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Re: NEON- Advice needed -- What to do about bad customers?
On 08/16/96 03:51:22 you wrote:
>
>I have another problem, would like any advice you all can give me.
>As a contractor, in the past 6 years, I can in all honestly say I have never
>delivered a job that cheated the customer, that is what I strive for. I
>deliver an exceptionally good product.
>However, I have had my share of bad customers, chislers (chisler=Am slang, a
>person that takes pride in cheating others out of money owed using dishonest
>excuses and tortured reasoning.) that attempt to find some excuse not to pay
>me. I'm a little guy, so one or two unpaid jobs can wipe me out for a long
>while. So I fight back and try to collect my money. Needless to say, I always
>get a deposit but getting that final payment sometimes seems to reopen
>negotiations in those with whom their ego is tied up with their self-image as
>a shrewd businessman, so-called.
>
>In some of these situations, the chisler becomes disgruntled at having to pay
>up, or disgruntled that I have the nerve to try to make them pay, using legal
>methods. So they retaliate by badmouthing (slang, trying to hurt my
>reputation with other customers) my work. One minute they are bragging about
>how their neon is to their friends, and the next minute they are saying bad
>things about me to my customers.
>
>My question is, is it good policy to go after these bastards, or should I
>give up and leave them alone in order to avoid having them attack my
>reputation and eventually hurt my business with good customers that can't
>tell these guys are just bad news? The assumption here is, where there's
>smoke, there's fire. Enough of these guys and you can be out of business, no
>matter how fine your work, it seems to me, since they seem to like to
>retaliate if you try to fight them. I would ordinarily say, no way, but
>lately they have started to really hurt me, even though they are a very, very
>small but vocal minority of mean bastards, out of my normally happy
>customers. And I have had advice from some other contractors that they never
>sue a customer, no matter what, in order to save their reputations.They just
>shrug and go on to the next customer.
>
> I had one vendor say two weeks ago, he's a friend of one of them and now he
>didn't want to do business with me, since he heard I "run around screwing
>customers", something I have made great sacrifices for a long time to avoid
>doing even when the pay was very small. But he heard it, so he believes it. I
>made his friend cough up the $8K he owed me, and he wasn't happy about it. So
>he badmouths me now.
>
>What do you people think about this?
>
>Jeff Golin
>
>
Jeff, I had a customer like this. Though the story is a little different. Three months later a wholesale client
called me to tell me that some guy in Cedar Grove was badmouthing me. I called the customer to carify
and he flew of the deep-end. Claiming I sold him the wrong color awning and the window neonettes were
not to his liking. Again this is three months after the job is up and paid for. I tell you I am not a
salesman...I have no idea on how to sell someone something they don't want. I have trouble with the ones
that do know what they want! What it came down to was removing the neon and cutting a refund check. It
hasn't stopped him from badmouthing but I am severed from the relationship. I did the follow up visits,
smoozed etc. I left no stone un-turned. When all else fails, but there is no money involved, cut it loose. IF
JOHN Q CUSTOMER IS BADMOUTHING YOU FOR TO COVER HIS OWN DEFAULTS HE IS
PROBABLY DOING THE SAME TO OTHERS.
As far as after delivery price negotiations go... This happens on all levels. A commarade sign shop in my
area does millions of dollar sales every year. That sign shop has the same hills to climb but with a greater
burden. The game is the same it is just the decimal point that moves around.
Peace