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genestar
Posts : 22
Points : 37
Join date : 2017-12-09

I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.  Empty I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.

Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:01 am
We've been working on this individual's project for over a year now, Originally he brought his boat around Christmas of 2016 and wanted to save some money and remove the hardware himself, he didn't get a chance to do it until around March. We had a spot ready to do all of the work in January and then I filled it with another project at the time. My dad had his heart problems at the end of Feb and the first week of march in the hospital. In the mean time the customer started removing his hardware. He wanted to give a deposit to us but My dad wanted to get a more accurate bill than the original one the customer would come down once a week and do some demolition on his project. Around May we got a deposit 10k and he keeps on demoing, We do a tiny bit of work on it around June and July, but we have other projects that filled its spot. The customer is very understanding and I thank him for it. Dadstar goes to the hospital for 4 weeks and its a cluster fuck before and afterwards. We finally start working on it around September, October and then December we start working on it full time. The customer is more than appreciative and I thank him for waiting. We start doing more work and buy more items for it. Once the bill is around 20k we ask for another 10k to bring it to around even, he gave us 5k. Then once the bill gets around 30k total he gave us 5k to make it total.

Back in January Dadstar has an Afib attack in his heart and feints and falls and his pacemaker/defiblrator shocks his heart to get it back on rhythm. After grabbing him he comes back in 20 seconds. He spends 2 nights in the hospital. He has another attack in front of this customer 5 weeks later (On Feb 15th) and he passes out and leans backwards and starts shaking as it shocks him back. I luckily was right there and had him in my arms and he came back in about 20 seconds. The customer is ready to call 911 and has 91 on his phone and once my Dad comes back he is fine and we finish the conversation before I take him to the hospital (They keep him for 3 hours or so). The customer was super nice and asks about him for the next few days and I really appreciate all the help he did when it happened and keep telling him that. Finally we find out he needs an operation that has a 5% chance of dying from, but after a second opinion the heart specialist at Cedar Sinai adjusted his Pacemaker so it kicks on sooner and he shouldn't pass out if it happens again. And they are going to do the operation Tomorrow with a must higher success rate.

Anyways the whole time the customer keeps having us add to the project here and there and it turns out much nicer than the original quote, by about 7k in labor and materials, but Dadstar keeps warning him he is going over his budget. Finally we paint the boat and the current balance is 36k (dadstar had 38k, it include the last of the paint work we do at the end and about about 1k more for windows parts and install since we had the majority of the parts already). Normally we have all customers pretty much break even at this point before we start the installation of all the hardware since it can get pricey very fast. The bill before the final one Dadstar has all the work we have done up to the point totaled up and then on a separate sheet the amount for the paint work, but its not added in the up to date total, Its about 6k. After the paint work he emails the customer the final bill including the paint and its around 38k, and he owes 18k. We later realized it should have been closer to 36 since we have a couple of items we do at the end on it too. But the customer is super pissed since its 6k more than the previous bill, and Dadstar spends a few days via email and text to explain it. Well Yesterday the customer wanted a hard estimate on the rigging phase, but its really hard to do without knowing everything that has to be done. He brings his trailer down today and supposed to bring the rest of the money owed. He brings 10k instead of the 18k and Dadstar explains he needs to pay the rest of the balance before we can do anymore work. The customer states he only brought one check with him. We don't like to ever have an amount owed over 10k incase of money issues, we tried to get it closer to that mark ahead of time. Anyways when they get to the office where I happen to be looking stuff for the job I'm working on the customer throws the bill at Dadstar and starts screaming at the top of his lungs and Dadstar starts screaming too and I told them both to calm down and explain that Dadstar has a serious heart condition and the stress of getting yelled at it very dangerous they calm down a little bit and he said He'll just take the project home and we inform him that we need the total amount and it has to clear the bank, it either has to stay or he can get a cashiers check and take it today. The customer starts to scream again and I kick him out of the office and lock the door. Normally he is a very nice man and I understand he is frustrated with the time its taken, and normally customers try and try and won't pay you until the very end so you get it done. Honestly if the balance was 1-2k we would have been fine with that. He is still screaming outside and I go out and inform him if he doesn't calm down I'm going to call the police and after being asked if I was threatening him I informed him that its a not a threat but a notice, I'll do it. He calms down and I bring both bills out and a calculator and try to add it up and explain the balance. We deduct the money for the final paint work and the window work and come up with the 16.7k final total to be paid. Finally he calms down and still decides to take the boat once the check clears. I said I'm sorry to see it go but I understand his reasoning and thank him for all the help he gave me when Dadstar passed out a few weeks earlier. I fully expect his check to clear and I consider the customer a friend, but business is business. I understand him being pissed off with the timeline, but its been a very stressful year for us and the project did grow quite a bit too. The project growing part happens everytime and I try and explain it really carefully before start to remember that it will and it will cost more. I hope we stay on good terms with this customer, I think he is a great guy other than this and I really enjoy talking to him.

