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Cutting Off an Over-Demanding End-User?
SpaceNeeded asks: "Numbers of you will probably recognize the start of the situation. Because I work with systems, I perform occasional builds. This occasionally crosses over to support (especially where it's my kit I'm asked to support). This isn't a problem, nor is it a problem when I get the occasional support query from someone I haven't supplied a system to, but who needs assistance. This is all well and good, but I've had pretty poor year personally. I've lost two relatives and a third is in a pretty bad way in hospital. An eleven year relationship ended a couple of months back, and I'm now having to perform _all_ the domestic tasks that used to be shared. Between these few things and my regular job I'm finding I have a whole lot less time to allow to support calls. What methods do you know of for gently cutting off someone, support-wise?"
"I have a regular end-user who is the one that we all dread. They have little interest in PC systems for itself, and regularly call up with problems, usually related to Windows spy-ware/Trojans/Viruses. I haven't supplied the systems, which comprises of two Dells and a Tosh laptop. Although I quite like them personally, I really don't need the hassle of their regular calls at the moment.
Before the regular cries of 'Supply Ubuntu' get too loud - that will _not_ work. They aren't up to Windows after a couple of years, and will expect interoperability with Windows systems (through college/employer) and don't have the technical skills to manage a *nix system."
Before the regular cries of 'Supply Ubuntu' get too loud - that will _not_ work. They aren't up to Windows after a couple of years, and will expect interoperability with Windows systems (through college/employer) and don't have the technical skills to manage a *nix system."
give 'em some reasonable number of requests, and after that charge them $55-65 per incident (which should nicely cover the cost of having cleaners deal with at least some of the domestic stuff for you).
I know its too late, but the simple solution to the problem is to not provide support in the first place, unless you're being paid specifically for that support. Either way, refer them to someone who is willing to make a job out of support.
This is a really simple business decision - these are the customers you don't want, you need to get rid of them to have a healthy business. Dump this guy, politely, but firmly. "I'm sorry but I'm not going to be able to provide support any more because priorities have had to change and I won't have the time, it's nothing personal it's just business".
If the guy takes it badly, that's his problem.
Why not tell them the truth, and if you need to, give them the name and number of someone that would gladly help them. Perhaps you can find someone that could use the money, such as a student...
I find that increasing rates also helps, as previously mentioned.
The bottom line, however, is that you need to learn to say "no". It really is OK to not give out free customer support to people, even if they're friends or family. If friends/family don't understand that you're not up to it after the year you've had, they're not much in the way of friends anyway.
Just be sure to give them an alternative, then it'll at least seem like you care about them getting a solution.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Then move far away.
This worked for me
"Sorry, but due to other commitments I don't have the time or the inclination to deal with your issues now."
It's great that you've asked Slashdot users -- a community that is known throughout the world for its tact and ability to handle delicate matters -- to help solve your dilemma.
http://outcampaign.org/
well, of course they'll keep coming to you, because you're free, and you never say no. One or both of these has to change.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
I wound down the suport aspect of my business a while back but the only way to get rid of the support people was to start raising the rates so they would find someone else.
I don't know what you charge now, but start upping it fast. Increments of 25% is a good way to wean people off stupid calls. You can always charge less, later. Demanding a 3 hour minimum is a good way to go as well (even 4 hour minimums).
Automate the response -- it may sound like a bit more work, but I've tried it myself and in the long run it seems to work out well...
For instance, for a while I had to look up certain results in a DB for a user and it was happening so often I just created a web interface for them to look it up themselves -- granted, that's an easy fix and I probably should have had that in place in the beginning, but it cut down the amount of time spent trying to figure out why certain things were hooped by about 95%. Now, whenever my coworker contacts me, it's for issues that are most likely bugs and not for DB row queries.
I understand that your situation is not exactly the same as mine, and my condolences for any hardships you are enduring - But perhaps there might be a way to automate this tech support for this user?
Another thing would be to talk to your superviser above you and if he or she is a good supervisor, they'll recognize the issues and try to find a solution that works for you.
Finally, if all else fails, just feign ignorance and the user will probably find another poor sys admin to hassle... =P
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
How about just telling them what you told us?
"I have too much shit on my plate right now to take care of your technical problems."
