How do I turn down a customer politely?

[Bob_Sacamano]

This drama has stretched out over 5 months. A customer basically wants a $9k job done for $4k. We have mutual friends, but he's not a friend of mine so I gave him a $7k figure. He balked, asked If I could do the job in sections as he can afford them. I said sure. The first section would be cleaning up the panel and figuring out what your trouble circuits are going to be for $1275 (50% down, 50% due at completion). This talk took 3 months as he constantly tried to nickel and dime me to do more work for less money. Our last conversation was a week ago where he tried to get on my schedule, but he still tried to get more from me. I think I'm going to have trouble getting the second 50% from him. I get the vibe, he will try and hold it over my head to get more stuff done. I have zero interest in this job anymore but I feel bad that it's been dragged over 5 months time (as a result of him not moving forward). He owns a popular window cleaning business in town so he interacts with a lot of potential customers, so I'm reluctant to tell him to pound sand. How do I tell him to find someone else tactfully?

 

[Hv&Lv]

He’s a businessman, same as you. I wonder how he would act if you wanted your windows cleaned for was less than he normally charges?
If he’s doing this to you I expect his friends know how he is.
I ran into this...
A friend of a friend wanted a new service to a building. Same as you, wanted it cheaper than quoted..
Trying to “keep the peace”, I did the new service to one of his small buildings for about $500 less than normal. Just a single phase service and inside wiring..
I finished the job, and since we all ate breakfast together every Saturday morning, I assumed the subject would come up. All the guys knew I did the job, as it was discussed at the restaurant where we gathered.
I never brought it up, but would see him EVERY SATURDAY AM at breakfast. He was using the service in the building! Never got a thank you. After about two months he asked me if he owed me anything for the job! I said yes, and told him the cost we agreed upon.
I got paid that Monday.
Get this, On THURSDAY he asked for some upgrades to the plant HE OWNS. We looked at the plant, the job was going to be rather expansive and expensive. He actually asked me to put the materials on his business account and just bill him by the hour. Thought my price was too high. Wanted to put me on the payroll for three weeks and said his maintenance guys could help
me... I told him I had a job ( the one I have now), this would have to be afternoons and weekends..
Asked if I could take three weeks vacation and go on his payroll... told him no.

I had enough. I’m not fooling with him anymore.
I went to breakfast the next Saturday and never brought it up while sitting at the SAME table. He WAS UPSET because I wouldn’t work for him, and I told the group I wasn’t going to do that because he wasn’t going to pay me for the first job until he wanted more work done.
my friend said it sounded just like him..
It’s been 10 years now and I haven’t heard from him since. He stopped coming to breakfast shortly after. The rest of us apparently didn’t care, as we kept meeting until this Covid crap...

I guess my point is there isn’t a real easy way to tell someone with that attitude “no” without them being offended. It’s in their nature..

 

[Coppersmith]

First off, definitely don't do the job. You will hate doing it and it will be miserable the entire time. Plus you may not get all your money.

Normally, when I don't want to do a job I use one of these strategies:
@ I price the job very high; or
@ I tell them I'm very busy and won't be able to get to the job anytime soon; or
@ I tell them their particular problem is not one I specialize in and recommend someone else.
I think you have invested too much time to use any of these strategies.

You might try telling him you're not getting as good feeling about getting all your payments without a fight so you are requiring full payment in advance. That will probably discourage him from continuing. Or you can just be honest and tell him you are no longer interested in doing the job which is probably best.

 

[Eddie702]

That kind of stuff drives me crazy. Just tell him business is business and you have to make money to survive. Ask him if he cleans windows for cheap.

Every time you do a job for cheap your missing the profit from a better job you could be doing

 

[drcampbell]

I think you might be confusing being polite with being nice.
It's possible to politely tell him that the large hassle and small profit you anticipate just isn't worth your while.

If business is slow, you might make an honest estimate of what it will cost to break even, (including your own "wages" and overhead, of course) then double it and require 50% down.

 

[infinity]

You went from $9k to $7k. IMO the job is already a loser so why do you want to lose even more money by playing to this guy's nickel and dime approach.

 

[gadfly56]

It's not clear to me if you are still in the talking stage or have started or finished the Phase 1 work for $1,250. Where exactly are you in this process?

