We just had a past client who called and wanted, get this, copies of ALL the HUDs of ALL the sales we’ve done with him over the past FIVE years. 😯
The irony? He is actually a BROKER in another city, so he surely knows the importance of keeping docs like this…and surely knows how irritating it would be to have someone request all this at the drop of a hat. 😡
In addition to that, we have some of his properties in property management, and he wants ALL his bills and 1099s for ALL his properties.
And not only did he request all this over the phone, basically saying “Clear your schedule, I will be there in 20 minutes”—he completely ignored our requests to email the necessary information so we could have the time to look this stuff up, make copies, and then call him when it was ready…because, honestly, we are not going to drop what we’re doing to take care of this ass. (Yes, he is and has always been an ass. This is nothing new.)
And why is he talking to us anyway? He should be asking the Broker (our boss), who will then pass the job to us if/when she deems it necessary. Of course she wasn’t in the office when he called, so I called her to let her know what was going on, and she told us to tell him that all his closings were at the old office so we would have no records anyway, and to tell him to call the lawyer’s offices to get the HUDs. YAY!
So he came in, all puffed up and projecting self-importance like he always does, and I got to tell him “Sorry, bad news” and went on to explain what the boss had told me to tell him. Of course, he says “So you can call the lawyers for me to get the HUDs?” and I said “No, you can call them.”
I did try looking up his past transactions while he was standing there behind me (a major pet peeve, since it means he walked AROUND the front desk), but could not come up with an easy way to see the dates the properties closed to see if they closed at our new office (I never deal with mass data like that, especially on spur of the moment, so I told him the boss usually deals with this type stuff so I was winging it).
And looky here, all of a sudden, you know what? He is “willing to email a list, after I have more time to get the details together.” Good. And good riddance.
Unfortunately…after he left (and quit breathing down my neck), I was able to figure out the closing dates—and most of them did actually close in our new office, which means we do have access to the files. And to be honest? I will have no problem taking the time (on my own schedule) to scan them all to his email.
But it’s just the fact that he couldn’t call and say “Hey, I know you’re probably busy, and I can’t get in touch with your boss, but I just realized I need these files and can’t find them. Do you think over the next week or so, you could find what I need and send them to me?” Instead, he had to basically say “Drop what you’re doing, I will be there in 20 minutes to get what I need.”
Ugh.