Try once and walk away.

Rant time...

I learned a lesson last week. I had a dive shop in Illinois screw me over this year. I provided hosting for a website on a really good server for a whopping $279 per year. Never a server issue in years.

When invoiced in January 2021, it took him more than four months to pay. When invoiced in January 2022, it took him six months to pay. In 2023, it took him eight months to pay. This year, after seven months, I told him I was shutting his services down in 30 days.

He finally emails and lets me know he will use another provider. I'm okay with that, but I asked him if he would pay for the services provided during the year's first half. Although I billed him the total amount for the full year, I let him know paying me half would be acceptable.

Then he gets all stupid, saying I cut off access to his site three months ago, so he could not update it. Total bullshit. He likely lost his password or was trying to find an excuse. A three-minute call would have solved a password issue, or he could use the "lost my password" functionality like everyone else.

Then he says I was "getting a bit cute," asking to get paid. All I do is send the invoice out and then send statement reminders once a month. The guy took advantage of me for years when it came to paying me.

His new website sucks and has broken links and empty pages all over the place.

I've still got plenty of friends in the industry. One day, he'll be caught off guard and lose a sale or have trouble processing an order with a vendor that will cost him a few hundred bucks. He'll be annoyed and not be able to do anything about it.

I help run a small lawncare/snow company over here in Cincinnati, so I can sympathize. My only concern would be that it came through a contact form. I would want to have confirmation from a phone number, email address, face-to-face instruction, or in writing that the customer wanted to cancel. I need something I can confirm came from someone with the authority to cancel. I can’t verify that some rando didn’t try to prank their neighbor or an unscrupulous competitor is trying to mess with us when stuff comes in through the website contact form. I could try to hunt down IP’s but that is usually a waste of time. I would try to get a better confirmation that the actual customer wants to cancel.

I wouldn’t care what the customer says their reason for canceling is though. Some folks just feel like they need an excuse to cancel, so they make stuff up. I do what you do and check up to make sure there isn’t a real problem, but if there isn’t I don’t give it a second thought. Someone who doesn’t irrigate isn’t really that concerned with how their lawn looks. That isn’t meant to shame people into irrigating their lawns, just an observation based on customers over the years. As long as there aren’t patches of bare dirt, those folks are usually not too picky.

- Bret

quote:

Originally posted by sadlerbw:
I help run a small lawncare/snow company over here in Cincinnati, so I can sympathize. My only concern would be that it came through a contact form. I would want to have confirmation from a phone number, email address, face-to-face instruction, or in writing that the customer wanted to cancel. I need something I can confirm came from someone with the authority to cancel. I can’t verify that some rando didn’t try to prank their neighbor or an unscrupulous competitor is trying to mess with us when stuff comes in through the website contact form. I could try to hunt down IP’s but that is usually a waste of time. I would try to get a better confirmation that the actual customer wants to cancel.

I wouldn’t care what the customer says their reason for canceling is though. Some folks just feel like they need an excuse to cancel, so they make stuff up. I do what you do and check up to make sure there isn’t a real problem, but if there isn’t I don’t give it a second thought. Someone who doesn’t irrigate isn’t really that concerned with how their lawn looks. That isn’t meant to shame people into irrigating their lawns, just an observation based on customers over the years. As long as there aren’t patches of bare dirt, those folks are usually not too picky.

- Bret

yeah. I said that to my wife last night. I need the customer to confirm that he sent the message and it wasn’t a weird neighbor that hates chemicals.

Do you know if these customers posted on any review sites....Yelp, Google Maps, Angi's, etc.?

If so, you may insert your response or variation of, "we attempted to contact customer in an effort to identify problems and find a solution but, replies went unanswered." Consumer-driven review sites will sway potential business so, just be aware you're not getting slammed unnecessarily.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Walk away. Too much trouble. Be nice and refer them to a colleague you dislike.

We used to do this at the retail store I managed and it worked wonders. For one thing, it makes the customer feel you still have their best interests in mind (even when you no longer care), and for another, the competitor appreciates the referral. The psychology of it was interesting -the customer seems to walk into the other place already believing it will be the answer to their problem, even if they get told the exact same thing. In our case, the other store called us up, thanked us, and started sending their problem customers our way.

Funny enough, it worked out best for everyone in the long run as it seems like a whole lot of it was just incompatible personalities finding better matches.

Mark, one thing my boss told me was never, ever follow a customer out the door. Let them go and move on with your life. Only bad things can happen. As suggested, you can follow up their review with "tried to contact customer to help resolve their issues, but our messages went unanswered" and it only looks good for you.

I feel sorry for your customer. Not because he is (most likely) going through financial challenges. Because he didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to either a) simply thank you for the services you have provided and cancel services with no explanation (best approach), or b) thank you for your services and explain that they’re cancelling the service to reduce expenses.

The customer can cancel at any time and doesn’t need to provide a reason. Don’t provide a bullshit reason that burns a bridge, just thank and cancel.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
yeah. I said that to my wife last night. I need the customer to confirm that he sent the message and it wasn’t a weird neighbor that hates chemicals.

That should be easy enough, if you want confirmation. Knock on their door again, or put a letter in their mailbox. Or, since they are/were your customer, you have their phone that you can call or text. If they don't answer you, that should be the final clue.

But, I highly doubt any crazy neighbor of his sent you fake cancellation because they hate chemicals.. That's stretching a little bit.