dealing with rude/wrong customers

[mad matty]

Punch in the face often works:001_smile:

 

:laugh1: have felt like it, but managed to keep my cool and be sickly sweet.

[onyx landscaping/fencing]

went something like this.... few weeks before xmass get a call to go look at a fence that is "moving in the wind" urgent so rushed off to have a look at it. when I got there It was one of the most cow boy fences I have ever seen. 6'6" high feather edge posts every 3.6m put in 18" max in made up ground with next to no concrete around them. fist rail was 4" up from gravel board 2nd was 14" up from g-board and 3rd rail was 3'6" up leaving over 2'6" to the top with no rails. fence had only been up 6 months. my advice was contact the person that put the fence up and get them to come and correct the F-ups (provided it wasn't the old home owner that put it up) they didn't want to do that so gave them 2 options.

1 bodge it by putting extra posts in between the existing giving 1.8m spacings and also dig down around the existing posts and put more concrete around them, also put another rail higher up. said I wasn't happy to go down this road as it just looked such a mess and that I couldn't guarantee the work

2 take it down and start again/replace the hole thing (was going to cost the same as bodging it)

so gave them the prices and went on my way.

week later get a call early eve saying the fence is about to fall over and is there anything I could do as a stop gap while they make there mind up so went down with some 6' half rounds banged them in over 3' deep (ground was soft as s£$t) and screwed cross beams to the fence. told them they would need to make there mind up sharpish as they wouldn't hold long. 2 weeks later at 4.30 on xmass eve get a call to say the fence is in the road and could I do something about it so off I shot again this time taking the chainsaw with me. arrive there and say there realy is only one option now but they have a tizz "cant I just prop it up blah blah blah" sorry the only thing I can do is cut it up and get it out the road. they agree and ask how quick I could put a new fence back up. told them I would try and get it done between boxing day and new year (was ment to be having time off!) weather was crap so it didn't get done but I communicated with them a lot letting them know what was going on. the hole time this has been going on they have been nothing but rude

[mad matty]

Hope you got paid for the first 2 visits,

as for bad weather you really cant erect fences in water laden ground, barrier fencing could be used temporarily (orange plastic) surely they understand that.

 

Generally if someone speaks to me like their dog....I inform them I don't wish to be spoken to like that, and ask them would they like to be spoken to like this.

[Jamie M]

I had a situation where I was being spoken to as though I was something on the bottom of your shoe. (This was at the initial quote stage by the way). I tried to keep calm but eventually I couldn't keep it together any more so told him outright not to speak to me like that and as he had asked me for my pro opinion, the least he could do was the courtesy of listening to what I had to say.

There was a long silence with tumbleweed blowing through until it was broken by his wife apologising to me for his behaviour. Two other members of the group later individually apologised to me for his behaviour.

I thought I'd blown it but we ended up getting the contract which was a 6 dayer.

I think the others actually enjoyed seeing the bloke getting a dressing down and made to look like a pompous ass.

[wrsni]

I guess you are just good a letting people down gently and getting them to accept less than they were hopping for, a real "No man":001_huh:

 

Excuse me but who said anything about letting people down, I'll move heaven and earth before I let anybody down, least of all myself!

 

I take great pride in my work, which is why I won't cut corners or comprise on the quality of what I turn out even if some cheap skate customer wants me to.

 

Every job you do is potentially an advert for a future customer, so if you do something in a half-assed way just because somebody who has no idea what they're talking about wants it like that, or some miserable sod wants to save a few quid, what are you going to do. Put a plaque up saying yes it's a bit of a bollocks but I only done it like this because knobhead wanted me to and "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!"

 

I've gained a sufficiently good reputation in my profession such that I haven't had to advertise at all for a good number of years now and still manage to keep busy and bring in new customers, always on the strength of a recommendation from someone else.

 

Not risking that for anybody!

[Ty Korrigan]

One Saturday I arrived at a Brit owned second home to quote.

I was early and so had a look around whilst my wife who hails from the Moroccan Sahara and who had come along for the ride, walked down to the village to buy a bun.

The client and his family turned up 'late' and got out and I shook their hands.

As we where chatting about their plans for the property the old man turned to me and went off on one spouting this unwelcome diatribe.

"We bought here to get away from bloody immigrants but now I've just seen a bloody 'moozlum' when I went to buy me bread. Makes me bloody sick, you just can't get away from them bloody ragheads."

I just felt nothing but cold anger but finished the quote and bade them goodbye.

I won the quote, did the job well and billed them promptly.

They may not be my kind of people but it is their money I'm after not a fight.

Ty

[mad matty]

Well done Ty, don't know if I could have done that.....but fair play to you:thumbup1:

[theflyingscotsman]

Eh...no..

 

The customer isn't always right.

 

That's like saying you'd jump off a cliff if someone asked.

 

I too don't advertise anymore, I do come across the odd arse of a customer..

 

I think if my business reputation if strong enough. One person isn't going to harm it. if I absolutely had to I'd tell someone straight to shove their job. I would be happy to..It could be impractical, unviable or just to dam dangerous..

 

So no, no one knows it all..including customers.

[treequip]

The rudest armpit I have ever come across was a site safety officer.

 

Site specific RAMS went in before he came on site.

 

He refused to read it and insisted the trees (simple straight fells) were climbed, because that's how the men that did his trees at home did it.

 

Newly qualified, pissed on power and full of the "I'm not going to prison for you" nonsense that the come out of MIOSH with.

[oldwoodcutter]

Few months back i said to a retired american business man,when he finished telling me what he wanted "You're looking at around £300". He repeated what i said in a poor copy of a norfolk accent,and came out with "what sort of quote is that?" and he said it again.

So i rather sarcasticly said "it will cost £300 to do this work" thinking to myself take it or leave it mate.

After that got on real well,and he gave us a stack of other treework which we did later in the year. Takes all sorts.