Linux for Pro Audio Work How to Lose Clients FAST!!! 3839

Scott Dorsey

Some clients are just not worth having. I don't have the overhead expenses you do, but I'll turn away so called "easy work" if it's not something I like doing or if the person desiring service represents some obnoxious political view that I don't like.

I made that mistake once: walked into the owner's office and found it full of "Jesus Saves" posters. First question out of the guys mouth was "Are you saved?". When I said no, he pushed again, and I explained that I am an atheist. He didn't like that, and told me he didn't want my services. I said that was fine, but he should have said that before hiring me and since I was going to bill him a two hour minimum anyway, he might as well have me do the work. Stupid honesty always getting in the way of my better instincts.

He thought about that (probably his morals were tugging at him too because he knew I was in the right) and then said he'd "let" me do the work if I let him take me to lunch. Hmm, "let me" - here I am on site to recover *his* crashed data, and he's going to "let me". "Evil atheist spawn of Satan allowed to work on Gawd Fearin' Christian's Computah - film at eleven!". Again my morals said I should let him "let me" fix his computer rather than walking out on him. So I agreed to lunch.

I fixed his problem, got the system back up and running and we went to lunch. The poor guy sold Jesus to me from every angle all through that painful lunch. I wasn't buying, of course, and I didn't bother to argue with him though I think I upset him when I told him that I wouldn't argue because I didn't want to destroy his happiness. He gave me a check at the end of lunch and never called me again. Which is more than fine by me, as I wouldn't have gone back.

Since then, on the rare times where I've run into a genuine fruitcake beyond my ability to stomach, I just say something like "Oops - need to get something from my car", and disappear. I don't send a bill, of course, even if I did something useful before getting disgusted. That's only happened three or four times in 22 years of doing this, so I'm not *real* fussy, but money isn't everything: "To thine own self be true" is still excellent advice.

-- Tony Lawrence