Dealing with customes that seem to know everything but in reality know very little

[bsco]

Good morning people.....I hope you are having a great day....I am not sure if I have posted this in the right section.......so.......if not, then someone please direct me to the proper section here on the forum......Some of you folks have been doing this for years.....others not so much...how do you handle customers that are short, sarcastic on times, seem to know it all, drop stuff off and never come back to pick it up and won't return your calls, etc, etc.....how do you deal with these people and do you keep dealing with them in the future....I am just curious as to how other members here handle this type of issue.....
Cheers

[Enzo]

We have had any number of threads on running a shop, on customer stories, and related stuff.

SOme things to remember. You cannot "win" an argument with a customer. And a related bit, it takes two to argue.

If they arrive already angry and sarcastic, then my challenge is to calm them down, show them I want to help, and get to the bottom of their concern. Ever notice how a lot of younger people online are instant to anger when they feel the slightest cross from you? You can't do that face to face. If they get short and sarcastic AFTER they talk to me, then I am not doing my job.

If they think they know it all, then let them think they do know it all. it isn't a contest. I don't need to beat them at rhetoric. If they spout history of Fender you know to be false, SO WHAT? Our job is to fix their amp, not spread industry history.

If they bring in an amp and proclaim it is probably just a bad tube, just say "I hope so, I will check that first thing." Even if you know the dead reverb circuit has no tubes, just play along. Once you fix it, if they ask what it was, just tell them the reverb IC had failed. If they persist, "Not a tube?", say "Not this time."

We had a sign in the shop, "items not picked up after 90 days may be sold for charges." If you have preprinted repair tickets, put that policy right on the form. If I know a guy is touring, I might sit on his amp even a year. I am not trying to get their stuff. But if I call someone a few times, and they always say, "Oh ye, I need to come get that." After a feew of those, hell with them, I sell it. COnsult your local laws on that issue.

The one that stuck in my craw the worst was the guy who lugged in a Fender Rhodes, complete with the big amp/speaker cab for the front. Told me what the issues were, then wanted to know exactly when I would be doing the work. I told him in the next day or two, but he wanted to know the exact time. he told me "I want to come in and watch you do the work, so you don't charge me for something you didn't do." I told him to take his Rhodes and leave, and not to come back, thank you.

There is a limit.

[Chuck H]

You cannot "win" an argument with a customer. And a related bit, it takes two to argue.

+1
I don't do amp repairs for a living. I AM a contractor though. HGTV and the internet are my nemesis and everyone thinks they know as much as I do about my job. It can be a tricky dance but the basic idea is to direct discussions away from conflict. Sort of the same idea as not instigating conversation about religion or politics with people you don't know I often use humor to defuse tension. Like when a customer asks if I can do some particular thing I'll often answer "Sure. I saw it on TV once. It was Bob Villa but I think I can do it."

...he told me "I want to come in and watch you do the work, so you don't charge me for something you didn't do."

There are shop hangers available in many hardware and supply stores. Like this:

[bsco]

The Fender Rhodes issue is a good one.....I haven't had somebody say that to me yet.......I have a couple of keyboards here that were too expensive to repair and the owners were supposed to drop back and pick them up and pay the bench fee...that was a few years ago...the keyboards are still there.....I sold one of the cases....and I will scrap them for parts and throw the cases out....

[drewl]

It is tricky when you get a "know it all"
Alot of times they think they know what the problem is because they read about on line. Others just want me to diagnose the problem thinking they can fix it themselves.
Being patient and polite usually works when they can't fix the problem and they bring it back for me to actually repair.

[Chuck H]

Others just want me to diagnose the problem thinking they can fix it themselves.

That's some nerve. They assume to use your expertise and deny you as much monetary recognition as possible. You say it usually works out and I'll take your word for that, but I'd tell them to go pound salt.

That sort of attitude is what forums are for Somehow it would be very different for me if someone brought an amp into my place of business and asked me to empower them with trade information while denying me the work. Did they also ask for access to your bank account? Same thing in context.

[Randall]

My pet peeve is customers who want to hang out for 20 -30 mins talking gear, showing me all the basses on their phone that they have ever owned, etc. They don't seem to realize my time is money.

[J M Fahey]

I had guys like the Rhodes one, guys who wanted me to open an already closed amp and *show* them exactly which parts I had changed, others who asked 10 times in a row "but will you repair it RIGHT?" , or "please use the good parts on mine, leave the cheesy ones for others" or ... or ... or ...

You drive, you get the bumps, only guaranteed way to avoid them is to leave the car in the garage ....

the latest one:

a guy dropped the 5" speaker from a Roland MicroCube, absolutely unavailable here and which can´t be substituted because the amp is *tiny* to begin with and frame has some "ears" which fit "like a glove" in molded slots, so it´s either that one or else.
Original speaker is only available from Thomann Germany, 29 Euro, which plus shipping and Customs tax will rise it over 100 bucks end cost ... forget it.


I bent over backwards to find the exact same cone, recovered original voice coil , spider, dust cap and carboard gasket, which necessitated soaking speaker overnight in my braincell killing carginogen (no kidding) witches´ brew solvents mix (acetone+toluene+benzene+ethyl ether+ethanol) which turns *any* adhesive into soft jelly so speaker can be disassembled without damage and parts reused.

