That Time a Customer Tried to Screw Me and How I Resolved the Problem

Years ago, when I still worked in the lighting industry, I helped to consolidate one company into another, giving me total access to all of our books and sales reports.

One of the things I saw was that one company was terribly delinquent in its payments to us to the tune of $56,000. This was in the early 1990s when $56,000 was a lot of money. So I called the owner and told him about the outstanding invoices.

He told me that the way he saw it, he didn’t owe us anything, and he wasn’t going to pay anything.

I told him, “I made it and shipped it, you received it, so I would say you owe the invoice value.”

He basically told me to go to Hell. He wasn’t part of a larger organization where I could use pressure within the organization and get it paid, like calling the legal department or his boss. So we just had eat the $56,000 debt.

But good things come to those who wait.

Four years later, this guy got another job where he could not substitute the product — there were no alternatives or similar products he could buy. That meant he had to give me the order, which he did.

(I may have cackled and rubbed my hands together.)

He called and cussed me up one side and down the other, and said, “I’ve got all these pallets. What are these for? What are you doing?”

“That’s your order,” I said. “Remember that $56,000 you screwed me over for? Surely, you can find someone to assemble all those lights for you. They won’t be UL-approved—” which meant they wouldn’t be approved for the project “—but good luck.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” the guy demanded.

“Because a few years ago, when I called you about your invoice, you told me to to go to Hell. You had received the fixtures but didn’t pay for them. Well, big boy, this is payback time.”

There was nothing he could do. He was stuck. He either had to pay what he owed or he had to turn down the order altogether.

So he paid me for the new order, plus he paid the original $56,000. On top of that, he paid to ship the 12 pallets, and then I sent him the bulbs he wanted. But I didn’t do a damn thing until I got the check from him.

It’s funny because it was in the 1980s that the honor system fell apart. You could write a couple million dollars of business on a handshake, and the paperwork would follow. It was about the middle of the ’80s when all that began to change.

In fact, it happened about the same time the fax machine came into vogue. Whether the two are related, I don’t know. Maybe business historians will figure it out one day.

I’ve been a manufacturing executive, as well as a sales and marketing professional, for a few decades. Now, I help companies turn around their own business, including pivoting within their industry. If you would like more information, please visit my website and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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