Dealing with a complicated customer

  • There was an advocate customer. He asked me to come to take measurements and then asked for a quotation.
    • He told me to come and meet him before his Puja time. He used to do Puja till 9 30 am. So I used to land up at 7 30 am so that there is no problem. But he wouldn’t meet me.
    • He would call me every day to the site but wouldn’t meet – he used to extend his Puja time and then tell me – ‘Shubham you’re late’ and then leave.
    • This continued for 15-20 days. There was no TCS service at that time to pitch him if he had a problem with the prices.
    • But finally, he had some mercy on me and agreed – and we started work after getting an advance payment of 20,000 rupees.
    • We had just put putty for one or two rooms and before we could proceed further, he got some local painters in to do the work. He said – ‘you guys are too expensive.’ I told him we have already given you a discount. You have agreed and signed an agreement as well – but he’s an advocate, he didn’t care about that.
    • He took back the 20,000 rupees and also kept my putty with him.
    • This was one of my worst experiences with a customer. But dealer support got me through it
  • There were some moments when I thought I would have to leave the job – customers say a lot of hurtful things and sometimes intimidate me by saying they will put a case or an FIR on me.