What is your worst customer experience? I have heard some great stories from the field. We have had our share, so I would love to hear some stories:

Ours was a customer who wouldn't listen to anything we recommened, changed his mind a thousand times, wanted - 1 42" plasma. 1 60" DLP, distributed audio to 8 zones, wanted to have remotes for each of 3 floors, wanted house wired for cable, internet, phone and distributed audio all for under $15k. He ended up wanting everything we originally tried to offer to him and I think he is still whining - He didn't have a sack big enough to complain to us, he told his GC to yell at us for stuff (that was his own fault). Homeowner hired us, not GC. At least we got him to pay the correct amount for the system.
Now every client has to sign off on locations and decisions.

The worst was a pro baseball player (with a multi-million dollar contract) who refused to pay the bill for the system after stating "man, this is f***ing fantastic".

A fairly recent one was the client who cheaped out. Went with a ED PDP.

And now some two years later is bitching because his ED PDP doesn't look as good as his neighbors nice HD PDP (which cost 2k more).

Of course, according to him, it's MY fault that he doesn't really have HD.....

NFL team who stiffed us for $10K

Net worth of the owner just over $1 billion.

Still waiting for the right time to sue.

the "porno king's" wife.

Every time I took a break, or run to get equipment, I told everyone there that I was going to "go hide from her for a while".... LOL

You should have changed your tagline before starting this post

In case he does, it currently reads "quit your bitchin"

Corey - I am man enough to leave it there and still have fun with everyone

Pro athletes can be the worst... They expect us to GIVE it to them!

One of my WORSTt all time customers (and I apologise but I think I told this story a long time ago)- but since you asked... My worst customer and bad timing too!

This Gay guy & his "Partner" just bought this 1.6 million condo in a new building downtown in a beautiful new building full of all these little techno dot-com phonies... and rich pukes, in the trendy part of town... Totally fru-fru.

I was sub contracting for Bang & Olufsen - doing all of their retro work. So, I go and visit this couple... The place was on the 7th floor, and the "boys" apparently had a lot of money, and had totally furnished and decorated the place with rare antique Japanese stuff everywhere - and each area had these very valuable asian rugs and huge wall hangings and all that junk.

They decided of course, (after moving in), to have me do a multi (8) room Bang & Olufsen system. Zero wires were to show, and no holes for fishing etc were to be cut except if absolutely necessary. It was a very daunting task... as the only way to fish around the condo & it was large, was to pop down recessed lights and crap like that, however i could cut small openings here and there that would be patched... but only with prior approval from one of the "guys"... A lot of the interior walls were painted by some Japanese artist... and there were a bunch of those old multiple - panel japanese things... bla bla bla. It was an Architectural Digest kind of place...

I was doing O.K., but reached a dead end trying to go from one bedroom across a really wide hallway to another bedroom, without cutting an "observation hole"... I called one of the owners, and he was there in 10 minutes lecturing me on the fact that I could without any problem, use my 6 foot flexi bit and extension and get across the hall ceiling. I commented that I wasn't comfortable doing that and I would pay for the patching & repainting... The owner threw a hissy fit and demanded I follow his instructions, as he "watched them build the place & recalls that area was totally empty and wide open, and i was being "difficult".

I was getting pissed as time was ticking away, and this guy was making me sick... so I pointedly asked him ..."Are you SURE there is nothing up there I'll hit"? He went off and said hell there is nothing up there are you deaf? I'll go to my office and bring back my construction photos!!!

At that point I felt he might actually know what he was talking about, and said well, O.K.
We both then proceeded rolling up rugs in the area (so they wouldn't get drywall dusted), and then covered everything within possible range of sheet rock dust with new plastic tarps...

He spun on his heels and left for his office, and calling out over his shoulder... Please hurry we are having our house warming party (Gala), in a couple days... Also call me if you have any questions, call me but please don't leave any messes - Oh, and you're invited hee, hee!!!

