I understand completely. Never having to have another useless meeting with another ******* "expert" from Deloitte was one of the best perks of going self employed lol
Rising prices/labour
- Thread starter MacDoc
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I understand completely. Never having to have another useless meeting with another ******* "expert" from Deloitte was one of the best perks of going self employed lol
My friend has a step son who "got his mechanics ticket" and couldn't make a go of it. Dealerships and CDN Tire apparently hire on a piece-work basis so he was SOL from a living wage standpoint.
But, as I said to my friend, "But your stepson isn't REALLY a mechanic, he's a code reader." He did his apprenticeship at a garage owned by a friend of his mother. It took him several years to accumulate the hours and pass the test, and when he did he was let go.
Most tellingly the owner told his mother that his work was fine for a guy making around minimum wage, but not worth a mechanics salary.
He also managed to blow up 2 Subaru engines in 2 different cars because he didn't check the oil and add when necessary.
TK4
Well-known member
Being in customer service sucks, I would hate to be in the food service industry (see: Karens) and I doubt I'm the only one.
Everything costs, sometimes more because of general inflation or other factors.
Point in case (bear with me here, I may have told this story here before) -
A curb sider makes an appointment at my buddy's shop to get a safety done on a Yamaha BW50. On the phone, the first words out of his mouth are that "you have to give me a good deal, I'm a good customer." Fine, whatever, bring it in. He shows up a day late, with 2 tires bungeed to the back and repeats his demand for special treatment. When asked to prove it, he pulls out a work order from 2 years previous when a safety was done on a completely different machine - no other history of transactions.
So he was asked very carefully, "if you were to show up at a restaurant a day late for your reservation with your own food and demanded a special deal because you'd been there once before, what do you think they'd say to you ?" Crickets.
Needless to say, he was asked to take his business elsewhere...
Everything costs, sometimes more because of general inflation or other factors.
Point in case (bear with me here, I may have told this story here before) -
A curb sider makes an appointment at my buddy's shop to get a safety done on a Yamaha BW50. On the phone, the first words out of his mouth are that "you have to give me a good deal, I'm a good customer." Fine, whatever, bring it in. He shows up a day late, with 2 tires bungeed to the back and repeats his demand for special treatment. When asked to prove it, he pulls out a work order from 2 years previous when a safety was done on a completely different machine - no other history of transactions.
So he was asked very carefully, "if you were to show up at a restaurant a day late for your reservation with your own food and demanded a special deal because you'd been there once before, what do you think they'd say to you ?" Crickets.
Needless to say, he was asked to take his business elsewhere...
Gaoler
Well-known member
I imagine firing a customer has it's own kind of satisfaction.
Many years ago I was helping out someone I knew who had a small contracting/renovation business.
99.9% of his business came from referrals. He was VERY good and had a waiting list of clients/projects as long as your arm.
I was present when one client who had become a pain in the butt tried to renegotiate the price of a fairly big job. A job that was already about 75% done
Long story short we ended up packing up all the tools/equipment and leaving the site.
The contractor was facing a bit of a loss on the job, but he thought the hassle of dealing with the client wasn't worth it.
In the end the client called begging for him to come back and finish. His conditions were full payment of the outstanding owed in advance.
She complied, he finished the project and told her not to ever call him for anything ever again.
We had one of those guys at our dealership many years ago. He 'wanted' to be a mechanic, but he was so useless. But he was fun, always smiling and trying his best.
Worst was when he forgot to put a plug into a Jag differential (or something something) and let the X-Type leave the shop with missing bolts holding the thing together. We sent him to the customer's car with a jack, some stands, and got him to install the bolts in the driveway.
The he forgot a 1965 XKE (?) Jag running in the parking lot and locked the keys inside...that was an expensive window that we had to break.
Then he forgot to pump the brakes after a hydraulic fluid change of the brake system...slamming into the wall as he came out of the shop...
Oh good times. But we all loved the guy.
Hope he found whatever he was looking for.
I had shared space in one of those. The landlord rented the upper and lower levels separately. Drywall doesn't dampen sound. I heard the household disputes.
Posts 37 and 39 go together. It's easy to find customers but not ones that appreciate in principle and payment.
Low price, fast service, quality work. Pick any two.
A contractor did a siding job and when it was finished the customer started pointing out near invisible flaws to negotiate a lower price. The contractor said he'd fix the flaws and ripped off half the siding.
Then he said "Now let's talk renegotiation."
Mad Mike
Well-known member
That was part of my job at the bank. Any customer accused of bank fraud, financial crimes, or harassment against a bank employee was immediately de-marketed.
It's fun! I particularly enjoyed the part where the customer becomes furious and tells you what you can and cannot do to them.
TK4
Well-known member
Sometimes ******** need to be pushed back on and reminded they're the *******. So many just get away with it that they then get entitled. Getting pushed back on seems to snap them back to reality sometimes.
I'm lucky in my job that I meet people in the back offices and shipping and receiving docks who are pretty down to earth, but now and then I get the joy of dealing with an entitled person who seems to think that *their* shipment is somehow the key to my entire companies financial sustainability and if they make empty threats and huff and puff that somehow we'll go bankrupt or something and they'll feel better.
