My first high end client.

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Don't sweat it!
The shop I work at P/T gets a lot of customers that are pro athletes.
I'm not going to name names but a certain former team member, that has a history of off field issues, comes in with his car all the time. He's a dick, we just do what he asks and take his money. There are others that come and are simply terrific. A.J. Green is probably one of the nicest guys I've ever dealt with, super polite and makes his kids mind when he's there.
I've come to learn these guys aren't above anyone. They fart, belch and crap just like everyone else and the higher they are, the further they fall. Be respectful, professional and above all, yourself.
 
At my business we have a wall of fame. We ask customers if its OK to post pictures of their pieces and let them provide the caption for the picture. Many send their friends over to see "their" picture.
 
Normally I dont mind posting pics of the cars I work on. I do it quite often in fact but with this guy I'm not gonna.

When he picks up the car I'll ask if he minds if a take a few pics and show off the car.

The freaking new distributer is all in at 55 degrees and I dont have the bushings to limit it.... thank God it's super low compression) the car has to be done tomorrow as I'm leaving for about 10 days to do a job in San Francisco...

I know one place that may have some on hand gonna call in the morning and see if I get lucky.

I did take it for a quick test drive today and MAN IT IS A DOG!!

I even took my buddy who own Gromm Racing out for the drive and he said "you did great, that's just all shes got."

I'm just so use to driving my race car around that i guess i forgot what a old tired stock V8 feels like.
Let me tell you, its boring as hell!

:)
 
Big $$ guys are rare in my life. But for the ones that have invested in me, I had no fear of underperforming. Just keep overcommunicating, and address everything he wants done. Simple.
 
We built a little getaway in a ghost town 45 minutes out of town here. A family member of the Wal-Mart fortune has purchased some property here also. Looking forward to meeting him/her some day soon.
 
Cope said:
Normally I dont mind posting pics of the cars I work on. I do it quite often in fact but with this guy I'm not gonna.

When he picks up the car I'll ask if he minds if a take a few pics and show off the car.

The freaking new distributer is all in at 55 degrees and I dont have the bushings to limit it.... thank God it's super low compression) the car has to be done tomorrow as I'm leaving for about 10 days to do a job in San Francisco...

I know one place that may have some on hand gonna call in the morning and see if I get lucky.

I did take it for a quick test drive today and MAN IT IS A DOG!!

I even took my buddy who own Gromm Racing out for the drive and he said "you did great, that's just all shes got."

I'm just so use to driving my race car around that i guess i forgot what a old tired stock V8 feels like.
Let me tell you, its boring as hell!

:)
Click to expand...
Good that you got it done. Back when I had my custom auto Upholstery business in the 80s, I had a high end client bring me 3 vintage Rolls Royce cars from his stable at the same time to have the carpeting redone...unannounced. The value of the cars was easily over $750k at the time.

I balked at first and told him I didn’t have insurance enough to let him leave all 3 cars with me at the same time. He just smiled and said “No problem, I do.”

I took the cars and spent the next 4 days working 18 hours days to get them done and out of my shop. I couldn’t sleep at home knowing they were in my place so I slept on a cot there until they were done.

It was a kind of stressful experience, but in the end he brought me loads of business so it ended up being well worth the effort.

I hope you have the same experience of the benefit it can bring!
 
I think back to the days at the local dodge dealer. 94 ram shortbox standard cab 4x4. Bright red. All the accessories showed up and i was the lucky guy to bolt them on.
Drilling holes in a brand new truck really sucked. After that, my co-worker had a similar task. He did a shitty job,couldnt hang mud flaps level if his life depended on it. The colour matched fiberglass steps were a challenge to get them right.
Id didnt take long,i looked forward to putting the goodies on.

Im getting a few customers with nice cars coming in. I have a stack of clean towels to place on fenders, i take belt off and pull my t-shirt over the button on my jeans. I do not want to be that guy.
My last round with neighbours dart,we had to pull seat out. I took off my boots to work in the car. He said it was cool, but i did it anyway. Was a good decision as i had to put my feet up on back seat.
 
Thanks everyone.

Well its done.

Of course when he showed up it didn't fire on the first crank....

It did fire on the second. (I think his ignition switch is going out.)

He seemed happy. I only billed him for 10 hours, so I basically worked for 2 days for free. I even detailed the car so it wasn't all dusty when he picked it up....

I probably put 30 miles on it in the last 3 days and boy did I get a lot of thumbs ups!

I bet it hasn't had that many miles out on in the last year.

I told him, "if you have any issue or your unhappy about anything, you call me and I'll take care of it."

I hope he doesn't call!

