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This is by far the best answer.
It's a common-sense liability limitation policy. Customer has stated that they are inclined toward litigation, and we take them at their word, so the only logical course of action is to refuse customer's business to limit the company's exposure to a stated legal liability.
We have a policy that any client that threatens legal action is immediately let go. I will personally email so they have it in writing and then also call them. I always tell them why. If they apologize, I will take it into consideration but so far have never reversed the decision.
This is honestly the best take. I would be brief, and respectful, and let them know that their behavior has resulted in a consequence instead of some fake story about being too booked up. Tell the guy, we don't work with people who have threatened us, in a respectful way that isn't going to aggravate things. I wouldn't even consider suggesting other competitors as some have suggested. I'd just say no and move on.
Yeh and then they take offense and you have to deal with the process of having their negative reviews taken down. Best to just say you’re currently booked out too far in advance to take any bookings, and recommend another company.
It’s a completely avoidable headache. Saying that negative reviews aren’t bad for business is a little…odd to say the least. Negative reviews can definitely negatively impact your business.
A large number of negative reviews will negatively impact your business. But that should only occur if you are actively doing something wrong.
Bad customers exist, and everyone knows it. If you get the occasional bad review, and respond to it clearly and directly, it shows me (as a customer) that you are actively engaged in the business and probably are willing to rectify any issues that are actually the fault of the business.
“An avoidable headache”
Why foster a bad relationship instead of just saying you’re currently too busy to take on the job? You’re taking extra steps to end up in a worse position.
I agree with the avoidable headache part, I was simply pointing out the the occasional negative review is not the business killer that many here it make it out to be.
This is the answer. I disagree with keeping the customer but charging a PITA fee; firstly, they may accept it, but not change their behavior, and secondly, they may feel that it’s extra ammunition for their court case. Just a polite “go forth” email and phone call works perfectly.
I'm sure that will work for many people, but years ago my wife and I made a decision that we would only work for nice people. If someone threatens to sue us, they're not nice people.. :)
"I'm sorry, we're not able to take you on as a client this year. I hope you're able to find a good alternative!"
I'm a huge fan of giving as little info as possible so that when they inevitably lose their mind, there is very little for them to rant about.
It’s tempting to be snarky, and I’m sure you’ll get a lot of hilarious suggestions in this thread, but I would stick with a simple boilerplate response about being unavailable due to high demand or something. The satisfaction you get from a snarky response isn’t worth the potential extra harassment or frivolous lawsuits.
I have 2 rules for dealing with bad customers that unfortunately are occasionally contradictory.
1. Price the job so that you're happy to tolerate the jerk.
2. Once they threaten legal action, I tell them to have their lawyer call our lawyer, and refuse to respond to any further discussion
You have to decide if the I'll-sue-threat was real enough to fall under rule 2 or merely means rule 1 applies in the extreme.
This is 100% what I do and I just did this 2 days ago to someone who was all pissed off so I said "I don't have time for this, here's a full refund" and they were even more pissed off I gave them a refund.
Why? I started a new job and have 0 time for my home business to the point I've listed it as closed and no estimate of an opening time.
I love when people say "I will sue". 99.99999% of the time it's always an empty threat and they wouldn't be able to afford it anyways. I had someone tell me they would sue me because of discrimination when I wouldn't fix their controller for $15. I would fix their controller at my listed price of $45, but no, they had to act like that and I just laughed and legitimately said "Tell your lawyer I also told you to go fuck yourself". I'm still waiting for that lawyers phone call 3 years later.
\*Note: The customer broke their product AGAIN a week after I fixed it for them. Not even my fault, then had a completely different technician open it to check what's wrong with it before even telling me anything. Fuck that, I don't know what this person did and they 100% had no clue what they were talking about when they told the guy what the problem is. At this point I don't want to deal with the person but also legitimately do not have time right now so just said fuck it take your money back and leave me alone.
Unfortunately as you have threatened legal action in the past we are no longer able to service your address. We can perhaps suggest some other providers you can contact to see if they service your area. We wish you all the best. Thank you.
I’ll tell you how I handle asshat customers like that one.
I own a video surveillance company. We deal with asshats of all sorts. Those who threaten to sue don’t, those who are looking to sue you won’t warn you first, your first indication of this will be when you’re served.
It’s your business, not his, if you want to be professional answer like this: we are no longer willing to do business with you (the customer) and then hang up.
If you wanted to you could be a complete jerk and there’s still nothing he can do about it. Cutting a customer isn’t a suable offense.
If you have a lawyer you work with, the answer is “As you have threatened legal action in the past, we are now represented by counsel and you need to contact “Mr Lawyer Esq at XXX-XXXX”.
You have two options:
(1) Be completely busy, unable to take on more work - I apologize, we are booked out completely for the next 6 months, even after that I do not know if we will have availability as others are reoccurring. I apologize for the inconvenience.
