I was the national sales manager for a factory. We had a customer who was a “friend” of the owner. I say “friend” because this mother[father] would start a company, slowly run up debts over the course of about five years, then “go out of business” and start a new company. I’ll call him [Slimeball].

“Now, remember,” [Slimeball] would say, “[Quality Supply Co.] is not responsible for the debts of [Ultimate Supply Co.]” [Quality Supply Co.] left us holding something like $25,000.

Now that [Slimeball] is running [Ultimate Supply Co.], he is over $10,000 in the hole to us on orders from more than six months prior.

Anyway, I’m in Utah with [Slimeball]. We had a really nice breakfast, and hit the road for some serious “windshield time” (what they call it when the sales calls are far apart). 

In advance of the trip, I arranged for us to make a call on a big college where we wound up making a small sale. This is BIG for us, because now we have a product on their shelf, and HUGE for him because he’s the rep for something like thirty companies – all of which he will soon screw over – that he can get onto this campus.

We’re driving away, heading to the next college, a couple of hours away. He’s feeling great, and so am I.

Me: *I confess.* “Hey, we can’t send the shipment unless we clear our receivables.”

Slimeball: “What? Why?”

Me: “Yeah, it’s the new warehouse system. It won’t even log it out, and even if we manually override it, the shipper gets a scrambled code and sends it back to us.”

Mind you, we promised two-day shipping from New York.

Slimeball: “I’ll call [My Boss].”

Me: “He’s out of the country and is too cheap to put international minutes on his phone plan.”

He laughs because he has no respect for my boss, but also, it’s funny that this man worth $20,000,000 won’t spend $1 a minute on a phone call, despite having inherited everything, hence why he’ll roll over when getting screwed so hard; the work he put in to get what he had was getting yelled at by his dad while waiting for the old man to die.

Slimeball: “Okay, what can you do to help me?”

Me: “I have just the thing.”

I dial our receivables clerk.

Me: “Hey, Jenny, I’m here with [Slimeball]. If he pays up his balance, can we still ship his order today?”

Receivables Clerk: “The FedEx truck just left. We’re going to have to pay the extra for UPS. He’s downstairs right now.”

I forgot to mention, it’s two hours later on the East Coast. While [Slimeball] and I are about to have a late lunch of tomahawk steaks and whiskey flights, the machines at the factory just shut down, and the warehouse is about to start packing up the next morning’s orders.

[Slimeball] hated getting back to $0.00 with us and gritted his teeth to enjoy just another moment of not paying us. Then he pulled over, took out an AMEX under the name of Ultimate Supply Co., and Jenny ran the card for what was due in total, not just what was six months old.

We made one more sales call, then hit the chop house.

It was a fine day.

UPDATE: Some sentences have been restructured to make the sequence of events easier to follow; the events are unchanged.

My buddy works for a General Contractor doing framing and renovations. One of their clients is absolutely LOADED (fourth house, luxury cars, expensive gadgets constantly being delivered) but every time the contractor asks for a payment, the guy gives nothing but lip service.

Weeks of work go by. The addition is framed out, materials stacked, labor hours piling up, and still no check. The General Contractor has had enough.

One afternoon, after yet another excuse, the contractor waves my friend over.

Contractor: “Grab the chains.”

Friend: “…the chains?”

Contractor: “Yep. Hook them around the framing. Fasten the rest to the truck.”

So, my friend does it. They’re big, heavy-duty chains looped right through the wood beams, clanking as they’re dragged toward the pickup. By now the sound has gotten the homeowner’s attention.

He storms outside, red-faced.

Homeowner: “What the f*** do you think you’re doing?!”

Contractor: *Calmly, not even looking up from the truck hitch.* “If you don’t have the check in my hand in the next minute, I’m leaving the site, and I’m taking all my work with me.”

There’s a frozen silence, except for the clinking of the last chain tightening. The homeowner’s bravado collapses. He panics, runs back inside, and less than sixty seconds later comes out waving a check like a white flag.

I work for a manufacturing company. One of our big clients is a real piece of work. Yes, he orders a lot of stuff, but he also demands a lot of free extras and then finds things to complain about and insists on partial refunds. Our old owner gave him everything he wanted.

We’ve just gotten a new owner, and we’ve told him about this guy. The new owner asks how much we actually make from the client. I calculate it.

