Working a demanding job can be, well, demanding. And one workshop owner named Abs Delfuego knows the half of it. He recently had to deal with an entitled customer who just wouldn’t take no for an answer.

It all started when he received a text from a potential customer initially asking the turnaround time for a custom desk. Delfuego told him it would be about two weeks—a pretty reasonable response in a busy time for custom orders.

Well, the customer simply wasn’t having that as an answer. He went on to mention that he was referred to by the general manager of the company, and asked if he could do it any sooner—but Delfuego resisted, saying it just wasn’t possible. “I’m sorry, 2 weeks from now is the best I can do at the moment,” he texted, adding that it’s a buys time.

“Thank you,” the customer replied. “I’ll inform [the manager] that you weren’t helpful at all and they’ll pull the contract. How long now?”

Delfuego held strong. “Still 2 weeks,” he texted.

“I will seriously notify Mark and I will advise him to not use you anymore If you can’t do better than 2 weeks,” the customer shot back.

As if that were enough to crack Delfuego! He continued to tell him that two weeks was the best he could do and even pulled some shameless humor. “I just re-checked my schedule,” he replied after the customer continued to give him trouble. “Hang on, just crunching some numbers.”

The customer seemed hopeful, but when Delfuego said the new timeline would be not two but three weeks, the customer lost it.

The next day, the same customer tried a different approach and apologized for his behavior. He then asked him again if he could manage to create the desk sooner.

Of course, it wasn’t a matter of preference—the turnaround time was just too unreasonable. But when Delfuego tried to explain it again, the customer began to act just as he had the day before.

Luckily, this wasn’t the first time Delfuego has dealt with a customer like this. “I get unreasonable clients on average every second day,” he said. “The best way to deal with them, in my opinion, is to be polite but ruthless, not petty.”

We think he met those criteria perfectly!

The entire text exchange—including an exchange with the contractor—can be found here. It’s pretty amusing!

What do you think of this text exchange? What do you think of Delfuego’s responses, and how this customer reacted? What would you have done in the same situation?