More than expected

[jaylectricity]

This thread has inspired me to work the following words into the preliminary phone conversation:

"Please understand that EVERYBODY tells me that it is a small problem. I hope and pray that you are in the very small minority that has only a small problem. But in the event your problem is difficult, we should wait until I take a look at it before we can determine how small the problem is."

Of course this only works for me because I'm small time. I personally work for my customers with no help from employees. I am the judge, jury and executioner of their problem. It's very rare that my customers go with somebody else, and it's also very rare that I make a ton of unexpected money from any of them.

 

[jaylectricity]

I dislike when my comment is the first on a new page. I feel like I'm wasting people's time.

But at the same time, it's nice being the first comment of a page because it's the first thing people see when they load that page.

 

[jmellc]

How many times have I been suckered this way and when will I learn? More than I can remember and hopefully I already have.

Some customers genuinely think it's a small problem. Some are master manipulators. DO NOT let them nail you to a price on the phone. You can say "this is the price if that is truly the problem, but I don't know until I get there". In a lot of cases, if it were as simple as presented, he would fix it himself. "It's only a light bulb", "it just needs a new fuse", "my brother in law said that's an easy fix", etc. In fact, better to say "I have to see it", specially if you have no history with customer.

Several times, I've been in behind someone else who supposedly left a box in the wall here or a wire under the floor there, etc. Get there and it's broken, cut, missing or no evidence it was ever there. Or customer has a slick way of getting you to do some other "small fix", "while you're here". He forgot to mention it on the phone but wants it included in the price you gave.

That's part of what I like about e mails. You have something in his own writing to refer back to. What someone said or didn't say is hard to prove.

 

[jmellc]

I've also had a similar problem in customer innocently misleading me. Had a Spanish speaking woman (very pleasant) call and ask about disconnecting her mobile home for a move. Sounded cut and dried. Gave her a quote and we set a time. I got there and the moving guy was there. He'd secured all permits, etc. and said he was doing the disconnecting. She asked if I'd do reconnect for same price (going a short distance away). I looked over existing hookup, she said new one was similar. WRONG; new location had service entirely different. I not only lost $ on it, but had to shuffle other customers back. I should have stuck with schedule and done other jobs, then come back to her. She didn't intentionally mislead, but it still messed me up. Other customers had to rearrange their time, etc. 3 or 4 families were put out by the 1 situation. Keep the schedule and reschedule the trouble job. I learned again, look the whole thing over before giving price. Do new quote if job different than described. Customer can get someone else if time is critical.