I think it was in here that people were talking about small construction places being bad at good business practices (returning calls, etc.). I just had one of the dumbest interactions I think I've ever had.
So this antenna project I'm working on...now that it's going up outside again, I needed a grounding block. It's like a $2 part. Put a load of laundry in and headed to Lowes. Looked in the cable/networking section, not there. Looked in the electrical section, not there. Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't find it. Now I'm thinking...where should I look next? Thought of the Ace hardware just down the street, thought....mmm...I hope they have it, I hate to run all over town for a friggin' $2 part, but that's my next best guess. On my way, I think of the custom audio/video place right next door to Ace. I KNOW they'd have them, it's their business. Sure, it might cost me $10 instead of $2, but it's worth my time to not have to possibly go to 3 more places to find one. Go in, ask the guy if they have them, and he's all....ummm, and walks away. Manager guy comes out and says "I'm not like Radio Shack where I sell parts. If you had a project or something, yeah, we have them, but I don't sell just parts that my guys use for installation. It's just not worth my time, unless it'd be like a $35 minimum." and then I think he saw my annoyance, so he keeps rambling on and on about how it's not worth it for him, he only does projects, doesn't sell parts, just does projects, can't just sell parts, not worth his time, and on and on, you could run to Menards or something, maybe Ace, etc. Like for 2 minutes, and I finally cut him off and just said "OK, I got it".
So, there's a box in the back with probably 10 of them in it, and they're $2 parts. He would have wasted less time going in the back and giving me one than he wasted justifying not being willing to sell me one. And I didn't even expect him to just give me one, I would have paid probably 5X what it's really worth to not mess around any longer over it. However, considering he wasted both of our time justifying to me how it wasn't worth his time and it was 'below' him, despite the fact that I've done business with them in the past and would likely do business with them in the future, the fact that he was so dumb makes it pretty unlikely that I'll ever waste their time again.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not super mad, but it's an example of how people sometimes are clueless as to how to operate a business.
Thankfully, Ace had them. I think it was $2.50 or something.