So, you want a discount?

Hey guys. What a day. It's been one of those days where very little got accomplished despite truckloads of effort. Very disheartening... but I know the bad days come with the good as well...

One thing happened today that really lit my fuse. I tend to think of myself as rational; sensible; when it comes to dealing with customers. A problem I've had to overcome is wanting to do TOO much for people and in the end getting taken full advantage of, so what I've had to learn to do is practice moderation and in the name of all things fair, learn to both work and deal with people in a way that is not only directly human but also objective. Objectivity is the name of the game. I'll treat you fair, so long as you don't make any unreasonable demands on me- don't expect me to perform superhuman feats- and certainly don't ask for preferential treatment -- ESPECIALLY by trying to bait me with 'glorious prizes' that are sure to follow if I do.

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If you read my last blog, then you saw the pinball machines I have in my shop for repair. Nothing out of the ordinary- I do arcade machine repair for private individuals all the time.

These two pins were different.

These pins were brought to the shop courtesy of a friend who works for an outfit in Reno that both retails arcade machines and runs a 'route'- meaning they place arcade machines in public places, maintain them, and receive profits from their use.

"The old tech quit about 8 months ago, in the middle of repairing the two, and nobody at the place can figure out how to fix them" were his near exact words when he dropped them off.

My friend Josh is a BRILLIANT arcade tech, but pinballs are unknown to him. "No prob" I tell him.

First, he made it clear that they wanted estimates and ETAs (approximate time for repair) on both of the machines before I started working on them. This is very difficult, because I have no clue what I'm getting into, not even having opened them up... and ETAs? Come on.... This is unheard of in my line of business; ETAs and estimates only come after full inspections so I have a logical and intelligent idea of what's involved.

So I play ball. I estimate 3 hours labor each which totals $225 a machine, and 7-10 day turnaround. He was fine with that, and while he was standing there I faxed the estimates up to his Reno office. He said his boss was fine with those numbers.

Okay. Four days go by, and I have BOTH the machines completely done. The Superman machine was completely inoperative and reset entirely every time the left flipper was actuated. Some dork replaced a capacitor with a diode, resulting in a short circuit every time the flipper button was pressed. THAT took a while to track down.

The second machine, Twilight Zone, had weak flippers on the left side an a 'clock' that was NOISY and just kept running and running. Flippers? Easy. Replaced the switch optics... but the clock took two hours to take apart, lube, reheat EVERY solder joint on the circuit board and put back together which had been damaged by vibration and heat.

Two working machines, done in 4 days.

I call Josh and he comes down to pick them up.

Here's where the the problems start.....

First he arrives and brought the wrong company credit card. That's okay, after helping him load up the games we both go back inside so he can call the main office.

He explains the trouble, takes down the credit card number, then hands the phone to me. I'm greeted by a secretary.

I greet her and we make small talk. Our conversation goes something like this:

"So do you do a lot of this kind of work down there" she asks.

"Pretty much, we do electronics of all kinds and service a lot of games owned by private individuals, both here in the valley and up at the lake."

"Oh, well we have an awfull lot of business we can send you. We get calls all the time. Maybe we can just send people to you." she says

"Ah, well that'd be fantastic" I say, "I'm certainly not going to decline that offer."

(She goes on explaining how many calls they get)..... "Um, and now about this invoice you sent over. I was a bit surprised at the estimate you gave me. Are you charging us the same rate as you are charging your regular customers?"

"Well yes, that'd be $75 an hour. I did not charge you for the nickel and dime parts that went into the machines just to keep things simple. Labor only." I say

"Well, these prices are just outrageous. (and now she goes on to tell me how to run a business like the Big Boys) Typically in this industry a business such as yourself will give cut rates in exchange for the services another business can offer them. In our case, it is pretty regular for an outfit like you to provide someone like us a cut labor rate. In exchange, we can send you all kind of referrals."

I was already feeling sick at my stomach. I get so tired of doing what I feel is top notch work and having people, even if they are a minority, balk or ask for discounts because of this and that or such and such... or asking me to do things on their terms.

