Bad Customers Can Ruin Your Day - Just Venting

[Tim Bateson]

Sometimes you just need to get it off your chest. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Hundreds of fantastic customers, and just 1 that makes me want to blow my top.

Scenario: Customer – “Jane Doe” orders & pays for a Blue with White text Name Plate, but also wants a RowMark color chart for reference. She is happy with a 3 day turn-around. I finished and sent it out within hours. FIVE days later “Jane Doe” complains she wanted a Celestial Blue with Gold text and that the Blue/White order was for reference only, not her actual order.

I have Miss Doe’s original email to prove she ordered Blue/White. Arguing is pointless, so for the sake of public relations, I’ll redo the order, but I will also black list Miss Doe’s email.

[Dee Gallo]

There's always one, Tim... glad you kept your cool, it's just not worth it sometimes. I feel your pain, though and hope that's it for the year for you.

~ dee

[Glenn Freer]

Better to vent here then to your customer! We had one last week that we knew from the first conversation was going to be a PITA! We were right. Finished their order, advised them it was done and told them to call us to make arrangements to pick it up. Instead - according to them - they decided to drop by unannounced to pick it up. Then they send a nasty email about how far out of the way they had to come and how unprofessional it was that we were not at our "office". Funny thing is, we work out of our home not an office, we were home all day - and night - on the day they said they came by, and the kicker is, we never gave them our address??? We did the castings in their home and they had no idea where we lived. How do you argue with crazy?

[Phil Thien]

I'm not in the same business, but have the same sort of things happen all the time.

Like you, we accommodate, and then avoid.

Though, I wonder whether, as a society, we make too many accommodations for people that are wavering liars. And wavering liars is the least of it, quite frankly. Some of them are just spooky weirdos.

There are many sites (google, yelp, Angie's List) where consumers can rate businesses.

I think it is time for businesses to be able to rate consumers!

[Rodne Gold]

Tim , It's always the littlest jobs that come back to bite you on the b-m!!! Some customers are just always unreasonable and impossible to please.
I reckon your response was spot on , re-do and eat crow for the sake of good PR and then next time "fire" them...

I often "fire" troublesome customers , in the nicest way of course ;)
I refer them to my competition with some excuse like one of my machines has broken down or I don't have stock etc...let them tie up my competition...
If they really persist , we then start a FOAD pricing structure (F... O.. And Die) in that the price is so prohibitive it scares them away or if they do accept the price , there is so much jam and icing on the cake that one can put up with any aggro you gonna have.
We all have tales about a customerzilla , good topic for a new thread - "The customer from hell - post your horror stories here" ??

[matt heinzel]

Last year we had a customer order some plaques. He sent us PDF files that were already setup we just had to engrave them. When he got them he said they were all wrong, he said "The PDF was only for reference!". I have a feeling he set them up and then when his boss saw them they didn't like them. Funny how we take the blame for other people's mistakes.

[Mark Sipes]

I have gotten to the point that I PDF the Corel files to the customer before I Engrave/Laser the file. Selection of Fonts, Name Spellings, etc.... to many variables
to bite you later... In in the email it state color and board style items will be mounted on. and ask for comment/approval before any work will be completed.

[Joe Pelonio]

Tim , It's always the littlest jobs that come back to bite you on the b-m!!!
Very true, it's always the onesies!

[ray hampton]

what percent of your customers do you consider to be bad apples

[Gary Hair]

what percent of your customers do you consider to be bad apples

0% - if someone becomes a bad apple, they are no longer a customer...

[ray hampton]

0% - if someone becomes a bad apple, they are no longer a customer...

Gary got a special talent, spitting hairs

[Rodne Gold]

We have a lot of traffic in my shop .. easily around 20-30 customers a day .. the percentage of bad apples is real low , maybe one every 2-3 months or so. It's not a big problem for us.
Even with non problem customers , 99% of the time we will redo their mistakes and not charge anything , does wonders for goodwill. However , of course if lets say they ordered 100 plaques and they misspelled or made a mistake on ALL of em , we wont redo it as a freebie , but will give a nice discount on the repeat job.

[Mike Null]

Most of my business is by phone and email so I rarely have a problem but when I do I am willing to suggest the customer go elsewhere.

Last month I had a new trade school customer call at the last minute wanting a few plaques. I sent proofs of what she described and she suggested some changes--OK. Changes made, I resent the proofs and she came back with "I want to send you a design", OK. She sent the new design which was amateurish and looked terrible. I called her and suggested she might want to find another engraver as I did not want to produce such items. She quickly apologized and let me send a new set of proofs which she quickly accepted. ( I have no patience for secretarys doing design work.)

