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Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
I’M A MAN OF FEW WORDS SO DON’T GET ME GOING
Quote Bryan Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2005
“Arrive at 2:45 no one at home. Waited till 3:00 stuck a card through her door and off to next job.”
I’m like the airlines…… I overbook deliberately to avoid empty spacesSo some days I don’t get home till 9.00pm. At least it was a productive day, I was efficient, and I didn’t waste any time.
But then I only go to places were…
1/. I can call them on a phone
2/. That the person paying the bill is at home (no money = no visit)
3/. I always tell them that we will call 1/2hr beforehand (so they can go home and so I can get directions from where I currently am…… (Don’t bother with instructions till then as it only confuses))
(Sometimes the next customer is next door and ain’t that a beautiful call out fee.)
4/. No answer = no visit (even if they were only on the internet)
5/. Answering machine = no visit (even if they were only on the internet or in the back garden)
6/. Engaged = generally no visit as I need to ensure Internet is not minding the house or the other repair firm they called hasn’t beaten me
Customers have been known to take an each way bet or even a trifecta by calling multiple companies to ensure they receive some sort of service and leave it to providence as to whom arrives first, and then forget to cancel the others or can’t remember who they called in order to cancel (so what if the tradesman wasted a call. Let them whistle for their money)
6/. I use mobiles with gay abandon as it saves hugely on wasted fuel and wasted time
7/. I use the street directory on my laptop beside me and also navigation when required which also helps cut down on wasted time
I also record all conversations on my laptop. It may be illegal. (I’m prepared to fight a court case on that one.) It’s not used for illegal purposes and even Fair Trading and the Police have been told I do it. Helps hugely when they lie to me or to Fair-trading and even sometimes the Police. Ever been accused by the customer of breaking their machine, or maybe accusations of theft are on their agenda, I’ve even had people trying to defraud their insurance companies. You don’t want to accused of fraud. Best to cut off at the pass based on your irrefutable evidence. If I see 20 customers a day then according to statistics (don’t quote me which statistics but the bell curve is a pretty good starter) two will be “mad” as they represent that low end five percent of the population that has a low IQ, and another two will be “mad” as they represent that high end five percent of the population that has a high IQ, and some days they are just all mad. The way the world is going you have to have a defence to every accusation. (To be prepared for War is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace). You can’t even trust the politicians these days. You can always do a transcript if required. It’s amazing how people think they are talking to a third person to complain about the tradesman who just left and how he tripped over their Maltese and scared the poor darling, or how last month he fixed the pump and now the machine doesn’t work at all now, or the repairman was abrupt and they don’t want him back, or they’re positive they asked the repairman to bring out another part etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc…………………..
Or maybe I’m getting ahead of you all and this only happens in Australia
After all didn’t you send all your criminals down here?
It’s getting to the stage that I’m about to start videoing every repair to avoid those ” but it was alright before he touched it”, or “he didn’t do what I asked” or “he didn’t do it right” or etc etc etc etc etc etc…………..
Had a job not so long ago to a 15yr old Hitachi electronic top loader and the lady kept calling every 1/2-hour to see when I’d be there.
Get there a 5.00pm and she’s still at work. (Didn’t bother to do a call 1/2 hour call before (I must have been in “stupid me” mode)). Phone her and she said her son has a cheque. Fault = Machine fills with water and floods as soon as you turn on the power (no lights). Tell her that the machine needs a control board (only available reconditioned and hugely expensive) give the son the bill. He writes out the cheque and gets a phone call before he hands it to me. I ask for payment and he say’s mum will be home in an hour. I phone her. She has told her son (12yrs old) to tear up the cheque as she “DOESN”T BELIEVE ME”.
Quote “The last tradesman only needed to put a lid switch in”.I’ve read the DASA
(Is that the “Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse” or “DASA Haitian Art including leather masks” or “Dasa Slave Literature (slaves to Lord Vishnu)”, or “Arjunanatha Dasa?? … He is a disciple of Krishna-Ksetra Dasa, lives in Bristol” etc as appears in GOOGLE………..)
Code of Practice and frankly it’s like something out a bad 1920’s silent film (not even a Horror flick)It iterates a lot of what is only common sense and say’s nothing about today’s modern world, which is dog, eat dog and everybody is trying to screw everybody else. The number of members and the number of hits speaks volumes
You guys have got a huge resource here in this website.
I sit here mesmerised.
I’d therefore like to propose two forums
A/. A forum where you can post your conditions of contract,
And
B/. Another forum to assist you to standardize on a conditions of contract.
I refuse to prostitute myself and always charge more than adequately for my services (not charging a call out fee say’s there is no cost in attending which is ludicrous) and I would rather go home early with a wad of money than have to trawl the streets at night trying to make a buck
We don’t have to cut each other’s throat. I try to be the dearest and let my service speak for itselfDo you give free quote?
Lady I can go and sit on the beach and not get paid and I don’t even have to take my toolsAre I allowed to rant and rave like this and am I limited in space please tell me if I’m edited and I’ll re-phrase
OK so I’m a raving lunatic. I’m sure someone can come up with a particular quoteLike
The lunatics have taken charge of the asylum
Or
The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum
Or
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defence.
