Once in a blue moon, I’m not feeling well enough to work. Those are extremely rare occasions and mostly I can power through most anything physical and mental.
For the first time in years, since I rejoined the workforce around 2015, I had to “call out sick”, i.e. reschedule an entire day of clients. My body was in just so much pain from work, my baptism, and life. I couldn’t really use my arms very well, without severe pain.
My clients are awesome though and were very understanding. They rescheduled and wished me well. “I woke up unable to work.” No specifics required, just my apologies.
That is, all except one woman, a new client I squeezed in last minute in a cancelation. First mistake made.
I let her know as soon as I knew working was going to prove impossible. I admitted to being unable to work and offered to upgrade her service for free for the inconvenience of rescheduling. She was adamant about getting in as soon as possible and let me know that 3 other groomers had canceled on her, her dog was very scruffy, and she was not happy this was happening again. I offered her my only opening within weeks, which was actually only 5 days away. After saying she would take anything, she refused the spot, and acted put out that it was not sooner and that I was inconveniencing her because she had such a busy week next week and groomers kept doing this to her repeatedly.
I assessed her response to my illness, which was unhappiness with a reasonable accommodation plus extras for an inconvenience. I made THE decision that is the cause of the snowball effect I’m facing. Instead of caving in and moving my established boundaries, I told her that I didn’t think I was the right groomer for her, as I was a disabled business owner and may likely have to make schedule changes in the future, and that another groomer may be more accommodating to her scheduling needs. (Especially as my next opening was weeks away) I recommended 2 other salons and groomers who I thought were good recommendations. I was tactful and didn’t place blame on her behavior, and I simply said we weren’t a good fit.
Her response wasn’t soo awful but she was clearly unhappy I would not cater to her every whim. After she seemed to be finished spewing her frustrations at me, I blocked her number. She then went and left a lovely 1 star review on Google for my business, giving quarter truths of her version and just plain lying. I don’t get the lying part, it’s so passive aggressive in how she does it.
She said I didn’t respond for over 2 hours, when my first reply to her was in 37 minutes (time stamp) and then my next response to offer her an opening was around 15 minutes after that. Less then an hour all told, when I had told her I was not well and communicating with another client to determine what was open.
However full of lies her review was, I responded tactfully to let future clients know the other version of events. I was going to just breathe and let it all go. Put it behind me, what’s done is done.
BUT…That wasn’t enough for her though, because she had to email me. She had to tell me how awful I am, how unprofessional it was to text, and how trashy me and all of my county, city, and neighboring city are (names left out for anonymity purposes). Excuse me, “righteous trash”. Oh and that she wouldn’t let me wash her car, let alone her dog!
Really? Just wow, so wow. 0 to 100 as quick as a flash.
I’m floored that someone can take such offense at the drop of a hat. And her response is proving that I made the correct decision. Had I made any mistake with her dog, I would have likely paid dearly for it.
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m waiting for her to call the news station and claim I was racist or discriminatory towards her or her dog (I have been accused of such), or that I simply didn’t want her business (I’ve been accused of that too), or some other such odd nonsense. People these days seem to make up all sorts of lies when they’re angry, just to be hurtful. I don’t understand the why. Is it to disguise feelings of rejection? Is that why this woman was so hateful and deceitful?
Despite my naive notion that most people are good inside, I’m finding that many people are in fact, not. They will lie, cheat, and steal if you let them think you are weak.
Why can’t I simply lay in bed on my “sick day” and rest? Because I’m a small business owner. We don’t get real sick days, even when our bodies fall apart.
Sorry body, not today, there is a lunatic client. You can fall apart after Saturday at 5pm, when you no longer have responsibilities.
The Obsessively Anxious 
What stands out to me is that 3 other groomers cancelled on her. Regardless of your reason for cancelling, I think the very fact that your were groomer #4 for her probably led to her unleashing frustration that’s been accumulating after #1, #2, and #3. She may have kept a lid on it with them, but there was no more room in her pot for anything else before the lid blew, and you happened to be the unlucky person in the way. My guess is that there you could have cancelled because you were run over by a bus and she still would have freaked out at you.
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You are very right. I realize her frustration was so built up by the time she got to me. It was a no-win situation by the time I realized she was too much to handle.
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It sucks that you had to be the one stuck with dealing with that response.
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Unfortunately there are a lot of rude people like this out in the world. I have dealt with many of them. Sorry you had to go through this experience and for the bad review. Try and remember that there are still many good, kind hearted people. Sometimes they are hard to find but they are out there. 🙂🙂 Have a wonderful weekend.
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Thanks, I try to keep that in mind, that it’s the good ones I’m in business to help. Every time there’s a difficult client, I think of the clients I love.
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