For many years I owned and ran a local shop where we sold parts and did restoration work on old Ford Mustangs. A good deal of my time was spent talking with customers about their cars and going over parts availability and what services we provided. Since I did 95% of the face-to-face customer work in the store, I was usually the one most people talked to whenever they came in. Though I found it more amusing than annoying, there was seldom a day went by that someone didn’t call in to ask another question about their car.
stanger:“Hello (usual business store greeting)”
them:“Yes, I talked to you about a month ago about a part I needed for my Mustang. Did you get any in?”
stanger:“What part was it exactly?”
them:“Oh, you know, that thing on the back of the big part. I think it’s blue.”
stanger:“I’m sorry sir, I’m not sure what you are talking about.”
them:“Don’t you remember talking to me about it. I’m the guy with the red Mustang!”
stanger: (to myself)"Oh, you’re the guy with the RED Mustang. Sure, I remember it now since you are the only one with a RED Mustang."
It doesn’t help that there are more red Mustangs out there now than Ford ever built.
Had one customer bring his Mustang by for me to do an estimate on completely restoring the interior of his car. We sort of specialized in replacing and rebuilding everything on the interior so that it was like showroom new. This is why we had a small shop in the back - to install the parts we sold because no one in town knew how to do it properly.
As I am walking around the car and asking questions about what he wants, he notices that I am writing down prices on parts and labor.
him:“Oh, just give me an estimate on the labor to install the parts and fix the car up. I’m not going to get the parts from you.”
stanger:“What do you mean?”
him:“I’m going to buy all the parts mail-order so I can pick the best prices and save some money.”
stanger:“I’m sorry,sir, but we only rebuild interiors where we sell you all the parts. We don’t install other companies parts.”
him: (all huffy)“Well, why not! Why can’t I bring my own parts and just have you install them?”
stanger:“Because if you buy from different dealers just to get the best price, there will be ten different shades of white in your car, a lot of parts we will have to charge extra to install because they won’t fit right without modification, and if something fails or looks bad later on, you will blame our workmanship when it is probably the poor quailty of the part instead.”
him:“But you have to do it that way if I want you to!”
stanger:“No sir, I don’t HAVE to do any such thing. We install only our own selection of parts and we stand behind their quality and our installation. If you want to save a couple of hundred dollars on a $2500 interior restore by picking parts from across the country from a catalog, you can ask them if they will install them for you too.”
The guy got seriously bent out of shape and stormed off saying,“Well, I’ll take it to somebody who will do it the way I want it. You aren’t the only Mustang shop in town!” He burned rubber as he left the parking lot.
Uh, yes we are, sir. The only Mustang shop for about 300 miles. Have a nice day.
We often had customers come up from Mexico to buy parts. Christmas and Easter are big shopping days for people from Mexico to come to the USA and buy things they can’t easily get farther south. Mexico people always expect a little freebie or discount on their purchases. This is usually no big deal because they buy a lot of parts and usually pay cash. You throw in some extra parts or give them a nice discount on a large purchase and they are happy as can be. They don’t really want a huge deal, they just want you to work with them a little bit.
One day a guy comes in and I spend about an hour working with him, piling the parts on the counter as we go.
It doesn’t come to a big purchase, about $700, but it is a nice sale. I give him several parts for free and a discount on the rest and tell him the total comes to $650.
He smiles at me and says,“This is what I will give you” and writes down $400 on a piece of paper and slides it across the counter at me.
I look back at him and say,“No, sir, with the free parts and special discount, it comes to $650”.
He just smiles back at me and says,“No, no. This is the price I will give you for all this.”
I tell him,“No, $650 is the price you must pay.”
He stops smiling and says,“I pay you this or I pay you nothing!”
I stand there and stare him down. Finally he throws his hands in the air and says,“Bah! (Yea, he really said ‘Bah!’), then I buy nothing !” and walks out of the store.
The only time in 13 years of business that I wanted to throw somebody out of my store and he walks out before I could do it.