If you can't do the job, then say so!

Earlier this year, I needed a panel beater to do a job on my caravan.  I was recommended to a firm in Tauranga so I contacted him and explained my dilemma.  He asked me to send photographs and he would then contact me to arrange a time for the job.  Two weeks passed and there was no word so I phoned him.  After the initial pleasantries, the conversation went like this:

Me: “You were going to get back to me about those photos I sent you”
Him “Yes, I was”
Me “So what’s the story”
Him “ I’m too busy”
Me “So, I need to find someone else”
Him “ Looks like it”
Me “Well, a phone call would have been really good”
Him “ I’ve been far too busy”

So I hung up after making an unpleasant remark.  That guy will never ever get business from me, or anybody else who asks me if I know a panel beater.

Contrast that with Dave McRobbie from Caravan and Motorhome World in Hamilton who bent over backwards for me after my first call.  He is extremely busy too but he helped me to schedule it in at a mutually acceptable time, and when we got back from our overseas trip, it was all ready.

Who would you rather deal with?