I have a problem with a particular customer,
He is very aggressive when answering questions,
first question i got was "i need to know the nameservers you idiot" even though i had already sent the nameservers that he needed to him.
That was mild,
several other emails have included racism + anti-semitism (which can't be put on this forum + i would not want to repeat anyway), even though we have never not supplied info to him + always been as quick as possible in responding. He writes these things before we do anything wrong. Even the simplest questions have to include some form of discrimination/prejudice.
I run a small hosting company + employ people of all races + religions including white people, black people and christian, muslim + jewish people.
So I'm going to suspend his account because I can't deal with a customer like this. Is that a good thing to do?
+ how should I phrase things so I can tell him we don't want his money because of his views?

Originally posted by sandanista
I have a problem with a particular customer,
He is very aggressive when answering questions,
first question i got was "i need to know the nameservers you idiot" even though i had already sent the nameservers that he needed to him.
That was mild,
several other emails have included racism + anti-semitism (which can't be put on this forum + i would not want to repeat anyway), even though we have never not supplied info to him + always been as quick as possible in responding. He writes these things before we do anything wrong. Even the simplest questions have to include some form of discrimination/prejudice.
I run a small hosting company + employ people of all races + religions including white people, black people and christian, muslim + jewish people.
So I'm going to suspend his account because I can't deal with a customer like this. Is that a good thing to do?
+ how should I phrase things so I can tell him we don't want his money because of his views?

Do you have something in your TOS about account terminations? Make sure you follow the procedures outlined in your TOS, whatever they may be.

You could also write him a letter and simply tell him that you have a professional, business relationship and that you expect him to treat you and your staff respectfuly and courteously, just as you do to him. Otherwise, you will no longer be interested in conducting business with him.

Good luck!
Pete

I would terminate him. On a side note, when I have a customer talk a little nasty to me, I pretend like I don't even notice the yelling. It's even better on the phone because it pisses them off even more to know they aren't upsetting you.

Yes, that is very true. Don't show you are truly angry.

We would terminate this account. There is no need to be unprofessional.

If you have told him what he wants in previous correspondence and he can't seem to realise that, and he seems to be really annoying you, you should terminate his account!

I've seen in many TOS that if you abuse the staff etc etc that the hosting company has the right to terminate the account without refund!

A good TOS/AUP would provide for this sort of thing.

"Abuse of any kind in any communication between Client and Provider will not be tolerated. Provider reserves the right to Terminate Client Services for excessive abuse and the right to determine when to apply said Termination."

I am not a Lawyer and that's just off the top of my head, but you get the idea. ;)

You can use your TOS to reserve the right to terminate an account for any reason at any time, no need for it to be specific to abuse of staff, but this would fall under that category.

We would have deleted the account by now.

Lock his login and post the contents of his emails on his website.

And if he doesn't like it.....

"look you idiot this is our standard domain parking page, whats your problem"

In all seriousness as everyone has said - terminate his account and be rid of him.

Originally posted by Webbase
Lock his login and post the contents of his emails on his website.

A pretty stupid idea right there!
That does nothing more than show you're unprofessional, rude and setting yourself up a lawsuit.

Originally posted by Typhoon
A pretty stupid idea right there!
That does nothing more than show you're unprofessional, rude and setting yourself up a lawsuit.

Yep that would be a silly idea. Not sure why that idea was even thought of. LOL.

I say terminate the account, send an email to let him know the account was terminated. I am not even sure I would tell him the reason why. I do not believe you have to.

Originally posted by dbbrock1
I would terminate him. On a side note, when I have a customer talk a little nasty to me, I pretend like I don't even notice the yelling. It's even better on the phone because it pisses them off even more to know they aren't upsetting you.

From my experience that just makes them repeat themselves and talk longer ;) .

Originally posted by Azn_Chic
I've seen in many TOS that if you abuse the staff etc etc that the hosting company has the right to terminate the account without refund!

Yep our TOS/AUP includes such a paragraph - I hope we never have to use it :)

Andrew

Greetings:

In the past nine years in business (8 in business Internet), we've fired two clients.

What I try to do most of the time (like yesterday) is turn it around in a nice way.

Yesterday the person was taking the Lord's name in vain.

What I did is turn it around by nicely saying, "I love the Lord, and I'm glad you love the Lord too" and variations of that.

