Imagine working for a construction company that spends millions of dollars on supplies. If an employee at a supplier’s company was rude to you, would you continue to work with them or threaten to take your business elsewhere?

In this story, one man is in this exact situation, and he threatens to go elsewhere. However, he decides to talk to the owner first.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

“If you don’t like it, you can leave.” Alright then

My dad works for an employee owned civil construction company, they make water processing plants among other public utility buildings. Contracts can range from 10 to 50 million dollars and more after expenses.

They spend the vast majority of said budget on materials. Again Millions of dollars.

One company they get parts from is their main supplier of pipes and plumbing doohickeys. They spend about a third of their budget with them, again specialty in water treatment plants. He has even received awards for being one of their top 5 customers, 2 years ago it was a fire hydrant cookie jar which he found hilarious.

The dad met everyone on staff except one person.

This particular job was on the east coast in a state where my dad has yet to work. As such he goes to the office personally to meet these people, on principle mind you. He’s just that type of guy.

He meets the staff, or most of them. What he didn’t know was that one lady was out that day, her day off.

Eventually the budget has been worked out and the structural base has been mostly completed.

So my dad calls the suppliers to place his order. You know exactly who he gets, the one lady he didn’t get to meet.

The lady had no idea who he was.

So the conversation goes a bit like this;

Dad: Hello, this is Dad, I need to order some parts.

Lady: Of course, do you have an account with us?

Dad: Yes, this construction company.

He knew the lady was lying.

Lady types a bit: I’m sorry but I don’t see an account for this construction company.

Dad: Yes, we do. Could you please check again?

Lady: I’m afraid we don’t have an account for this construction company.

Now, it is important to note that, A. My dad takes no nonsense, and he knows she didn’t recheck because he couldn’t hear her rather loud keyboard typing and B. To create an account requires a credit history check which can take 5-10 business days to get done. This company, my dad included, runs a tight ship so this is entirely unacceptable.

Dad tries to handle it another way.

Dad: look, can I speak with Owner, I met him yesterday and I would like to clear this up quickly.

Lady: I’m afraid Owner is unavailable right now. I could create an account for you if you’d like.

Dad: Look, I need to buy 70,000 dollars of prep materials, and I need them by next week. Please try again to find our account. This construction company is one of your top clients and if you ask me to create a new account I will go elsewhere.

Lady, still not trying again says: I apologize for the inconvenience, If you feel that you could get better service elsewhere than you are free to do so.

Dad was furious.

My dad immediately hung up fuming.

He had to take 2 more days and 10,000 more dollars but he got the parts on time.

He then came into the office a week later, passed by the front desk and knocked on Owner’s door.

“Sir, you can’t be back here”

He was determined to talk to the owner.

Wouldn’t you know it was the Lady from before.

My dad just waited and when Owner opened the door, he greeted Dad like an old friend. After explaining the situation, the owner immediately called the lady in, calmly berated her and showed her exactly how to find This construction company in the future, (My dad isn’t someone to get people fired, better to humiliate them into competence).

The owner then called corporate who authorized a 10% discount on piping as an apology. This contract had a piping budget of 9 million dollars so that discount went straight to profits. As a stockholder that goes to my dad’s pockets as well.

He’s never had a problem before nor since.

She really should’ve put him in touch with the owner the first time when he asked instead of daring him to go to another supplier.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person likes the dad’s approach.

Another person thinks the lady should’ve been fired.

Here’s a similar comment.

But this person thinks it’s important to be over-prepared.

She’s lucky she didn’t get fired.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.