[RE-wrenches] What would you do/say?

Nick A Lucchese lucchesesolar at me.com
Fri Feb 26 00:38:05 EST 2021 

Yes, an interesting thread. Glad to hear I’m not the only one seeing this more and more these days. Internet lowballers and Youtube “pros” aren’t helping the situation either. There is always a bit of guilt not helping someone out especially after hearing that declining to help really often unfolds into more unfortunate turns for them. It’s always a balance of what's best for me and my time versus the best for the safety of our community. Just have to accept that I can’t save everyone and perhaps by not they’ll find someone else that needs the experience.

As far as “firing" a customer yes that can feel really good. I did that a couple years ago with a client I had been helping for 16 years. It was the best $830 I’ve ever walked away from! Brings a smile to my face to this day!

Just for fun, here’s a sweet system I declined to work on a few years back. He didn’t like the fact that I told him I was going to completely remove it before re-installing it and then charge him a $300 fee to clean all the carbon deposits off my tools and body each time I was there. Not shown 4’ away is 100 gallons of diesel fuel and the generator. Yet somehow he got this permitted by parking a tractor in front of the access door (so he claimed).

Nick






And did you ever walk away from from a longstanding PITA? I call it "firing" a customer. You took them on years ago 'cause maybe you needed the work, or just felt sorry for them. But have been nothing but a pain for all the reasons you mentioned. And they get upset when you finally tell them, nicely or not, to find someone else. I've done firings no less than 5 times in the last several years. At this late date in my career, who needs it.

Kirk Herander /  <>kirkh at vermont.solar <mailto:kirkh at vermont.solar>
Owner|Principal, VT Solar, LLC
Celebrating our 30th Anniversary 1991-2021!!
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> On 2/24/2021 8:28:47 PM, Hilton Dier <hiltondier at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I’ll say it again: The most important clients are the ones you turn away. The penny pinching, pound foolish, never satisfied, paranoid, DIY-without-asking, ear bending, time sucking, slow paying nightmares that we have all had. The key is to see the warning signs on the way in, a skill that comes from grim experience.
> 
> The “can you cob this back together for $200?” job is a non starter.
> 
> Hilton Dier III
> Renewable Energy Design
> Missisquoi River Hydro LLC
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> On Feb 25, 2021, at 7:11 AM, Dana Orzel <dana at solarwork.com> wrote:
> 
> Succinctly put & thank you! 
> 
> Add to that "I did it myself what do you think?"
> Learning to walk away is probably one of the hardest lessons in the solar business I have had to learn (years ago).
> 
> I just had a request to add batteries to a11 KW Solar Edge system that was according to the phone call that was sold to "to supposed to back up his house" without batteries???  
> The first time the power went out he was upset?? 
> How do you buy a solar backup system & not know you needed batteries? 
> Red Flag #1
> 
> This site is 9 hours away from my shop & he bragged about asking the electrical inspector during the original installation to "find something" so that the original installer would have to do a 26 hour round trip to the site. 
> Red Flag #2
> 
> I laid out the inspection trip to do an analysis & layout of the conversion & the associated costs & have not heard back for 3 weeks. I was doing all I could to not be rude & realistically honest as to what it was going to take to pull all the SolarEdge equipment out (he wanted me to take it as trade-in towards the revamp on the system). 
> 
> Junk installs - 
> Being able to say that a system would not pass inspection & therefore probably will VOID their homeowners insurance in the event of a fire related or not to the solar installation is a safe, honest & effective start with a junk installation request. You FEEL that you cannot afford this liability on your company. Ask what they feel about this.
> 
> Remember their feelings & your feelings are facts! Especially gut feelings, walk away. :-]]
> 
> 
> Dana Orzel                              Great Solar Works, Inc. 
> C - 208.721.7003                       dana at solarwork.com
> Idaho Contractor - # 028765         Idaho PV # 028374
> NABCEP # 051112-136                       www.greatsolarworks.com
> "Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988"  
>  Please consider the environment before printing this email.
> __________________________________________
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> On Behalf Of Hilton Dier
> Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2021 6:20 PM
> To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] What would you do/say?
> 
> I’ll say it again: The most important clients are the ones you turn away. The penny pinching, pound foolish, never satisfied, paranoid, DIY-without-asking, ear bending, time sucking, slow paying nightmares that we have all had. The key is to see the warning signs on the way in, a skill that comes from grim experience.
> 
> The “can you cob this back together for $200?” job is a non starter.
> 
> Hilton Dier III
> Renewable Energy Design
> Missisquoi River Hydro LLC
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
> 
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
> 
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> 
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> 
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