This is the second time I've seen this happen in the office and once on the phone when the change orders get too expensive. About 5 years ago we had one guy give us a postdated check the next day and told us to call him to see if it was okay to cash it. He was moving 800 miles away the next month and taking the boat with him. The next day we checked to see if the funds were good and we cashed it and his truck broke done on the way home and his debit card kept getting declined.We fully expected him to cancel the check on us since he was moving away. 3 years ago we had a customer owe us 14k and after 2 weeks he was going to take it on a trip and we informed him if we don't get paid we will start step 1 of getting a lien on it. He called us at 10:30 at night and yelled and went through the bill but the next day he gave us a cashiers check for the balance. Now we get a long great with that client and I'm doing some work on it tomorrow and some next week.

For some reason remodels its really hard to get the customer to pay the bill, and the last few years its been worst and worst. We've have had multiple bills of over 10k that they want to pay at the last second and it sucks to keep on floating people money. I don't mind not getting paid until the end, but its hard when you have to buy so much in parts and pay the labor to finish it. 5k is a very fair amount to float on most projects and even 10 on very large ones, but its super annoying. I hope s

Anywho thats my day and tomorrow morning Dadstar is going to get the operation done and hopefully it will stop him from randomly passing out. It was super scary when it happens and I've been very scared its going to happen again. He was doing pretty well and they said he didn't need a heart transplant back in October but after these scares he needs one now. I'm going to be so happy if it fixes the problem, I've been worried sick about it.
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genestar
Posts : 22
Points : 37
Join date : 2017-12-09

I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.  Empty Re: I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.

Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:01 am
Holy wall of text batman.
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genestar
Posts : 22
Points : 37
Join date : 2017-12-09

I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.  Empty Re: I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.

Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:48 am
Never mind, he responded to our last email and basically called Dadstar "a lying piece of shit that will have to deal with his maker and from what it seems like it won't be long until you do that" and basically went on how he hates him and hope he dies. I'm printing out 2 copies tomorrow on a piece of 11x17 paper and taping one in the dash of his boat so he has to look at it and then another one I'm hanging up in the office and writing customer review on it.
Jet Palardy
Jet Palardy
Posts : 141
Points : 179
Join date : 2017-12-09

I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.  Empty Re: I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.

Thu Mar 08, 2018 4:37 pm
genestar wrote:Never mind, he responded to our last email and basically called Dadstar "a lying piece of shit that will have to deal with his maker and from what it seems like it won't be long until you do that" and basically went on how he hates him and hope he dies. I'm printing out 2 copies tomorrow on a piece of 11x17 paper and taping one in the dash of his boat so he has to look at it and then another one I'm hanging up in the office and writing customer review on it.

What a dickwad.
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arek ricky hotto
Posts : 27
Points : 31
Join date : 2017-12-11

I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.  Empty Re: I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.

Sun Mar 18, 2018 2:04 am
people are fucked

if you're penny pinching when it comes to 30-40k, you're either too rich to complain, or you're too poor to have a boat. don't scream at people. the end. sorry you and dad went through all that!
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I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.  Empty Re: I had a kick a customer out of the shop office today.

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