You don't even owe them an explanation, it's perfectly ok to set your boundaries as you wish them to be. If after that they still bug you they're not your friends, they're just parasites.
Good luck with everything man, hang in there.
Get a mac and then "forget" about how to use windows.
I don't understand why you're oligated to fix this person's computer.
Are they paying you? Raise the price. If that doesn't work, raise it again. Problem solved.
If they're not paying you, tell them to fuck off. It's not your problem that they're too lazy to figure it out themselves or too cheap to pay someone else to do it.
Maybe not
The Mighty BOFH! All the advice you need (and plenty you don't) is contained therein.
Slashdot - News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, in ISO-8859-1 Has just realised that beta makes this signature redundant
a) If they're paying you for support: Bump up the price.
b) If they're not paying you for support: See (a)
c) If they keep asking for support at the new price: Hire someone decent and take a cut!
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
and get a ridiculously expensive price list printed up. After the next free service call, hand them the price list and tell them you're starting your own small service business. Make sure to emphasize your desire that they remain a loyal customer.
loyalty above all, save honor
I think (I'm not the OP, so I can't say for certain) that this 'customer' is an aquaintance/friend who calls up every now and then to ask for help. We've all been there, heck, sometimes we even offer to help the first few times. The goods ones offer you a beer or two and snacks. The bad ones don't even try to make small-talk when they call you up ("Jim? It's Bob. I need you to come over and...").
To get back to the original question, however, here's how I've done it in the past. First, I defer once or twice (i.e., "I can't come over tonight. Maybe next week?"). Next, I give them a list of sites/programs that might help, if they take the initiative, this list generally helps them. Thirdly, I tell them that I'm just not going to be able to do it anymore, and try to suggest some one who can (generally for money).
I can appreciate how you may not want to hurt the customer's feelings (especially if you want to remain on good terms), so the trick is in how gently you let them down. I've had some people figure it out on their own after defering, for others, I'm perennially in the "try this, this, this, and this, and call back if it doesn't work" phase. I've only had to tell one person that I couldn't do it anymore (computers aren't my primary business, and they weren't paying me anywhere near enough for my time and travel).
If you look at how I've described it, it's almost like breaking-up. The real trick is giving them good reasons as to why you're dumping them in a non-judgemental way. Myriad family problems seem a good enough reason to me, but if they overreact, well, do you really want to hang around them anymore?
"I don't support home users, because it would cost you less money to simply purchase a new Dell box than it would to hire me to fix your spyware infestation"
cat
I always charge everyone. Now maybe I only charge a 12 pack or dinner or some trivial token, but they always know that my services are not free. I charge my mother, sister - everyone. If it's a quick question, I'll give them the answer, but I am quick to point them to a website or the help. Even when they do pay me, everyone is quick to thank me and I reassure them - "No problem, I do this for a living". One thing this has taught me is to use my friends talents. My realtor found me a house in exchange for a website waiving the realtor fee, my sister grooms my cat - for free. My friends that use me as a resource always know that there will come a day when I will ask for their help. I had a friend send a crew over to redo my lawn - for free.
:D
Use the barter system. If your friend likes PC support, ask him for some help with _all_ of the domestic chores you have. Oh, and hire a cleaning lady, you can generally get one to come in twice a month for around $1-200 - then fix her computer for free cleanings
ymmv
THEN hang up. Gotta put some effort into your act!!
My book, podcast
You had a situation where you could do five minutes of work and be paid $240 for it, but you cut people off because they did not space their support calls in such a way so that you would do more work for the same money?
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Run over their dog on the way out of the driveway.
We all know that a PC you buy and a PC you build have basically the same parts, and that building it yourself is cheaper. That said, I've told every non-geek person for years who has pestered me to "build them a powerful pc" that when you buy a machine, you're paying for that 800 number in the manual, not the pile of parts. That number is worth every penny of an overpriced off the shelf PC because it removes YOU from the responsibility of fixing it.
Find a competent college or high school kid and tell people that you're no longer doing free support for friends because you're trying to help this deserving kid get paying gigs.
