What to do.....

I am wondering what your opinions would be. I am stuck between two things of how to deal with a particular situation; the nice way, and the right way. Here is the situation: A customer of long ago contacted me for weed control of his lawn back on the 31st of August. I have done work for him before, and he can be a difficult customer, but not a horrible customer. I haven't done work for him in about 2 years. He is a very hard to please customer. He wanted to not only control the broadleafs, but the crabgrass as well in his lawn. I said no problem, I suggested a double application, approx 2 weeks apart from each other, and he was fine with it. Because of the tight schedule, Labor Day horrible weekend, and getting the product, I told him I would do it on the 5th or 6th of this past week. No problem. So I try to find some Trimec Plus for weed control for his lawn. I go with my local supplier, but he does not have any in stock, he has to order it and it won't be in until Tuesday or Wednesday and they will call me when it comes in. Fine no problem, I place the order. Well, I call on Tuesday to see whether it has arrived. No it hasn't. And the one sales guy says kind of rude like, "I told you that I would call you when it comes in." So I figured fine, I will wait for their phone call. So Wednesday comes, nobody calls, and I am mad because I have to tell this customer that the product hasn't come in yet. So I call up the customer, tell him about the situation and he is fine with it. Well, Thursday goes by no phone call, and Friday comes no phone call. Finally around 4pm on Friday I call up the place and ask whether it has come in yet. "Ya, it came in on Wednesday," a sales person said. So I am mad as heck, but I figured no problem, I can still do the work for the guy. At least that is what I thought. The customer then calls me on Friday and says, "Don't worry about it, I found someone else." I am steamed!!! Not only at the customer, but at the supplier. So I am thinking two things that I should do; 1)Pick up and pay for the product even though I have no use for it right now, but maybe I can use it later but cause a big stink about how I lost the customer because someone didn't call me, or 2)Go into the supplier and tell him sorry no need for it, I am not paying for it because nobody called me about so you are stuck with the cost now because I lost a customer. Now I am looking at this a couple different ways. The supplier has been good to me in the past, very good. So I should just get the product anyways and not burn any bridges but I am stuck with a $70 cost. But if I don't pay for the product the supplier may get mad at me, and not help me out in the future.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]I am steamed!!! Not only at the customer, but at the supplier. So I am thinking two things that I should do; 1)Pick up and pay for the product even though I have no use for it right now, but maybe I can use it later but cause a big stink about how I lost the customer because someone didn't call me, or 2)Go into the supplier and tell him sorry no need for it, I am not paying for it because nobody called me about so you are stuck with the cost now because I lost a customer. Now I am looking at this a couple different ways. The supplier has been good to me in the past, very good. So I should just get the product anyways and not burn any bridges but I am stuck with a $70 cost. But if I don't pay for the product the supplier may get mad at me, and not help me out in the future. I can totally sympathize with you in this situation and am sorry about it. It's too bad this happened. I don't think anything would really resolve this situation, expect the salesman coming to you and saying he was sorry, but what is the chances of that happening? How much do any of these sales people really care about what is going on? Ultimately I would just buy the product so I had it in the future and tell myself to never rely on them again like this cause they will drop the ball. What's your view?

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Well, I went in there today and just paid for the product and didn't say anything. I figured that I would give them another chance. I am still kind of mad about it. This is a reason that I am thinkig about starting to order directly from the company of the product.