Me: “In the past two years, we’ve made a net profit of $4,500 from him.”

New Owner: “That’s not worth the aggravation. Next time he calls, pass him to me.”

We have an open-plan office, away from the actual manufacturing area. A couple of days later, the client calls. I signal that it’s him, then answer.

Me: “Hello, this is [My Name] at [Company]—”

Client: “Put me through to the owner, right now!”

Me: “Of course.”

I transfer him to the owner. The owner puts the call on speaker.

Owner: “This is [Owner].”

Client: “Who are you? Where’s [Old Owner]?”

Owner: “He sold the company to me two weeks ago. What can I do for you?”

Client: “I put in an order three weeks ago. I want you to send four of your guys out this weekend to install the stuff.”

Owner: “No.”

Client: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NO? YOU ALWAYS DO THIS FOR ME!”

Owner: “Not anymore. I know you have your own installers. We sent you a very comprehensive manual: your men can do it.”

The client lets out a string of curses.

Owner: “Shut up, or we’ll never sell you anything again.”

Client: “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I’M YOUR BIGGEST CUSTOMER! WITHOUT ME, YOUR BUSINESS WILL COLLAPSE!”

Owner: “No, it won’t.”

The client curses in combinations I’ve never heard, and I spent two years in the military before being hired here.

Owner: “I’ve heard enough. You’ll have to get your equipment somewhere else, because we’re not selling you a thing. Don’t call us or come here: forget we even exist.”

The new owner hangs up, and kept his word. Our business is still humming along, and not dealing with the client anymore has boosted morale among both the office staff and the workers. 

Related:
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 29
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 28
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 27
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 26
Getting Owned By The Owner, Part 25

I work for a website design and development company. Part of my job is handling client support queries, which often means playing detective when things go wrong. Recently, we received an email from a long-standing client that made me raise my eyebrows before I’d even clicked “Open.”

Client: “We’ve just received a worrying email from one of our customers to say they think we’ve been hacked. What do you think?”

I pull up the URL they included. Sure enough, the website is full of spammy links and dodgy content. However, it isn’t in our system at all. That’s… strange.

Me: “Having investigated the URL, yes, the website looks like it has most certainly been hacked. We’re unable to locate this domain name in your control panel. It also looks like it was registered to someone else last year. Do you own it?”

A few minutes later, I get a reply.

Client: “Oh dear, that’s not good. Just spoken to the MD and we no longer own [XYZ.com]. It’s one of the oldest sites that hasn’t been renewed. What do we need to do now?”

At this point, I pause, reread the email, and try to wrap my head around what I’m looking at. They don’t own the domain. It expired last year. Someone else has bought it. And now they’re surprised that the new owner is using it for something else?

Me: “Where is it being used?”

Client: “We don’t use it anymore at all.”

And there it is. They let the domain lapse, haven’t used it for a year, and are somehow shocked that it’s now full of spam. I explained (as gently as possible) that once a domain expires and someone else buys it, they are free to do whatever they like with it—and there’s nothing we can do about it.

The MD’s follow-up response?

Client: “So… can you just delete it?”

I had to take a deep breath and explain that the internet, unfortunately, doesn’t work like a local hard drive. If you don’t pay for your domain, it doesn’t just sit there waiting for you. Someone else owns it now, and they can use it for… well, anything. There’s no “delete” button for other people’s property.

They seemed vaguely disappointed that we couldn’t swoop in like superheroes and clean up a website they haven’t owned for a year. On the plus side, they did decide to renew all their other old domains immediately, “just in case.”

Lesson learned! If you let your domain name expire, don’t be surprised when it comes back as something else. The internet is not a storage locker.

Client: “Hi, I need to upload all of this information to my newly developed website.”

The client sends a link to his old website. It is approximately twelve hundred news and gallery posts.

Me: “Sure, but it will be much easier if you just give us admin access to the website and the server, and we will import all of that information.”

Client: “No, I don’t want it to be easier for you. What the h*** am I paying for you? Do it manually.”

Me: “Oh! I really appreciate you looking out for us so much.”

Client: “What?”

Me: “Well, our hourly rate is €50.”

Client: “So?”

Me: “So, I estimate that to put all that information manually, we need somewhere between sixty to eighty hours. Importing would take up to eight. So again, I appreciate you allowing us to earn some extra.”

Client: “Importing is fine. Here are the login details.”