"I want this for free"

[Cola]

Hey there ICE
I am an electrician and I do work in the Tool, Mold and Die industry in Windsor, Oldcastle, Lakeshore - you know, so who do you work for?
We have some customers that give us the little stuff then they give the good stuff to somebody else, it really fn pisses me off some times, but when they want their damn CNC running, I tell them to go hire the other guy (who I know doesn't do CNC repair.  One in particular gave away a $55,000.00 lighting job that I recommended and we originally quoted (and were in line) to the other guys and I told them them to get the other guys to do their work now.  I don't need customers like that.
Steve

[hottbpete]

This thread is a good one....

The quote below is just unbelievable.  We have gotten this request from one customer each year.  We always send something due to their size....but what a bunch of cheapskates...if you are going to give things out at YOUR Christmas party.....then pay for them.  

Regarding the free issue.....Keep track of your customers....Good customers very rarely ask for free things....I do belive that if it's your fault.....the company that is...you pay for it.  If it's under warranty you should pay.  Out of warrannty...not your fault issues?  The customer should pay.  Most reasonable customers do not have a problem with paying for services.  

If you keep track of the customers then you can change your policy for the good ones and stick to your policy for the pain in the asses.....and if they complain....fire them.

speaking of freebies......

has anybody else seen a large increase in the last few years of clients.....large clients asking for donations to their Company Christmas Party?

we did not see much of this a few years ago, but now we get alot of requests (pressure) for donations of like gift certificates that they can give away to the employees at the annual Christmas Party.

Dear XYZ,

The Law Firm of Jones, Smith, & Jones is planning a company Holiday Party on December 10th. We are seeking donations from vendors for the holiday raffle we have at the gala. If interested please forward a gift certificate and your name will be announced as a donor at our party.

[East_TX_Spa]

4 spas a year?

wow....at what 6-10K each?

that seems like alot for a spa store in tyler, texas

Oh no, no, no.....we don't give away the good stuff as we are not that magnanimous in the least.  We give the cheap spas that have fallen off trailers, been tossed around by our pack of trained gorillas, or the ones that catch fire from time to time to the beaten women and wayward teens.  The high society folks at the Cattle Baron Ball and Art Museum get the good stuff!  They're the ones with whom we try to curry favor.  Battered women and unwed mothers ain't got no money to spend on spas...that's all for show.

Term

[Mike Blute]

We donate 4 spas/year for fundraisers: The Cattle Baron's Ball, The Museum of Fine Arts fundraiser, the Beat Up Women's Shelter, and I think one for wayward teens.

Term

Jumpin' in real quick;   

I have to say that donating all those things is pretty darn nice of East Texas Spas, if you ask me.  

And not too toot my own horn,  but I too do a lot work with unwed teens too...mostly helping them get thier start.

Our town doesn''t have a beat up Women's Shelter, but I do donate to the Tempura Foundation. (it's for lightly battered women).

[Chas]

In my industry we do a LOT of work for the major cellular companies.  They often EXPECT lots of things for free that were not listed in their Statements of Work (SOW).   The PURPOSE of an SOW is to define and price services UP FRONT.  If it's not in the SOW, it's not included.  Unfortunately, this doesn't always hold water and there "big boys" are sometimes heard saying things like "Well, if you EVER want me to sign another SOW you will do this for free...".  We've come up with a great way to handle it.  We simply write out a normal statement/invoice outlining what it would NORMALLY cost and then stamp "Goodwill" on it.  This serves a number of purposes.  The first is to show that there is ACTUAL real costs associated with the pro-bono efforts (in the event they ever DO realize that they SHOULD have paid for it originally) and secondarily, it gives you documentation to pull out the next time they ask for more free stuff.  In our case, we may have 20 or 30 of these documents for $5K or $20K here or there.  When they DEMAND we do a $100K effort for FREE, we simply pull out all the prior "free" efforts and demonstrate that we have ALREADY given a LOT of little stuff for free, it's now THEIR time to compensate us properly for this "bigger" effort.