Turn off all the ringers on you phones. Build an Interactive Voice Response system. Spend plenty of time on an extensive menuing system as deep as you can imagine (and add a few more layers). Ensure that the only live person reachable through your rig is a pizza place in New Delhi. I am sure that you no longer will be bothered by pesky callers again. If you get a second phone line for people you actually want to talk to, be sure it is unlisted.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
You all don't like it when companies charge too much (if the bitching on slashdot is any measure). But have no problem stepping into those same shoes.
As one loqacious contractor likes to say - "bidness is bidness."
The service business ain't no monopoly, any buyer is free to walk away and hire someone else if they don't like the price. If they can't find anyone at the price they want, then they are welcome to either handle it in house (it is open-source after all) or move to another product.
It is hard to get less coercive than that.
Wake me up when you can get a custom kernel patch for Windows - from somebody other than microsoft - for under $100K.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
The majority of his customers are more than likely not bastards. They have found an excellent means of support and he, being a kind person and happy to help them thus far, hasn't given them any indication the situation needs to change. I don't see why anyone should assume they won't be understanding.
Communicating the truth to the best of your ability is what I'd suggest. Not everyone needs to know every detail of your life, but being honest that you're going through a rough time and need to cut back on some aspects of your job will work. If they ask what's going on, tell them if you're comfortable; they may be able to offer _you_ some advice or kind words of support, too. If they don't understand at that point then sure, bastards. They're easy to cut off.
Something else you should do as has already been suggested is offer information to another means of support. If there isn't one you're aware of tell them that too, but make sure they know their continued support is a concern for you.
I'm really surprised at the number of people suggesting to raise prices as an only solution to get out of a situation you don't want in at all. If more money would make the situation better for you then sure, it's an honest option but, sheesh. Is directly communicating your needs to another person really scary enough to resort to random manipulation instead?
1) Put them old hold, for a long time, with really annoying music ..
2) Transfer them to random departments like accounting, or freight delivery
3) After they finally get back to you, cut them off.
4) Implement a long winded touch tone system that doesn't work (with no option of going straight to an operator)
5) Implement a long winded voice recognition system that doesn't work (note: if you implement this with the ability to listen in, it can double as a hilareous source of entertainment Customer: "Tech Support Please"...System: "Did you say 'Wreck your court with cheese?"
6) Disagree with them over silly and obvious things eg...Customer "Oh hi, I have a computer and..." You interrupting "No you don't"
7) Don't forget the good old "I don't have the authority..."
version 1: "I don't have the authority to answer that...I'll have my supervisor call you back"
version 2: "I don't have the authority to do that, you'll have to download our authorization form from , sign it, and fax it back to "
well, that's what works for my bank anyway
Sure, this seems heartless or selfish, but the truth is those higher end systems were every bit as good as whatever I could build for them, and not all that much more expensive. In the end they were more happy and thanked me because they had more time to use their computers.
In trying to keep this a non-biased post I will interject just one last observation. The people that I recommended to buy macs and did are still using the same computers from three years ago and are still happy. The ones that went with dell most all got tons of viruses and had a lot of support calls, not quite as happy, but it was their choice.
Just think of the countless other unpleasant conversations you could completely avoid with this method! There's the "I'm cheating on you with your best friend." shirt, or how about "Your mother and I are getting a divorce."? The possibilities are endless!
Bring on the asteroid
Agreed. Somehow clients don't appreciate the work done when they don't have to do it.
... what I said, in the first part of this post.
Tech support clients would be the equivalent of medical patients in my practice, and in any practice we see all sorts of people, including the needy/clingy/demanding type of person who wants everything done for him (== her). "I want an Xray!" "I want better medications!" "I want to see a specialist!" And all this after the patient declines to improve his eating habits and "forgets" to take medicine. (You can envision the equivalent scenario for tech support.)
I will often tell the patient quite frankly: "I will work very hard for you --I will bend over backwards, if necessary-- but I will NOT work harder than you." And I give them homework. Measure your blood sugar twice daily, or do your back exercises every night, or mark on your calendar when you feel the pain coming on, or whatever. Don't come back until you've done that.
Not only would this (hopefully) improve his problem, but it also gives him an appreciation for what you're doing for him. It makes him less whiney because now he doesn't feel as helpless --there's something that he can actually do about it! And, of course, if he's a real loser, he won't see you again because he's not going to do what you asked.
