Have you ever had an annoying customer experience?

Yesterday which was Sunday a customer who use to cut my hair calls me for a problem that she's had for over a week. I asked them to give me the serial numbers off of their fixture to be repaired and I would call it in Monday morning to order the parts.

First I'm talking with her and then she put's her husband on the phone (Meanwhile they are inconveniencing me and I had to stop what I was doing). Her husband couldn't read the symbols so he put's her back on the phone again. She reads them off to, me after wasting ten more minutes of my time. All of this transpires after she already called me twice withing a two minute time frame; hence my pager was going off again when I dialed their number.

So all is good right! Not, I go back to what I was working on and ten minutes later she calls me back again. She found the receipt for when she bought the item. This had no value whatsoever to me because it was sixteen years old. At this point I made up an excuse why I probably can't help her and pointed her into another direction. She seemed OK with that and bought into my advice. So, we hang up and I'm thinking Wu! I just dodged a bullet.

The very next morning my pager goes off at 7:00 am. and it's her. I looked at my pager three times and then called my answering service to find out if it was a mistake. Oh the pain! Sure enough, it was her again. She called to tell me that her problem is fixed after they did what I told them to do while I was on the phone with her the day before. Then she acted weird again before we hung up.

Sometimes I dread answering the phone but it's how I make a living. This is a great example of why I would like to learn another skill so I can be even more selective on who I deal with. For the last six years I've cut residential down by eighty percent and only service Commercial Businesses.

 

I can change faucets by myself, and know how to take apart pipes under the sinks for clogs...stuff like that. But just about a month ago, I was in way over my head. I had been trying to fix a pipe that had been leaking. A few days before the "incident", I even started shutting off my water everyday before I left for work. My next day off, I was determined to fix it. I failed miserably, and made it worse, much worse. For some strange reason, even with the water shut off, it wouldn't stop. I looked online and found a big 24 hr plumbing company. It was 11:30 at night, and, "Well, I have to empty this bucket about every 10 minutes! I'll be working all day tomorrow and can only imagine the major flood in my house!!!!" "Fix it, what you want to come fix it??" "Oh no. That's okay. Can you just tell me what's wrong and how to fix it over the phone?"

They were probably rolling their eyes. LOL. So, I guess I'm a nightmare customer at times. Anyway, I did have them come and fix it.

(though I did watch so I'll know how to fix it if there is a next time).

 

Your situation would be an emergency so you would not qualify as an annoying customer but rather a customer in need of a Professional service and that's what our job is. I imagine they hit you with a pretty good price tag for coming out at night.

For me, if I can help a customer resolve their troubles over the phone whether it's day or night then I am happy to do so. I only want to provide my service to customers who have no other option vs. to capitalize on a customers lack of knowledge. I've always been that way and it reflects back upon me in positive ways.

Thanks for sharing