lot with companies - they start out hungry and trying to outshine their competition, then when they get successful they get complacent and start acting like their competition.

[rob0225]

I don't get this. What is wrong with trying to find the lowest price possible? He got your price and apparently you were the lowest and he decided to go with you, but you refused to answer his return call. You will never know what type of customer he would have been, you can assume all you wish, but you will never know...and you will get absolutely no referrals from him in the future.

Even if he is a "bad" customer, it's part of the business, however I don't equate price shopping or negotiating with bad. Even you negotiate on occassion, does that make you a bad plumber? You advertise yourself as a full service plumber, you take the good with the bad. If your not willing to deal with the occassional price shopper then stop advertising and go strictly word of mouth.

[Harold Mansfield]

Price shopping is not one of the reasons that I avoid a customer. I'm not that oblivious that I think a first time customer has come directly to me without checking out anyone else. I'm never going to be the lowest but what I try and sell them with is customer service, knowledge and by listening to their needs. That's hard to do when you avoid their calls.

However, if you do what ever it is you do for any period of time, you get a sense for who are the problem customers and who aren't. But that can be greatly exaggerated by the mood you are in at the time. I try not to draw that conclusion from one phone call because many times their attitude is reflective of who they just off of the phone with.
Some people aren't good at tempering their tone to the current situation...they let the previous situation spill over even if they have nothing to do with each other.

Of course I turn down work, but it's usually because they have unrealistic expectations or want to run all aspects of the project (even the code) , even though they have no idea what they are talking about or how things work. I either charge them more for the expected headache and extra time wasted, or get rid of them.

[huggytree]

price shoppers rarely go with me...very rarely...

no its not normal to have a customer complain about my prices and try to bargain them down within 15 seconds..not normal at all...

dont think ive ever had a good ending to a scenario like this.

Here's where im going to anger some one.....but it matters and i must say it...he was from India....i just cringe when i hear that accent...bargain,bargain,bargain..the culture is just horrible to deal with...everything is negotiable to the Indian culture...100 percent of the Indian customers Ive had have been difficult with 50 percent being horrible(trying to renegotiate after the job is done)....its not racist its just a culture thing with Indian men. it is what it is.....i didnt want to go here, but i cant defend my position without bring up this detail.

i am glad to work for anyone of any race or culture, but i dont care to work for people who are bad customers. This guy was going to be a bad customer...his obsessive phone calling says he's a bit scary too.

ive been criticized for my belief that 50 percent of the population is NOT my customer. I think much of my success has been me finding ways to avoid wasting my time with this group of people that cant afford me...its not a rich vs poor thing, its a price shopper/bargain hunter vs someone who wants quality/value and is willing to pay a bit more....my bidding time is down to almost nothing...i win 90percent of my jobs....this guy fit into the bad 50percent catagory. he gave me 2 red flags which put him there...price shopping and bargaining....that may offend some of you, but its not my customer base..price shoppers dont refer and arent repeat customers....they just pick the lowest price guy they can find.....

i know why he called me back...it wasnt price...he needed me within 2 hours and i was the only guy he could find.....im going to start being more picky...especially on small jobs like this..i make almost nothing on them and i dont need to get upset when someone plays games with me....he would have

i feel kinda proud of myself for choosing less stress over money...my wife is probably happy she doesnt have to hear about it all night when i come home too.....i had a guy who tried to renegotiate after the job was done 2 weeks ago- he said i made out like a bandit and asked for money back...of course i didnt...it bugged me for a week that i was sorta called a crook...i was the middle bid and he signed my contract ahead of time..there was no surprises here.....being honest is very important to me....when someone implies i cheated them or over charged its like poking me with a stick.

my favorite customers say 'is that all?' when i hand them the bill....it happens weekly, to bad its not daily

[Harold Mansfield]

I've had Indians (actually worked for them) tell me that that bargaining is just how it is over there, so I don't see anything offensive about what you said at all. (of course it's not for me to be offended)

All I can say is you know your customers and your area better than we do, so you really don't need to justify how you run your business to us or anyone else. If what ever you are doing is working and business is going the way you want it to go then there are no problems.

I definitely don't take every call I get as a client and I know exactly what to say to whom to scare them off without sounding unprofessional. Some people out there will always be fighting for service because they don't know how to be customers.

[dynocat]

My only question is why would you consider his repeat calls (when you didn't answer) as "stalker like" or "obsessive." If I call someone I just spoke to a few minutes ago, I would expect an answer. I too would be calling until I reached them, especially if I had water leaking in my kitchen.

Hey, it's your business to do with as you like. I don't think I'd recommend your approach to others in business though.

[Steve B]

I'm sure I would have been put in the stalker category too.

[J from Michigan]

You gave him an honest price that you were willing to accept, until you found out he was price shopping.
From there, you were either the lowest price, or the person who created the most value for their service.

It sounds like a pretty good situation to be in.

I guess I could understand not answering the first time, over principle.
But the second and third, you should have been eager to meet this customer you just won over.

[huggytree]

have you ever had a girl/boy friend call you 5x total in 30 minutes?...whats that called? its a stalker kinda mentality...

its great that he was calling me back....problem was he 1st tried to renegiotate my prices and then he price shopped me for 20 minutes....he wasnt going to be a good customer

1 call back w/ a message is normal.....not 4 return calls in 20 minutes