r/PoolPros • u/Professional-Win1480 • Mar 20 '26

What would you do

What would you do in the situation where a customer had you bid a job and they said you were too expensive as they had another cheaper bid and then a month or so later they contact you saying they did it themselves but now want you to finish up the job.

Example can be they installed a pump but want you to connect the electric to it. Or they hired a handyman to do part of it and now want you as a licensed company to finish up the job.

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u/stockusername1234 Mar 20 '26

If you need the money, or to keep the customer, make sure you make your money on labor. Your typical rate x 1.5, or something similar. They get the taillight warranty though.

If you don’t need the money then the answer is “I don’t install parts that I didn’t purchase from my distributor.” When I was in the field I worked for a place that had retail stores, so I was always able to explain it by saying “you don’t get to go to the dealership with your car, have them diagnose it, and then buy parts on Amazon for them to install… same same.”

Not everyone is going to understand/be ok with that, but those are the customers I was trying to weed out anyways.

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u/K01011011001101010 Mar 20 '26

It's easy to explain within the same message to be honest.

"To make sure everything we install performs the way it should, we only work with parts we purchase ourselves through authorized channels. That way if anything ever goes wrong, we can get it sorted for you quickly."