I realize that the OP was referring to cutting off support completely, not helping his client improve the problem. On this, I would agree with other posters who have suggested telling him the truth, and then setting him up with alternative means of support, telling the client up front that he probably won't get as good support from Geek Squad or whatever, but you can't support him any more.
Then set a deadline to cut off support: "I can support you for two more weeks, and then that's it." This is important. Tie the deadline to some milestone so that he won't push you to change it: "I start my night classes in two weeks, so that's why I can't do this any more after two weeks." (It is irrelevant whether this is the true reason; you just don't want the client to say, "Aww, how 'bout 3 weeks? How 'bout 4?")
And then if that doesn't work then
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
It appears you may want to keep them as a friend, or at least close that if they want another computer in the future you can help them out with that. So you want to just stop supporting their occasional "issues". Then refer them to a support service. The only one that comes to my mind is My Computer Works (http://www.mycomputerworks.com). There may be others in your area, maybe the local Best Buy or something. I don't work for this company, but I personally know several employees and they are helpful to the people I *used* to support. It accomplishes your goals of off-loading their regular support, without something stupid like running over their dog or raising rates. Good luck.
The company I used to work (let's call them ACROSS)
Hail Ilapalazo!
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Because I work with systems, I perform occasional builds. This occasionally crosses over to support (especially where it's my kit I'm asked to support). This isn't a problem, nor is it a problem when I get the occasional support query from someone I haven't supplied a system to, but who needs assistance
I had to read that about 3 times before I figured out what he was saying. I feel very sorry for the poor end users who have to decipher his techno-geek jargon. "Kit"? "Builds"? Speak english, man!
A better translation:
Because I work with computers, I occassionally build them for people. Sometimes, I end up having to support the people using those computers. Sometimes I support people using computers that I didn't build myself. And I don't mind one bit!
I've never read it, which is why I let folks walk over me. Maybe it'll help. Folks I respect recommend it.
Main thing is to clearly define what you can and can't do right now. If your situation has changed, share with your friend the nature of the change. Set forth all the details, all the details, in triplicate, share your pain with your demanding end-user friend. If it isn't a career-limiting move, tears might be useful. If every time your friend calls with a support question, s/he gets an earful of all your problems--so much so that you never get around to answering the question, your problem will solve itself.
There's nothing wrong with dumping a customer, but the correct way to do it is to 1) Be truthful with them, and 2) If possible, refer them to another professional who can help them.
The client can take it much better if what you have to tell them is "I'm very sorry but for personal reasons I'm not able to take care of your needs at this time. I've selected someone who can help you in my place, let me give you their name and number..."
It's also a good opportunity to throw a colleague some work. A friend gave me one of those clients he didn't feel he had time to deal with, at a time when I needed the work. It helped me a lot and I was grateful. Perhaps this incident can lead to some good for someone.
The problem is that this person doesn't place any value on your time. The way to educate them is make them spend as much time as you do fixing each problem, so that they begin to understand and value the relationship between lost time and certain undesirable behaviour (e.g. opening e-mail attachments, failing to update virus software, etc.)
The best ways that I've found to do this are:
1) Make the person bring the PC over to your home or other location for service.
Most of these types of people can't even be bothered to unplug a PC, let alone bring it somewhere; if they can't spend 5 minutes, why should you spend hours?
2) Force them to sit next to you and watch while you perform the fix.
Better yet, sit beside them and force them to do, while you walk them them through it. They may even learn something, and if not, at least they have an appreciation of the effort required.
3) Be blunt with them.
With these sorts of people, its usually not fixing a range of problems so much as the same problem multiple times (usually virus or malware problems). Explain that once you fix a certain type of problem once or twice, its no longer your responsibility to get the user out that type of jam.
My Dad always has called me for help with his Windows machine at work. He us a University professor. I have been a unix admin and now am a router/switch/firewall jockey. Never in my career have I done Windows desktop support.
One time when my dad called me at work with some Windows question I said "Dad, you know they have IT people in your department who not only know Windows but know your systems/network better than I ever would. Maybe they can help you figure this problem out."
His reponse:
"I didn't pay for 4 years of college to get any backchat out of you. Now answer my fucking question!"