I go into the Guest room with my flexibit and begin slowly drilling through the drywall.. very slowly... there was plywood backing on the the other side of the drywall so I increased the drill speed, and noticed the bit had traveled about an inch and a half which concerned me a little... Just as I was letting go of the drill trigger, there was this explosion of drywall and water and I was knocked off my ladder onto my back on the floor. I looked up in shock and horror as a high powered stream of water was shooting out of an ever increasing drywall hole, with such force that it was literally washing a hole through the opposite wall in the room 16 feet away. I was sitting up on the floor, in ever deepening water and liquified sheetrock and insualtion when there was a HUGE KA-WHAMMM!!! and all of the sheetrock in that wall joist space blew out all over me, with a Mt.St. Helen sized Geyser of high pressure water, again knocking me down.
Furnishings in the room were now bobbing in about a foot of water, and the water was flowing out the doorway into the hallway and adjoining rooms of the Condo.
The Entire Condo buildings Fire-Alarm system went off, prompting everybody to evacuate the building.
There were a bunch of construction guys who came running into the unit in disbelief (they were working on the new Penthouses a few floors up) and they were freaking out trying to find a way to shut off the water in the building, but they coiuldn't as this was a 4 inch main fire-feed that only the fire department could shut off.
A couple of the guys actually got into a pushing-yelling match arguing about whther they could shut off the water with me staring at them with a deer in the headlights stare.
Now the condo was rapidly filling up, all the furnishings were getting trashed, and water was still roaring out of the wall and now washing out of the front door and into the the main hallway.
I looked out the window only to see the police department closing off busy first avenue in downtown Seattle, so that the hook and ladder and fire trucks could get through.
It just kept getting uglier and uglier... totally surreal.
When the fire department got the water shut off, (15 minutes later) we saw that my little drill bit hit the main fire sprinkler feed pipe (4 inch high pressure PVC).
...If my bit had "walked around" that pipe either direction it would have hit a massive bundle of high voltage cables feeding the building.
The contractor, fire marshall, (crying gay couple), building contractor, a couple of cops and a few other assorted guys were there all giving me a bunch of crap, when my cell phone rings with my ex wife bitching me out for being a few days late with her alimony!
The Gay guy who told me "absolutely nothing was there" flatly lied when I reminded him of our conversation.
7 units were damaged, people had to move out for 6 to 8 months... Not a good time.

Ali...I hope you learn from this!

Quit your bitchin!

exactly Charlie

I have to ask. Where you held liable financially?

The remarkable thing was.. Bang & Olufsen's insurance took care of it. I of course lost out on about 8o hours of my labor... but at that point I didn't give a crap.

Stan,

That has to be one of the worst nightmares I've ever heard. I shudder to think of the handfull of stupid things I've done over the past 17 years where I just plain lucked out (but I still deserve honorable mention for the Darwin award).

I hope from time to time you have a good year.

Standing there in the water looking down at the people leaving the building, the cops re-routing traffic for the fire trucks, the mutiple fire alarms going off, the roaring water... it's a wonder I didn't go out to the deck and jump! When all this was going on I wasn't aware B&O's insurance would cover me. I thought I was finished -financially for life! - Really!

The funny thing is, I was MORE careful than usual, as I really grilled the homeowner on my concern with blindly drilling into that space - but he was so damn adament!

I think most all of us veterans have taken chances in retros like that one! If not they are liars!!!






i

About 12 years ago I'm hooking up a TV and VCR in the 4 year old kid's room. The client insisted on having me set the VCR on top of a 4' tall chest, TV inside. I insisted that we at least take the wheels off the bottom to keep it from rocking but I wanted to put the VCR lower so the kid wouldn't have to climb to insert the tape. The guy just derided me and told me to mind my own business - a several times. It just wasn't right.

A couple months go by and he needs more work done (and work was slow). I ask how all is doing. His son climbed up to insert a tape and ended up in intensive care for 2 whole weeks. Broke some bones in his face, reconstructive surgery.

About a year later after a little more work and a couple bounced checks he finally made good, I warned him never to call me again. I'm glad that worked.

Yeah, I've taken chances far too may times. No guts, no glory.

Rang the client's doorbell one morning in a Denver highrise, and had a drunk Colorado Rockies player answer the door absolutely unaware that he was completely naked. Very uncomfortable. I bailed and told him I'd come back when he could get his pants on.