If you don't want to read a rant. Stop right now and hit your kill key on this thread. This is a rant. Its also not alarm related.
I was a licensed contractor for 23 years. Never had a complaint on my license (a real complaint) and only had two BBB complaints. Both of the later just didn't want to honor the terms they agreed to and their letters just read like they didn't want to pay their bill. After the second time and the BBB listed me with a B while listing companies I knew first hand engaged in fraudulent practices with an A I told them they were prohibited from listing my company at all.
Well recently I had a customer pay for a custom job. I told them up front that there was about 16 weeks custom work already paid on my jobs board, and that all jobs were done in the order they are paid. PERIOD NO EXCEPTION and I understand if they want to look for somebody else.
That is pretty much the standard in the market niche I work in now. Some new guys do work on spec or take partial deposits, but they quickly learn like I did that you get stuck with items on your shelf you can't sell and can't get paid for. Lots of guys don't tell customers how long its going to take, and they don't respond to demanding emails at all. I tell them upfront and I try to always respond to their requests for updates. I actually had a customer tell me early on, "No Bob. I will pay you up front just like I would have to with anybody else decent in the business." I've been that way ever since. I have about 14-16 weeks work on the custom jobs board right now so obviously its a workable model.
The customer from paragraph two started giving me crap and being demanding after about 8 weeks. I told him that we were not close to the terms he agreed to and pointed out it was sent in email and it was on his invoice. Well he went off the deep end telling me he had already contacted his bank and they had refunded his money, and threatening to "write lots of reviews." He didn't have the nerve to actually say bad reviews or slanderous reviews, but I thanked him for the warning and asked him if he would so kind as to send me links to those reviews so I could share them with all my happy customers. He went off the deep end again and threatened to sue me among other things. I'm not sure exactly what he would sue me for, but I let him know his reply wasn't really coherent and I was blocking his emails. I also told him that if he tried to circumvent that I would consider a harassment (harassment is criminal) complaint against him. Within a minute or two my phone was ringing. I was in the machine room setting up a job, but when I went back in the office I looked up the CALL ID and it was this guy. I'm glad I didn't answer. He didn't leave a message.
I was a bit annoyed and decided to call it a day before I broke something or worse hurt myself and everybody's jobs got delayed. I was sitting in my living room in my recliner sipping on a cup of fresh brewed coffee and watch Ian of Forgotten Weapons on YouTube tell all about how Samuel Colt was an interesting and very driven individual when a local Sheriff's Deputy rang my door bell.
Apparently the guy had called his local Sheriff's department in Florida and said I was trying to rip him off. Now lets stop a minute. If he misrepresented things to his bank/credit card provider and took my money back he has no financial claim, and I no longer had any obligation to him. If he did not tell that to the Sheriff's department he misrepresented things at best. To my knowledge there is no jurisdiction in the USA where filing a false police report or making false statements to law enforcement in the performance of their duties is not a crime.
They called my local Sheriff's Department and who sent a deputy to see me. I explained everything, showed him all the pertinent supporting documentation, and emailed him copies. He said the police report on his end was going to be really short. I'll be getting a copy, and also the incident report number from the Florida Sheriff's office so I can get a copy of their police report as well.
In the mean time I sent our friend in Florida one last email letting him know that as long as he did not succeed in stealing from me I would unblock him long enough to get proof approval on his job when I got to his job on the board in about 8 weeks. I also let him know the local sheriff's department had visited with me, and I would be getting a copy of both their and his sheriff's departments police reports. "While I am not sure you filed a false police report, under Arizona law even as the victim I am REQUIRED by Arizona statute to report a crime if I believe one has been committed."
What I should do for my own peace of mind is refund the guy and block him forever, but I don't believe in rewarding bad behaviour. Besides I consider that a binding agreement to do a job goes both ways. I am just as obligated to complete his job as he is not to back out of it after I have put the money to work making sure there is material to do it and spent time figuring out the best way to get it done.
I never had a customer call the sheriff on me because I insisted on sticking to the terms of an agreement and refused to be intimidated until last Friday. I'm still a little stunned. Relieved too actually. Law enforcement, atleast on my end, had no problem seeing the situation for what it was.
As a contractor I had a couple customers I fired, but I never fired them before completing the job I agreed to do, and I always covered the warranty until the 366th day. I think I will fire this guy ten seconds after I ship his part.