A few months back some jerk wanted special treatment with his delivery. I told him politely that what he was insisting I do was against my companies policies and I couldn't do it. He blew a gasket and started acting like a manchild. I started to put his delivery back in the truck and prepared to depart at which point he got even angrier because I guess he actually needed what I was delivering. I laughed as I was literally about to leave. In the end he ate crow and huffed and puffed and even refused to sign for it, but whatever. I think he was angriest that I just smiled and stood my ground through all of it while he went full potato. I'd guess manchildren like this are used to getting their way.
A year or so back the supervisor lady at a large automotive manufacturing facility lost her **** on me, again for just following OUR company procedures because apparently that was inconvenient for THEIR companies procedures. A simple solution was at hand, but I think lots of their employees have become accustomed to ******** on drivers because the drivers can't push back...because "big contract". Me? I just turned around and left. Told my boss that I wasn't taking anyones childish ****. He called and had words with both her and her boss and reminded them that our contract to haul their freight is literally pennies to us in the grand picture, and it's not US that would get in sh!t in this situation, it would actually be THEM. I still go there regularly. She is now VERY polite to me.
I'm lucky in my job that I meet people in the back offices and shipping and receiving docks who are pretty down to earth, but now and then I get the joy of dealing with an entitled person who seems to think that *their* shipment is somehow the key to my entire companies financial sustainability and if they make empty threats and huff and puff that somehow we'll go bankrupt or something and they'll feel better.
A few months back some jerk wanted special treatment with his delivery. I told him politely that what he was insisting I do was against my companies policies and I couldn't do it. He blew a gasket and started acting like a manchild. I started to put his delivery back in the truck and prepared to depart at which point he got even angrier because I guess he actually needed what I was delivering. I laughed as I was literally about to leave. In the end he ate crow and huffed and puffed and even refused to sign for it, but whatever. I think he was angriest that I just smiled and stood my ground through all of it while he went full potato. I'd guess manchildren like this are used to getting their way.
A year or so back the supervisor lady at a large automotive manufacturing facility lost her **** on me, again for just following OUR company procedures because apparently that was inconvenient for THEIR companies procedures. A simple solution was at hand, but I think lots of their employees have become accustomed to ******** on drivers because the drivers can't push back...because "big contract". Me? I just turned around and left. Told my boss that I wasn't taking anyones childish ****. He called and had words with both her and her boss and reminded them that our contract to haul their freight is literally pennies to us in the grand picture, and it's not US that would get in sh!t in this situation, it would actually be THEM. I still go there regularly. She is now VERY polite to me.
I was working for a company that had a similar phone number as the local bank. Wrong numbers were common.
A techie was working late one night and when the phone rang he answered it with the company name but the caller apparently didn't hear.
Caller: "I want to know how much money I have in my account."
Techie: "One moment please."
Techie, altering his voice "How may I help you?"
Caller: "I want to know how much money I have in my account."
Techie: "May I have your name and account number?"
Caller: "Katmandu, account 123456"
Techie: "One moment please......Sorry there's no money in that account. Someone named Shwartz came in this morning and took it all out"
Caller: "^& *%$%&** I'm going to come in there and (&^(&%$%."
Techie: "You can do whatever you want. There's no money here for you."
I'm trying to envision the scene at the bank when a psycho storms in ranting about a guy named Shwartz.
My parents phone number was one digit off from a lumber yard. We'd normally redirect the people but one real ahole called all fired up and didn't want to listen. We told him because of his bad attitude, prices were doubled for him and he should consider buying wood elsewhere. Only time I have fired a customer for somebody else.
Years ago a guy I knew had the same problem and Ma Bell was dragging her but on getting him a new number.
He started telling callers the company had gone bankrupt and he was only skeleton maintenance. He let the company know after a few days and his number got changed PDQ.
Dirty Frank
Well-known member
A local burger joint put out a bunch of flyers with my home number rather than theirs they transposed one digit.
After about the hundredth customer of theirs trying to place a order i started answering with "our kitchen is closed due to a slight rodent problem we should be reopening in a couple of weeks".
Eventually a staff member got wind of the snafu and dialed me up and tried to give me a piece of his mind. I just laughed at him until he hung up.
After about the hundredth customer of theirs trying to place a order i started answering with "our kitchen is closed due to a slight rodent problem we should be reopening in a couple of weeks".
Eventually a staff member got wind of the snafu and dialed me up and tried to give me a piece of his mind. I just laughed at him until he hung up.
When we moved from Pickering our business phone number changed. We had the 416 Pickering number since 1956.
Apparently, Bell re-used the number for some dude's cell phone. After receiving quite a few calls that were meant for us he looked up our new number and called.
After the misplaced anger (Bell did it; not me), and threats ("I'll ruin you!"), and demands for compensation he FINALLY arrived at his endpoint and question.
"What are you going to do about it?", he says.
"I'm gonna Hang up the phone, finish my lunch and tell everybody here about how I talked to the worlds biggest jacka$$ today."
