[geowitt]

Not everyone who comes into a business is a customer. There are some people out there who get out of bed with the deliberate intent to defraud a business.

It’s the old “waiter, there’s a fly in my soup” syndrome.

A person who is always finding fault with the service and seeking some sort of monetary adjustment is someone whose business you can’t afford to have.

Now, some people complain about everything and I’m not necessarily talking about them. Some people complain because it’s what they’ve always done and as long as they don’t seek monetary compensation or bother the help, so what? You can complain and still be nice about it.

It’s time to draw the line when they think that paying money entitles them to abuse the employees or get something extra for nothing.

I have 3 rules for doing business with me. First, you have to have a vehicle…. Next, you have to be willing and able to pay for repairs or maintenance on it. Finally, you have to be nice. That’s a short list, but it’s important.

None of our workers will ever be rude to a customer and I won’t tolerate customers being consistently rude to to the workers. We all have bad days and we all have misunderstandings.

I do draw the line and, once it’s crossed, you’ll never be allowed back.

I am the only one allowed to do this, but I’ll tell the offender that I’m not able to make them happy and it’s time to stop trying. I’m not the shop they’re looking for, they’re going to have to try another one. Now, bear in mind that this is about one in a thousand people, so it’s rare. But we do flag them and they will never again get their car serviced here. I just tell them that I’m not able to make them happy. It’s all my fault….

[geowitt]

Robb, I really like that answer. The poster indicates that the guy has been a long time customer and that tells me you have a relationship of fairness with each other over time. That’s worth a lot.

When I’m faced with a situation like this, I sometimes say that the customer can’t prove I’m liable and I can’t prove I’m not liable. Somewhere in the middle lies a solution that will work for both of us.

What do you (the customer) think?

I’ve been very lucky to split costs with a customer over things like this.

However, I should stress at this point that a well-established repair shop needs to pad each bill enough to cover the crazy things that sometimes come up in business. We can’t always recover every expense directly at the time it’s incurred. We have to make enough over time to take care of things that happen.

I don’t know if the heads can be sold if the engine is pulled. This stuff can drive you nuts.