There is an old saying in business that the cheapest clients are usually the worst: they add on extra work, don’t pay on time, etc.

In the below story, we see that this hasn’t changed.

Check out how this contractor got back at a potential client who tried to take advantage of him.

A potential client tried to take advantage of me and I got her fired from her ‘big-shot’ marketing job.

A potential client (PC) in my contracting business pushes me for a time for an estimate.

When I get there she said I would be fired from her big-shot marketing job immediately for the way I run my business and how I should be dressed better to respect the client.

And she doesn’t stop being difficult.

I offered $800 with a 10% day-of-estimate discount and she starts haggling, so I give her another 5% discount and then she said “The highest we can go is $600.”

I tell her I can’t go any lower on the job or I would lose money on it.

She says she got an estimate from another local company for $500 and that she wouldn’t want me to match it because she wants to support the local community.

That price point doesn’t sound right to me, so I calculated the labor and materials.

I ask PC if they remember what paint the other company said they would use and she says she doesn’t recall.

Then I ask if I could see their estimate contract to try to figure out why they were so much cheaper than I was.

PC says that they didn’t have an estimate sheet.

Now this is a big no-no in any contracting business because you have to keep track of numbers, budgeted hours, etc.

Now alarm bells are ringing in my head and PC finally agrees on a price.

She tells me that she cannot issue a check because Chase which doesn’t have a branch near us and that the nearest one is in New York (we are close to Boston).

I explain to her that when I receive the deposit, I’ll lock her in my schedule.

She mutters “… [something something] I can find the check book by tomorrow..”

She just admitted to lying to me about having to order a checkbook from NY.

So he goes into detective mode.

When I get home, I Google ‘Chase branches near me’ on Google there was a Chase branch 14 minutes from her house.

Now I’m mad. I don’t know what else she lied to me about so I call up my friend whose dad owns the company she talked about.

He says that he never did an estimate with her name or address.

I send her a message over Facebook Messenger and called her out.

She. Goes. Off: “You people should be grateful that I even pay you $5 an hour for your work” (I’m Chinese) and other insults.

I send screenshots a lengthy description of what happened in an email to whatever email addresses I could find associated with her employer.

They responded saying thank you; this is unacceptable and we will be conducting an internal investigation into PC.

Today I go to her profile and in the intro for her profile it now says “Works at Self-Employed.”

Here is what folks are saying.

It’s the biggest red flag.

I’m sure it’s so annoying, but you may be able to repel the wrong clientele.

I actually thought this is how the story would go.

Definitely. I bet she has a “I need to see the manager” haircut. What a Karen.

Haha! She’d probably lash out, though.

If you take bad deals, you’re the one who ends up paying.

You’ve got to watch your own back.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.