End result was a killer sounding little speaker which go so much respect from me that I will clone it , will try making (and selling) some tiny but good sounding amp.

Guy paid, picked it in the same tight fitting box where he had left it, and phoned one hour later, VERY angry: "hey thief!!! , you stole my speaker and gave me something else!!!"
His point was that "it must be another because it was missing the Roland label" ... which after a few seconds (at first I had not the slightest idea what he was talking about) I reminded him it was just a rubber stamp on the back magnet (visible in the picture) and which of course had disappeared after 2 seconds in the solvents.
He was missing the other 99 clues that it could not possibly be any other but his unique one.
Since I can´t keep my mouth shut, I told him that the second time he had not come with his real wife, because she had a different coloured sweater than the original one.

[nosaj]

My pet peeve is customers who want to hang out for 20 -30 mins talking gear, showing me all the basses on their phone that they have ever owned, etc. They don't seem to realize my time is money.

When I was doing computer repair all the time. There was a partition between me and the customers. I stayed in the back all day long working my magic, while a knowledgeable person did the checkin\checkout procedures.

Because that was the way it started that is what people got used to.

Depending on how much your time is worth may tell if you if it's time to move up past a one man show?
nosaj

[Leo_Gnardo]

As a sort of parallel to Enzo's Rhodes story. I generally avoid repairing keyboard instruments. But a couple years ago a local vocalist/keyboardist sweet talked me into having a look at her Yamaha keyboard. "Should be a simple fast repair, my sustain pedal doesn't work." The pedal and cable were OK, that much I determined in the first 15 seconds. The Jalco jack into which the cable plugs though, was completely detached from the circuit board. A special plastic jack which only Yamaha uses, not something I stock, not something I can easily get my hands on, not something that I can substitute another part for. And that board with the jack on it was accessible only after completely disassembling 5 layers of circuit boards and removing the keyboard. "Should be simple." Riiiiggggghhhhhtt! Only 5 days after dropping it off she rang up and read me the riot act "wah wah waaaah why isn't it done yet? You're supposed to be a geeeeeenius! Imma gonna come pick it up and take it somewhere else ! ! ! !" Couldn't reassemble it fast enough. Here ya go sister, get lost and stay lost!

For those crustomers who take their sweet time picking up their repairs, I have a proposal. I haven't tried this yet but it may stimulate some to do the right thing, and raise much needed revenue for the beleaguered repair shop. Charge storage fees for gear not picked up. Hell, auto repair garages do it, anywhere from $15 to $135 a day for cars. I'd say a fair rate for MI gear would be $5 a day after 15 days of not being retrieved. Has anyone here done anything like this?

[bsco]

My pet peeve is customers who want to hang out for 20 -30 mins talking gear, showing me all the basses on their phone that they have ever owned, etc. They don't seem to realize my time is money.

How very true.....

[Leo_Gnardo]

My pet peeve is customers who want to hang out for 20 -30 mins talking gear, showing me all the basses on their phone that they have ever owned, etc. They don't seem to realize my time is money.

True there are some "professional time wasters" but on occasion I get some gems from conversations in person or over the phone. One fellow gave me a good lead on a substitute for a rare tube. Sometimes my customers are doctors or lawyers or other professionals who can provide some insight or advice. Some are police and corrections officers, they have some hair raising stories to tell, and can provide some enlightenment from their unique view. And just a couple days ago, a building inspector from a nearby town had a little news blip about our newest celebrity neighbor, just bought a hill top estate about 10 miles away: Steve Miller. The space cowboy, to be clear, NOT the presidential advisor. Sometimes the time spent gabbing a bit, is time well spent.

[rjb]

The Jalco jack into which the cable plugs though, was completely detached from the circuit board. A special plastic jack which only Yamaha uses, not something I stock, not something I can easily get my hands on, not something that I can substitute another part for.

I think the broken PCB at the sustain pedal jack is (or was?) a common problem with Yamaha keyboards. I had a "home" (not road-hardy) piano that developed the same issue. Probably should have known better, since IIRC all the Yamaha kbs on display at GC had non-functioning sustain pedals. Since no one else was gonna see it, I just installed a panel-mount jack and ran wires to the PCB. That was before one cat pulled off the slipcover, and the other had explosive diarrhea over the keyboard....

[Mick Bailey]

I had a guitar in recently where the customer rang up to arrange collection. He asked what the fault was and when I told him he said he already knew what the problem was, but didn't want to insult my intelligence by telling me how to do my own job.

On the Fender Rhodes topic, I had a call two weeks ago for one with the built-in amp + speaker where the guy told me it's probably just a wire off. It's always "just a wire off" off. I've never had a call saying "This one needs extensive dismantling and will take up your entire bench space for weeks while you wait for hard-to-find parts to come from overseas. When you put it all back together there will probably be other faults that I've forgot to mention that will entail repeating the procedure. I will expect these to be fixed within the original quotation".

[g1]

the guy told me it's probably just a wire off. It's always "just a wire off" off.

We had a running gag about the "just a wire off" at one place I worked. One of the sales guys would always take bad trades then bring them down to the shop and say "it's probably just a wire off". I think one time he was in fact correct.