[Dee Gallo]

Good for you, Mike. I share your feelings about clip and paste designer/secretaries... they can produce some pretty nasty work I wouldn't want my name associated with either.

I always like to do business in writing - phone conversations can be misunderstood or mis-remembered. If you see it, there is no confusion. And I prefer no confusion.

I also use the over-inflated pricing technique to scare away someone who looks like trouble. If they are dumb enough to agree, the extra $$ makes up for the headaches, but they are on a tight leash at all times.

[Tim Bateson]

"Jane Doe" Must read this Forum. Got an email from her this morning saying she has reconsidered and likes the Blue/White Name Plate. Again.. Grrrrrr At least I procrastinated and had not redone the job.

[Dee Gallo]

Good news, Tim! If only ALL the skunkers would read this forum... they'd know how much goes into their "simple" jobs.

[ray hampton]

Good news, Tim! If only ALL the skunkers would read this forum... they'd know how much goes into their "simple" jobs.

sone people are beyond being taught, a town in the state of Penn. reduce the pay of its 400 workers to Min. wage 7dollars plus coins

[Bill Cunningham]

I've been pretty lucky with customers, no 'real' problems.. I had one that ordered 2 doz pieces of glassware, (she didn't know if she wanted 2 or 3 doz, but settled on 2) and she wanted them shipped.. No problem, I did the etching and shipped the job. I get an email, saying they ordered 2 doz but only received 1 doz, "perhaps we made a mistake"!!! I went back and checked the order, yup, 2 dz etched and shipped.. I emailed her back and told her 1 doz. requires a special setup, and the shipping weight on the post office bill was for the weight of 2 doz. We pack VERY well, did the package look like it had been tampered with? If so, we would have to file a theft report with the post office,and I'm sure they will get back to you for more information.. I then received another email saying sorry, all is ok, the person that received them miscounted.. How do you miscount a whole dozen when there's only two? :D

[Mike Null]

Rarely, I accept a retail job (a new customer who has only one item to be engraved and likely won't return) and once in a while I will do the job while they wait.

I have a $25 minimum charge and when they see all that goes into completing an engraving they quickly understand the fee. Usually it takes as much time for them to decide what they want done as to do the job.

[George Beck]

Sometimes it is just hard to figure. I had a customer yesterday request a praying hands plaque with a verse. I sent a proof. She says " Anything other than the praying hands?" I said sure and sent 6 more proofs. She says "What if take off the verse and do something with flowers?" Arrrrgh! Sure I got flowers.

[AL Ursich]

I too use PDF Proofs from Corel and it saves everyone as I do make mistakes.... And I love this.... "start a FOAD pricing structure"


I have fired 4 customers this year in the Sign side of the Business and turned away 3 Salesman wanting to make money through me in the Fire Side, my life is less stressful. I work direct with the Customer for future orders and Warranty Work.... My Customers are mostly Fire Departments.

[AL Ursich]

sone people are beyond being taught, a town in the state of Penn. reduce the pay of its 400 workers to Min. wage 7dollars plus coins

That is just down the road from me.... Insane....

[Scott Moore2]

We get this kind of thing once in a while, but I'm willing to send them packing, even if it means bad PR. Here's my thinking.

1) Every time I've gotten really off at a bad client, it seems that moments later one of my favorite clients comes in or calls. So if I do everything I can to appease the jerk, then my good client sees my attitude. My best clients should only see my good side and should always feel happy when they leave, so I try to save my best energy for them. I send really unreasonable people packing, as politely as I can.

2) I fired my boss and started my own business because I was not enjoying my days. Now my customers are my boss. You can't always like everything your boss says, so I'm patient with my clients, but when they become the bad boss, and I consistently get that knot in my stomach when I see them coming, I send them packing.

3) Birds of a feather flock together. If you make bad clients happy, they bring more.

Recently I had to fire a client. I was super polite. She came with her husband in an attempt to intimidate with numbers. I explained very politely why I had lost money on several of her orders, that she made me hate my day job, and I just couldn't go on like this, and I gave her the names and numbers of three competitors she could go to. She cried, and was a bit put out that I would do this. Her husband, who stood silently the whole time, finally chimed in. He reached over and gave me a big hug and said "thank you so much for being honest".

We all have to put up with a lot of nonsense in all our relationships - marriage, work, school. But knowing when to hold, and when to fold, makes for a much happier person.

[John Stevenson]

There are many sites (google, yelp, Angie's List) where consumers can rate businesses.

I think it is time for businesses to be able to rate consumers!

To right.

"Yes sir you bought this XYZ machine but you say you don't know how to work it and it will not produce a finished part as soon as you switch it on ? "

Then Sir YOU are "Not fit for purpose "

I'm just itching to throw that one out there.