Some people just have to make things so difficult…

And the guy you’re going to meet in this story from Reddit is one of them!

But, let’s just say that he got his in the end…

Check out how this guy who owns a laundry service got even with him!

You don’t want to pay? I’ll hold your laundry hostage.

“I, 44 m at the time am a small business owner.

I have a pickup and delivery laundry service in a big city. My bread and butter is commercial business – small salons, bars, restaurants.

People like us because we don’t require a lengthy contract. It’s a sort of call-us-if-you-want-to situation, and if you don’t like us, don’t call.

It works both ways.

They landed a great client.

We were pretty new to the business at the time, and we were super excited to get a Michelin 2 Star restaurant’s tablecloths and napkins.

We didn’t like the jerk finance guy M who always tried to negotiate us down, but we got along great with A.

She was the logistics/fixer/genius problem solver for the restaurant. Any high end business should have someone like her on staff.

This was a lot of money.

We jumped through hoops like we’d never jumped through hoops before. Even rented more space to handle their business.

At $3,000/month, they were our biggest customer.

Thing is, M already negotiated an AMAZING deal with us from the start, but he was in the nasty habit of trying to negotiate after the fact.

Every time they owed us money, he would try to get us to take less.

Not happening!

We told A this was not OK over and over again.

M was an owner, but he was just a money guy. The head chef and other owners actually cared about the business.

Well – the back and forth went on for months.

They always insisted on a discount. We never gave in, because we were already in deep discount territory with these people. And, come on – at $400 / plate, you can afford $2 per tablecloth or whatever we charged them.

This guy was a creep.

M eventually started really putting the screws to us and was withholding about $1,700 – money we really needed – while he tried to squeeze us to accept less.

I think he thought we were probably living on the edge like most small business owners, but we were really just tired – sick and tired more than anything. And we checked our balance of nonsense, and there were none left to give.

I came up with a plan and got my partner to agree.

It was ransom time!

We put the plan in motion.

We waited until the weekend came. We had almost all of these peoples’ laundry.

I think you can see where this is going.

I called A, and I told her that M could stuff it. We have all your laundry – it’s all pressed and ready, it’s Monday. You’re planning to open again on Tuesday.

When you pay us in full for this order and everything that you owe us for previous orders IN CASH, you’ll get your laundry back.

That wasn’t all…

Not before I also let her know that once we got paid, our business relationship would be over.

This was disastrous for us financially, but we weren’t going to starve.

She understood, and she was actually on our side. She LOVED our service. She let all the owners know that we were not messing around.

She called us back and we agreed on a time.

Time to make the trade.

I went to the restaurant, left my partner and the laundry in the van (I dealt with all sorts of criminals and scammers in the neighborhoods where we delivered. I knew how to treat jerks).

M wasn’t there.

The chef (other owner) was there, and only because it was him and not M, did I accept a business check instead of cash (it cashed / no problem).

I called my partner to bring in the laundry.

Let’s make a deal…

A called me later and proposed that we keep working with them and we would never have to speak to M again.

Honestly, it was such a weight off my shoulders to no longer deal with them. I said no way.

Don’t try to stiff a small business that stands between you and setting tables for $20,000 worth of seatings in your fancy restaurant when you have no plan B.

I have no regrets!”

Trying to cheat a small business owner really backfired!

Check out what Reddit users had to say about this.

This person chimed in.

Another individual spoke up.

This reader was impressed.

Another person had a lot to say.

And this Reddit user spoke up.

It was like a gangster movie…but with laundry.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.