The market corrects. In this day and age these companies can be identified quickly, and the news spreads at the speed of click.
But what about bad customers? They exist. Some are outright criminals and scammers. They lie, cheat, steal, and pretend to slip and fall then call John Morgan. Or, maybe they exploit a small mistake made by a contractor, easily fixed like new, yet they demand their entire home get repainted, or whole roof get replaced, or brand new landscaping be installed. This story is about a customer who is just caustic, unreasonable, rude, and on a level of entitlement the likes of which we rarely see and absolutely refuse to do business with in the future.
We won’t use her real name, because we are nice people, but if there was a Google My Customer page where we could leave her a 1-star review, we would do it. Let’s call her Fancy Clown for this story. Fancy Clown contracted us through her Roofing Company to do what is called a take-down and a put-back of 6 Solar Pool Heating Panels.
For the uninitiated, if you have solar panels of any kind on your roof, and you need to replace that roof, your roofer has to, by law, hire a licensed solar contractor (like us!) to remove those panels, then replace them after the roof is completed. We do this for seventy plus, the number is consistently growing, roofers in Florida. We have for years, and we are widely considered one of the best and fastest solar contractors in the state.
We did excellent work for Fancy Clown. She has no complaints with either the quality or speed of our work. The problems started as soon as we were done. Our tech wrote down the serial numbers on her equipment so she could submit to her insurance. He hand-wrote these numbers on a sheet of paper and handed them to her. This simple act of kindness seems to have set her off. Before paying us, she demanded that the owner of our company come to her house and hand-deliver the forms she would need to submit with the serial numbers filled in.
This is not a service we typically provide, but we are eager to please. Some customers are harder to please than others, we accept this. This felt like a simple enough task to perform to make a customer happy. We researched the correct forms, found them, printed them, filled in the numbers, handed them to the owner, and gave him the address. It’s a couple hours away from our office, but he cheerfully went, on a Saturday, with the intent to please a difficult customer.
Everyone is stupid. In the ensuing conversation between the owner of AllSolar Energy Powered by Sunologi and Fancy Clown, she said offensive things about him, our company, our techs, our vehicles, Floridian politicians, the part of Florida she lives in, as well as her neighbors, Floridians in general, and the roofing contractor she hired. In particular, she was very upset with the Mexicans on her roof that did the roofing work. Not because of their nationality, she said the word “Mexican” like an insult, like she was spitting something foul out of her mouth. Needless to say, the owner of our company was surprised and unsure how to handle her.
He tried to point out the positives, that the roof and the replaced solar panels looked great, her pool was warm, that Florida was a great state, the area she lived in was beautiful, and her neighbors were great people we generally loved doing business with. She would not have it. He, and everyone else, was stupid.
She indicated she planned to pay with a credit card. That meant she would have to call it into the office as the owner does not carry a card reader with him, and we do not write customer’s credit card information down, ever. He informed her of the process, and she said she would do it as soon as he handed her a receipt marked “Paid In Full” on it. He attempted to calmly explain to her that those generally were not generated until an invoice was, indeed, paid in full. Again, he’s stupid, we’re stupid, and so is everybody else, if we think she is going to pay anything before she gets a receipt marked paid in full.
Showing Herculean restraint, he handed her the documents she demanded, and left her property. She has not called in to make a payment yet. We await her bad review and wonder what it might possibly say. We imagine it will start with something clever and original like, “If I could give zero stars I would …” and go from there. We wish there was a way we could give her 1-star and a bad review in order to warn other businesses about her. As of now, there is no such review site. Necessity is the mother of invention they say, hey Google what do you think, or savvy reader with some coding skills?
So here is our recourse. We will flag her in our system as “Do Not Service” and that is a bigger deal than it may sound like. We really are the best there is at this. Solar systems are hearty and reliable, but so extremely easy to install or repair improperly. It’s why there is a license for the industry. It’s why contractors without a solar license are not allowed to touch them. It’s why many solar companies in the state are here today and gone tomorrow.
We are over twenty years in business, doing this, and that makes us a unicorn in the industry. We are the company other solar companies call when they have a problem they can’t figure out. If you have a solar need, we are the very best option. This isn’t just me saying it, everybody says it. We have managed this, and grown our reputation to this point, and are still able to stay competitive on price. We love our customers and value them all, but Fancy Clown’s behavior is nothing any business, much less individual, should have to endure. If she didn’t like us, she is going to hate anyone else she hires. But, at this point, it is her only option.
The latest is that the roofer has contacted us. In order for them to get paid for the roof they put on her home, the insurance company has to have the numbers our boss handed her on Saturday. She is telling the roofing company that she does not have the numbers. (We had them and provided the numbers to her roofing company, that way, at least they will get compensated for their good work.)
Maybe Fancy Clown was having a bad day, or week. Maybe there are traumatic events in her past that have made her this way. We insist that her behavior is unacceptable, regardless. There is a social responsibility to treat people with a modicum of respect. It’s not required. There is no law that says she has to. But there is no law that says we have to accept her as a future customer either.
I think we often take companies that do good work, and their employees, for granted. We drive by those road crews grinding it out in the hot Florida sun and resent them for making us slow down or detour. We talk on the phone as we go through the drive-thru and accept our order from a clerk we barely acknowledge or even look in the eye. We get wrapped up in our own busy lives and focused on our immediate goals to the point that sometimes we forget these are real human beings serving us, with emotions, goals, and lives of their own. I have been on both sides of this borderline disrespect. Shame on me for it, but I know they forgive me as I have forgiven them. This is understandable, unintentional, unconscious disrespect.
Maybe, the way to get some good out of this Fancy Clown situation is to use her story as a reminder that how we treat people matters. That road crew is making our lives better. That drive-thru clerk is doing a tough job the best she can for us. Take a moment. Wave and smile at those workers. Let’s be decent to one another. Let’s not let the Fancy Clowns of the world win.