Difficult customer severs ties with company, comes back begging for service

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 30, 2023 8:00 AM EST

Never mess with the companies that provide you with essential services! In this instance, the essential service in question is water. This entitled and ungrateful customer had no idea that the water company her parents had been using for years was the best deal in town. So when she angrily called up the company making demands and threatening to sever ties with them if her requests weren't met, she very much got what was coming to her.

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/Controlled01, who shared that this family had already been difficult customers for quite some time. By the time the daughter threatened to take her business elsewhere, she was likely surprised when the Redditor's boss decided that this was probably best before promptly hanging up on her. Just as one would expect, once the daughter did her research and realized that this was by far the best and cheapest water company, she came crawling back for forgiveness. Keep scrolling below to see what happened next. For more, here's a story about an employer's ridiculous change in its PTO policy.

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  • 01
    Output device - "I saw the boss's face turn red. He HATES bullies and being bullied."
    via Petr Macháček
  • 02
    Font - If you want to change companies, don't let the door hit your way out. on the M OC I work at a small company delivering potable water to people who don't have access to either city water or a private well. So we deliver to the same customers pretty much every week. Some customers are great and go out of their way to make deliveries easier or at least make sure that they don't make them any more difficult than they have to be. A few customers just don't give a and expect us to make deliveri
    via u/Controlled01
  • 03
    Font - Recently one customer over the last couple of years had made several changes to their property that made making deliveries significantly more difficult. I'd spoken to my boss about them and he laid out the conditions that would need to be met before he would consider dropping a paying customer. And they were literally just barely with the limits. And to their credit they did keep up with their bills...
    via u/Controlled01
  • 04
    Font - I dreaded seeing their name on the delivery list every other week, then they changed to wanting deliveries every week because their children were moving into the house as well. After that payments started being more sporadic. The checks we were getting changed names from the home owner to their daughter. My boss only takes cash or check, not credit cards as he feels no compulsion to give any money to CC companies or to increase prices and pass the cost on to the customer.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 05
    Font - One day while I was in the office doing some end of day tasks the phone rang, caller ID was this problem customer. Boss answered and I eves dropped. It was the daughter, she wanted to to start paying by credit card. Boss said no. Then she decided to drop her "threat" to change companies. Such hope in my heart as I saw the boss' face turn red. He HATES bullies and being bullied. Boss immediately agrees that that would be best and hangs up on her. Walks over to the delivery schedule calenda
    via u/Controlled01
  • 06
    Font - Two days later I got called into the office to hear a message left by the daughter begging us to make deliveries again she apologized and everything. Turns out she had discovered that we were by far the cheapest option for them. One of the things that made them frustrating to deliver to was not just the physical difficulty of the delivery but they only have a 350 gal holding tank. It was a lot of work and time to deliver such a small amount of water. And we have the lowest minimum deliver
    via u/Controlled01
  • 07
    Font - Defiant_Chapter_3299 3 hr. ago Shouldn't mess with parents delivery services anyways. Bet mom and dad ripped her a new one, and now even more mad because they now have to she'll put extra money for her ignorance and being an AH.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 08
    Font - Controlled 01 OP. 3 hr. ago If nothing else it was the daughter paying for her arrogance, instead of her parents paying the bill
    via u/Controlled01
  • 09
    Font - Klyco . 3 hr. ago I love when they do threats, because they never expect you to call their bluff and then they are stuck with the problem.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 10
    Mammal - Newbosterone 2 hr. ago +4. As Granny said, "Don't let it hit ya where the good Lord split ya!"
    via u/Controlled01
  • 11
    Font - Controlled01 OP. 2 hr. ago Granny sounds like one of the real ones lol
    via u/Controlled01
  • 12
    Font - Stabbmaster 2 hr. ago +3. While they may or may not have thought of themselves as "problematic" (they rarely do) if you can't handle the consequences of a decision not going the way you want, don't make the threat. Most people don't realize that a fairly sizable number of businesses don't really need yours in particular, weak spines in retail management is teaching people the wrong lessons.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 13
    Font - Zoreb1 +2.1 hr. ago True but water delivery (there was no town piping or well) is something that I would carefully consider before cutting someone off. But alternative suppliers were available (even if more expensive) so I wouldn't feel any guilt in this situation.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 14
    Font - Stabbmaster 1 hr. ago +3. To be fair, even if you are the only supplier, unless your contract is government owned and you don't have a choice in your clientele you shouldn't feel bad about it anyways. They paid for a service, they elected to sever that service. Being forced to do a job you don't want to do for a person you don't want to work under is communism (slavery if you don't even get a paycheck), and we're better than that.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 15
    Font - Controlled01 OP 1 hr. ago And even if there weren't other suppliers they can haul water themselves in a pinch. Living on 5 gal jugs is no fun, but it is do-able
    via u/Controlled01
  • 16
    Font - Low-decibel +2 1 hr. ago we get water delivered at my house, i go out of my way making sure the owner has it easy, pushing snow to the tank fill, cash payment when he arrived, for Christmas time gift card of 25 to timmies. Never with essentials
    via u/Controlled01
  • 17
    Font - Controlled01 OP 1 hr. ago Yo, I mean this, bless you. We have a hand full of deliveries who clearly work to make my delivery hassle free and they absolutely get preferred service. I hope your water guy appreciates what you do, but if he doesn't I do.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 18
    Font - Zoreb1 +2.2 hr. ago Looks like her defiance tanked. Vote Reply Share Controlled01 OP. 1 hr. ago Water you thinking? That I wouldn't see what what you did there? Cause I do.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 19
    Font - sphynxzyz. 1 hr. ago People need to learn, if you're going to use leaving to a competitor as a threat you should do the research before hand.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 20
    Font - beginnerjay 2 hr. ago Did they know they were a problem? Customers may not realize they were setting things up that were more difficult for you.
    via u/Controlled01
  • 21
    Font - senapnisse +1. 40 min. ago Where is this? Why don't they have communal water? Reply Share Vote Controlled01 OP. 23 min. ago Alaska. We do have city water, but only like 40% of the population lives in the actual city. Most people live in the hills outside of town and there are a lot of reasons that the city can't run water lines out of the actual city limits.
    via u/Controlled01

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customer service malicious compliance entitled reddit thread daughter Reddit parents entitled people
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