How do you get rid of an annoying customer?

[hirdlej]

Ok, so I thought it would be a good idea to start tuning on the side for some extra cash so I posted a couple of classifieds and got a guy locally who wanted his truck tuned. This guy has very basic, easy mods to tune (baby cam, catback, air intake) Well, I told him $200 and I will tune your truck. Long story short, he had the cam, air intake and catback all installed when I tuned in the first time. I wanted to do an extra good job on his truck and I feel I did just that. I have well over 8 hours of logging and tuning into this thing and I had it running to a "T". Now he goes ahead and installs long tube headers and is expecting I retune for them for nothing. I asked him for some more money and I almost died when he offered me an extra $40 for my troubles. I feel insulted and on top of that, I feel my masterpiece of a tune was totally disregarded and that he has no respect for my time. The guy also asks a lot of questions while I'm trying to tune and makes tuning sessions seem very long. He calls me almost on a daily basis at home and I have to have other people say I'm not there and on top of that he calls me at work and emails me at the same time. It's like a Stephen King movie gone bad. Maybe I'm being grumpy but have any of you run into this in the past and what did you do about it? I am almost ready to give him half his money back just so I can continue on with a peaceful uninterruped life. Thoughts? Opinions?

[Bill@HPTuners]

Tell him its $200 for a retune, thats a fair price, stop giving out your home phone number, don't expect the tuning business to make you any extra money, have customers drop off the cars and then pick them up the next day if you don't like talking & explaining things to them.

[gman4dx266]

You need to edit your contract that your customers sign, and put a stipulation in there that says something like "If at any time the tuner feels annoyed by the tune-ee, the tuner has the right to tack on a moderate 'annoyance fee'. The annoyance fee is doubled each time the tuners annoyance thresh-hold is exceeded "

and by moderate i mean ~$250 lol!

Seriously though, dont let him in when you work the magic.

For the headers...Like foff said. 200 for a retune is reasonable.

So, including the annoyance fee, you'll make a tail-load.

[hirdlej]

You need to edit your contract that your customers sign, and put a stipulation in there that says something like "If at any time the tuner feels annoyed by the tune-ee, the tuner has the right to tack on a moderate 'annoyance fee'. The annoyance fee is doubled each time the tuners annoyance thresh-hold is exceeded "

and by moderate i mean ~$250 lol!

Seriously though, dont let him in when you work the magic.

For the headers...Like foff said. 200 for a retune is reasonable.

So, including the annoyance fee, you'll make a tail-load.

LOL I like the "annoyance fee"

[eficalibrator]

At $200 for a complete tune, you're probably too generous to begin with anyway. I simply can't afford to work that cheap.

For me, it's simple. $X gets you tuned for what you brought me today. (This ASSumes there are no other issues with vehicle) Additional work is just that, additional. Changing to a new parts combination requires more time, and time=$. Depending on how different the new combination is, the retune price adjusts accordingly. I bill such that my first tune for a customer includes my set fee for "general tuning on one vehicle." That way, additional tunes for the same vehicle with a slightly different combination, while still billed as real tuning time, work out slightly cheaper than if he was a completely new customer again.

As for being annoyed. If you choose to operate from your kitched table and use your home phone for business, be prepared for the predictable response.

[hirdlej]

See, I didn't even mean or want this to be a side business. I just wanted to tune enough vehicles to pay for the HPT software and new laptop I got. Live and learn I guess.

[12secSS]

Just let him know that since he added more parts that drastically affect the fueling, you need to start over, which will cost him now an additional $200. That is what I do and I never have had a problem.

[MeentSS02]

Wow...thanks for reassuring me why I haven't done something like that. I'll keep it as a hobby, and only a hobby.

[WS6FirebirdTA00]

Yeah, tell him if he doesnt want to pay for a retune, dont call back because its not worth your time, refer him to another local tuner.

That or just say you cant tune anymore, you ran over your interface lol

[EC_Tune]

Shop rate is $125/hr.

Ends discussions with cheap people...

[WS6FirebirdTA00]

Shop rate is $125/hr.

Ends discussions with cheap people...

I like that lol

[Casey]

Shop rate is $125/hr.

Ends discussions with cheap people...

+ inconvenience tax

[S2H]

I like to tell people that teh tune is one price..adn if they need a retune its additional money....that way they think twice about their tune if they are considering adding some other mods...
I also have them sign a contract/waiver....it states the amount agreed upon for the tune as the car sits and it states that any addional mods that require a retune will cost them $$$ as well

[MODDOO]

You can present the situation to the public any way you want.

Here is my short version of the story.


We set a date to tune the truck after you got your new interface. We discussed $. You said you would like $100 for your time, and $100 for the license. I agreed and brought you cash.
You tuned the truck, and it ran better. I came back to have a couple quick reflashes a couple times to fix things that were not quite right the first time.
When I talked to you about getting small changes, I made it clear that I would come over when YOU had the time, and you would usually say to come right over.
You know how long it takes to tune a vehicle.

You never expressed any annoyance with me.
When we spoke, you talked to me as if we were friends.
You never said anything about asking questions while you tune.
I spoke with you several times about getting the headers, and all you said was that you thought they would not help much, hard to install, etc. You tried to talk me out of them.
You did not say anything about the fee for a retune.
I never asked to have the headers retuned for nothing.
You did not tell me what you wanted to retune them, you asked me.
If you had said you needed another $100 for your time, that would have been fine.
I have thanked you many times for tuning the truck.
I have not called you almost every day.
I call you because I thought you enjoyed talking about trucks and tuning with me.
I also called because I have referred your tuning to several of my friends, like you asked me to, and was wondering if you had time to tune them.
You could have had their business if you wanted it.

I have been nothing but polite and friendly to you.

If you had ever been up front about how you felt, this would not have happened.

I still do not understand this situation.

You won’t hear from me again

No hard feelings, I guess it just didn't work out.

[gold98Z28]

i think the answer to the question is to place a Post and the rest will work out.

[Bill@HPTuners]

moral of the story...don't air your dirty laundry on a public forum lol good luck to both of you, herdlej like I said if your not willing to talk to people that you give our your #/email to now might be a good time to stop tuning for $. Moddoo, sorry you had to read this here rather then the horses mouth.