Projects Firing a customer!

This is a great post and everyone raised good points!!! I have a friend with a top notch resto shop; Every month he gives the customer a bill for the months work; when they pay, he hands them another bill. Works very well and makes a lot of sense. When you do inevitably get a customer that you must show the door, there's a lot less hangin' out there as you are never out more than a months' worth of work. As the guys said, never let the work get ahead of the cash stream!!!

"Binky's pizza.....
" Hey , man got any more o' those spy scopes???
"Hit parade on the stethoscope?
"you got the wrong number, pardner....."

gaspumpchas

 

My wife got a kick out of that one. Back in 1982 i told a customer she was fired on the phone and come get your car out of my shop.
I always ask around about the person and do a check on them. If 90% of the guys and gals i know dont give the person a good mention...forget it. I also keep in touch with the customer at least 1 time in 2 weeks with e-mail... phone calls Face to face. They also pay me every 2 weeks. I have them sign a paper that if i dont talk to them in 3 weeks it goes in a storage building of my choice and they pay. No problems to this date. But no project has been more than 10 months. If your a part timer taking years to do a project....maybe you need to get out of the business.

 

I know where your coming from. I had a customer like this. I treat all my customers the same way no matter if they spend 5 grand or 50 grand. I charge by the hour with no quotes. If they ask the price,it is anywhere from 5 to 50 and up! I work 40 and get paid. It is working out good. I been around this business for over 20 years and my business is open over 5 years now.I find if they want me to build their cars, this is how it will work.If they don`t like it move on. Everybody that comes into my shop understands how it works and I find it keep the trouble makers away.I don`t bend rules for anybody,including buddies. If your car in under my business roof you pay like everybody else. What your dealing with is all a part of business. Remember you are the one with the skills and your skill is not something that anybody can pick up at Wal Mart.

 

A little thing that some of you may have found out. Did you ever notice the more the customer makes for a living or the more he is worth the bigger the PIA he is? Wealthy (or reasonably well of ) customers seem to feel a sense of entitlement because of who/what they are. Most of them would like you to feel honored to be working on their project, to the extent that you should/must cave when an unreasonable situation arises just to maintain them as a customer. I had this come up with several people during my shop ownership years and my good friend that runs the high end rod shop is mired in this quagmire with a couple of very wealthy customers now.
It always made me feel extra good when I had the intelligence/courage to send one of these self-absorbed jerks down the road. The feeling that you might have just cut your nose off to spite your face was quickly replaced when a reasonable hard working nice guy walked in asking how much he owed for the previous weeks work, paid his bill and complimented you on the progress.

Frank

 

Amen to that. so true.

 

and a whole lot more things in this world......
Just tell the guy straight up what YOU need to make it work and if he can't agree then fire him.
Hard but simple.

 

While there is no denying those people are out there, in my experience they are the exception. I have done various kinds of work for wealthy people. I worked for and was the shop foreman in a shop that worked on classic era cars and specialized in Rolls-Royce restoration. At that shop I remember only one customer who was impressed with himself. And, I once quit a restoration project for an individual that was something like you described.

 

Integrity. It's all you've really got. Keep it, it goes a long way and it will take you far....

 

In my opinion that doesnt make you a Dick. that guy is just a pain in the Ass.
probably a good thing i am not in business. I would piss everybody off that walked through the door. I dont have a lot of patience with people that piss and moan.
Dont let the door hit you in the Ass.
Hell I fired a guy last month and its not even my company. he refused to weld galvanized beams for rooftop a/c units to sit on. I/We said will find someone that will..

 

A benefit of self employment! One of the best feelings in the world (maybe right next to you know what!) is to turn them away. Maybe a loss of $$ by why put up with the extra drama? I've turned back a few accounts over the years and, like divorce, it only gets better...

 

If you're giving him that much free labor, it makes you a chump. tell him you aren't running a non-profit, and that if he wants charity he needs to go somewhere else. That kind of customer will run you out of business.