I stammered around for a while "Um.... err....." (I can't always think quickly on my feet as I would like to... when blindsided like this I get pushed to the edge of coming back and laying down) as she continued to spell out to me the way she wanted things to be... and ordinarily I can keep my cool but my friend Josh could see the disgust building in my face at *what* he didn't know because he couldn't hear the conversation.

She continued, "So, do you think you could fax me over a new invoice with a discounted labor rate?"

I start to respond with a knot in my stomach- "Hrm.... well let me see if I can do-"

I was cut short.

She explained that she was putting me on hold to answer an incoming call. So I sat with dead air on the other end, feeling so sick at the thought of bowing to this person. Nobody official- just some secretary trying to make herself look good and feel important.

I'm glad she put me on hold. Whether she really had to answer another call or not was beside the point. It was time I had to think and collect myself.

Okay, we have two very valuable and profitable pinball games that have been down for many months- not even their machines- machines that belonged to customers of theirs which employed them to do repairs. That wasn't happening. Their tech left the machines a mess and nobody their could figure it out over many months. I did it in days and charged them for three hours labor each."

The phone gets picked back up and she starts, "so how about-"

I cut her short.

In a very plain and polite, yet direct tone I state, "Here's the way I see this. It doesn't seem sensible to me, having been asked to provide you with an estimate and ETA in advance of having even looked at these machines, and as well having turned them around in fully functional order with a courtesy cleaning, to give you a discount *now* based on the possible referral of business from your company in the future. I mean, at this point we have not even developed a working relationship with one another, and when I work business to business it is always in a manner of personal relationship and the respect goes two ways.

If there was a problem with my estimates, which were given in *full advance* of any work done, then I should have been notified right away. But now, you're telling me that you have a problem with these prices, when your boss said there was no problem, after the machines have been loaded up on the truck. This, to me, is not a reasonable way to do business. You have my invoice and the charges are no more, and no less, then what I've quoted you."

Seeing and knowing fully well that I wasn't going to 'play ball' she retorts,

"Well, it says here you replaced a flipper optic. That would have taken one of our techs 5 minutes to do."

I said, "The flipper optic was the least of this machine's problems. The clock alone took two hours to basically completely rebuild. And at the cost of a replacement, I don't thing it would have been cost effective for you to replace it at $279. There are very common issues with this game which I'm very familiar with. I've also taken preventative measures on other things as well to keep this thing from coming back. I just can't see my way to cut corners when it will result in a costly call back."

That's all she had. I was red hot but I didn't let her know that. She comes back,

"Okay then, we'll just finish up this one transaction then and that will be it."- in a sorry whiney tone that just grated me... kind of like "Well you're not getting any of OUR precious referrals!"

I said, "That sounds fine."

It seems to me that referrals should be based on the quality of my work and not the amount of discount I gave. Unfortunately my friend Kelly pointed this out afterward when I told her the story - would have made great punctuation actually.

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Ran the card for $450. Declined.

Ran it again. Declined.

Called her back up, "I'm having trouble with your card, can I verify the numbers?"

"Oh there's nothing wrong with our corporate card. There must be something wrong with your machine."

Verified the numbers. Declined.

I called up the bank and asked for more information. They say that the bank the credit was being drawn on was basically telling them "DO NOT HONOR"

I called miss prissy pants back. "Yes, I'm still having trouble with your card. I ran it a couple of more times in a couple of different ways which didn't work. I also called the bank to verify that our terminal was in working order, which has been verified. They did say that your card was being rejected with the status "DO NOT HONOR".

That's all it took for her to give me another Visa number which went through just fine.



How rude. Discourtesy and self serving are just some of the very few things in this world that truly bother me. Don't bait me. I've already been there and been burned. And I've layed down before too because I didn't want the confrontation and felt darkened a little on the inside because of it. And never, I mean NEVER, in the past when I give somebody some slack in the present based on possible future bonuses have I ever been rewarded.

That's my experience. What more can I say? If you want the work done, I can do it. I don't HAVE to, I CHOOSE to and I'll do it to the BEST of my ability. So don't try to CON me after I've given it my best.

Where's the humanity? For shame.