Sure, but there’ll be a $5000 “handling” charge.
Well, fine. That’s only fair. As long as I’m not getting ripped off with your “profit margins”!
As a hotel clerk/auditor, I sell a service more than a product, but yeah: I love those people who come in at 2 am, and tell me “I only need the room for a couple of hours, so can’t you give me a better rate?”
Well, here’s the thing: If you only use the room for an hour, or 12 hours, we still need to change the linens, clean the tub, clean the toilet, vacuum, mop the bathroom, pay for the power and water you used while in-house. We pay for insurance on the whole facility. There’s replacement on towels and sheets and stuff that gets worn out from use, and repair/maintenance costs for hardware in the room. We also provide (in-room) coffee and breakfast (not fancy, but quite adequate - not just stale donuts and coffee) for our guests. An employee is paid by the hour to sweep and mop the lobby/breakfast room/public restroom, and to sweep the parking lot and maintain the landscaping. Past a certain level, we’ll actually lose money on a room if we charge too little - it’s cheaper to have the room vacant than to clean and stock a room that paid too little. So, guess what? I don’t care whether you want the room for only two hours, and that it will remain vacant otherwise: I’m not renting it to you for $30.00. (And don’t get me started on those morons who are utterly surprised by the tax we are required to charge on a room. If you don’t want to pay taxes, stay home.)
Inevitably, the people who want a $25.00 or $30.00 rate are driving new Mercedes or shiny new Town Cars. I guess they figure that they should only have paid 4% of the cost of their new cars, since they only average driving one hour per day.
Lot’s of things are like LEGO
Building cars is like LEGO
Building a house is like LEGO
… doesn’t mean, that you need to be a rocket scientist either, but if your really good at LEGO you can build your own spaceship and fly to Mars with it.
Funny how people drop there computers in to me to fix them up all the time, if it’s just LEGO… people must really suck at playing LEGO.
Next time: Don’t say “sorry” at any point in the conversation.
Yes, mostly from businesses, but the occasional regular (or in this case a referral from a friend who vouched for his checkworthiness.) For things like buyers remorse situations stopping a check is alot more legally messy than calling up and protesting the charge with VISA. IF he stopped his check because he “Changed his mind” on a system I delivered to invoice spec, I would probably eat him for lunch in small claims.
Something you may not realize is like many business we have preferred vendors for things. I can spend 3-4 hours finding stuff from 8 vendors or I can buy from one vendor, who has everything, it all shows up together, and its a little more expensive. In my case my parts vendor is fast and very easy to deal with, honesty, I probably could have cancelled my order and they would have dug it out of the UPS trailer sitting at their dock. Fast RMA, very simple online form to fill out, stick in the box and a couple days later I have a new one.
My price on those parts was not $600, and I think I was including CA tax.
That’s not the only reason. I hardly ever owned a high-end gaming PC, I don’t know anything about the best/latest graphic card or whatever (nor generally would want them), but still buy from small computer shops. Frequently some kind of “standard” build-up system they’re offering after telling them what kind of use I have for my computer.
First because they know their stuff, building computers all day long, and know what parts are best and/or cheapest. That would be unfrequently the case with an average vendor in a big store (and he’s not going to think for long about what would be best for me).
Second because if I have an issue with the computer/want an upgrape/whatever, I can just drop by and it’s done in quick order. Again not the same story with big stores.
LEGO or not, no way I’m going to learn about building computers myself, keep myself updated about computer parts available out there, when I need a new computer once in a blue moon. I wouldn’t even spend any time looking on the internet to see if the parts are available somewhere at a cheaper price . I pay him, amongst other things, to look up for me.
Thanks! 
This is how I feel. I have a limited amount of time here in this space/time continuum, and I can’t learn everything. Therefore, I have chosen not to learn about some things that others already know. Two of those things are computers and cars. I let the professionals in those fields keep up with the latest updates, upgrades, and breakthroughs, and I always know that while it might be cheaper to do it myself, I’m paying for expertise as well as parts.
Well that just saved me from a lot of typing; thanks!
