Rumor control - Regarding Nick Markowitz

While I agree that you shouldn't let your anger with your competitor get in the way of good business, a customer that wouldn't even call you before making the kind of decision that severed a long standing, mutually beneficial relationship isn't worth having back (IMO). Charge them a premium for the other services you provide and make them aware that anything involving the security equipment will necessitate a separate call to their "new provider".

And God bless you! Just when I thought I wouldn't have anyth> > And...that's what attornies are for...give the issue to a good attorney,

When it comes to business and customers (especially the large ones - mostly what we deal with unfortunately) I think the evil Stalin summed it up when he said "Gratitude is a sickness suffered by dogs." Remind yourself that every business exists to make a profit. If this or any customer can be a profitable one, then that should be the first consideration. I give up expecting any loyalty, gratitude or anything else from a customer. Getting paid on time is my reward. I protect my interests by protecting the customer's interests. I do expect a customer to call me when their ass is in a sling and they really need help. I respond and bill accordingly. If there is a competitor spreading falsehoods to steal customers perhaps a newsletter in your next billing could serve to properly explain the situation. People are phobic about so many things, and cancer is certainly one. Some might feel that they may be doing you a favor by switching so as not to be a burden. If you mention that you are getting treatment for a serious illness but are fully able to handle their business, it might help to eliminate the poaching.

It depends on the circumstances and what they were like before. We had a client leave after several years when the husband was unhappy about being charged for a service visit due to his own error. The competitor happened to be a friend of mine. By mutual agreement we would not take over each others' clients without first warning each other. They called and I said there was no problem so they took it over. The next day the customer's wife called and asked if we would take them back. I called the other company to let them know, then went out and reprogrammed the client back to our CS. They stayed with us until I sold the company many years later.

Another client, the owner of a small chain of video stores, was a miserable pain in the olson. He never paid bills on time and constantly caused false alarms. He was also extremely rude to my wife who worked in my office. He contacted the same competitor. They called to warn me that he was shopping around. I told them how much he owed me at the time for installing the last of six systems. They agreed to take him over once I was paid.

He paid. They took the systems over. The following year he called and asked if we would take him back. I declined.

Well, yes,,,I agree with both of you guys. If the client was a pain in the ass, or slow-pay or whatever, no I wouldn't take them back. I was speaking to the little old lady that was loyal until some Brikey-type fast talker salesman took her away...that kinda thing.

We occasionally received calls from clients who'd been solicited to jump to one or another competing alarm company. There was one particularly bad operator -- a fly-by-night dealer for a national outfit -- that did this for a while until several other alarm companies sued them for tortious interference. I don't think we lost more than two or three accounts to them, if even that many.

My policy was, if the client wanted out let them go. If the competitor didn't know how to program the panel I'd do it for them just to make sure our receiver phone numbers were taken out. We used two separate numbers and many companies would only use one. This occasionally resulted in us getting a "ghost" signal when someone else's receiver was busy. We rarely lost clients unless they were moving out of the area so it wasn't a major issue though.

If an account was discontinued and we couldn't get access to make sure our data was removed, the account number was not reused. This happened mainly when clients would move without notifying us.

Robert L Bass Bass Home Electronics Sales: 941-925-8650 Fax: 941-870-3252 Tech Support: 941-866-1100 DOB: September 19, 1949 SSN: 144-44-1945 Eye Color: Brown Height: 71 inches FBI Number: 00509382G FDLE Number: 01331653