A telephone call gone awry.

I got a call that turned out to be my competition who after a few seconds on the phone of portraying himself as a customer then degenerated into telling me that "this is his territory" and making off color comments and near threats. I'm not one to get riled over some jackhole on the phone so I said basically the same thing I say to everyone, if you can beat my prices and service then you are more than welcome to a deserved share of business. I did at one point have to remind him who he was talking to, that I'm not some con or dirtball out to make a quick buck, I do this for a living etc. and that threatening me on a phone (I recorded the conversation, thank you Samsung S4) that I'd just assume let the police deal with it because I've already had people stealing my shred from pickup locations.

Anyways...like I said I'm about as easy to rile up as a dead snake, to get anything out of me you have to just about make "that one mistake". So I calmed him down and said, look how about this, who are you selling to because I'd be willing to bet your not getting what you should be getting. I went on to explain that by maximizing his take then with me working the same area he's alot less likely to notice the difference plus he can deal with me buying boards and things from him for better than yard price. Now, had the call gone differently I might have let on to the forums here and offered even better prices..but thats about as far as I'll go, he needs a lesson in ethics.

So, finally he apologizes for getting uppity and making threats and saying he can outdo my prices (not if your selling to the scrap yard you cant). He asks if I can come over and have a look at the material he has and make an offer. I know what you guys are probably thinking, I'm about to walk right into getting roughed up and robbed. No sir, cav scouts are smarter than that, we do proper recon. He gave me an address, a house, I did a proper driveby, saw kids and people out playing in the nice weather and decided sure, why not stop. By this time he has his garage door open and sure enough I have a good idea of what kind of operation he has going on. He's doing dismantling and stopping before the component breakdown stage. I can understand that, if computers isn't your only gig theres only so much time in the day.

So we meet, and because I am concerned I had decided the Sig would be joining me on this adventure. Turns out I was right he wasn't even getting paid what I was offering to buy as a middleman. I had brought a couple hundred bucks because lets face it, if you've met me you probably have a good idea of why I'm not worried about most things. I also am always looking to buy anytime I meet someone new. He shows me a few boxes of motherboards, a sizable stack of hard drives and on and on. Having dealt with the various yards around here I know what they are all valued at as components, I also know what he gets for boards if he is selling to the yard. I know I can beat every price they give him, and buy things he didn't even know had value, thanks to you guys.

He asks me to write down what I can offer and right away I'm thinking of things I can maximize. I give him whole hard drive prices, cd rom board prices, and low grade board prices and PSU prices that I'm sure cant be beat and are fair enough that my take is similar to what it is now. What I am saying it whether he knows it or not, he's doing "labor" for which he gets paid for on about 200-250 machines a month that I don't have to deal with and I get to maximize the profits buying components and now I have an outlet for printers and things I don't deal with now. One call from a guy wanting to hot seat me actually turned me an extra 500-600 a month if it works out well.

I bought a huge crate of PSUs off him, wires snipped 23 cents a pound, every hard drive and motherboard he had and then I bought a box full of mixed LGA775 pinless processors that I'll sort, test and resell. He ended up with about everything I had in my wallet (250 ish)and I ended up with about 750 bucks in processable material. Moral of the story, nothing is every accomplished when your angry. We are men and should treat each other like men, there is no "territory". Even if you think there is, how exactly are you going to stop me with a phone call? Do I understand the anger, sure do, it's people's livelihood. But I believe in the constructive processes of business and told him as such. As a result, I stayed calm and put money in his pocket while I'm putting money in mine.

I'm still...processing this encounter so I detailed it while it's fresh in my mind and apologize for grammatical errors and run on sentences.

Wow good for you man. I am trying to learn in being patient with people.

A skill acquired in combat to be honest.

First - thank you for your service to our country.

Good score. I could use some of that coolness with a-holes... glad it worked out, always good when it's a win for everyone.

Thanks for sharing the story! And I'm glad you have another source for material!!

Great lesson. Thanks!

Yep Mudlucky, next time it'll be a bed full of stuff not just three or four containers. Thanks Swampy, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Life lessons I learned that turned a head strong bull into a calculated and calm man.

There is one thing. I know where he got my number from (even though it is on CL). One of his pickup sites gave him my info after I did a walk in pitch. I know that happens but that's bad business ethics to give my competition my number. I'm not sure how or if I will deal with that, might pay the guy a visit and let him know what kind of bad taste that left.

That is a very sophisticated way to handle it. Turned out great for you in the end and there is one less "jackhole" in your area.

You handled that situation quite well. In fact, you were likely much cooler with that dude than I would have been on most days. I don't take kindly to threats, no matter how harmless or "spoken in haste" they may be. Good to hear that it worked out for you, but I would always keep a close eye on that guy. He seems worthy of a chance if it can benefit you both, but he would have a hell of a long road to earn my full trust.

I had a similar, though not so hostile experience with one of my competitors once. He's a buyer who likes to pad his margins by blatantly lying to sellers and mis-grading material. To each his own, but that's not how I do things. He p***ed me off good and proper by coming in and presuming to tell me to run my business the same way he runs his. "Don't educate these junkyard guys about what things are really worth, I don't want you to torpedo me". Guys who lie and cheat "torpedo" themselves, and I politely told him as much. That was the end of him selling me material, and I don't miss him. Every time I dealt with him, it was like nails on a chalkboard or having a tooth drilled by the dentist. Constantly whining, BSing, and complaining about losing business to me like it was MY fault that he was dishonest with his sellers :mad:

I've since made it a point to introduce myself to many of his (now former) sellers, and to "educate" them as he begged me not to.