{"id":1064,"date":"2012-07-02T13:56:27","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T18:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/?p=1064"},"modified":"2012-07-02T13:57:56","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T18:57:56","slug":"the-customer-from-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"The Customer from Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"<div font-family:=\"\" style=\"\u201dfont-size:\">\n<p>Every new home builder &#8211; whether you are a modular home builder, manufactured home retailer, community, developer, a stick builder or other kinds of pre-fab builder &#8211; has had one or more&nbsp;<i><b>&ldquo;customer from hell.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/b><\/i> Once you&rsquo;ve signed the contract and the house is in process there&rsquo;s little that can be done with one of these buyers except consulting a lawyer who will probably tell you to complete the contract you signed and forget them after your warranty period.<\/p>\n<p><b>Easier said than done!<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; \"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/customer-from-hell-from-modular-home-coach-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1080\"><img alt=\"customer-from-hell-from-modular-home-coach\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1080\" height=\"149\" src=\"http:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/customer-from-hell-from-modular-home-coach1.jpg\" title=\"customer-from-hell-from-modular-home-coach\" width=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; \">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; \">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; \">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; \">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>So how do you avoid these people in the first place?&nbsp; It&rsquo;s not as hard as you would think.&nbsp;<\/b>They usually fall into certain categories.&nbsp;&nbsp;The biggest problem you will have is turning one of these down if you&rsquo;ve got nothing on your plate and you&rsquo;ve got to get some work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Here are the types of new home buyers to avoid:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><b>I need another quote:<\/b>&nbsp;&nbsp;This prospective home buyer wants you to draw floorplan after floorplan and quote everything.&nbsp; You will never quite get it right but eventually they will give you the OK and sign a contract only to be your worse nightmare during construction because you &ldquo;just don&rsquo;t understand what we want.&rdquo;<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>Selective hearing:<\/b>&nbsp; Having this type for a client is bad; very bad.&nbsp; During the quoting phase, they only wanted you to lowball the price.&nbsp; You got the contract but now they want changes that they say you said were included.&nbsp; You didn&rsquo;t but that doesn&rsquo;t matter now.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>The legal eagle:<\/b>&nbsp;The threats are real.&nbsp; Anything you do seems to provide a reason for your buyer to contact their lawyer.&nbsp; Instead of talking to you about a problem they go to their lawyer first.&nbsp; Now you have the customer from hell and the lawyer he rode in on.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>I&rsquo;m unavailable:<\/b>&nbsp; Have you ever had the client that can&rsquo;t be reached when there is a decision to be made?&nbsp; You call, you get voice mail.&nbsp; You email, it goes unanswered.&nbsp; Your texts are ignored and just when you are about to give up, they call wanting to know what the delay is. &nbsp;Where&rsquo;s the rifle?<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>Micro-manager:<\/b>&nbsp; We&rsquo;ve all had this client.&nbsp; I once had a buyer move a travel trailer onto the building lot and lived there while we built his house.&nbsp; He was under foot and a master of questioning everything.&nbsp; My subs hated him, my workers hated him and eventually I didn&rsquo;t even want to go to the job site.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>Gossiping Guy:<\/b>&nbsp; This guy will speak sweet nothings to you when you&rsquo;re face to face but will talk to all your subs and employees trying to get some dirt about you that they can gossip about to anyone that will listen.&nbsp; You usually don&rsquo;t find out about this until the house is almost finished and someone says something to you about it.&nbsp; 95% of the time, the gossip is false but the damage is done.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>The bargain hunter:<\/b>&nbsp; Hopefully you will not sign a contract with this buyer until you call their bluff.&nbsp; No matter what price you quote for the house, they claim to know someone who can build it for less.&nbsp; The best response to this bluff is, &ldquo;This is a fair price.&nbsp; If you can get your house built cheaper, go for it.&rdquo;&nbsp; It is better to lose them before the contract is signed.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><b>Never-happy guy:<\/b>&nbsp; Occasionally you&rsquo;ll run into buyers who aren&rsquo;t happy no matter what you do.&nbsp; Changing their attitude can be difficult &ndash; sometimes impossible.&nbsp; As long as you do what is in the contract, your conscience should be clear.&nbsp; Their never-happy attitude could stem from a variety of things: maybe their very busy or afraid of being scammed by you or their simply shy.&nbsp; Do your best and treat them with respect &ndash; the rest is up to them.