OK. What would you guys do.

I did a quote last June. Got a deposit and prewired in July. Get equipment payment in October as they need to be 100% done by November 1, 2005. I purchase all gear including Middle Atlantic slim 5 rack. Four weeks later homeowners says skip the rack. FF to March 1st. The job is almost ready, I install all recessed speakers prior to finished floors. I then complete install around April 15th. I send line item final bill tracking line by line from the original quote. I eat price increases on a few things. Upgrade mrf250 to 300 since it finally got released (After quote) for no additional charge. I don't even charge a restock on the slim 5 which I still have and probably will for some time. Its a short one.

Anyway I get a fax saying he doesn't think he owes me as much as my bill says. Here's where the major bonehead move comes in. I review my original proposal and guess what. Excel didn't add the top 2 lines of the theater section and the top 3 lines of the audio portion of the quotes, leaving the bottom line total $2570 light of the true summation of the line items.

How would you guys handle this?

Bonehead!

I would explain the situation to the customer. 2570.00 is alot of money in my book.

I would try to reason with the guy. Then I would threaten to remove everything and refund his money. Finally i would start to remove everything including the wires. They always make good by that point.

Thats a touchy area. You can't be the shister and expect him to cover your mistake. But you also can't eat that much cash. But, from the sound of it, this guy is a cheapskate. So your going to have issues either way. I'd say get whats on the original qoute, plus a restock for the MA rack, and chalk it up as a learning experience. We've all done it before. It hurts, bad, but you know what. You'll never do that again.

the guy isnt a cheap skate. Hes a good guy. I admitted that it was my screwup. The rack got the boot because the cheap ass builder threw some cheap ass shelves in my closet and he didn't want to rip them out.

I left it with the homeowner, via email, that "I would live with whatever he felt was fair and equitable."

That was a diplomatic move.
Maybe he'll at least meet you half way.

I think it sounded better than "I don't give a sh!t that I'm a stupid SOB, gimme my F%*&ing money scumbag."

I agree, you took the right aproach. You realized it was your mistake, it sucks and the ball is kind of in his court. I think if he's reasonable, meeting you halfway is a hell of a good deal for you.

I liked your second response better, and that probably would have made the guy laugh and deal with you more.

I'd take him out for a very nice lunch... after lunch I'd lay out for him what happened, show him what your exact costs were, and see if he would have it in his heart to at least make sure your costs were covered. Let him know what your typical margin needs to be, and that it is an industry standard type of mark -up. See if he would be willing to negotiate a lesser margin. Offer him a couple year window of him being able to get stuff through you at cost? $2700 bucks is a big chunk for anybody. If he wants to be a hard-ass, he really wouldn't have to pay - legally. Hopefully you did a nice install for him, and his guilt might get him to contribute to your miscalculation!

If not, like Carl said... a learning experience. Maybe you could also volunteer that he wouldn't have to pay it all at once --- could spread it out over time?

I forgot to add in the price of a projector, in a non-line item priced theater. I just gave him a grand total figure, which ended up a few thousand below my costs. It was similar in that I screwed up when I was doing it in Excel, but was manually tallying up the items. I was sick...

I was so embarrassed, I waited a while to tell the client(s). They met me half way, and I broke even. It sucked!!! I'm pretty A.D.D. and now I always have a couple people in the office look over my numbers before I send them out to a customer... I've also made the mistake of going off the suppliers' price list, and charged for (1) each instead of pairs of speakers!!! DOHHHH!!!
Or put down the dealer cost instead of reselling price :(

Good luck man! Just another reminder for me to triple check.

A few years a go when I worked for a pretty nice retail operation, a customer called up our bookeeper and told her: "Hey! I love my 55 inch Elite TV, but I've had it for three years now, and you guys haven't billed me yet"!!! ---It wasn't me, just another knuckle-head in the store that buried his financing paperwork under a stack of trade magazines in the office!!! (I think they were CE-Pro), and totally forgot about it!

Be ready for him to be surprised at how low the margin is, especially if it includes any items like plasmas where profit hardly covers shipping. A lot of customers assume that we double our costs like they do in furniture sales.


Maybe. If he approved all of the items on the quote, and he got all the items on the quote, it could be argued that he owes the actual sum of all the items on the quote, even though the "bottom line" did not include a couple of items. But best work it out before getting to arguing.


Did they want a discount on it because it was used? A customer tried that on us after keeping a new TV that we gave them as a loaner, and the boss kept letting them get away with not finishing the transaction. Then they wanted a discount...it was three years old...it was used....

I installed a multi zone amp for a guy. He watched me bring in the unit. It was in it's box, but I opened the box to sneak a peek at the installation manual, before I got to his house, as it was one that I had not worked with before.

Everything got up and running.

I kept billing and calling the customer, asking for payment.

He finally told me: "Hey I ordered a new unit, YOU sold me a USED one!!!

I said "Huh"?

He replied, "I watched you bring it in the house, and the box had been opened"!!!

I never did get paid, and this guy is a big time management trainer for McDonalds... Really pissed me off!

It was a discontinued piece, and I couldn't find a new one.
I had sold it to himefor a fraction of what they sold for, and it was brand new...

It was a CARVER piece, and they were in the process of going out of biz, and stopped making the piece.

Everytime I drive by the guys house, I want to pull up on his lawn and do a couple of donuts!!!

I can't see how I can do anything but ask for mercy when this happens. They're not obligated in the slightest regardless of what I would do if in their position.

I've found most people are decent and honorable. If they see you that way, things seem to work themselves out. That being said, I've paid the full brunt of a few great life lessons.

Hope it works out for you.

If you had a contract to begin with I dont see a problem. Show your customer the paymnets made and the balance of the SIGNED contract. They owe you balance even if there was a billing mistake.