:)

Thanks for all the encouragement!
 
I have one customer that always calls within an hour of driving away. He knows it makes me crazy,but does it anyway. Always good news. Except for the jeep he had, it was a constant rolling failure.
 
Cope said:
Thanks everyone.

Well its done.

Of course when he showed up it didn't fire on the first crank....

It did fire on the second. (I think his ignition switch is going out.)

He seemed happy. I only billed him for 10 hours, so I basically worked for 2 days for free. I even detailed the car so it wasn't all dusty when he picked it up....

I probably put 30 miles on it in the last 3 days and boy did I get a lot of thumbs ups!

I bet it hasn't had that many miles out on in the last year.

I told him, "if you have any issue or your unhappy about anything, you call me and I'll take care of it."

I hope he doesn't call!

:)

Thanks for all the encouragement!
Click to expand...
Great job Cope!
 
The story continues.

Today I received a text from the owner of the car in this thread, at first I was scared to even open it. I was thinking "oh God something is wrong...."

Turns out it's the opposite.

He wants me to go tomorrow or Saturday and look at a car. If I think it's in good shape he wants me to buy it and have it towed to the shop and fix it up.

I said, "I'm not super comfortable with that. What if I think it's good but you see something you dont like?"

He responded, "I trust you, if you think it's good just buy it."


How cool is that?!

This is like some TV car show stuff. I have never done anything like this but I'm excited that he trusts me like that.

I am just blown away.

Any who, that's my day. I sure hope this works out. This could be realy good for the shop.

:thumbsup:

Thanks again for all the time and advice.
 
Don't look now but this is just the start. Bet he has friends that do the same thing. Expect more calls. Cream rises to the top.
 
I'm leaving in the morning to look at the car.

It's been sitting for 20 years, one owner, husband has passed and the wife wants to move so the car is leaving one way or another.

Its not a fancy high end car. Just a car he wants and will drive as his "summer beater"


I was just talking to him and expressing my concerns and his reply was, "it's my money, just have fun with it"....

Wow. Must be nice to live like that....
 
69conv said:
Don't look now but this is just the start. Bet he has friends that do the same thing. Expect more calls. Cream rises to the top.
Click to expand...

Have you seen my car?

It's not cream, more like milk that got left out for a year...
 
Here's what me and my lady are having for dinner. Left over nachos.

20190502_202527_zpszpfqv3bf.jpg


So yeah, running a shop is great....

But just maybe if I work my *** of it will pay for it self at some point?
 
Just keep doing what your doing and you will be living like that. Never underestimate the power of social media. Its the new word of mouth but on steroids.

Cope said:
I'm leaving in the morning to look at the car.

It's been sitting for 20 years, one owner, husband has passed and the wife wants to move so the car is leaving one way or another.

Its not a fancy high end car. Just a car he wants and will drive as his "summer beater"


I was just talking to him and expressing my concerns and his reply was, "it's my money, just have fun with it"....

Wow. Must be nice to live like that....
Click to expand...
 
The story continues.

I didn't buy the car. It was a lot more rough than I figured he would want. It did only have 2,100 miles on the clock but had a few dents and the paint on the hood looked like they had boxes stored on it for 20 years.

So long story short, I took lots of pics, sent him the pics about 20 of everything I could see wrong and told him. "Its a 500-800 dollar car in my opinion and I just dont think it's the right car for you."

It was a hard thing to do because I stood to make a good amount of money on the deal but I just knew it wasn't the right car.

I was completely honest about the car and what I thought about it. Even to the point where I was pushing him to not buy it. It just didn't feel right.

He realy wanted the car but I just said, it's not right. Trust me you dont want that car.

Well he came back into the state, went and looked at the car him self, cash in had and was gonna buy it.

He called me up and said. "Your right. It's not the right car."

This morning he calls me up and I'm at breakfast with my girl. I said I cant talk now can I call you back? Or I'll be at the shop in an hour.

Well low and behold, who turns up at the shop. This guy.

We talk about the car and then he goes in about his other car, the one I just worked on. Hes not happy with the car. Not about my work (well maybe a little) he has so much money In the car and it's just a dissapointing driver. (He even took it to another very high end shop to have them look over my work, well small word that guy is a friend of my pops and told him the same thing.)

After i explained that engine is garbage, it's not right for the car. Its just a bad situation.

So now the car is coming back to my shop, I got handed a bag with more money in it than I've ever seen and I'm gonna fix this pig once and for all.

I guess this is how ritch folks do business.
But DAM, to me this is not normal.

Sorry long post but man this is next level type stuff.
 
If you're always honest you don't have to remember what lies to cover up. Well done.
 
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