Imagine this: It’s 10 PM on a cold evening outside London. Your crew has just finished a grueling move, and they’re facing a 2-hour drive back to the depot. Then your phone rings.
“I’m not paying this bill. This is a complete ripoff.”
I’ve been there, and it’s a gut punch.
I’ve handled thousands of quotes and probably faced dozens of pricing disputes. Some were £50 overruns. Others, like the one I’m about to share, were £700 over the original estimate. And every single time, how you handle that first phone call determines whether you keep the customer, save the job, or end up in small claims court.
This is the story of one of the toughest pricing conflicts I ever faced - and the simple framework that turned an furious customer into someone who genuinely thanked me afterward.
Why Price Disputes Spiral Out of Control
Here’s the brutal truth: many removal company owners handle pricing conflicts terribly. I’ve seen it dozens of times, and I’ve made these mistakes myself early in my career.
Here are the most common pitfalls:
Reason #1: You Get Defensive Immediately
The customer says “ripoff” and your instinct is to explain why they’re wrong. You feel offended. You start listing all the extra work, the stairs, the traffic delays. But while you’re explaining, they’re getting angrier because they don’t feel heard.
Reason #2: You Try to Shift Blame to the Customer
“Well, you didn’t mention the narrow staircase on the phone” or “You had way more boxes than you said.” Even if it’s true, the customer now feels attacked and doubles down on their position.
Reason #3: You Jump Straight to Legal Threats
“Our contract says you agreed to pay for extra time.” Your boss might be screaming at you to take them to small claims court. But that path guarantees a negative review, lost referrals, and hours of your time dealing with court paperwork.
Reason #4: You Handle It When Everyone’s Exhausted
It’s late. Your crew is knackered. The customer has been moving house all day. Everyone’s emotional, tired, and not thinking straight. That’s the worst possible time to negotiate anything.
The good news is that with the right approach, you can resolve almost any pricing dispute without losing the customer, the money, or your sanity.
Here’s How to Handle Price Disputes Step by Step
Let me walk you through exactly what happened on that £700 dispute and the framework I used to resolve it.
Step 1: Listen First - Don’t Explain, Don’t Defend, Don’t React
When that customer called me at 10 PM saying she wouldn’t pay, here’s what I didn’t do:
- I didn’t interrupt her
- I didn’t try to explain why the job took longer
- I didn’t mention our terms and conditions
- I didn’t blame her for underestimating the inventory
Instead, I just listened. Properly listened.
“I’m really sorry to hear this. Can you walk me through what happened today from your perspective?”
That’s it. And then I shut up and let her talk.
Why It’s So Important: When someone feels ripped off, they’re in fight mode. Their brain isn’t processing logical arguments - it’s looking for validation that their anger is justified. The fastest way to de-escalate is to acknowledge their experience without agreeing or disagreeing.
Quick Examples:
- “That sounds incredibly frustrating” (not “You’re right, we messed up!”)
- “I can hear how upset you are about this” (not “Let me explain why you’re wrong”)
- “Tell me more about what happened when the crew arrived” (not “Well, actually…”)
Occasionally, I asked clarifying questions - but always respectfully, with empathy. The longer the conversation went, the calmer she became. Because someone was actually listening.
Step 2: Buy Time When Emotions Are High
After listening for a few minutes, I had a full picture of what went wrong from her perspective. But here’s what I knew: it was 10 PM, she was exhausted, my crew was exhausted, and nobody was going to make a good decision in that state.
So I said: “Look, it’s already late. You must be absolutely exhausted after today. My guys must be tired as well, and they still have to drive back to London. What I’d say is, let’s leave this for tonight. We’ll both get some rest, and we’ll call each other tomorrow morning with fresh heads and figure this out properly. How does that sound?”
She immediately agreed. The relief in her voice was obvious.
Where So Many Go Wrong: The instinct is to resolve it NOW and secure the payment. Your crew is standing there waiting. The customer is demanding an answer. But pushing for resolution when everyone’s emotional and tired almost always makes things worse.
Examples and Fixes:
- Wrong: “Well, you still need to pay something tonight” → Right: “Let’s talk tomorrow when we’re both thinking clearly”
- Wrong: “My crew can’t leave until this is sorted” → Right: “My team needs to get back safely. We’ll sort this out tomorrow”
- Wrong: “The contract says you have to pay now” → Right: “I understand you’re upset. Let me work with you to find a solution”
I’m not saying that you can’t get at least the initially agreed amount right then, but if you take the payment, you’re leaving an opening. Tomorrow the customer may say, that they already paid the agreed amount and the matter is closed. If they don’t pay anything, the matter was never closed.
Step 3: Use Questions to Lead Them to the Right Answer
The next morning, she still didn’t want to pay the full amount. And honestly, I understood why - a £700 overrun on a quote is significant.
But here’s the key: I didn’t try to convince her with logic. I asked questions that helped her see the situation differently.
Me: “Can I ask you a few questions about yesterday?”
Her: “Sure.”
Me: “Would you say the crew worked hard?”
Her: “Yes, they worked incredibly hard all day.”
Me: “And were you happy with the quality of the service they provided? Just ignoring the price issue for a moment - did they take care of your belongings?”
Her: “Absolutely. They were professional, careful, and I have no complaints about their work.”
Me: “So if they worked that hard, and did a great job, do you think it would be fair if they didn’t get paid for all those hours?”
Her: Long pause “Well… no, of course they deserve to be paid. But you still overcharged me.”
Now we were getting somewhere. She’d gone from “I’m not paying anything” to acknowledging the crew deserved payment for their work.
Me: “I completely understand your concern about the pricing. Here’s what I’m thinking - what if we meet in the middle? What if we charged you the original quote plus just one extra hour, rather than the full 7 hours it actually ran over? Would that feel fair?”
She thought about it. And then she agreed.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel: We received the payment. The business wasn’t at a loss. The customer felt heard and respected. And last but not least after the payment cleared, she sent me a message saying I was “an asset to the company.”
Think about that transformation: someone who felt scammed ended up sending a compliment.
Final Thoughts On Handling Price Disputes
-
Document everything upfront: Make sure your quotes clearly state the estimated time and hourly rate for overruns. It won’t prevent disputes, but it gives you something to reference.
-
Train your crew on communication: Many price disputes happen because the crew doesn’t communicate in real-time when they realise the job will run long. A simple “Just so you know, we’re tracking about 2 hours over the estimate because of X and Y” gives the customer time to mentally adjust.
-
Never threaten legal action as a first response: Small claims court is your absolute last resort. It costs time, guarantees a negative review, and burns any chance of turning them into a referral source.
-
Follow up after resolution: I sent a thank-you message after the payment cleared, apologising for the stress and acknowledging it wasn’t our intention. That small gesture turned the situation from “resolved” to “positive.”
Even the best moving companies make mistakes and have disputes from time to time. The key is to handle disputes so well that customers end up respecting you more afterward. Use empathy, ask questions, and always look for the win-win solution.
In my estimation one bad/angry review will cost you a ton of business, so sacrificing a few hundred pounds to make someone happy and prevent reputation dent is not a large price.
There you have it - a framework for handling even the toughest pricing conflicts without losing customers, money, or your reputation.
Start with Step 1 (just listen) the next time you face a dispute, and watch how quickly the situation de-escalates.
Happy moving!