 

[Bob_Sacamano]

It's not clear to me if you are still in the talking stage or have started or finished the Phase 1 work for $1,250. Where exactly are you in this process?

i haven't done any of the work yet. I agreed to do phase 1 and am supposed to put him in my schedule. However my last convo with him reinforced that my suspicion that he would likely try to use the 50% due at completion as leverage to get more work out of me than agreed upon. He has yet to pay the 50% down. No money or contracts have changed hands. I canceled the invoice I sent him for half upfront through the squareup software that I use (unbeknownst to him) so he couldn't pay half and lock me in.

In his mind though, he is still under the impression that I'm planning on doing the work. He doesn't live at the investment property so he wont be on site for me to collect the 2nd half in front of him. I'm not interested in doing the work but haven't relayed that to him directly yet.

 

[Another C10]

No deposit or signature you are not bound to any arrangement. Just text, email him to get something on a data record for your own interest regarding cancelling your availability to proceed with that present arrangement.

 

[gadfly56]

i haven't done any of the work yet. I agreed to do phase 1 and am supposed to put him in my schedule. However my last convo with him reinforced that my suspicion that he would likely try to use the 50% due at completion as leverage to get more work out of me than agreed upon. He has yet to pay the 50% down. No money or contracts have changed hands. I canceled the invoice I sent him for half upfront through the squareup software that I use (unbeknownst to him) so he couldn't pay half and lock me in.

In his mind though, he is still under the impression that I'm planning on doing the work. He doesn't live at the investment property so he wont be on site for me to collect the 2nd half in front of him. I'm not interested in doing the work but haven't relayed that to him directly yet.

I can't judge the "vibe" you may be getting from this customer regarding scope creep and holding your payment as hostage for additional work. One way to counter this, if you have any interest in working for him, is to let him write the scope of work. You review it, and add any qualifications or limitations you see fit, and then let him sign it. This puts everything out in the open and gives you the chance to strike any phrasing that could be interpreted as an open-ended commitment on your part to let him add scope willy-nilly. Once signed, anything else is an extra, subject to negotiation, and make it payable 100% on completion of the change order, not the full scope of work. This is the part where, if you decide to move forward, getting a lawyer to help would be an absolute must.

 

[__dan]

If my gut was well trained for reading people, something over 85% accurate, I'm sure I could have made a million with that alone. I do the opposite and tend to accept what people say at face value and go with that, until the going stops. I have great instincts for reading electrical, over 90% acurate after three seconds, butnthen doing electrical for people who don't pay ...

I had a long time system, I would get that vibe and always hand the customer a blank pad or sheet of paper, and ask them to write down the list of everything they want done. Or over the phone I would ask them to prepare that list on paper before I got there. Never once have I ever gotter one paper list of everything they want done, at the time of my asking prior to my bid.

I'm sure you know everyone has a paper list of everything they want done, at the time that you are done, and it's their turn to pull a check from their pocket and hand it over. No, there is no mention of a check, there's a paper list of everything they want done.

Those jobs that drag on piecemeal or starting and stopping over an extended period can be far more expensive to do, far more expensive.

I had a guy literally drive in my yard and try to offer $250K for my house (I didn't want that but it's the town I live in, one of the locals). He literally said he just got married and wanted a house for him and his young shew wife. Bit a few questions later and I can pull out of him that he has 13 rents and flipped nine houses (he was still a very local at that point). (Did you go to university, "no").

I just point to the horizon and said "there's plenty of houses for 250". I also said "Zillow". I probably had to say that twice or more, very inbred local.

He walked back to his big Ford 4x4 and got to within 10 ft of it, turned towards me, and then I got that vibe he was angry. I guess it's time to file for a refund on his PMA classes.

You could try that. just point to the horizon and say "There's plenty of electricians for $4K".

 

[flashlight]

My instincts say, just walk away. The potential references won't happen.

I have had a few jobs that I did against my instincts, once on the prodding of a GC.

That job, an apartment renovation, I actually had to push the clients' wheelchair-bound mother around and out of
the way to do the job. The client was nowhere to be seen. Plus the place was full of an almost hoarder-like amount
of dog and cat hair. Plus, she never paid me the final 50%.