Re: Clients
I had a recent one that ended in the police being involved. I'll leave out some irrelevant details that relate to the (still pending) trial. I had done a couple small events for a client. He struck me as kind of Willy Lowman lost soul, talking about his great achievements that never quite materialized. Nevertheless, he needed a pair of CDJ's and and DJ mixer for an event. Since he doesn't have a car and the venue was around the corner from my shop I agreed I could swing them by for him. He said he's be there at 9pm so I should arrive 9:15 to 9:30. I was there at 9:14 and received at text that he would be there in 5. At 9:45 a get a call saying that traffic was bad and that he'd actually be there in 5. Traffic wasn't bad, which I knew, so I was a bit pissed. The time waiting had already made the rental pointless.
I have a reputation of going out of my way to make things happen, but it only works with clients that reciprocate the goodwill. Anyways, after getting money and paperwork filled out, I tell him I have to rush off but that everything was gone through at the shop and to call me if there are any issues. 5 minutes later he calls to say an RCA is missing which he hadn't bothered to look for. First problem solved. 30 minutes later he calls saying my mixer is broken - only the left side is working and the booth out is dead. He's says the soundman from the venue "who's been doing this longer than you've been alive" confirmed that it is dead. I tell him I can swing on by, but that if the problem is not related to my equipment there will be a service call fee of $50. I also told him I could walk him over some things on the phone, but he was 100% certain the mixer was dead.
No problem. I grab another DJM 800 and swing by the venue with my trouble shooting kit. Left side not working? RCA wasn't fully inserted! Booth out dead? 'Soundman' had plugged a passive wedge directly into the booth output with a patch cable! I repatch with some of the adapters in my kit from the booth output into the installed snake and adjust the booth send from the ancient Mackie at FOH. All was working within 5 minutes. The client refused to sign the service form and accused me of being a number of undesirable things before his friends calmed him down. Finally his friend signed. I took the unusual step of returning to the venue before the event finished to retrieve my equipment where the client continued to berate me for failings that were obviously his own. I said I had had enough, informed him I would be mailing him the invoice and grabbed the the cases and made for the door, at which point chased and punched me. I'm a big boy and am hardly defenseless, but two days prior I had just paid my fall tuition for law school - I'm not about to let a stupid rental descend into a brawl. I left and immediately drove to the police station and filed a report, the initial result of which is that the man may no longer contact me.
It's sure one way to end a client relationship!
