The Richer They Are, The Cheaper They Become
(A friend of mine is a gardener and has some rich clients. One day, a current client tells him he should go and see a new potential client as he’s looking for a new one. My friend goes there and they agree on only a monthly mowing of his very large lawn at a fixed price of €200 per month. The first time my friend does his job, it takes him about an hour because he uses a professional mower. He sends the client the bill. A few days later, he gets a phone call from the new client.)
New Client: “I got your bill and I’m not paying it.”
Friend: “May I ask why you’re not paying? Didn’t I do a good job?”
New Client: “No, you did an outstanding job. I just feel that I shouldn’t have to pay you €200 for an hour of work.”
Friend: “I’m sorry? That’s what we agreed on. I have it here on the contract.”
New Client: “It always took my previous gardener eight hours to mow the lawn, so I thought €200 was a fair price. But I’m not paying you €200 for just one hour of work.”
Friend: “So, if I understand you correctly, you would have been happy if I’d mowed the lawn and waited seven hours outside your house doing nothing, so that you can tell your friends that you pay your gardener €25 per hour?”
New Client: “Well, eh, yes. I never paid any of my workers that much per hour, so I already was uncomfortable with €25 per hour, but I couldn’t find anyone who was cheaper.”
Friend: “Well, sir, you can tell your friend now that you had a gardener that did an outstanding job for €200, but you thought you didn’t have to pay him.”
New Client: “What do you mean?”
Friend: “I’m not coming to you anymore and I expect payment within the next five days or I’ll go to court and make you pay. I will also tell Mr. [Current Client] about this so he knows how his friend treats people who work for him. “
(My friend told this story to the current client, who was really angry about it. He paid my friend the €200 and immediately called the non-paying customer to tell him that he just paid the gardener’s bill and that he wanted his money back or he would “casually mention this story to the people on the golf club.” Not all people that are rich are jerks, but when they are they are really massive jerks.)
Did you find this story from our Water Your Plants roundup?
Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
