When Do YOU Pass On a Job?

[Hesh Breakstone]

Something that our friend Paul V. said in the thread about a Guild reminded me of a topic that I've been wanting to bring up for a while now.  Thanks Paul!

It's when do you pass on a job?  Something that seems to plague us, more so in the past than currently... is the topic of clients who have basket case guitars that have clearly been abused in all manner of creative ways... and they want to drop them off for repair and then never pick them up...

I'm reminded of Quentin Tarintino's excellent film Pulp Fiction where Quentin gets upset because his friends seem to think that they can bring over and leave dead bodies in his yard/garage....

For us this was compounded by the existence of a music store on the lower floors of our building where the sales folks would take in all manner of crap, estimate completely incorrectly, and then set the client's expectation that they could get a neck reset for $2.00...

Of course I'm exaggerating but attempting to make a point and the point is that when we don't do our own triage at times, seemingly often, it's a lot more difficult to reset a client's expectation that the high action on a 70's Martin may require more than a truss rod adjustment...

So there are really two issues here, basket case guitars that require more attention and expense to bring back than their value even when fixed and/or the client's budget AND when these guitars are left and left and left for years at times but the client still wants them....  We had one that was left originally with other folks who had our shop previously over ten years ago and the client still wants it fixed....

I'm personally not adverse to passing on jobs if the value proposition is not there or the quoted price is something that the client balks at.  On rare occasion a client's attitude may cause me to ask myself if I really want to get involved with this client perhaps because of a predisposition to attempt to micro-manage on the client's part.  Or, more specifically, folks who leave guitars for years, never call to check up on them or the level if any of progress.  Seems to me to be a bad risk in the sense that one could do the work, sometimes extensive work requiring dozens or more of hours, and then never have the thing picked up and paid for.

I would appreciate learning what some of your experiences have been with the jobs that you never should have taken in.  What happened, why, have you changed your perspective as a result, etc?  Any pink elephants currently in your shops that you are concerned about?

Thanks!

[Hesh Breakstone]

I can appreciate that, Robbie.

Prior to having the retail repair shop I worked out of my home shop by appointment only.  Folks who missed the appointment AND never contacted me before or after I was no longer willing to serve.  It only happened once and I was always sure when setting up the appointment to say something such as "let's set up an appointment so that I can be sure to be here for you."  Even when positioning the appointment around them and expressing the benefit to them if this did not give them the idea that the value was/is there for them then maybe they would be happier taking their instrument elsewhere.  I was happier this way too...

The vast majority of the folks that I met with the home shop though were always respectful of the idea that they were in someone's home, taking their time, etc.  

[Hesh Breakstone]

Great replies everyone - Thank You All!!!