FiredAClient #ContractorLife #BoundariesMatter
Introduction: Navigating the Waters of Difficult Clients
Dealing with challenging clients is an unavoidable part of any business. However, there are times when the situation escalates to a breaking point, necessitating the difficult decision to fire a client. As a general contractor, this was a reality I faced when I decided to let go of an increasingly problematic client. Here’s a detailed account of the events leading up to and following this decision, and insights on why setting boundaries is crucial.
Background: The Job That Turned into a Nightmare
Shortly before completing a significant home remodel, my client’s behavior became erratic. He crossed several boundaries and exhibited narcissistic tendencies, making it almost impossible to continue working with him. Here’s a brief rundown of the events:
- Phase of Work: Nearing the finish phase of a home remodel.
- Client Behavior: Increasingly erratic, crossed boundaries, and dishonest.
- Incident: Client falsely accused us of installing old door caps; escalated to a barrage of late-night ranting texts.
Setting Boundaries: When Business Becomes Personal
It’s essential to establish clear boundaries with clients. Here’s why:
- Respect: Ensures mutual respect.
- Professionalism: Maintains a professional relationship.
- Mental Health: Protects your mental well-being.
Despite my patience and attempts to reason, the client’s behavior worsened. Here’s what happened:
- Late-Night Texts: Sent numerous texts at 2 AM about non-urgent matters.
- Escalation: Accused me of lying and harassing him when proven wrong.
The Breaking Point: Deciding to Terminate the Contract
After considering the potential for future complications, I decided to terminate the contract. Here’s how it went down:
- Prepping for Termination: Ensured the pending invoice was paid.
- Addressing the Client: Attempted a calm discussion on boundaries but was met with hostility.
- Final Decision: Decided to terminate the contract after a confrontational exchange where the client proved unmanageable.
The Aftermath: Handling The Fallout
Terminating a client can have fallout, but it’s essential to protect your business and sanity. Here’s what I did post-termination:
- Tools and Materials: Removed all my tools and materials from the site before the discussion.
- Legal Standpoint: Reminded him of the “right to terminate” clause in the contract.
- Financial Adjustment: Ensured adjustments with the lumber yard and prepared for potential underpayment.
Key Takeaways: Protecting Your Business
It’s crucial to know when to draw the line and protect your business from difficult clients. Here are some key takeaways:
- 🛠 Know Your Rights: Understand and utilize contract clauses.
- 🗣 Communication: Maintain clear and respectful communication.
- 🛡 Protect Boundaries: Don’t compromise on your boundaries.
- 🌟 Value Your Business: Focus on clients who respect and value your work.
Conclusion: Moving Forward
While firing a client is never the ideal scenario, sometimes it’s necessary to move forward and focus on clients who appreciate your work. Remember, setting clear boundaries and protecting your well-being is essential in any profession. Don’t put up with crazy, and never accept classism in your industry!
By sharing this experience, I hope to provide insight and encourage others in similar situations to prioritize their professional and personal well-being. Have you ever had to make the tough decision to fire a client? Share your experiences below!
Well done. Good luck if he decides to pursue you further. Hopefully he doesnt engage lawyers to hurt you in an act of petty “revenge”
I’m happy you stood up to yourself and kept calm. Pretty infuriating reading what your client has done. Whatever anger outbursts you had in the past that got you in trouble, you definetly passed the final test in anger management with this guy.
This client is a clear example of “Tell me you’ve never been punched in the face, without telling me you’ve never been punched in the face”
File a lien on his property. I would do it at the first opportunity possible. Then sue him in to collect/foreclose.
I’m an hvac tech, worked on many remodel and new build residential palace jobsites over the years. I’ve often been baffled at how GC’s are able to patiently and effectively deal with these swine. It’s good to see that every once in a while, one gets checked for acting so out of line.
The average person would have had trouble showing the restraint OP did.
or you could put a lien on the property until he makes you whole financially…..
Thank you for the TL;DR and for putting it in the beginning.
