Communication Breakdown
05 August 2009 04:00 PM
Earlier
this year, I spent more than four hours working on a
first time customer’s Power Macintosh G5. I spent
more than two hours in the car driving the 80 mile
round-trip to his home office location. The customer
sat next to me and watched every move that I made.
My methods were methodical and logical and lead
to the determination that the aftermarket RAM
installed in his machine was defective and was
causing corruption of the file system. Nothing
in his demeanor lead me to believe that he was not in
agreement with the diagnosis. During the
troubleshooting process, I transitioned his computer
from being unable to complete almost any task or
diagnostic to completing a successful Archive and
Install of the operating system and subsequently
passing diagnostics. This was a valid benchmark
of the state of the computer at that point, and he
made it clear that he agreed with that assessment.
I came away believing that he understood that his computer was in a state of having a renewed strong foundation on which he could begin to rebuild functionality. While I was onsite with him, I also configured and ordered a new Mac Pro for him from Apple, including the arrangement of a rare discount and helping him decide on a printer. (This was a billable consulting service, as well. Macsolv received no compensation from Apple for the sale.) When I left, he indicated that he was pleased with my work. In fact, he offered to make payment then and there (and even talked of plans to have me perform work at another local business that he co-owns with his wife). I told him that I would invoice him instead. [At some point in the next few days, he received and setup the new Mac Pro I arranged for him to receive.]
A week later, I sent the invoice. Instead of paying me, he complained that some Adobe applications were misbehaving. (Adobe's applications are notorious for misbehaving if any aspect of their installation becomes corrupted.) I explained that if any changes had been made to these installed applications (by applying updates, etc) while the bad aftermarket RAM was installed that it would be extremely likely that they would have been corrupted by those changes. I helpfully suggested that he reinstall the applications, verify the effectiveness of the recommendation, and let me know the outcome. I even offered to have another look at the machine at his location.
Instead, he told me that he had moved-on from the G5 and, as a result, had no intention of determining if I was correct in my assessment. Due to that refusal to follow-through on my suggestion, we will never know in what state the G5 actually is. Quite the double-bind.
In the meantime, he did not pay me for my services for almost 90 days. I eventually received payment upon sending him a Certified Letter asking for it. When he finally did pay, he included a letter lecturing me on my practices and suggesting that he was going to drag my—and my company’s—name through the mud.
This customer engaged my services to determine what the issue was with his machine, not to rebuild every aspect of his user environment. He lured me into working for him in a geographic area outside of my normal business area, and even managed to procure an up-front discount of $25 an hour with promises that he would help to get my company’s name better known in this market (obviously in a positive light). Instead, I had to wait almost 3 full months for payment, was promised that I’d be slandered and libeled in the local Mac community (perhaps you are reading this as a result of hearing/reading some of it), didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing that the solution was correct, and won’t get the positive word of mouth that I paid for via the discount.
What would you have done?
I came away believing that he understood that his computer was in a state of having a renewed strong foundation on which he could begin to rebuild functionality. While I was onsite with him, I also configured and ordered a new Mac Pro for him from Apple, including the arrangement of a rare discount and helping him decide on a printer. (This was a billable consulting service, as well. Macsolv received no compensation from Apple for the sale.) When I left, he indicated that he was pleased with my work. In fact, he offered to make payment then and there (and even talked of plans to have me perform work at another local business that he co-owns with his wife). I told him that I would invoice him instead. [At some point in the next few days, he received and setup the new Mac Pro I arranged for him to receive.]
A week later, I sent the invoice. Instead of paying me, he complained that some Adobe applications were misbehaving. (Adobe's applications are notorious for misbehaving if any aspect of their installation becomes corrupted.) I explained that if any changes had been made to these installed applications (by applying updates, etc) while the bad aftermarket RAM was installed that it would be extremely likely that they would have been corrupted by those changes. I helpfully suggested that he reinstall the applications, verify the effectiveness of the recommendation, and let me know the outcome. I even offered to have another look at the machine at his location.
Instead, he told me that he had moved-on from the G5 and, as a result, had no intention of determining if I was correct in my assessment. Due to that refusal to follow-through on my suggestion, we will never know in what state the G5 actually is. Quite the double-bind.
In the meantime, he did not pay me for my services for almost 90 days. I eventually received payment upon sending him a Certified Letter asking for it. When he finally did pay, he included a letter lecturing me on my practices and suggesting that he was going to drag my—and my company’s—name through the mud.
This customer engaged my services to determine what the issue was with his machine, not to rebuild every aspect of his user environment. He lured me into working for him in a geographic area outside of my normal business area, and even managed to procure an up-front discount of $25 an hour with promises that he would help to get my company’s name better known in this market (obviously in a positive light). Instead, I had to wait almost 3 full months for payment, was promised that I’d be slandered and libeled in the local Mac community (perhaps you are reading this as a result of hearing/reading some of it), didn’t get the satisfaction of seeing that the solution was correct, and won’t get the positive word of mouth that I paid for via the discount.
What would you have done?