 

had a customer want to get to the "head of the line". i told him i didn't have space for his car. he called twice a week till finally i told him if he had the fenders sandblasted i would put them in the body room and use them as a filler. which he did and dropped them off, he then called every day for three days and copped an attitude because we hadn't started them. i told him to pick his junk up and apologized that i would never make him happy and we would end this now. he went to a competitor who told me years later he drove him nuts complaining . sooo throw his sorry ass out. it will feel good

 

I run an O/T shop. Small engine repair, chain saws, etc. Had a guy one time bring in a saw that wasn't oiling. Simple, bad pump. Had one is stock, replaced it then found out he was using drain oil in it. Told him not use drain oil because of the acids and particles in it. Came back again, same problem and reason. Told him again not to use drain oil. Came in again, now using new motor oil. The detergents wiped the pump again. He came in a total of 6 times with it not oiling. Last time he slammed the saw on the counter and screamed "Am I the only one this is happening to?" I replied "Yes, because you won't listen to me when I have told you how to stop it from occurring." I also told him that $300.00 would buy a lot of bar oil and eliminate his problem. The repair with parts was $50.00 at that time.

I haven't seen him since and it is not a loss in my book.

 

WOW
If you asked me to weld galvanized material I'd tell you to do it yourself. Have you ever breathed the fumes from welding galvanized? I have and Zinc Fume Fever isn't much fun. Truth is if you fired me over that I may have just call OSHA and I hate those SOBs.

 

Maybe I'm slightly tarded but I do a fair bit of welding on galvanized metal. My favorite floor patching material is galvanized computer cases. Got a little Zinc Flume Fever going on right now due to welding on galvanized yesterday.

 

I tell them, you should have some money saved up first. I don't wait on my money and you pay every time I ask. I stay in contact with you and report progress. I don't let them sit in the shop. It will be finished as fast as I can do it. I do one car at a time. You pay as we go, that way when it leaves it's paid for. Your happy, I'm happy and well, Momma's happy too. And when Momma is happy......I'm real happy. plus I can buy more nitro parts.

 

Sounds like the customer needs to aggitate the gravel.

 

I've dealt with a few people like this. What I really hate is when a customer, (which seems to happen a lot when doing side work) underestimates how much time it really takes to do fine work. I'm pretty damn fast at what I do, and I charge a VERY low hourly rate on my own, and I'm always getting guys looking at the bill when I hand it to them and go "wow, it really took you ____hours to do that? what made it take so long" or varying responses. I'm doing some work on a '33 vicky for a guy at his shop, great guy to work with/for and I like his ideas so I enjoy the work and provide creative input. The problem is....he LOVES to be out in the shop while I'm trying to work....which means he's preventing me from actually doing work. One time I was there from noon til 11pm, and I could only morally bill him for 2 hours of work because thats all it really took to do the work, he just kept talking and talking and asking questions, and its hard to grind and fabricate while a guy is asking you questions about what you think about this, or that. I'd love to talk and shoot the breeze and come up with ideas for your car...but when I'm working, I'm working. I just haven't been driven nuts enough to say anything to him yet because he loves watching.

 

I've "fired" quite a few customers in the 30 years I've been doing this buisness. I found out it's the tight wads that gives the most grief and you'll go broke trying to please them. The last few years I didn't have much trouble, as soon as they asked for a "deal" I'd tell them to go elsewhere. If you do good work at a fair price you don't need to work for less.
I had one guy after I spent time writing up an estimate ask me if I couldn't do better on the price, informed me this other shop was cheaper. I took the estimate back, threw it in the trash and told him to take his truck there. He stood there and said "but I want you to do it, you do better work". Go figure! Don't know where he ended up going, I refused to do it at any price after that.

