Severed ties with my best return customer

[sofadoc]

I have one decorator that decided I was charging too much for supplies like foam and batting.

So she ordered her own online. This is how the batting looked when I opened the box:


I normally get my batting off a supply truck that delivers it un-shrunk.

I'll have to waste a lot of time trying to get all the wrinkles out of this crap. The price that she paid for a 16 yard roll was only slightly less than what I would've charged her for 25 yards.

It's been my experience in recent years that ID's don't have as much common sense as they used to. They're always just looking for the cheapest way out.

[mike802]

Thanks guys:  Man it's been one stressful event after another here lately, I guess when it rains it pours. LOL The rest has been of personal maters and not business related.  They came and picked up there remaining furniture and it was uneventful thankfully.  They brought help for loading, but I would not let them touch a thing. The last thing I need is someone getting injured on my property.

I am going to guess that she comes back to you at some point in time and I am hoping you tell her to go pound sand.

Chris, I wouldn't have it any other way, even it I was about half starved!

I have one decorator that decided I was charging too much for supplies like foam and batting.

During our back and forth, trying to come to terms, I was told who my supplier was and what my markup should be and subsequently what I should be able to charge for my services.  This was a turning point, where I decided I no longer wanted them as a client.

Thanks once again everybody for your support, it really means a lot.

[JuneC]

During our back and forth, trying to come to terms, I was told who my supplier was and what my markup should be and subsequently what I should be able to charge for my services. 

People kill me... sigh...  If it was so easy, why not do it yourself?  Some customer just aren't worth having.

June

[SteveA]

Mike
Just picture the first time their new upholstery service has a major wood structural damage to repair on the finished surface before recovering.  I'm thinking a full 4 oz can of minwax filler - brown crayons, and spray poly top coat.  When the client objects the decorator states - " that's character and distressing" !  But Ms. decorator, " I never noticed this distressing before on other finished pieces !"
SA

[Mojo]

I had to eat some dirt and play nice when we first started this business but those days are behind us thankfully.

I treat all of our customers with the utmost respect. We are known throughout the motorcoach circles as having the very best customer service of any company in our respective sector. We go overboard in some cases in assisting our customers, helping them line up technicians for installs, talking through install issues with them, etc.

But I will not stand for rudeness or deal with people who think we owe them a living. I especially despise those who try and cut our prices based on what others are charging. I just went through this with a customer this week when he e-mailed me saying " But XYZ company sells toppers for $ 30 less ". I very nicely told him we do not compete on price, we compete on quality of workmanship and materials as well as warranty periods. He came back yesterday and placed an order.

We offer the very best in materials and workmanship and we have triple the warranty the others have. Why would I want to try and compete on price ?

Once a customer turns into a jerk with me I will send them packing. Our Interior Decorators in our business are the RV dealers who come to us and want to cut our margins so they can mark our products up to the customer. Thankfully we only have a couple dealers to work with and their orders are very few and far between.

I get PO'ed when I read about ID's that push and shove our members here around. Especially when they are true masters at their trade like Mike. His furniture work is over the top high quality and this ID will never be able to replace his skills with another upholsterer.

Chris

[sofadoc]

Actually, I don't think that I have ever formally severed ties with an ID. What I have done, is just put them off until they get tired of waiting, and go somewhere else.

I've had some that call me again years later. By then, I've forgotten why we ended our relationship. Sometimes they've either mellowed, or they've "burned their bridges" with everyone else. So we get along OK the second time around.

There's a good chance that the ID in Mike's post will make more of an effort to get along with her next upholsterer. Her ego kept her from admitting any fault in dealing with Mike. But with a fresh start, she may try harder to be accommodating.

Kinda like marriage. Many fail the first time. But they learn from their mistakes, and they have success on the second one. But of course, there are others that just "ain't the marryin' kind".

[kodydog]

I very nicely told him we do not compete on price, we compete on quality of workmanship and materials as well as warranty periods. He came back yesterday and placed an order.

We offer the very best in materials and workmanship and we have triple the warranty the others have. Why would I want to try and compete on price ?

Exactly

[byhammerandhand]

"There is hardly anything in this world that some man cannot make a little worse
and sell a little cheaper, and those people who consider price only, are this man's lawful prey. It is unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money - that is all.   When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.    The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot; it cannot be done.   If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better"

John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)