I’ve hired a GC to do work in the past and this kind of customer blows my mind. I mean I admit I can be pretty annoying because I like to ask questions. Not out of distrust at all. I genuinely like learning something I didn’t know before.
I don’t know if that would bug GC’s though. I realize they have a tough job especially if they are also managing workers but to me the entire process is this incredible choreographed dance that you get to use and live in when its finished.
Would that be something that bothers y’all cause I will absolutely stop asking questions like that.
Please provide an update if anything further occurs. I enjoyed reading this.
I think your client must have been my boss. Impossible to have a normal conversation with this kind of person.
The client is most definitely **NOT** always right, especially here. Well played.
Why did you not WARN HIM THAT FAILURE TO PAY THE FULL AMOUNT WILL RESULT IN A LIEN ON HIS PROPERTY AND the SEISURES OF ASSETS?
Good for you! Way to stand up for your business.
On a different note, I didn’t know a Dr could fire a patient until a Dr fired my ex girlfriend. I was like wut?!
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You sound like a saint dude.
This is a great story about a narcissistic a**hole getting exactly what he deserves. I applaud you for keeping your cool and handling the situation.
TIL “send anyway” sends it immediately and not whenever they remove DND.
I only used it once but I thought if I didn’t hit that “send anyway”, that it wouldn’t send it at all. Like there was a queue of messages you’d get at once when you remove DND.
Good thing it was my husband 😆
Jeez, good on you for being mature with a client from hell.
So one thing I used to do at a GC with un(der)paid invoices was to stack on the interest that our fine print says we’ll charge on unpaid bills. It compounds monthly, so you can see things increasing rapidly. Probably too late for you to tack that on, but in the future, it’s a nice way to ensure they pay the original bill. They never pay the interest, they just realize they’ll have to go to court and either get stuck with a very big, compounding bill or pay the original amount anyway, plus losing time to being in court.
Good for you!!!!
I’m college educated and the first thing I learned at school was the slap in the face that, contrary to my original beliefs, I was not smarter than everyone. Another important lesson was that everyone specializes in something and does it better than the others around them. I’m really good at managing my business, but I can’t for the life of me fix my car. Trust your experts – it’s why you’re paying them.
That project is NEVER going to get done if he refuses to stop acting like a massive prick. Or if he does get it done. It will be after he went through numerous contractors and payed a metric ton of money for it.
I will never understand why people think it’s okay to treat tradespeople like this – you need them!
When we were having our house painted, the painter told me sometimes people would make them pee outside. It’s disgusting. They were soooo appreciative of us (we had not even moved in yet, of course they could use the bathroom and the fridge) and did a great job on our house.
People are insane.
>My immediate instinct was to just smash his head into the table, something that may have happened had his mother not been there. Immediate blackout rage.
[snip]
>I left for my vehicle to the sounds of him yelling threats and insults and it took every bit of self-control not to turn around and throw his ass over the bluff.
My guy, you are where I’ve been and unless you do something to figure out how to keep yourself from going into a rage over stupid shit (i.e., words), you are headed for The Sunken Place.
There ain’t no such thing as self control for a 0->10 rage burn; one day you will be too tired, hungry or irritable and that’s all she wrote. The strongest men (and women) ask for help and there’s no shame in doing so.
^(edit: clarification)
“Cocaine’s a hell of a drug.”
– Rick James
“I took a few breaths, reminded myself how losing my temper has never had a good outcome”
I felt this statement in my soul. This is the number one reason I breathe, focus on my options, and continue from there when someone is being wildly disrespectful.
GC here- this is pretty typical for our jobs. People see even high-end construction work as beneath them, so they treat us like low-lifes. We’re actually making more than they do in a year, but since we dress blue-collar, that’s how they behave.
You should still do something with the amount he owes and at least fuck with his credit.
Even is large metropolitan areas, residential construction is a small world. Depending on how petty you wanted to be he could easily find himself blackballed from any quality GC and only be left with AH at his own level.
That is a narcissist, my dad is the same way. It’s hard to deal with him. Having to apologize for stuff that was not our doing. In order to keep the peace so my mom doesn’t have another panic attack.