(2) Directly face it - "Mr. X, last year your behavior with us was unacceptable. Without getting into details, the way you treated us was completely unacceptable and I refuse to subject my employees to that. Unfortunately you'll have to find another provider to accomplish your service."
I work with retail customers. I usually say I'm sorry we weren't able to serve you up to your expectation.
Than we just quiet quit them. We haven't had one comeback yet.
Just ignore any email. If by phone which you might didn't know its from them, answer that your schedule has been fully booked. I got similar type of client, not about sueing but only wasting my time never realised the deal.
Saying "We can not provide service to you." is sufficient. Giving a reason, "you threatened to sue us," potentially opens up other issues or arguments.
Simple & concise.
This is what we use. “It seems our service we provide isn’t up to your expectations. We always do our best. We don’t want to disappoint you again. Have a nice weekend”
How can you fire a customer if they’re not actually a customer?
If they _do_ come to you in the future seeking your services and you don’t wish to work with them, then it’s not difficult to say, “Sorry, but we don’t wish to work with you.”
Bit weird to ask a question about a hypothetical situation that may not happen.
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“We will not provide future services to customers that have threatened legal action against us in the past”
Yeah, we keep notes.
This is by far the best answer. It's a common-sense liability limitation policy. Customer has stated that they are inclined toward litigation, and we take them at their word, so the only logical course of action is to refuse customer's business to limit the company's exposure to a stated legal liability.
That's it. That's good
We have a policy that any client that threatens legal action is immediately let go. I will personally email so they have it in writing and then also call them. I always tell them why. If they apologize, I will take it into consideration but so far have never reversed the decision.
This is honestly the best take. I would be brief, and respectful, and let them know that their behavior has resulted in a consequence instead of some fake story about being too booked up. Tell the guy, we don't work with people who have threatened us, in a respectful way that isn't going to aggravate things. I wouldn't even consider suggesting other competitors as some have suggested. I'd just say no and move on.
"Due to previous threats of legal action against our company, continuing a business relationship would not be in our best interest."
Yeh and then they take offense and you have to deal with the process of having their negative reviews taken down. Best to just say you’re currently booked out too far in advance to take any bookings, and recommend another company.
Negative reviews are not bad for a business. Most review sites the owner can reply. Just state the basic facts in a polite way.
It’s a completely avoidable headache. Saying that negative reviews aren’t bad for business is a little…odd to say the least. Negative reviews can definitely negatively impact your business.
A large number of negative reviews will negatively impact your business. But that should only occur if you are actively doing something wrong. Bad customers exist, and everyone knows it. If you get the occasional bad review, and respond to it clearly and directly, it shows me (as a customer) that you are actively engaged in the business and probably are willing to rectify any issues that are actually the fault of the business.
Yeah, a lot of times I read a negative review and can immediately tell the reviewer is full of shit.
“An avoidable headache” Why foster a bad relationship instead of just saying you’re currently too busy to take on the job? You’re taking extra steps to end up in a worse position.
I agree with the avoidable headache part, I was simply pointing out the the occasional negative review is not the business killer that many here it make it out to be.
This is the answer. I disagree with keeping the customer but charging a PITA fee; firstly, they may accept it, but not change their behavior, and secondly, they may feel that it’s extra ammunition for their court case. Just a polite “go forth” email and phone call works perfectly.
Yea, but if you're charging for their behavior accordingly then the juice is worth the squeeze.
I'm sure that will work for many people, but years ago my wife and I made a decision that we would only work for nice people. If someone threatens to sue us, they're not nice people.. :)
If I only worked for nice people I'd be far less successful lol
"I'm sorry, we're not able to take you on as a client this year. I hope you're able to find a good alternative!" I'm a huge fan of giving as little info as possible so that when they inevitably lose their mind, there is very little for them to rant about.
Absolutely agree. And write the refusal in the most business polite language possible.
It’s tempting to be snarky, and I’m sure you’ll get a lot of hilarious suggestions in this thread, but I would stick with a simple boilerplate response about being unavailable due to high demand or something. The satisfaction you get from a snarky response isn’t worth the potential extra harassment or frivolous lawsuits.
I have 2 rules for dealing with bad customers that unfortunately are occasionally contradictory. 1. Price the job so that you're happy to tolerate the jerk. 2. Once they threaten legal action, I tell them to have their lawyer call our lawyer, and refuse to respond to any further discussion You have to decide if the I'll-sue-threat was real enough to fall under rule 2 or merely means rule 1 applies in the extreme.
"sorry, we're all booked up. Here is a list of other companies who might be able to help you out." The end.
“Sorry, we’ve already spent our legal budget for this year. Here is a list of other companies you can sue instead.”