Really.
If you have any interest in helping this customer make some lemonade here, you can point out to him that it’s been a learning experience that he can use the next time he wants to put a system together, and he isn’t constrained by a time limit he’s set for himself.
Some people think that no one else should make a living but them and they’ll waste your time like you have nothing better to do.
What we mainly do is ask a customer for a budget and what they want to do with it. Built a box for a guy a couple weeks ago who downloads movies all day. Doesent play games, doesent do much else at all.
Pretty basic box, but with 2x 2tb hard drives. Not something you see sitting on the shelf at bb, but exactly what he wanted.
Anytime!
(Are your cheapskates the same as mine? At “my” property, the blue collar guys seem to understand that we have to make a profit to stay in business. The cheapskates always seem to be retirees/snowbirds with addresses in Toronto and West Palm Beach, driving cars that cost more than my first house!)
Well you don’t think they got rich by writing a lot of checks? 
Fortunately those customers are the exception to the rule rather than the norm. Every business gets them.
Bitching and moaning after the fact though is a little worse than being a pain in the ass haggler up front.
I’ve had customers bitch over a $30 repair bill when a $50 bench fee would be pretty normal. I had a customer complain after I gave her a discount because when her husband came in to pay the quoted price didn’t include tax. {yeah, you’re welcome for the discount}
One customer thought he shouldn’t have to pay for a diagnostic test when it turned out his product wasn’t defective he just wasn’t using it correctly. His remark
“Man all you guys care about is money”
Well sir, I’m charging you a nominal fee, basically cost, because I have to pay my techs for their time. But since you mentioned it, while we want our customers to be happy, we actually do have to be concerned about money because we’re a business.
No business has to apologize for making a profit. A lovely old gent who repairs band instruments once told me that sometimes you have to fire customers. There are people who will never be satisfied and will cause far more aggravation than their business is worth. At some point it’s okay to tell them you won’t do business with them anymore.
My son works for a company that sells and maintains some heavy duty equipment for people in the limber industry. A regular customer was a hard negotiator and always got a discount on expensive repairs. The problem was he’d let several bills pile up and want an additional discount because the bill was then quite high. Dave explains to him that he has already gotten discounts and can’t do any additional ones and the guys says, “That’s not my problem. I’m looking out for my business. I either get a discount or take my business elsewhere”
“Sorry, can’t do it”
So he takes his business elsewhere. A few weeks later Dave gets a call from a small time repair operation asking for some specs on high end equipment they are trying to repair. Dave recognizes the rig.
You’re working for customer X aren’t you?
Yep
You know you can buy the tech manuals for that gear , we do.
Well yeah, but those manuals are hundreds of dollars
I know. So you want me to give you the information for free that we pay hundreds of dollars for so you can service a customer that dropped us? Go tell customer X that’s not happening.
Shortly after that Customer X returns to the fold, realizing that having professional reliable service is worth something.
Pretty much did that in a past life managing a computer shop. Had a pissant customer spout the tired old adage about the customer always being right. My response was along the lines of that may be, but you’re no longer a customer, please leave. Much gnashing of teeth and ranting about how I could not do that ensued. I can, I did, and if you are still here in one minute I will call the police and have you removed.
I’m envisioning the Spanish Inquisition and such limbering devises as the rack and thumbscrews. 
ETA: IIRC there’s another old adage about 10% of customers causing 90% of your problems.
Some customers don’t seem to realize that businesses have overhead. Hell, some don’t seem to realize that businesses don’t get their stock for free! I remember having to fire a couple of customers, because they were doing things like buying a fancy dress and then returning it a couple of weeks later. Yes, we CAN tell that a dress has been worn, in many cases. If the tags are taken off, and there’s deodorant residue in the armpits, and especially if the thing is stained, we know that you’ve worn it to that party and now you want your money back. Several customers were told that they no longer had the privilege of returning anything for cash OR credit. Usually they stormed out of the store, vowing never to darken our door again. We considered this to be the optimum outcome, as they were costing us money, we usually had to mark the garments down after we found the stains.