[Robotgroup] Free at last

[Vern Graner]

Leslie Filip wrote:
> I used to be afraid of turning down jobs, even bad ones, because I  
> did not want to offend anyone or go without work. I have to agree  
> that sometimes just being done with a bad customer is worth many  
> times the price of the job. Please be thankful that your freedom is  
> only in the 4 digit range and not solidly into 6. Hallelujah brother,  
> be free!

I second that! About 3 weeks ago, I had one of my more troublesome 
customers call and say they had an EMERGENCY and NEEDED us to help with 
a server of theirs IMMEDIATELY!

As they had been slow-pay in the past, and had also not been the most 
accommodating (constantly questioning the billing/ rates/ honesty/ 
necessity of work etc) I offered to sell them a 10 hour block of time 
and I would send a tech to do the work once I had received payment.

They called and ranted about this terrible "treatment" and "why was the 
price $5 an hour higher than the last time they had us do work for them" 
(18 mons ago!) and could they pay half up front etc etc.

When I stuck to my guns on the pricing and arrangement, they then called 
the cell phone of one of my techs and proceeded to rant at him (we had 
given the cell # as a courtesy for emergency use for a previous job on a 
mission critical server of theirs).

When the tech called me to say "WTF?!" I got to send these jokers the 
following letter:

---------------- CLIP -----------------
After further review, we are unfortunately unable to accept additional 
work at this time. We are no longer offering the 10 or the 20 hour block 
of time referenced in my previous emails. Thank you for your interest.
---------------- CLIP -----------------

Felt *GOOD* to hit send on that one! :)

Vern

-- 
Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE    | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer    | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course, if the network
http://www.txis.com        | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?" ©VLG