Bad customers

Gahagan

Gahagan

Well-Known Member
I am in the process of working on a knife for a guy that I work with. He commisioned me to do a knife for his brother that is a missionary to china. I made the blade then sent it to Ken Hurst to engrave. He gave me a low nuber on what he wanted to spend but gave detailed information on what he wanted. I sent that to Ken and he engraved the blade from what was asked to be put on the knife. I recieved the blade and showed it to the customer before I send it off to HT. I just heard from Ken and the customer is complaining that he went over the price but Ken did the work asked and It went over because of the detail and size. The customer is refusing to pay what Ken asked. Ken said he would eat some of the money but I feel that is not right. I now have a knife that I cant sell to anyone but him because of the engraving he requested. I dont want to get screwed or Ken to either. How do you handle customers like this?
 
Maybe you could make a new blade and if Ken is willing he can redo it, but if the guy is just being difficult then there is probably no way to make him happy and you both might just have to give it up.
 
Gahagan said:
Ken did the work asked and It went over because of the detail and size.
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If Ken went over the estimate HE gave then it's his baby to deal with.
He has to get better at estimating to inform the customer up front or eat the $ lost for failure to meet the quote.

...and take a deposit on unusual work that you cannot sell to others
 
Ken gave a quote about what he is asking the customer then responded that he wanted to stay in a specific amount but it went over what he said he wanted to spend. this ws because of what he wanted on the blade and the size. I understand both reasons. The customer gave a price range but Ken was also given specifics and did what was asked to be on the blade. I ust dont want any problems on either side or Ken to get cheated out of work he did even though he went over the price.
 
I think.....

If the customers requests could not be meet within his price requirements, then the customer should have been told that before the work was done.

It sounds like miss communication all around...

The above is only my opinion, your mileage may vary...;)
 
My experiance with estimates is they should be within 10% of the original quote. If the work goes above that the customer should be given the option before the work is done. I'm not sure how you would work that with engraving?

Just my $.02
 
Les George said:
I think.....

If the customers requests could not be meet within his price requirements, then the customer should have been told that before the work was done.

It sounds like miss communication all around...

The above is only my opinion, your mileage may vary...;)
Click to expand...

agreed.
 
Its up to you to explain to a buyer this is what you can have for the price you want pay.

Its like building a new house, of course everyone wants all the upgrades, but the reality is that the builder is only going to allow you to spend within the amount you can pay.
 
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