And I’m over here feeling bad for sending a follow up text to my contractor when they haven’t been at my house for a couple days….
My older brother has a bit of a temper too. He once installed a big expensive shop window, and the shop owner refused to pay because it ‘didn’t look good’. But of course they kept it. One day my brother came with a heavy steel bar and destroyed the window. As the shop owner hadn’t paid for either the work or the window it was still his after all. Which is what he explained to the shocked shop owner.
He never heard from the shop owner after that.
Firing a shitty client is one of the most amazing feelings. Though I doubt it, hopefully this experience will humble him a bit.
> Tuens out he underpaid his invoice by a grand and change, meaning that I basically pay ~$2.5k to have him out of my life forever and move on with one of the many clients I have who love and respect what we do. A fucking bargain.
OP, you want to talk classism. I was a litigator at a high-end firm with a lot of high-end clients, and none of them seemed to fucking understand this. Yes, I was a good lawyer. Yes, I could take this case absolutely as far as possible if that’s what the client wants.
But 90, 95 percent of the time, it’s MUCH better if you just take a financial hit and move on with your life. Otherwise you’re spending years in litigation, which isn’t just super expensive, it’s also emotionally draining, with lots of uncertainty, scheduling issues, and general stress. (Do you want this douchebag’s lawyer spending a day deposing you?)
And almost none of my clients could get that through their head. These people–usually nice guys too!–just could not handle not winning. I’d walk them through all of this, they’d see the light, we’d make a plan, and then that weekend out on the golf course one of their buddies would go, “well what are YOU getting for this?” The answer, that you’re moving on with your fucking life without this douchebag in it, is somehow not enough of a win.
So good on you for having more sense than pretty much everyone else. Also, if this guy does sue or threaten to sue, then you have the underpayment as a counterclaim ready to go. Feel free to let him know that would be the immediate next step if he files a complaint.
You handled that like a champ. Many of us even if we had the slightest physical advantage would have had a hard time not pulping the jerk.
If you know any other general contractors in the area, a tip about him might be nice… Imagine the look on that asshole’s face when the next guy he calls refuses to do business with him! “These peasants are conspiring against me!” Seriously, these people think they own you 24/7 just because they’re paying you.
ETA. If this is your personal business and you have not claimed it on Google, now is the time to do so! If he leaves a negative review, you’ll be able to leave a public reply that’ll add context for other people reading it! Remember though to remain professional and lay out the facts only. Those review replys can be a double edged sword if not written well.
I have a friend who serves a number of IT clients; mostly professionals who need file/web service and office tech support. He occasionally gets clients like this, very patiently goes through their tantrums until they rack up a five-figure bill, and then hits them with the balance due when they encounter a real crisis, like being cryptolocked. When this happened to one of them this year, he collected their outstanding balance plus twice the unlock fee and just paid the hackers. He got the data back in less than an hour.
He frequently, if not regularly, works with people who think he’s beneath them.
But I don’t think this method would work for you, or for me… he’s got saintlike patience.
I was left wondering how you set your phone on Dungeons and Dragons, before realizing what you meant
You sound amazing. I don’t live near any sea, so I know you’re not near me or I would hire you in a heartbeat to handle some remodel at my place. I’m a freelancer in the film industry and have a lot of wonderful clients, but, boy howdy….those crazy ones. Learning it’s okay to fire a client and walk away as they cry is an important lesson.
Maybe it’s because my grandpa was a master carpenter (had his own house building business and everything), but I’ve always seen professional tradesmen as part of the elite class. The fine skills needed to do what y’all do is insane. And how much training and knowledge, too! Just wow. How can that client view you as less than in any way? Clearly, he knows nothing (important).
I’m glad you are done with him, though. That all sounds like absolute hell to go through.
I’ve fired many clients and highly advise it being standard practice. If they are interfering with operating your business well, they gotta go. This could be sexually harassing staff, sucking up your personal time better spent elsewhere, or just being too cheap to continue serving.
If you’re not desperate for that check (which might never come without a fight) kick em. Take care of your team and your own mental health.
There’s reasons bars 86 ppl.