Difficult customers: Post your stories here!

[clovis]

I will be the first to say that every person that we meet could be a great customer.

Even when the customer displays a negative attitude, or is difficult, I will go out of my way to work with them in a positive, friendly attitude to resolve issues or to make a sale.

But sometimes, customers are too difficult or demanding, and are not worth the time or money to keep as a customer.

Got any stories you want to share about bad, difficult or demanding customers?

[steff bugielski]

I did some work for an interior designer a few years back. She had one customer whom she advised me to add on a" pain-in-the-neck " factor. Boy was I glad I did.
We were doing window treatments and she complained about everything. Never asked for anything to be moved or fixed or changed, just complained.
I have had things go wrong and it needs to be fixed, no big deal, but she just wanted to **tch.

[treasureacres]

PIA's (Pain in A#%) customers don't last long with me. There are some people that can get annoying but don't mean anything by it, but some do it just because they think they can. I can not stand when people try to talk you down in price over and over. Or just as bad, they want you to do more work than agreed upon, for the same $$. I can handle a little bit of this, but the ones that do it over and over, I fire them. That is what we call it, firing a customer. We explain to them very clearly what our service will be, agree on price, after that there is no negotiating. I tell all of our crews, whether it be construction, landscaping, mowing, or snow removal, or anything, do not do extra services unless they call me first so I can talk to customer and make sure we are clear on the work, and the price if we need to charge them. That does not mean we do not help people when needed, just have to cover our butts as a business though. We will have people say, " hey while you have that skid loader here, could you move this or that". Most times we can help, but LIABILITY is huge, so we cover ourselves. People will always try to get something for nothing, human nature.

[Jen H]

When I was landscaping, I had another landscaper warn me to charge a certain client time and materials instead of going with a straight bid.

Boy am I glad I took that advice!

First, the petunias I planted weren't the exact shade of orangy pink she wanted to match the sandstone patio. Ok... I took her with me to pick out the flowers - so they'd be the right shade. I had her sign a paper saying she had personally approved the flower color (she thought this was stupid, but signed anyway). Sure enough, the next week the petunias were just the wrong shade again. I pulled out that signed paper, and she backed down.

It went on like this for all of the flower beds and shrubs. The leaves weren't the right shape, or the shade of green was all wrong, or the tree she'd bought herself and had me plant was just too "treeish". I had her come along with me to choose the plantings, and sign that she'd personally approved them.

I made a mint off of that job, because I charged time and materials. If I had gone with a bid, I would have lost a boat load of money with all the extra time she demanded. Still, when she called the following spring to have me do her flower beds again I was "just too busy."

Came to find out, she gave everybody doing anything on her house the same run around. Carpet that she picked out herself was just the wrong shade and had to be redone, tile had to be redone because the joints were just too square (really), stairs with a standard riser had to be redone because she thought they'd look better with a taller riser... When I stopped landscaping she had made such a name for herself that all the tradespeople just steered clear. The money just wasn't worth the agravation.

[lharvey]

It's call Aggravation Factor and shows up as AF on my invoices

[mosepijo]

I re-upholstered a couch one time for someone whom I knew was going to be a pain. It was an 8' long couch with buttons in the back. Well the bottom row of buttons had a small pucker at each button (due to pulling the fabric in) Well she didn't like it and wanted me to make 13 small round 1" thick pillows to come just to the bottom of the button. Do not cover the button up but besure to cover the pucker. (good grief)
Well I had to hand sew on each of these pillows and when I got them all done she handed me some more fabric to make 13 more. She wanted summer pillows and winter pillows. I handed it back to her and told her I was not making any more pillows.... Never got any more jobs from her and was happy for it.

There are some people you just cannot please at any cost.

[mosepijo]

Also had customer who had bought lumber from my husband (custom cut). He showed up and sorted thru the lumber for the best boards. He was suppose to send us the check. Never did so when I called him about it, he said the boards was a bunch of junk. They were just barn boards.
I told him, no problem, I would come and pick them up. He said "no no... I already put them up" I said." Oh, I have a crowbar and know how to use it"

I got the check the next day..

[Cygnet]

I used to sell chickens at a swap meet. Mostly chicks and young birds, but occasionally I'd sell *ahem* retired breeders for the stew pot.

I was perfectly up front and told EVERYONE the birds were older hens, likely would not lay, but would taste good, or could be turned loose to hunt bugs, etc. I made NO health guarantees. (Because, dude, old hens.) And if asked I would have said my only guarantee was that they'd survive the ride home if the destination was the stew pot. Yum, posole.

Guy bought some. And I distinctly remember telling him the birds were older and that most people were buying them for meat when he asked why anyone would buy old hens. We had a whole conversation about it.

... Well. He tracked me down a few weeks later. Apparently one of the birds had developed some sort of reproductive ailment. He'd taken her to a $$$$ fancy exotic bird vet and the vet had spayed her. And then she died.

And he wanted me to pay $$$$ in vet bills. On a chicken. That I'd sold him with the clear knowledge that it was a meat bird. He threatened to take me to small claims court over it. I told him I'd love to explain to the judge that he wanted me to pay vet bills on a chicken ...

I also had someone who came back to me four times because the pullets I was selling them kept dying. She said she kept finding them dead. I kept replacing them, because she was nice about it and I thought maybe she'd just had a run of bad luck. She'd bought a couple dozen from me. I also made sure to explain that chickens need shade, water, etc. After the fourth one, I offered to come over and see if I could help her figure out what was going wrong.