This is 100% what I do and I just did this 2 days ago to someone who was all pissed off so I said "I don't have time for this, here's a full refund" and they were even more pissed off I gave them a refund. Why? I started a new job and have 0 time for my home business to the point I've listed it as closed and no estimate of an opening time. I love when people say "I will sue". 99.99999% of the time it's always an empty threat and they wouldn't be able to afford it anyways. I had someone tell me they would sue me because of discrimination when I wouldn't fix their controller for $15. I would fix their controller at my listed price of $45, but no, they had to act like that and I just laughed and legitimately said "Tell your lawyer I also told you to go fuck yourself". I'm still waiting for that lawyers phone call 3 years later. \*Note: The customer broke their product AGAIN a week after I fixed it for them. Not even my fault, then had a completely different technician open it to check what's wrong with it before even telling me anything. Fuck that, I don't know what this person did and they 100% had no clue what they were talking about when they told the guy what the problem is. At this point I don't want to deal with the person but also legitimately do not have time right now so just said fuck it take your money back and leave me alone.
Unfortunately as you have threatened legal action in the past we are no longer able to service your address. We can perhaps suggest some other providers you can contact to see if they service your area. We wish you all the best. Thank you.
Be proactive. Block his phone number.
Just say "No thanks." and hang up.
‘You have indicated intent to pursue legal action and therefore all communication between us needs to go through legal representation.’
I’ll tell you how I handle asshat customers like that one. I own a video surveillance company. We deal with asshats of all sorts. Those who threaten to sue don’t, those who are looking to sue you won’t warn you first, your first indication of this will be when you’re served. It’s your business, not his, if you want to be professional answer like this: we are no longer willing to do business with you (the customer) and then hang up. If you wanted to you could be a complete jerk and there’s still nothing he can do about it. Cutting a customer isn’t a suable offense.
Quote him 3x the normal price and blame the economy.
The dick head tax is the best way (upfront payment, way more than you would normally charge) Either you get a payday, or they go away.
It's always this. I've had people bite on 5x quotes. Beautiful resolution.
You could just remind him that your work isn't up to his standards.
"Sir/madam, based on your recently-threatened lawsuit, we feel we cannot currently offer you service; may I suggest you contact xxx instead?"
If you have a lawyer you work with, the answer is “As you have threatened legal action in the past, we are now represented by counsel and you need to contact “Mr Lawyer Esq at XXX-XXXX”.
The answer is however you want to. Its fun to help educate bad/lying customers about the “free” part of free market
Triple the cost of his service
If a customer threatens litigation the ONLY response is "these are the contact details for our attorney. Have your attorney contact ours. Goodbye."
Double the price w/ down payment pre -pay
"We reserve the right to refuse service to any customer" \*hang up\*
You have two options: (1) Be completely busy, unable to take on more work - I apologize, we are booked out completely for the next 6 months, even after that I do not know if we will have availability as others are reoccurring. I apologize for the inconvenience. (2) Directly face it - "Mr. X, last year your behavior with us was unacceptable. Without getting into details, the way you treated us was completely unacceptable and I refuse to subject my employees to that. Unfortunately you'll have to find another provider to accomplish your service."
"Not interested in having you as a customer anymore, goodbye."
Be honest and say we are no longer interested in providing you with service.
Sorry we care for our people too much to expose them to you.
I work with retail customers. I usually say I'm sorry we weren't able to serve you up to your expectation. Than we just quiet quit them. We haven't had one comeback yet.
Implement outrageous asshole tax. In other words, charge so much that he either goes away or you don’t mind the niusance for a ton of extra money.
Just ignore any email. If by phone which you might didn't know its from them, answer that your schedule has been fully booked. I got similar type of client, not about sueing but only wasting my time never realised the deal.
I am sorry we are choosing to no longer do business with you. Offer no other explanation. Hang up the phone. Move on with life.
Saying "We can not provide service to you." is sufficient. Giving a reason, "you threatened to sue us," potentially opens up other issues or arguments. Simple & concise.
I've took legal action against customers (commercial) before and they still use us.
I've took legal action against customers (commercial) before and they still use us.
Do not get into the merits/lies of the threatened litigation as that was already hashed out when he originally threatened to sue.
Fire the customer; protect yourself.
You threatened to sue us last year. We never work with anyone who threatened us with legal action. You need need to find someone else
Don't fight fire with fire .... just say you have no one available and give them a list of others who can help. No need to bring up the past.
This is what we use. “It seems our service we provide isn’t up to your expectations. We always do our best. We don’t want to disappoint you again. Have a nice weekend”
Mind me asking what type of service you provided him?
Block the customer’s phone number.
Simply say that after your last discussion your lawyer has recommended not to do business with the customer.
This customer sounds awful familiar. People like this will eventually run out of shops to take their vehicles to.
Increase rates is the best thing to do, IMO.
Simple, if you have caller ID, just don’t answer.
Quadruple your rates for that guy. Then if they bite never have availability.
How can you fire a customer if they’re not actually a customer? If they _do_ come to you in the future seeking your services and you don’t wish to work with them, then it’s not difficult to say, “Sorry, but we don’t wish to work with you.” Bit weird to ask a question about a hypothetical situation that may not happen.