Or
I don’t know if there are men on the moon, but if there are they must be using the earth (Australia) as their lunatic asylum
Or
Anger is a transient madness
Or
Even drunks may soon be made to dance.
Or
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
Or
A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials
Or
By the hands of many a great work is made lightRe: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Or the dishwasher where they had taken it apart including the sump and added
“Oh I’ve cleaned all the sealant off around the sump”
or
“I don’t know whether I’ve fixed it but I’ve taken it to bits for you”
(If you didn’t know what was wrong, if you didn’t know how to fix it, have you done anything else wrong, why the bloody hell couldn’t you just leave well enough alone)
I just walk away when the machine has been touched by others.
I’m about to put on my contracts that they must tell us if there is anything they know that may affect our performance including any previous repairs ie: homeowner stuff ups
As with
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
WOW……i dont think i,ll be emigrating for a while… are these guys ex CIA
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Isn’t it refreshing whilst we are bombarded with political correctness from the mouths of all our politicians for the next few weeks, a guy from thousands of miles away hits every nail on the head.
Well done sir, thanks for the post!
Kevin
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
alexa wrote:You guys have got a huge resource here in this website.
I sit here mesmerised.This guy Alexa is very astute…..priceless stuff, welcome aboard my friend 😀
Martin
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Why do they only call you when its making a banging noise on spin.
The husband thinks it could be the bearings. 😡How come they dont notice the squeak 😡
Or the rumble 👿
Or the tube train coming in 😈
Or the fact that it’s been screaming its head off for two weeks ❓
WHY CALL US NOW THAT ITS COMPLETELY SH*G*ED OUT. 👿
👿 :haier:
I’m sorry but it’s nearly every so called bearing job I’ve been to recently.Nurse pull the curtains please 😥
Tony CRe: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
That’s the joy of having an expert in the Office – the Mrs extracts the info, tells them off as required (ex-school teacher – can’t help herself….), so I know how bad it is before I go – assuming they accept the quote 😯 . Not to mention the ones she won’t sanction……..
Chris.
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Had an Engineer once (airconditioning/mechanical services) who’s freezer kept tripping the Earth leakage circuit breaker (Residual current device)so he connected it into an bayonet light socket. Of course these sockets are only 2 terminal so he joins the neutral and earth together.
Cause its 50/50 which way he puts in the bayonet plug.
He had livened the cabinet which was next to a correctly earthed fridge.
Close call that one
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Went to a house where the fridge freezer had stopped working.
Replaced the timer, tested the fridge and found an earth leakage fault and a live cabinet
Turns out the electrician who had fitted a Earth leakage Circuit Breaker had found said new device wasn’t resetting and he didn’t want to dip out on any profit with his cut and run marketing, so he had disconnected the fridge earth
And this was next to an earthed Wall oven for two (2) years
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
GRRRRRR. Woman phones up last week, door has fallen of the washer and broken the glass bowl, and plastic door trim, Hotpoint WM range, so I suspect hinge fault. I carry hinges & blocks, but not complete door trims or bowls. Ordered the parts, went yesterday to fit and found that even after I had asked her to save the old door, her ‘partner’ had thrown it away. 👿
Now have to order, release button, latch, spring, pin, circlips, etc. 😥I’ve resisted the temptation to reply to Yurtesen.
And of course he’s operating in the public forum whilst so many of us have to deal with customers like this one to one on a weekly basis, like the chap who was going to destoy my business because I wouldn’t do as he wanted which was attempt a repair that was not commercially, economically and mechanically viable, and would have caused guarantee problems.
And the death threats because once we replaced their timer we find that the gearbox has seized.
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Why do pepople mess with stuff they know nothing about?
:haier:Nearly every phone call I take now contains the words “my husbands has took the back off, and the belt is ok.” 🙄
I guy tells me this yesterday. His 18 month old Hoover isnt spinning (surprise, suprise). When the engineer gets there, he hasn’t just checked ‘the belt is ok’, he’s taken of the module, and solidered in a new triac!!!!!
Where the ‘H’ did he get a triac from???
Probably the usual thing of boucing two engineers off each other. ‘I’ll buy some spares from you, with a little advise; but when I screw it up, I’ll ring you‘
Needless to say, the module is knacked, but he won’t pay for a new one.
To which I reply…
“Oh you’ve been in at it, well it may well cost more to put it right”
Or…
“Someone else has been tampering, sorry we won’t touch it now!”
Too many people in the past that brought in a timer to buy a new one, which casued much hilarity when it was a Candy Turbo series timer, with the infamous quote of, “it’s okay, I’ve labelled all the wires”.
They were always back looking for a wiring diagram or a call.
K.
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
If it was me, I’d of poked him in the eye and walked out, but it was Grahame…
http://home.btconnect.com/grahametrudgill/about.htm
…who unfortunatly always wants to help people, even if they don’t deserve it! He feels guilty for charging people for call outs. I wish I could be the nice too, but I’m Goatboy, and margins are too tight to work for nothing.
I could be sat on the beach for nothing, right Al?
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