That kind of sums it all up.
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
Why did you come here for free advice?
Can't you see we're busy?
This is not the sig you're looking for.
"..wave a dead chicken around.."
Back in the day we sold complete business systems based on Apple computers, and one of our developers was having mysterious problems with one program. While trying to track it down he implemented a joke error screen that would pop up and say, "Bad ju-ju error 456. Please wave chicken bones over computer." (456 was a trace number)
Anyway, about six months later we received a call from a customer in Louisiana who said he'd gotten the error message, had been waving said chicken bones for the last half hour, no joy, and what gives?
We explained the situation, but needless to say, the customer was not as amused as we were.
True story.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I work at a computer sales/repair shop, and I am all too familiar with your problem. There are three customers I can think of off-hand that match that description. They are customers that will call you at the drop of a hat, to ask you basic computer use questions. Thhey are people that call you 2 minutes after they encounter a problem, having spent basically no time trying to solve the problem on their own. They will call you and ask you to walk them through what you realize is a 20 minute procedure. And they'll call sometimes 5-10 times per day when they are having particular problems. It's common for them to call back less than 5 minutes after the end of their previous call.
This almost always gets started because someone at the store initially gives the person an absurd amount of phone support. The customer lacks basic consideration and common sense, and now considers you to be his personal technical support and will now call you at the drop of a hat because you are "so helpful". The customer is certainly part of the problem, but you've done it to yourself.
These customers are particularly difficult to deal with when they are good, frequent, paying customers. It's hard to say no to someone that buys several thousand dollars of your product every year. It's been my experience that most customers are easy to "show the light" that they are being unreasonable, and will hapily scale back their calls if requested. We also have a professional teacher that specializes in computer training that we refer to such customers. Many times the customer is quite happy to pay ~$25/hr to have a professional come to their house and answer every question they have and show them how to do something. Very often one or two visits by this man solves the entire problem with a customer. We encourage the customers to get a paper and pencil and leave it by their computer, and write down questions as they encounter them, and arrange for an appointment from our tech support person at most once a week, say on Mondays, to answer the week's long list of questions. This helps them to get all their questions answered and minimizes the number of visits required. It also encourages them to think on their questions, most of which they end up answering themselves before Monday rolls around.
We have problems with new employees because the "leech" customers will quickly realize they have a new ear to talk with and will usually ask for the new guy by name, because they have subconsiously figured out that the new guy will spend absurd amounts of time on the phone to help them, so it's important to train the new people on how to handle the tech support leeches. We try to enforce a "5 minute rule". This means if at any point in the conversation it occurs to us that it will take more than 5 minutes on the phone to help the customer, we ask them instead to bring in their equipment or schedule an on-site. MOST customers will either bring it in, schedule an on-site, or get offended at the idea of spending their money for assistance and hang up. A few will simjply continue to insist that you help them for "just a few more minutes". Those are the inconsiderate ones, the true leeches, and often times you simply have to put your foot down, despite customer relations. We use peer pressure to help with this, and if we spot an employee on the phone for a long time with a customer, we will hold up an open hand and mouth "five minutes" to them to remind them.
We try to use analogies with some customers, to show them why we cannot talk with them on the phone all day. One of my favorites is the car analogy. "When you buy a new car, the salesman will help you with how to operate the new power seats, show you where the spare tire is at, and tell you about what regular maintenance the car needs. They will not teach you how to drive. That's not their job. You have to learn that for yourself, or hire someone to teach you how to do it". It's amazing how this pulls things into focus for most users, hits them like a bat, and knoc
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I decided the only way was to stop all of it, period. I support the machines in my household, my dad's PC, and it ends there with no exceptions. My girlfriend sometimes gets frustrated becasue I won't work on her parents stuff, but I don't care, I won't put up with it all again. If they want support they can pay for it from a PC shop or their vendor.
If they wanted to save a few bucks on the cheapie support contract with their vendor or don't want to invest the time to learn that isn't my problem.