Bottom line =  Sometimes it is just easier and smarter to "give away"  the little stuff (trip charges) so that you can get them to pay for the bigger stuff later down the road (i.e. their next tub)

I am printing this one out - and I am going to reword it and incorporate it into my policy manual - at leas the part about tracking the 'goodwill' items done free. That gives me an easy way to track the 'write off' work we do, and will help with those tough-to-please customers.

Thanks


 8-)

[Spatech_tuo]

Our town doesn''t have a beat up Women's Shelter, but I do donate to the Tempura Foundation. (it's for lightly battered women).

I'm just glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that!

[spaman--]

I'm just glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that!

<<<<--------------Makes a little note on calendar of the day that Spatech isn't drinking

[Chas]

T'was bound to happen.


 8-)

[Bonibelle]

But what happens when you don't want it for free???...I have a good friend whose husband had a horrible accident (a tree that he was cutting fell on him). He is in a wheel chair and no use of his body below his waist.  They have been trying to hire friends to revamp the bathroom so he can get his wheel chair in  a handicap shower and the burdon of moving him won't be on his wife. It has been very hard for her; he is a big guy. they are asking contractors that are friends because they know they won't be ripped off and they can trust them in their home. No one ever comes through. It is not that my friends don't want to pay full price or want a favor, they just feel more comfortable explaining the husband's needs to a friend. Well they have just about given up because NONE of their friends (and they have talked to about 5 different guys) have gone beyond saying yeah they would do it.  NO plans, no bids nothing. My friends have the money to pay and are more than willing to pay whatever is necessary, so what's up??. I think their friends feel guilty taking the money, but on the other hand they want to be paid... :-/

[spaman--]

But what happens when you don't want it for free???...I have a good friend whose husband had a horrible accident (a tree that he was cutting fell on him). He is in a wheel chair and no use of his body below his waist.  They have been trying to hire friends to revamp the bathroom so he can get his wheel chair in  a handicap shower and the burdon of moving him won't be on his wife. It has been very hard for her; he is a big guy. they are asking contractors that are friends because they know they won't be ripped off and they can trust them in their home. No one ever comes through. It is not that my friends don't want to pay full price or want a favor, they just feel more comfortable explaining the husband's needs to a friend. Well they have just about given up because NONE of their friends (and they have talked to about 5 different guys) have gone beyond saying yeah they would do it.  NO plans, no bids nothing. My friends have the money to pay and are more than willing to pay whatever is necessary, so what's up??. I think their friends feel guilty taking the money, but on the other hand they want to be paid... :-/

I think that friends in this case would be the wrong direction to go, on the other hand I think the correct avenue to go for help would be to contact non profit organizations who specialize in helping people like your friend with the disability. Friends tend to want to say "yes" but for some reason can't seem to get the job done, usually because they know they have to morally charge less for such work and most businesses are too busy to just drop full price jobs to complete one with little or no profit. I will do a search for such non profit organizations as well. Remember its not worth losing friends because a business deal doesn't work out.

[loosenupspas]

In the end you are called to be a good steward.  Treat others the way you want to be treated.  There is a non-profit grocery store behind my business, huge 40,000 sq ft.  We have worked there because we like to volunteer.  They had a Christmas Party a week before Christmas. $300 in gifts to qualified people, in other words community assistance types.  Well it was a madhouse.  5000 people showed up, many parked in my parking lot, on a Saturday.  I had to run them off, very ugly situation.   But I helped one lady, she used my phone, I showed her a way around the police that had closed the road and told her she could not go into the party.  Two hour later she came back and thanked me for the help and was happy to receive the gifts.  However, there was a brand new jeep eagle and a camry for hours.  Now when they finally got back to the cars, easily they had three or four set of gifts at $300 each.  Now that is stealing.  It was an eye opening day for me......moocher culture is my impression. The entitlement generation working the system

We have given so much stuff away, chemicals, filters, advice to totally strangers, in the end it returns to you.  Chemicals are a good profit item, so you are generous with something, those people will return to you. Give to charity when you can......in the end it is good will.

But some people will take complete advantage of you and do this as business practice.  As a business owner you have to be firm, up front and proactive, this will prevent many problems.