Favorite Customer Conversations - Add Yours

[Chuck Stone]

I can remember finally getting paid on a long overdue invoice by a city. Our terms were
net 30, with 1.5% per month (18% per annum) late fee. The city always put their own
terms (that nobody had agreed to) of 5% if paid within 10 days on any contract or bid.
But they took 5 years to pay. They still took the 5%.

[Scott Shepherd]

I had a very frustrating customer this week. I have had 4 visits from the mother, father and daughter. Each time they visit they change things a little and I say "here is the price, would you like to go ahead"?, each time one of them says "I will get back to you"

Today I get a call "Is it ready yet"?. Me - "You were going to get back to me with a go ahead". Angry customer "I really need it today". Me "Sorry, I can have it ready in two days". This was not good enough.

I find it hard to believe that people can act like this.

I think we had relatives of their's...

Customer comes in on a Saturday, the door is locked because we are closed. Banging repeatedly on the door and calling. I let him him, he needs 6 names tags immediately. I tell him it'll be Monday afternoon, he agrees, writes the names down, spells 4 of the 6 names wrong, which I corrected while he was standing there.

Calls Monday morning "Are my name tags ready?".

Comes in to get the name tags, sees a image on our wall of a ADA sign, "We need one of those, how much". I give him a price, then he says he needs 2, but then, no, wait, let's just do one for now. Tells me he'll call me back with the details.

Calls a week later "Is my sign ready, you said 7-10 days and it's been a week". Of course it's not ready, because he never ordered it. I tell him he never ordered it, he says he's sorry for the miscommunication on his part, go ahead and get it ordered.

Calls back 3 days later, wants to know where the sign is, I told him 7-10 days and it has been 10 days now. We explain it's 7-10 days from the time he orders it and he just ordered it 3 days ago.

Get the sign made, call him, he shows up, and says "Where's the other one?".

What other one?

"I said I needed 2 of them".

Yes, you did, but you also said "Hold off on the second one, don't order that one right now", and you've never given me a single thing that shows what it would say even if you did order it and we had the frame, so how would I have made it?

"Well, I need it, go ahead and order the frame, how long is that going to take?"

7-10 days.

Calls back 3 days later....."Can I come by today and get the sign?"

[Chris DeGerolamo]

^Thanks for the laugh.

[Neville Stewart]

All these stories while very amusing are really very valuable. Thanks to all of you for recounting them.

[Uma Duffy]

Do you take cash?

[Neville Stewart]

Do you take cash?

We should have. "like" button. That's hilarious Uma, although the when I take out a $20 at the grocery store, they look at me funny.

[Gary Hair]

Calls back 3 days later....."Can I come by today and get the sign?"

"what sign, I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you sure you called the right place? I think you have the wrong number."

[Ross Moshinsky]

Last Thursday I get a call around 11 AM. Organization needs 5 plaques for the next day. They're from out of the state, coming into the state for an event. Direct them to our website. They pick a plaque style I have in stock and I tell them I need all the engraving info & pay in full by 1PM and we'll take care of it for them. They also need to approve the proofs by the next morning at 10AM. If they don't do any of those three things, I'm charging them a rush charge.

So at 12:30 I get a call from their treasurer. They ask "How am I supposed to pay by 1PM, I'm out of the state." The obvious response "Give me your credit card number". "Oh, our organization doesn't have one. Can I fax you a check?" At this point I'm totally confused how faxing me a check is going to do anything. "Oh, we do it all the time..." So at this point I expect it's a scam. "No, we wouldn't accept that. We'd need a credit card number." "How about a wire transfer?" "No sir, we don't do wire transfers for orders." "Okay, let me call you back".

While I'm on the phone with their treasurer, I see emails flooding in to my mail box, which is a good and bad sign. Good that I'm getting info, bad that they are sending 3-4 emails for 5 plaques. So at 12:50 I get a call from the original person, "we'd like to give the president a trophy and we might need some more plaques." So the discussion results in a "trophy" being an acrylic award. I'm going to send them some examples of what I have on hand. 12:55, we get the credit card number. Doesn't really matter because I don't have a firm order and no way am I getting all the info in 5 minutes. So for the next 4 hours it's emailing and calling back forth. Finally at about 5:00PM they decide to give everyone acrylic awards, get final numbers, and "have all the engraving info".

I send them a new invoice, tell them to look it over. The new invoice includes a 20% rush charge. They approve it. Now these aren't big acrylics yet there is a LOT of text. I jam it in there because I just don't have the time to argue with them. I go on doing the proofs, included a cleaned up logo I did for free. I send them before we leave. Later that night I receive a few emails. A. The proofs are not correct. They didn't say it, but they didn't actually send me all the info. B. They want the rush fee waved because I was given the credit card number on time. Sent them an email back saying, send us all the info in 1 email to get the correct text and they can either buy the awards with the rush charge or not. They place the order and send the files.

Come in the next morning and re-lay out the acrylics. Each one is different, both major and minor differences. For example, they list the person presenting the award on each acrylic. It's the same person's name on 5 awards. It's typed 3 different ways. Get the work done, on time. Taking time away from a far more important project I have. They call about an hour before it's supposed to be done, and I tell them it's all done. So it's about 5:30 and they haven't come in. Call them up. I guess they had no real intention of picking them up because they had no idea who was going to get them. It ended up being about 5 minutes out of our way home, so we deliver them (I was over-ruled on this, as I would have told them tough luck).