Eventually, he stopped cursing.

Thank you.

Originally posted by Typhoon
A pretty stupid idea right there!
That does nothing more than show you're unprofessional, rude and setting yourself up a lawsuit.

I think Webbase was kidding, Typhoon ;)

We are selling a service, but we are not selling our dignity, I think for such clients just give them a black and white, arrange for a week or so for them to find a new host and say Good Bye.

I would not stand for it at all. Get rid :)

terminate the account. Or at least suspend him until he apologizes.

If you think someone paying you 5,10,100,1000 bucks gives them the right to speak to you like that, then you are wrong. these kind of people think they can get away with their behaviour and need stopping.

People think if they pay us a few of their dollars they can say and do whatever they want because since they are our customers we wont say anything to loose their business, but Hey! even we host you on our servers and pay a cost for you!we cant take all that crap they throw at us. Such customers are just a waste of time, id rather now have one than having such unrespectfull people.

It depends on what your into. Wasn't there a guy on Insomniac one night that would let Dave cuss at him for $5? I'm sure he wouldn't mind working in our industry ;)

remeber in America everyone has the right to who they want to do biz with

Email them, show them that line in your TOS, and let them know that you've tried to be nice with him, but he is intent on abusing your staff, so he's no longer welcomed.

Don't give him too long to pack! He may just decide to use his account to spam like hell in that timeframe to get you into trouble.

Remember as well to warn him that a LOT of hosts have such a clause in their TOS to protect their own staff, so he will have to look for a host without such a clause. Might make him stop and think after he runs into all the hosts who don't tolerate his behaviour ;)

I think the best thing to do is for the customers to learn to respect you. afterall, we are vendors, not slaves. I think, we would terminate the account too.

Originally posted by Typhoon
A pretty stupid idea right there! That does nothing more than show you're unprofessional, rude and setting yourself up a lawsuit.

Originally posted by Stormhosts
Yep that would be a silly idea. Not sure why that idea was even thought of. LOL.

I spent 5 minutes trying to comprehend how you could even think for a second that, that part of my post was serious....

:eek:

I even followed it up with proper advice and said "in all seriousness.."...

I'd give the client a 30-days notice to go somewhere else and terminate his account. If you feel he is not only rude but potentially litigious, quote your TOS send him a certified letter in writing per the above.

I've run into the occasional client, either designing websites, programming applications, or hosting, where they think it's acceptable to walk all over me, and expect me to bend over and take it because the "customer is always right". I put up with a lot, but I'm human, and once they cross a boundary, I'll request them to find a new company.

Unless this person is paying you $50 a month for 10 MB of web space, cut him loose, and maintain your dignity.

Same for me. I have esp those "programmers" who do not know how to program keep insisting their codes are rite and our servers has problems. And that we debug for them. Our reply was please tell us what u need we will do it. We really cant go through your script and debug it for them. Some really turn abusive and nasty. I wonder is it really difficult for a "programmer" to know that each server environment is different. We even setup a server info page for them. What paths etc all are there. Sometimes really want to kick these out.

I recently had a windows client call me a <explitive> idiot because his ASP code wasn't working on our "dodgy servers". He didn't know you had to put script delimitters in

<%

Response.Write "You are the idiot, sir"

%>

Same for me, have clients who wrote an insulting email to our support saying he has been programming and designing for longer time than our co existence, saying he just need the path and we did not give to him blah blah blah, look through the history and found his previous email was my......wasnt working FULL STOP. That doesnt sound much like asking for the path....... I mean if programmers just expect to ftp in a code and 100% why do we need programmers in the 1st place?

Abuse the staff, get the boot. Sure if someone's just had a bad experience and is venting we can overlook it but there is a limit to anything and then it's time to say "ok enough, calm down or look for new service elsewhere". Not something you want to do but it is something you sometimes have to do.

We have had these customers over the years, some are just frustrated with a long line of bad hosts so they make the worst of every host. Normally myself or whoever is aswering the emails/tickets just inform them that profanity and rudeness are not necessary and go on like nothing ever happened. This usually tames most, but occasionally we have terminated clients for bashing staff. I investigate them pretty toughly and inform them exactly why they are being terminated. We mention in our TOS that we have the right to refuse service.