Have you ever had one of those days...... (1 Viewer)

[Mark Sherman]

........When Nothing goes right? Well I'm Having one of those days or lets Just say weeks. It Just plain SUCKS right now. Sory but I just had to vent. One person In particular, Lets call him the RICH IGNORANT ASSHOLE. This guy is the bain of my Employ right now.


A little Backround on this. I design, sell and install home theaters and HI END 2 channel systems. This Guy buys a system from me and sets up a time for me to come over. Well I get over there and thats where the fun starts. His house in in the process of being finished.The spot that has been picked for the Plasma is done but there are no holes drilled for the wires ( which I asked if they were and he said that they would be done by the time I get there.... WRONG) He said that the whole house was wired for sound for 6 rooms ( thats 12 speakers) including Volume coltrols for each pair. So I sell him a 12 channel amp for that. The guy who wired the system ( some other place not mine) ran all the speakers in such a way that behind where the amp was to go was just a single 4 Conductor wire instead of 6 sets . This is just getting better by the minute.


By the time I get the contractors to drill holes its close to 2 hours later. The wires for the surrounds were burried and the whole house stuff was just a joke.


This guy is complaining that I took to long I didnt know what I was doing and that I sold him a bill of goods. Now he is not paying for the install. None of this was my fault I could only work with what I have and this guy is making it out to sound that I'm an idiot when infact it was his guys that screwed up. Now Im out almost 300 bucks because of this.


OK Im done

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Collections Agency.

It'll cost you most, if not everything you should be getting from him... but at least you'll feel better.

 

[John Alvarez]

Are you just starting your buisness or have you been doing it a while? If your just starting you may want to just eat it and kiss the guys ass hoping for more word of mouth buisness from his friends?

 

[brentl]

If you explained it to him the way you explained it here and he still doesn't want to help take him to small claims!

Brent

 

[Philip_T]

Is there a way to collect the items you sold him and return his money? People like that drive me nuts. And he is probably not so much a RICH IGNORANT ASSHOLE, but more like a RICH, I TRY TO GET OUT OF PAYING FOR THINGS I CAN GET AWAY WITH, ASSHOLE. Collect your goods, refund his money, and walk away. Let the next guy deal with his antics. Just my 2 cents. Could you put a lein on his home I wonder? I mean, if you take your car to mechanic, they do the work, you pay for the parts, but not the labor and take your car, wouldn't they put a lein on your car? Good luck and either way, try not to let it eat you up too much. I know your talking about your livelyhood, but people like this have no qualms about sticking it to you to save a buck or insulting you to make themselves feel better.

 

[Mark Sherman]

You hit the nail on the head Phil.

I sold him over 17K worth of stuff. Pioneer Plasma, 2 DVD players Surround Sound Receiver. There is no way Im taking a hit on that.


He was also stating that since I had to leave and get more parts for the install that I am a Bad installer. Wait so I have to leave to get the RIGHT parts to make sure this is done RIGHT and that makes me a bad installer. Sure Im perfect and Always have every part I need for every install since they are all the SAME. Bullshit.


Oh and the best ONE ( insert fanfare here) He said I took to long. OHHHH SOOOOOOOOO now this guy is an expert at hooking stuff up. He should Know how long it should take to Install

A Plasma

2 DVD players One for him and one for his Kids ( 300 disc)

A Surround sound receiver

Fronts rears center and a sub,

IR repeaters so Remotes will work when doors are closed.

outdoor speakers.

and an amp to run the whole house.

I was there 2 seperate days

First day for 6 hours second for 2.


He Just SUCKS

 

[Philip_T]

Ah, I didn't realize it was that big of an equipment list. Might be best to just lick your wounds and then get on with life. Look at it this way. At least your not this jerks general contractor for the house. Imagine how bad that guys getting it.

 

[MarkHastings]

You never answered Johns question on wether you're just starting up or not. Most businesses run into these types of people. I would also expect that the bigger the $$, the more the person is going to expect.

Devils Advocate:

Question: Did you mention to the customer that because of the bad wiring install, that this would require you to do extra work? If this happened to me and someone just charged me for the extra time, I'd be quite upset. If I knew from the start that the previous guy made it more difficult for you to install what you needed to install, then I'd be sure to let the first guy "have it" and expect HIM to pay for your labor.

It's not this guys fault that you had to work more hours, so you shouldn't expect him to be "ok" with the bill.

p.s. And no, it's not your fault either, so you can see where this guys anger is coming from.

 

[Mark Sherman]

To Answer John question I work for a co. just west of Boston who I have been with for 2 years now. I have been in the industry now for over 10 years

 

[brentl]

Ask him to get a quote 2 install all the same things you did, explain all the problems you ran into. Explain that the folks who did the construction work didn't do it right and you were forced to repair.

Then when he finds out how much another company charges, he'll be only TOO happy to pay you.

Brent

 

[John Alvarez]

So how are you out of the money if you work for a company?

 

[Mark Sherman]

I bill out at 80 an hour and get paid 50 per hour. But I dont get paid if the customer doesnt pay. When he pays I'll get paid.

 

[Scott_lb]

Mark - Your story reminds me of my days working in the high-end consumer electronics industry. I have had to work with a multitude of these types of people and it is never easy to deal with, no matter how hard you try to demonstrate logic to the client in the situation.

And to answer your original question, I haven't had one of "those days" lately but this week was one of "those weeks". In three-days time I found out that my step-father had a minor heart attack, my grandfather is dying, and my girlfriend's mom was just diagnosed with cancer. We won't know how severe or what sort of treatment needs to be implemented until Monday, however. Sometimes, life just kicks you square in the nuts!

