I agree with what you’re saying. On my website I state "there are dishonest mechanics in the world, but there are a lot more dishonest customers than mechanics in the world."
My family business (which I only helped out during my high school years and college summers) was HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning). I remember one summer day, you know, the ones where it is so hot you can’t hardly breath, going up onto the roof of a pizza joint on main street of my home town to change air filters in the unit. It was one of those days where it is so hot that if you touch anything on the flat top, tarred roof, you are burnt instantly. It’s just a miserable experience.
This unit was so old, we had repeatedly explained to the owner, a rather rude, short, greasy type, that it was costing him more in repairs then to just step up and replace the unit.
So I head down the ladder and into the busy restaurant and ask for payment (normal service work), and the owner refuses to pay. This was around lunch time and the place was packed. He made it a point to raise his voice and accuse me/us of trying to cheat him. He sort of reminded me of the soup nazi from seinfeld. The next words out of my mouth were "You open that f-ing register up, pay me my f-ing money, or I’m going back up my ladder, ripping that g-damn unit off the roof, and throwing the f-ing thing down into the middle of main street. Let’s see how many f-ing pizzas you sell with a restaurant that’s 110° you cheap mother-….."
The next thing I heard was the sound of a register drawer opening up. We never had another problem with that jerk again and still do service work with them…that was about 20 years ago.
Sometimes people need a good swift kick in the rear to get their heads screwed on right…and have some RESPECT. We’ve been in business for 65 years. So we must be doing something right.
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