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of the above could be signals that you have a customer from hell. Spare yourself perdition&#39;s flames, and just say no on the front end! Do it before the deal is signed, so hellfire and brimstone don&#39;t come your way. ##<\/p>\n<p><b>Gary Fleisher<\/b>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\tmodcoach@gmail.com<br \/>\n\t\t<u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.modularhomecoach.com\/\">http:\/\/www.ModularHomeCoach.com<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every new home builder &#8211; whether you are a modular home builder, manufactured home retailer, community, developer, a stick builder or other kinds of pre-fab &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"ast-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Customer from Hell<\/span> Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1354,1352,1353,1360,1349,1350,1355,1345,1358,1346,1348,1351,76,1347,1357,1359,1356,173],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Customer from Hell | Industry Voices<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Customer from Hell | Industry Voices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every new home builder &#8211; whether you are a modular home builder, manufactured home retailer, community, developer, a stick builder or other kinds of pre-fab &hellip; The Customer from Hell Read More \u00bb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Industry Voices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-02T18:56:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-02T18:57:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/customer-from-hell-from-modular-home-coach1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Soheyla Kovach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Soheyla Kovach\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Soheyla Kovach\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/person\/0dea729f575e03819572c61f5fb100d7\"},\"headline\":\"The Customer from Hell\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-02T18:56:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-02T18:57:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\"},\"wordCount\":775,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"community developer\",\"fab\",\"floorplan\",\"hell\",\"home retailer\",\"lawyer\",\"legal eagle\",\"modular home builder\",\"nbsp\",\"new home builder\",\"new home buyers\",\"nightmare\",\"pre-fab\",\"prospective home buyer\",\"selective hearing\",\"warranty\",\"warranty period\",\"www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com\"],\"articleSection\":[\"MH Industry Voices\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\",\"name\":\"The Customer from Hell | Industry Voices\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-02T18:56:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-02T18:57:56+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Customer from Hell\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/\",\"name\":\"Industry Voices\",\"description\":\"Letters to the Editor and OpEd by &amp; for MH Industry Pros\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#organization\",\"name\":\"MHproNews\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MHProNewsDropShadowRWBlueLogo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MHProNewsDropShadowRWBlueLogo.jpg\",\"width\":658,\"height\":284,\"caption\":\"MHproNews\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/person\/0dea729f575e03819572c61f5fb100d7\",\"name\":\"Soheyla Kovach\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3bdf613480468e59dd7f1eeb095a952?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3bdf613480468e59dd7f1eeb095a952?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Soheyla Kovach\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/author\/soheyla\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Customer from Hell | Industry Voices","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Customer from Hell | Industry Voices","og_description":"Every new home builder &#8211; whether you are a modular home builder, manufactured home retailer, community, developer, a stick builder or other kinds of pre-fab &hellip; The Customer from Hell Read More \u00bb","og_url":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/","og_site_name":"Industry Voices","article_published_time":"2012-07-02T18:56:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-07-02T18:57:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/customer-from-hell-from-modular-home-coach1.jpg"}],"author":"Soheyla Kovach","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Soheyla Kovach","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/"},"author":{"name":"Soheyla Kovach","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/person\/0dea729f575e03819572c61f5fb100d7"},"headline":"The Customer from Hell","datePublished":"2012-07-02T18:56:27+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-02T18:57:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/"},"wordCount":775,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#organization"},"keywords":["community developer","fab","floorplan","hell","home retailer","lawyer","legal eagle","modular home builder","nbsp","new home builder","new home buyers","nightmare","pre-fab","prospective home buyer","selective hearing","warranty","warranty period","www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com"],"articleSection":["MH Industry Voices"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/","url":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/","name":"The Customer from Hell | Industry Voices","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-02T18:56:27+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-02T18:57:56+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/the-customer-from-hell\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Customer from Hell"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/","name":"Industry Voices","description":"Letters to the Editor and OpEd by &amp; for MH Industry Pros","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#organization","name":"MHproNews","url":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MHProNewsDropShadowRWBlueLogo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/MHProNewsDropShadowRWBlueLogo.jpg","width":658,"height":284,"caption":"MHproNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/person\/0dea729f575e03819572c61f5fb100d7","name":"Soheyla Kovach","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3bdf613480468e59dd7f1eeb095a952?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3bdf613480468e59dd7f1eeb095a952?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Soheyla Kovach"},"url":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/author\/soheyla\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1090,"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064\/revisions\/1090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manufacturedhomepronews.com\/industryvoices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}