 

[John Alvarez]

How does the company get their money? Seems like they would file a lein? What woul have happened if you stayed at his house and called the cops? To me it's no diffrent than stealing from a store.

 

[Mark Sherman]

alled


Well I just found out that he called and is claiming that his remote control ( RTI ) is not working Properly. My Boss said that we will come over there to fix it but we will need a Credit card Number before we make the appointment. Which means we GOT HIM

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Mark,

I'm actually in the auto repair business, service tech at a Toyota dealership. There are a small number of downright dishonest customers who will work the system to get freebies. Typically they will come in and get an oil change or some other really minor work done, knowing there's a major problem with some other system in the car, then return claiming that our oil change caused their brakes to go out or their transmission to take a S***. They will demand a free major repair while threatening to call the local TV station consumer advocate and involve the Bureau of Automotive Repair.

One kid ran his 4x4 thru 4 foot deep water and of course hydro-locked the engine, bending lots of pushrods and such. His daddy was a lawyer and he insisted on a free repair under warranty. The damn air filter housing had half a gallon of water in it, but Toyota caved anyway.

It's also been my observation that there are certain wealthy individuals who think they should never have to pay for anything, displaced royalty or something.

 

[Mark Sherman]

Well I just Got a check for the money that they owed me on the install. My manager was telling me that the wife was totally embarrassed with the way her Husband acted towards me and appologized.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

I've had that.

Right now, I'm a pretty terrible retail person, because I'm retiring in April to be a stay-at-home dad. (Short version: my wife outearns me 5-to-1, and the cost of daytime child care is pretty close to what's left of my paycheck after travel costs etc.) As a result (and since I can't be fired because I'm a partial owner and am selling out my share), I haven't put up with anything from anyone for the last month.

I do really high end custom photographic printing. At Christmastime, we get a lot of people off of the street looking for fast, last-minute gifts, and their expectations and attitudes are radically different from our regular clients -- these Christmas people expect to snap their fingers and have the work done, and to pay very little. The other morning I had a lady try to browbeat me into getting an order done faster -- I had told her it would take three hours if I rushed it, and that my normal turnaround for that kind of order was one business day. Well, she wanted it while she waited. I tried to explain that the actual, physical time required was about 90 minutes, and that another print job was on the machine that was required to do her job, and that it would be on for another hour, and that I wasn't comfortable leaving myself less than half an hour to get the order going, because I was the only person in the store, and if the counter was busy, the order would be delayed.

Well, she shouted, she called me names, she asked why I couldn't just stop what I was working on and do hers first. I said I could, but because the print was partially complete she'd have to pay the full price of the print that would be ruined along with the cost of her order. Well, no way was she going to do that. Finally, she left the order, to be picked up in three hours. I told her that the order had to be paid in advance and I was upfront about why: she was already yelling at me for doing her order way faster than normal, and so I had a bad feeling that she'd try to pull something when she came to pick it up. She was mad, but she paid.

Two hours later, a man arrived, identified himself as her husband, and asked to pick up the order. When I told him it would not be ready for another 45 minutes or so, he had a fit and demanded a partial refund for the slowness of the order. I stared at him. Then I went and retrieved the envelope that was marked with his wife's name and the time that the order was to be ready, a full hour from now. I showed it to him. I told him that he had a lot of nerve to come in here and give me hell when I had dropped everything to accomodate his wife by doing this order TWENTY-ONE HOURS FASTER THAN NORMAL. He was shocked, he had no idea. I showed him my price lists, which are all clearly marked with my turnaround time. She had told him that it only took a few minutes and that I was trying to cheat them. I told him all the names his wife had called me, and that I really shouldn't have taken the order at all because she was so horrible to me. I also told him that she had turned down the option to pay a rush charge and have it completed for right now.

He got out his phone and called home and gave his wife a blistering lecture about mistreating people, and then he gave me twenty bucks as an apology.

 

[Mark Sherman]

Reminds me when I worked at a Lab. This woman comes in to pick up her pictures. After looking over them for about 2 minutes she looked at me and said that these are just AWEFUL, THE COLORS ARE OFF AND THE exposure LOOKS WRONG"

I looked at the negs and they looked aweful, over exposed out of focus. It wasn't us it was her. After telling her that it wasn't us and it might be her camera, she freaked. She kept on repeating herself, Well I have a Leica, I have a leica, My pictures should Look better then these because I have a Leica.

I tried to explain to her that a Camera as good as a Leica needs the operator to do SOME of the work. Such as setting the shutter and apature. Again she says well its a Leica.

I Looked at her dead in the eye and said Look Just because you own a Rolls Royce it doesn't make you a better Driver.

She finally got it

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Oh my God, I know those people. Had a guy once who wanted to know why his backgrounds were always out of focus. He just bought a Nikon F5 and an 80-200mm f2.8 lens. I told him the shots looked like he was shooting wide open, at f2.8. He said yes, he was. I told him that was the problem -- if you shoot wide open, you have narrow depth of field. If he wanted everything in focus, he should shoot at f11 or f16.

Well, he had a fit. "I didn't spend all this money on an f2.8 lens to not use it at f2.8!" And he kept saying he bought a Nikon F5 because he wanted sharp pictures and it must be the lab's fault, and he wouldn't accept any explanation about how depth of field worked. Finally, to get rid of him, I told him that the lens must be defective and he should call Nikon, then I called Nikon to apologize.

That Rolls Royce example is a good one, I'll steal that.