We made decent money on the order but what a complete waste of time and energy.

[Neville Stewart]

I really am going to print these out and pin on a board. If a potential can see his situation up there, I'll start cleaning my handguns

[Neil Pabia]

My favorite was the trophy shop that wanted me to engrave 50 crystal apples, no big deal I thought. I ran them all and thought they looked great so I called the customer to come get them as he had called me at least 5 times a day since he dropped them off to me. He shows up just as I'm closing the door to leave. He looks at one and says that it is all wrong and he's not happy at all, it seems he wanted them engraved in color in the middle of the apple like the cubes that are sold at fairs and gift shops. Now he wants me to remove the engraving and do it the way he originally wanted them or he wants them back with no engraving. I told him that none of that was possible and he owes for the job. He tells me he will take them but he's not paying for them. I said fine, no money , no apples and helped him to the door. He left me dozens of messages and texts telling me how pissed the customer is and his business is going to suffer from it and he's wants to sue me.....Okay, have fun.
I get a call the next week from his customer wanting to know what the delay is, so I explained what was going on. A very nice lady showed up at my shop from the company and wanted to see what happened. I showed her the apples and she was very happy with the work and wanted them. She wanted to pay me what she still owed the trophy shop and wanting to get done with this whole thing before I used them for target practice, I said it was fine. She wrote a check out to me on the spot for $400 more than I was charging the other guy. It almost made it worth the aggravation of dealing with the idiot from the trophy shop. He called me recently to run another job for him, I explained that I had an *&#hole charge and he was maxing it out, he went elsewhere to get the job done, I was there when he came to pick them up as the other laser guy is a friend and knew the previous situation. Sure enough, my buddy didn't do it right either and the guy wanted them for free. We are all black balling this trophy shop now.

[Bert Kemp]

Just curious doesn't this guy give you approved art work or you give him proofs to OK before doing a job.
I do very little for pay jobs but the one's I do I always send a proof for approval first and get an email confirmation to go ahead and do it. Then there's no question, they have an email with what there going to get ,and I have an email saying there ok with it.

My favorite was the trophy shop that wanted me to engrave 50 crystal apples, no big deal I thought. I ran them all and thought they looked great so I called the customer to come get them as he had called me at least 5 times a day since he dropped them off to me. He shows up just as I'm closing the door to leave. He looks at one and says that it is all wrong and he's not happy at all, it seems he wanted them engraved in color in the middle of the apple like the cubes that are sold at fairs and gift shops. Now he wants me to remove the engraving and do it the way he originally wanted them or he wants them back with no engraving. I told him that none of that was possible and he owes for the job. He tells me he will take them but he's not paying for them. I said fine, no money , no apples and helped him to the door. He left me dozens of messages and texts telling me how pissed the customer is and his business is going to suffer from it and he's wants to sue me.....Okay, have fun.
I get a call the next week from his customer wanting to know what the delay is, so I explained what was going on. A very nice lady showed up at my shop from the company and wanted to see what happened. I showed her the apples and she was very happy with the work and wanted them. She wanted to pay me what she still owed the trophy shop and wanting to get done with this whole thing before I used them for target practice, I said it was fine. She wrote a check out to me on the spot for $400 more than I was charging the other guy. It almost made it worth the aggravation of dealing with the idiot from the trophy shop. He called me recently to run another job for him, I explained that I had an *&#hole charge and he was maxing it out, he went elsewhere to get the job done, I was there when he came to pick them up as the other laser guy is a friend and knew the previous situation. Sure enough, my buddy didn't do it right either and the guy wanted them for free. We are all black balling this trophy shop now.

[Chuck Stone]

My favorite was the trophy shop that wanted me to engrave 50 crystal apples, no big deal I thought. .

Please tell us that you asked him "How do you like THEM apples?"

[Bert Kemp]

and I just choked on my salad LOL very good Chuck

Please tell us that you asked him "How do you like THEM apples?"

[Robert Tepper]

I was taking out the trash when the phone rang. Barbara, my production manger said the lady on the phone wanted to know if I could engrave something sticky and black. I was having trouble understanding what she was explaining! The lady called back in ten minutes. She wanted a "piggy bank" engraved with her employers name. She wanted to bring it in and wait for it. I told her I would be happy to look at the item but that I could not do it today. She need it for tonight. I did not feel I should tear down a job to do a rush job. I don't like to do rush jobs and piggy banks are not my specialty.

Robert

[Neil Pabia]

Just curious doesn't this guy give you approved art work or you give him proofs to OK before doing a job.
I do very little for pay jobs but the one's I do I always send a proof for approval first and get an email confirmation to go ahead and do it. Then there's no question, they have an email with what there going to get ,and I have an email saying there ok with it.

They supplied the artwork and told me to run with it as is because it was such a rush job. The artwork wasn't a problem, the problem was he thought any piece of glass and any laser will make the blocks engraved in the middle and in color.