Which was when she admitted she didn't think she was feeding them enough ... her husband would "only let her buy one bag of feed a month" and she thought they were a bit thin.

-- Leva

[clovis]

Wow...I thought I was the only one to have problem customers!!!

When you are self employed, you are often isolated, in a sense, from others in the business world. We just don't always have a 'corporate team' to fall back on for advice.

Here is one of mine, which may not sound like a big deal to you, but it still makes my blood boil several years later:

I had been calling on a buyer from a bank for several years. I submitted a quote, as I usually did, but since I had a rapport with him, I simply left off "XXL and XXXl shirts extra".

I had given this guy VERY attractive pricing already, and was glad to get the work. When I submitted the bill, I was surprised to find out how close my margins were due to unexpected cost increases.

As per normal business, I charged for the MASSIVE amounts of XXL, XXXL, XXXXL and XXXXXL shirts he ordered.

This guy had bought thousands of shirts over the years, and knew well that upsizes cost more.

He rejected my bill on the grounds that "the quote didn't state upcharges for up-sizes" and kept saying "You can't do this to me. I thought you were a man of your word."

Strapped for cash, and too mad to talk, I made a snap decision. I revised the invoice, which I lost $128, just to get paid.

He got over on me that day, but he no longer got prefered pricing from me. I knew where my competitors quoted, so instead of giving great deals to him, I just quoted 5-8% lower, but increased my XXL charges.

I was notorious for giving him free shipping, free screens, free set-ups, free artwork, free rush service, etc. to sweeten any deal I offered.

So yes, he screwed me, but he paid and paid for it in the long run, especially when he got desperate. I never screwed him, but he never got a deal from me again.

I often wonder what that cost him in the long run....

Clove

[cathleenc]

I had a customer try to return a washed, used, baby spit up all over, baby carrier as brand new.

The return started with her asking if I'd take things back beyond the 30-day return policy. I said 'sure' - as long as it was an item we still carried and as long as the item was new/clean/with packaging/able to be resold.

Turns out the item was bought over 8 months previously. I still would have accepted it and given store credit... but the condition - blech!

When I explained that it was anything but new she threatened to make me lose my business by verbally blackmailing me to every mother in the state. Used the fword and everything.....

Or the time a different person came in (clearly embarrased) with a store receipt to return 2 nursing bras her sister had purchased over 14 months previously. One of the bras was new with tags - the other was greyed, frayed, and had crusty breastmilk in the cups! When I pointed out the condition of the disgusting bra the woman exploded with anger at her sister 'setting her up', apologized profusely to me, and left redder than a radish.

[jersey girl]

We have one I am ready to ask not to come back. She complains more than all of our other customers put together. Nothing is ever right, she always wants something for nothing and then questions me like a two year old when I try to explain why I cant do what she wants, like make the animals produce more this week cause she wants extra.
We were doing build your own CSA box for a few weeks at the end of summer. Every other customer we had to tell them to put more in their box. This lady filled hers so full, it took two people to carry it. She won't get that deal again either.
Joanie

[SILEIGH]

after 9 years as a licenced massage therapist i have had pleny of propositions from guys....par for the course really, i learned how to deal with that stuff early on.

so a month ago i got sucked into a phone conversation with a man asking questions and sounding like he honestly needed/wanted help. i try to be very nice and helpful, explaining what we do, how we work, listening to his story, all that.
20 min later i get off the phone having not schedualed an appt. for him because he is gonna call around for prices the lady i work with (also owns the shop) goes "i bet its that guy, his name is in the back of our book" well if your name is in the back of the book its there for a reason!

i had forgotten about "D"! his M.O. is to get your sympathy then try to get $ off by saying "so and so always gave me a deal" or "i talked to a guy" he had tried it earlier in the spring.
so when he called back and tried his "i talked to a guy" and then procedded to tell me how to run my buisness..... game over

with the phone, i walked over to the owners room and opened her door a little so she could hear me. her clients heard too but they were cool so they enjoyed it! i told him i was done with him wasting my time...he didn't see that he was wasting my time...so i told him "ya know what D? no one here in this office is interested in working on you"

we are both pretty sure thats the last of him

it felt good to stand my ground!

[MorrisonCorner]

Oooooo the problem customer. Someone hit the nail on the head when they said that when you're a sole practitioner you don't have someone to validate that you're dealing with a problem child. I swear there are people who exist solely to take advantage of that fact.

[SILEIGH]

Originally Posted by MorrisonCorner

I swear there are people who exist solely to take advantage of that fact.

absolutly
i also run into people who think self employed= rich. because self emloyed people apparntly have no overhead costs to deal with

[Marjorie Dickso]

I don't have time for PITA customers either. I sell raw milk...had a customer that would buy several gal. a week plus eggs and anything else I might have.

Before I started selling, I had gathered up a lot of jars. Explained to each customer that I wanted my jars back and that they must be clean. When she returned the next week, she brought rusty lidded, narrow mouthed, DIRTY jars. I didn't say anything. Several times later, I told her what I expected. Finally one day I called her and said she owed me X amount of jars. She quit me!!! YIPPEE. I would be a rich woman had I kept my mouth shut..but I would still be a the sink, Trying to get those dang jars clean.