 

Frank, we built 2 cars for a billionaire. I found the Upper Middle Class Contractors were the worst. The Billionaire just wrote the checks, had his Lt. make the calls and never complained. The drywall contractor that like to golf and thought he WAS a millionaire was the biggest flake ever. He bitched and ducked out of bills at my old boss's shop and finally flaked at the new shop in town, owner bought his car off him to keep him happy. Lets just call him Yenry Hantzer Coded to protect the guilty

 

I've been in this situation numerous times. 9 times out of 10 pops stops me before i go off on someone.

The guys that are the worst are the "retired airplane mechanics", civil engineers, can do it but dont have the time.... types.

Anytime i hear somebody say "I can do this myself, but i dont have the time" i automatically think they have no clue. It must be nice to have more money than time.

My last customer told me up front that he is ANAL, boy he wasnt kiddin. Atleast i knew what to expect.

I know where your coming from though, it really sucks biting your tongue sometimes to keep a paycheck

 

Look I deal w super high end individuals in my day job. I've got a 1.5 mil job fir one person. 5 pieces. Granted they are 40'x20' each but none the less. They all know how to nickel and dime. Not my first rodeo. I've just violated the hit man contract. Don't get emotionally attached to the target. Just kidding. I just needed to vent.

 

I can always count on Unkl Ian to distill things to their very essence, thanks! Earl Scheib has a similar knack: "Good, Cheap, Fast...pick any two" Lastly our sign shop motto: "Where the customer is seldom right".

 

Haven't had to eat that much yet but I have refused to work on a few cars over the years.

I think you are too deep in to actually tell him to take a hike. You took the job on and professional ethics say you should finish it. You can refuse to back down on your price especially if it is an agreed upon price for a specific type of work. You do have a contract right?

 

Bob,
Not that I agree that the customer is seldom right, but that reminds me of another saying I saw somewhere else.

"This isn't Burger King, you don't get it your way! You get it my way or you may not get the son of a bitch at all."

I've got to agree that with the idea (in a previous post) that if the squeaky wheel get the grease, then you end up with a shop full of squeaky wheels. I've finally got to the point in my business that I have regular customers that know how I work and I know how they act.
I'm still starving to death, but at least I don't have to listen to folks gripe while I do it.
Larry T

 

Two quick stories. In the '80's when I ran a body shop, I'd build and sell late model wrecks when things were slow. I literally told a potential buyer to leave, that he'd be more trouble down the road then I was willing to deal with. Telling him straight that I wouldn't deal with that kind of behavior (hyper critical, nothing done to HIS standards), and then refusing his business changed our relationship. He returned, apologized , and bought the car. We became friends, and still are. In the '70's, I worked at a restoration shop. We assembled a Rolls Sliver Ghost chassis from a bunch of mismatched parts supplied by a customer. The customer brought Leo Gephardt to view the chassis, and sold it to him on the spot. The customer then attempted to chisel away at the final invoice. My boss said fine, forget it, and had us begin then and there to take the thing apart. It worked-he was paid and the customer became one of our best. There is some truth in the "soup nazi" supplicant/grantor of favors relationship. Don't sell your ability short to do something someone else can't.

 

Get rid of a bad customer, a good one will take his place. Live by that and you will only have good folks to work for. It's that simple.

 

......Why deal with a asshole customer?.......theres plenty of good ones out there.....

 

The customer wants it done his way, at his price, in his time frame.
The shop owner wants to do it his way, at his price, in his time frame.
They sound so alike, yet they couldn't be farther apart from each other.
Communication on both sides is the key..sort out all details before entering into this relationship (applies to customers, as well as shop owners).
Sometimes it's okay to say no, in business.

 

Actually our "motto" is due to the nature of the craft/industry we're in. As a sign shop we've seen pretty much everything in the last 37 years and we have a long list of pet peeves. The "customer is seldom right" attitude wouldn't work in most businesses but every job we do is custom and the vast majority of our customers really are headed in the wrong direction with their initial requests.