I guess I just need to vent....
I have this potential customer (customer is head of a church) who contacted me last year wanting to see a catalog of perpetual plaque options. He borrowed it for a few weeks and then returned it. I quoted a price & he said he would have to run it by some people & he would get back to us. Well, it's December (a year later) he contacted us, wanting to meet & discuss options further. No problem. He brought in someone else though, which created a problem b/c the 2 of them were having trouble coming to an agreement about what they wanted. 25 min later they decided, I told them I would send them an invoice & they would have to send a check before we went ahead with the order (it was a $400 order). I emailed them a bill Dec 7th, they told me they would send a check within a week. Week later, no check (thank god I didn't order the stock). 2 more weeks pass, still no check. Finally, last week I emailed & asked if they were still interested, received a response saying yes they were still interested. So yesterday I sent them a revised invoice telling them the price had increased $45.00 total for the 2 perp plaques (vendor has gone up since we are in a new year). I received a response this morning saying that he would like to talk to us by phone tomorrow. Now either he is upset about the increase or he just wants to talk details about how to place the order or he's changed his mind entirely..not sure which.
Am I right to increase the price? I would like to think so, if the vendor has gone up I can't absorb that price. They had 3 weeks to send me a check before we entered the new year. I would like to think that was enough time for them to find the funds...
I don't get it, they were really happy when I told them that engraving was included in the price, everything seemed on the up and up. I honestly feel like telling them not to come back until they are really serious (like having a check in hand).