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Lost a client over a typo in a $4 invoice, now I triple check everything
I do bookkeeping on the side, small stuff for local shops. Two weeks ago I sent an invoice for $4.37 to this plumber I'd been working with for over a year. Typo in the email subject said $437. He didn't even open it, just called me furious, said I was trying to rip him off. I tried to explain, sent a corrected one, but he'd already told two other business owners I was shady. Lost him and one of those referrals. All because I hit 7 instead of a decimal. Has anyone else lost a client over something this dumb? I'm now reading every email subject out loud before I hit send.
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emery_lopez13d ago
Is it just me, or does one tiny mistake always end up costing way more than the actual problem? Like, you dropped a decimal and lost two clients over a few bucks, but I've seen friends lose whole friendships over a typo in a text that changed the whole meaning. People don't care about the reason, they just react to what they see, and once that first impression is bad, it's almost impossible to fix. It's like our brains are wired to remember the wrong thing and forget all the good work you did before. So now you're double checking everything, and honestly, that's probably the only way to survive out here.
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