Customer either mad as a hatter or a dope fiend

Fill order or not?

[HRoth]

I had a customer about two years ago who was either mentally ill or doing and probably selling a lot of drugs. She bought a great deal of stuff from me, thousands of dollars worth. Once she sent a payment in the mail of $500 cash in an ordinary envelope with a first-class stamp. She emailed often in great detail all about her problems, including being accused of murdering her baby, her ex was trying to kill her, she broke into his house, etc. She said she was starting a store and this was why she was ordering such a huge amount of stuff, but I did notice that she didn't order like store owners do (a small number of things in quantity). Instead, she ordered a small amount (like an ounce) of lots of things. So I suspected her story about the store was bogus, and maybe some of the other stories, but what the heck did I care?

Then she claimed that insects had infested pretty much everything she had bought from me, even inorganic substances, and wanted replacements. The insects she described do not exist in this universe. I asked her to return some of the items (so I could look at them), saw no insects, and said sorry, I could not do it. She kind of dropped off the map then, although popped in a few months later to ask me reship her about $2000 worth of material because she had moved. I didn't answer it, because I had proof she had gotten it.

I concluded that this woman was either mentally ill, maybe bipolar with some hallucinations thrown in (because she would buy in spurts and send me these huge long screeds when she was up), or she was selling drugs, maybe meth, given the speediness and the hallucinations about bugs and the "people out to get me " stuff. And selling drugs would explain where she got all the money to buy all this stuff. However, nothing she is buying could be used to make drugs and she has never mentioned drugs once in all her writings.

Now here she is again. Once again she says she is opening a shop and has more stories about her life and has placed an order about ten times the size of my average order. Should I fill it or not? I can deal with the craziness (I actually learned a lot about being assertive with customers by dealing with her before), but is it unethical to do business with her?

[Marcia]

It isn't worth doing business with her, whatever her issues are.

[jsinger]

Hilarious story. Crazy people. God love 'em.

We also get crazies opening stores. They buy retail from us and sometimes don't even ask for a quantity discount which we would give to such large orders. Some explain that they feel they don't have to charge the "outrageous" markups.

A few months later they are out of business, of course.

---
I'm surprised at the number of people who lease brick/mortar stores to sell our type of 'widgets' without doing any research. They are 2-weeks from opening and have no idea where to get merchandise!

Such people never request the most valuable thing we could provide: advice on running a 'widget' store.

[corbing]

As long as she's paying with cash, you can deal with her craziness, and it's not illegal, I don't see why you shouldn't do business with her and it certainly would not be unethical.

[MiniRC]

If it's cash I'd say go for it. I hope you have a PO box and she isn't getting your home address.

I sell mini rc cars and last year right about christmas a lot of people ordered late December overight Air. Which we shipped many the same day, however if you remember MASSIVE snow fall a couple days before Christmas caused a lot of major delays. So some people didn't get their package until a day or two after the 25th

I had one guy that called me every day trying to tell me I was 'the grinch that stole christmas' and how many children had I robed of a happy Christmas this year? ect. ect.

Not much like your example but still a testemant to the crazies that are out there. I NEVER give out my home address.

[Beagle]

Geez - If I were to take a stab at a long-distance dx, I'd say paranoid schizophrenic. Harmless until they think you're the one who's out to get them. My home phone number is unlisted because of someone with this disorder. I somehow "ruined her life" by leaving an innocuous message on her voice mail; evidently this let "them" find her because, of course, "they" were tapping her phone. When she started calling with death threats, I got an unlisted number.

If your customer's suffering from this, just remember that in her mind everything she says is true -- normal ways of recognizing lies won't work, because she's not lying.

[Corey Bryant]

I think we all have customers like that. I would not do business with her - you would save yourself a lot of time.

I remember one email we were doing something for a client, helping him and he "loved it". In the next 5 minutes, it was the "worst" thing. 10 minutes later another email stating he loved it.

There comes a time where you have to draw the line somewhere.

-Corey

[cabowabo]

It seems like all of us have had clients like this sometime in our career. Just some advice that I wish I had been given (as I learned the hard way) is that no matter how good the money is, if the person is mentally unstable, you don't want to have them as a client. They are a ticking time bomb and you don't want to be around when it goes off.

Cheers,

CaboWabo

[Essex_boy]

Steer clear of mentally ill people they dont realise what their doing may be wrong and that includes attacking you.

I dont have my home phone number on teh whois as ive had fruit loops phone me at home at god awful hours.

[Essex_boy]

Just oneother thing, if she's ill how on gods earth does she get that kind of money together?

[HRoth]

I believe that she either sells a lot of drugs or finds people (men) who have money and battens onto them. She can be very charming and funny. She can also be scary. In many ways, she reminds me of my late sister, who had mental problems. Maybe that is why I have been somewhat tolerant of her craziness.

She does have access to my home address, because my business is located in 1/3 of my house. At one time I used a PO box but found that many people felt suspicious of businesses with PO boxes. I do myself, to be honest.

I live in a rural area 2 miles out from town, and the town is a small one. She is a city slicker, and in my experience, most city slickers are actually afraid to come out to the sticks. I remember when I was moving up here, someone asked me if there were any banks here, for instance. The only people who have ever wanted to stop by or who have actually done so without asking were locals. Famous last words?

Well, I appreciate everyone's feedback. I think I am going to take a chance with her again. It took a while before she went bonkers last time. This time I feel more prepared for it. In a way I feel I am taking advantage of her, but in another way I feel like she gets her money's worth from me too, and my products are good when they aren't infested with ninja bugs. And I also can't think of a good way to turn her away, a way that would not hurt her or conversely bring on her wrath.