03-01-2013, 10:43 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 835
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Quote:
Originally Posted by benhogan
interesting points guys. timely too. my little small engine repair season is about to start and last night I was thinking about last season.
there was this one customer who brought his mower for me to fix. after I fixed it, I called him up to tell him it was ready and what the tab was ($80) for parts and labor.
he did not want to pay. he claimed that since I never called him for an estimate of how much it would cost, he never authorized the repair (so why did he drop it off?). it was just a standard repair and a standard tab and nobody has ever complained since I started doing this 5 years ago. If people bring me a broken mower, I am going to fix it. A mower is not a Ferrari.
Anyway, so he pissed me off so much that I said I would install back all the broken parts and he can pick it up. As I was about to dismantle the mower, it dawned on me that doing that was just stupid since I would be doubling my work for nothing. I decided to leave it in the 'fixed' state. I left a note on the machine tell him that I decided to keep the machine in the fixed state to prove to him that I am not an %hole. So he came and picked it up. He left me a note that just said 'thanks' but no money.
I happen to know that that mower of his is very sensitive to ethanol in the gas. In time, that mower will need to be worked on again (maybe not this season) and he will probably call again for help. I am the only small engine repair guy who has a one-day turnaround time on repairs. The next guy will sit on it for weeks.
When this donkey calls me again for help, either I will insist that he pay me for the prior repair and pay in advance for the next repair OR I might just tell him to take his biz elsewhere since he will probably find another technicality to avoid paying.
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For the time it’s better just to let it go and give the mower back with your thanks for the opportunity. Perhaps even apologize for the misunderstanding. After all, it sounds as if you did not provide the estimate.
It’s easy to let this kind of thing consume the seller if you let it happen. Instead, learn the lesson - in the future, get a signed work order and follow the defined rules and provide a written estimate or whatever is standard, so that your future efforts are covered enough to win in court should it come to that. Not that anyone would go to court for $80 but doing it right means you can dangle that detail. But mostly doing good work nearly always brings good results. We all eat one every now and again.
The track record is nearly as important as excellent customer service, no matter what.
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