We scheduled an appointment and she was suppose to come down over the past weekend to discuss with me her requirements and I wanted to advise her on what she can do to reduce her renovation cost.
On the day of the appointment, just a few hours before the scheduled time, she drops me a text that writes...
"Can you quote me based on this requirements?"
... with that text are 2 images of another quotation she had gotten from another Interior Design firm with all the specific measurements stated in it and she had covered the price that Design Firm quoted her with a piece of paper.
I fucking hate it when customers come to me and ask me to give them a quotation figure based on another Interior Designer's quote. If you want to compare the fucking quotes, don't make it so blatantly obvious, it just makes you come across as a cheapskate.
Needless to say, the final figure I had begrudgingly calculated for her was higher than the mysterious Interior Design firm she had found, so I asked her...
"Will you still be interested in coming down later for our scheduled appointment?"
...I knew she was no longer interested but I just wanted a confirmation that she was no longer going to come down, but instead of giving me a straight answer, she replies...
"Do you offer all the accessories? This other Interior Design firm offers all the accessories in the package."
...Yes, I do throw in freebies if my profit is able to bear the cost of it and if I really want to run the customer's project, but for a project that will only earn me less than $1000 in commission, no way in hell am I going to give you free shit and after blatantly pulling that quote comparison bullshit on me, I am going to need you to fuck off.
So she stops responding to me after I told her to fuck off in the nicest way possible. Don't try and goad me into giving you free shit, if I think you are worth the time, then I will give you freebies, if not, go look for that cheaper Interior Designer you have found and have him or her do your home for you.
----
Another customer lead I had recently gotten from my company is really starting to get on my nerves.
After closing 3 deals with 3 different clients over the past month, the last thing I really want is to be bombarded with more customer leads to deal with because that means in 2 months time, I am going to be running 3 different projects simultaneously, the last thing I need is to entertain more individuals who will most probably be out to waste my time.
The last customer I got from my company is some guy who is looking to do renovation for his little 3 room flat, with only a budget of $10,000, he has requested for quite a few items that are clearly going to go over his budget, not by much, but definitely not enough to cover all his requirements.
When I see a customer listing out a shit load of renovation requirements in the email, I know for sure they are only out to compare quotes with other Interior Design firms and I really have no interest in dealing with this time wasters.
He begins the email with his "Remarks" and he starts to list all his requirements down, starting with his living room and ending with his kitchen area. What I find fascinating is that despite having a relatively low budget, he is requesting for quite a few items that are clearly meant for individuals with a higher budget, such as choosing a specific quartz top that is double the price of a regular quartz top. That is like someone with a $50 shopping budget walking into a Louis Vuitton shop and expecting to leave with one of the designer handbags, I mean come'on, manage your fucking expectations a little bit.
And after he is done sharing his renovation requirements, he starts listing out a bunch of questions asking about the renovation timeline, how responsive we are to answering his queries, how our Interior Design firm is different from the other Interior Design firms, how much money he will be able to save if he goes to a Furniture Shop recommended by us, like this is some sort of fucking Q&A session.
Since I really wasn't interested to deal with him, I didn't respond to his email straight away and instead chose to focus my attention on my pool of customers who have already signed up with me, my clients have already paid the company for my services, this joker who is asking me a shit tone of questions through his email on the other hand isn't, so I mean this is pretty much a no brainer on who should be prioritized.
3 days after I received his email, and about 4 hours ago, I decided to finally get to responding back, I didn't want to send him a Whatsapp message because I just didn't want to deal with him. I started the email apologizing to him for not getting back to him sooner, did a very rough calculation of the items he has requested, answered all his stupid fucking questions, and then send the wall of text to him, thinking, hoping that that would be the last I will ever hear of him....
I was wrong
.... he replies back to me 4 hours later and starts listing out certain issues he had with my email response, which begins with...
"Hi, I am very concerned when I read your email, so were you unable to get back to me because you couldn't reach me or were you unable to get back to me due to your busy schedule? So far, the only person who has been getting back to me is your HR Personnel and this is already starting off on a wrong foot."
Our admin has only contacted you once, so please don't make it sound like she has been in constant contact with you, and I have no idea what "wrong footing" he is talking about. I responded to him 3 days after I got his enquiries, not 3 weeks later, not 3 months later, it's 3 days later.
How is this something to even get upset about? I was busy because I have 3 confirmed projects on my hands to deal with, so would you rather I put those projects aside and prioritize your fucking enquiries? How would you feel if I told you I was going to prioritize a group of non-paying customer over a group of paying customers? Makes no fucking sense does it? They have paid, so they get priority, you are only here for a free service, so you don't get priority, simple as that.
"I have noticed that your charges are different from the other Interior Designers we have spoken to, their feature wall and branded quartz-top are included in their package."
So going by his logic, if I see Gong Cha is having a buy 1 get 1 free promotion, then I can go to KOI and expect to get the same offer as well? Hello! Different companies will have different promotions you moron.
"I am perplexed by the price difference of the items you have quoted when compared to the other Interior Design firms."
So a little bit of fun fact, did you know that not only do companies have different promotions, they also have varying prices. WOW, MIND IS SO FUCKING BLOWN BY THIS COMMON SENSE.
I mean for fuck sake, it was only 3 days, how fucking impatient are you. And he isn't even going to get the fucking keys to his flat until 6 months later.
This is how fucking entitled customers are nowadays, especially this fucking free loaders who are only out to get a free quote so they can compare it with the other quotes they have gotten from other Interior Designers, I mean he has admitted through his email that he has looked for other interior designers and his aim is to compare the quotes. If you don't even have the basic courtesy to drop by our Showroom and actually meet us in person, then don't expect us to show you the same level of courtesy like an instant response, simple as that, this is a free service, you are not paying for anything, you don't stand to lose anything from getting a quote that isn't to your satisfaction, if you are unhappy with the quote I have given you and think it has exceeded your budget, mark me off your list and move on to the hundred other Interior Design firms you have already mass emailed your renovation requirements to.
Such a huge fucking pain in the ass. I actually went to google his email and I managed to find his Facebook Profile, so now I actually know how this guy looks like.
I tried to respond to his email earlier but I just couldn't do it without the message coming across as aggressive because it's really aggravating. I think I might actually lose my shit if I see him leaving a bad review about me on my company's Facebook page.
Update:
After ranting about this situation to my colleagues at work, the general consensus from everyone is to just not give a fuck about the customer anymore, so I'm not going to email him a response and clarify all his concerns, just fuck off.
I've also come to learn that this customer leads provided by the different Interior Design websites actually cost roughly $40 each. This horrible customer lead actually cost the company $40, what the actual fuck?
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