I support exactly 4 PC's (2 are mine, 1 is GF, 1 is my dad), outside of that I don't care if Jusus rises again for the sole reason of asking me how to change his screen resultion, he can get bent.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Most of the idiots I deal with follow a pattern. It varies in details but the theme is the same -- attempt communications NON-FREAKING-STOP until they get an answer. Typically, I will be away from the desk or something, and they'll call four or five times, leaving one message at the end once they realize I'm not there. Afterwards, they'll usually call a couple more times over the course of the next thirty mninutes, then email me telling me about the voicemail, then email either my boss or my sales partner asking why I won't call them back.
(Of course, it wouldn't matter, since 99% of the time, when I return a user's call, they aren't there, or they're calling from their car or something, meaning they're nowhere near the device or machine that is giving them problems.. but that's another rant.)
Once I've been here a little longer and have the clout to throw around I'm going to implement a policy whereby a user is allowed ONE communique of any medium, and I will get back to him when I have the time, but for every subsequent attempt at reaching me after that initial attempt, I will add two hours to their response time. Contrary to their belief, they are not important -- they are but one of hundreds of other doofuses I have to support and my job entails more than just supporting doofuses, which means I have other things to do, which means every time they call and get pushy about their problem, they are pissing off the only person who can help them.
Thankfully my boss has already green-lit this idea, but I'm not going to do it without permission from the owner -- hence the waiting.
Anyway, the point is that making people wait doesn't always work, depending on the type of userbase you're dealing with. Most people are impatient and behave like Ptolmey, sitting at the center of the universe while everything rotates around them. If you wait a whole 24 hours to call them back they're going to make your life miserable.
mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
Delegate: direct them to someone else that can and will help them. "I don't have the bandwidth to help you right now, but [insert junior admin name here] is available. I'll let him know you're coming and brief him on what you need."
Delay: Push them off to a time that is convenient for you. "I'm in the middle of something else right now. Can you enter a ticket or send me an e-mail of when you'd be available when I'm free later. It may not be today."
Do it: Go get it over with so you can continue with the rest of your work.
Believe it or not, you can also say "No" and not offend someone. I'd suggest you fulfill their request one more time, but when you finish tell them that your responsibilities lie elsewhere. If possible find them a replacement support person that can take care of them.
My sympathies for your losses, but just hang in there; you'll get through it and be the stronger when life returns to "normal." I strongly encourage you to get the above linked book. Typical time management (Franklin Covey, etc.) does not work for IT people. This book is helping me greatly.
Find customers that understand the time value of money. Clients like Law firms or Accounting Firms will not have a problem cutting you a check for over $100/hour because they understand their time is even more valuable than that. Customer that don't understand the time value of money like Retail or Wholesale companies will be much more hesitant to pay for you time because their customers expect them to service their good for free for the life of the product.
for all your customers, send them a bill for all the work you have done. On that same bill, add an adjustment that brings that bill to $0.00. Give it a lable of "No charge for previous work" or "Service done at no cost".
Make sure your rates are posted on it.
It will list all the work you have done for them in hours and when you charge them for the next call, they have nothing to complain about. Also by charging them they will call less.
Never ever do anything for free. charge them $0.00 for it so it shows up on the invoice. always send an invoice for work done, even if its at $0.00. That shows them how much you are worth to them and they are more willing to pay for the stuff you do charge for.
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
Look, I get it about being overcommitted.
I don't get how you got into this in the first place. You sell handbuilt systems, but you provide free support for people who don't have your systems. As a friend, apparently, but these people aren't friends. I've got friends too - I fix their computers - and when I had deaths in the family, they put me up and took care of me, and didn't ask me to fix their computers.
The way to get yourself out of this situation is always to give them someone else to call. There's a million nice ways to do it. In this case maybe you say, I'll give you a hand when I have time, but this week's bad and next week doesn't look good either. If you want it done quick, a buddy of mine had a good experience with the help guys at X store, if you need it done quickly, give them a call - but let me know how it goes, eh?
Recently I had to duck out of a contract job after an introductory meeting because I didn't like the smell of the job. Sounded like too much work and not enough money, and not interesting. So I asked around and got two names of friends who were hungry (so I was doing them a favor) and contacted the contractee - they didn't like those guys, some of the best people I know (better, for this job, than me). So I said I'd keep asking around, but I'm not going to bother. They can't tell quality when they see it, which means they'll be a problem customer. I've kept a good odor, though, and if I do get hungry, I can come back to them.