(i am a plumber, i work for myself and have a small plumbing business)

A man with an accent calls me one warm summer night, he says " hi, how much does it cost to have someone come out and clear a blocked w/c(toilet)?" I tell him he is looking around $150.00. He says "ohhh thats way too much, my friend will do it for half that"! so I tell him "good! then get your friend to do it"! so he says "ohh but I want you to do it"! i say "well its going to be $150.00 to send out a plumber" rudely he just hangs up the phone. So i thought that was that, who cares!
About 2 weeks later the phone rings, and its the same guy, he says "ok, i want you to come and clear the w/c and i'll pay you the $150.00".
So I head out to his house, arrive at the house and as i open the screen door the smell of cooking onions, body-odour and RAW sewage hits me in the face! I knock, he opens the door- there was 6 adults and about 7 kids packed into a 3 bedroom bungalow. The man introduces himself and then leads me to the bathroom with the plugged w/c. The smell of human feces got worst as we approached the bathroom. he opened the door, the shower curtin was drawn, the smell was horrible and there was flies everywhere. I pulled my shirt up to cover my nose and started to question myself "is this even worth it...?". Just then as he pulls back the shower curtin he says "dose the $150.00 price include for you to clean out the tub?" No work of a lie, the bath tub was FULL to the brim of SHIT and PISS! I was in shock, I look at him, and say "what the fvuk is wrong with you?I am out of here, you are going to have to get someone else to do this!". i walk out and got into my van as he was calling out to me "please! sir, i'll pay you extra!"

I just left, my phone rang a few times shortly after showing his phone number but i did not answer!

Some people live like PIGS!

A quick one:

I was working at a metal shop, and a guy almost had this dropped on him. That is polished stainless steel. And weighs more than I would like to imagine.

wow, that almost sucked to be him.

i saw a guy drop a 100lb man-hole cover on his foot. he took off his "non safety shoe" to blood flowing out of hid toe and sock. to this day i wonder what happened to his foot. last i heard of him he had major problems with his toe and foot.

some people have to learn the hard way about safety!

I own/operate ITSA Tree Service, specializing in removal of dead and hazardous trees, and rigging.

I've had SEVERAL horror stories about customers but we'll start with one of them.

I went and did a quote to trim up 60 pine trees that had been fire damaged from a brush fire that had swept through the area. Up to about 60' they had charred and blackened branches that needed to be pruned back to the trunk. (well, removed, pine trees don't have epicormic regrowth.)
All the soot on them made them extremely messy to work on though, it was terrible.
So we agree on a price, I don't remember exactly but say around $1200.

So he asks how long it'll take to do the job, and I estimated about 2 days.
I ended up completing it all within one 11 hour day. Was tired as hell, messy as hell, everything I owned was covered black with soot.

I go to get my check, and he had only made it out for $700. I was like, where's the rest of the balance? And he says, "there's no way in hell I'm paying you $1200 for one day's worth of work, besides you said it would take 2 days".

I was shocked.. I said "we agreed on a price quote for the JOB, not an hourly pay basis, you only had me estimate how long it would take, that I finished early has no bearing whatsoever on the price we agreed on".

He just shrugged and said that he changed his mind after seeing how quickly I was going and that he wasn't going to pay $1200 for 11 hours worth of work.

So I said, "so let me get this straight, if it had taken me 3 days, you'd have paid me $1600 instead right, because taking longer should mean I'd get paid more?"

He goes, "you listen to me sonny, I don't like your smartass remarks and I'm not gonna take any lip from you". So I told him don't worry, I'd just take him to small claims court for the balance, and to make sure his schedule was clear so we could get it settled.

That REALLY set him off, he started cussing at me and telling me to get off his fucking property and all this stuff. I was like no problem, I'll see you in court. (I even had the signed quote from the price we had agreed on earlier when I came out to see the job initially).

Just before I got in my truck and left he comes up to me with a check for the balance of the $1200 and was like "this is highway robbery but I don't want any trouble so get off my goddamn property and don't come back!"

I smiled and left =) Some people are truly just assholes through and through.

Posted by Therrin we agree on a price, I don't remember exactly but say around $1200.

Sounds good.

Posted by Therrin I ended up completing it all within one 11 hour day. Was tired as hell, messy as hell, everything I owned was covered black with soot.

Hard work does that to a person. Hard work in messy situations makes a person feel good when it's all done.

Posted by Therrin "there's no way in hell I'm paying you $1200 for one day's worth of work, besides you said it would take 2 days".

I totally believe this. I've had customers pull the same shit with me. Nevermind you worked a DAY AND A HALF today... not one day. Besides, it's going to take a half day tomorrow to clean all this crap up! WTF is your problem old man?

Posted by Therrin I was shocked.. I said "we agreed on a price quote for the JOB, not an hourly pay basis, you only had me estimate how long it would take, that I finished early has no bearing whatsoever on the price we agreed on". He just shrugged and said that he changed his mind after seeing how quickly I was going and that he wasn't going to pay $1200 for 11 hours worth of work. So I said, "so let me get this straight, if it had taken me 3 days, you'd have paid me $1600 instead right, because taking longer should mean I'd get paid more?"

It's funny to me how when you point out the obvious to people like this guy they get all defensive and demand to believe that they are right. I'm sorry, asshole... you are WRONG. I estimated 2 days, but rather than having to drive back out here tomorrow, I just opted to get it wrapped up today. You should be HAPPY.

Posted by Therrin He goes, "you listen to me sonny, I don't like your smartass remarks and I'm not gonna take any lip from you". So I told him don't worry, I'd just take him to small claims court for the balance, and to make sure his schedule was clear so we could get it settled.

Whatever dude... You agreed to the price. The job is done. Pay up.

Posted by Therrin That REALLY set him off, he started cussing at me and telling me to get off his fucking property and all this stuff. I was like no problem, I'll see you in court. (I even had the signed quote from the price we had agreed on earlier when I came out to see the job initially).

Perfect. Your ass is covered. Here is the job. Here is the agreed price. Here is what he is offering as payment. These numbers do not add up.

Posted by Therrin Just before I got in my truck and left he comes up to me with a check for the balance of the $1200 and was like "this is highway robbery but I don't want any trouble so get off my goddamn property and don't come back!" I smiled and left =) Some people are truly just assholes through and through.

Yep, some people are just assholes. You worked your ass off to get the job done. Clearly you could have easily stretched it out to two or three days with little difficulty. He should be happy you came in, got it done and got out. Instead he is trying to short you on the payment. Hell, he should have tipped you a bit for working hard.

...and people today wonder why kids today have no motivation to work hard. Bunch of douche-bags.

Doesnt exactly apply to the thread title,

Last year I was at the bank, walking up to the door, I reached out to open it for the lady behind me. She snatched the edge of the door out of my hands and pulls it open and snaps "I cant get it MYSELF!!"

I said, "damn...people complain that chivalry is dead these days, but it's feminazis like you that kill it"

She told me to go fuck myself.


Then she had to stand in line with me and all the other people who saw how she acted. (lol)

I do building maintenance now, but I used to be a veterinary nurse.

Once I was holding a junkyard dog so the vet could anesthetize him for surgery. The dog freaked out, turned to jelly in my arms, spun around, and tried to grab my throat with his teeth. I dove away, but I felt his whiskers graze my skin.

^^ That sounds like it could have gone a bit worse.