Who Does This?

Angry-Phone

In my 40+ years in the staffing industry, I have scheduled numerous conference calls with our clients and potential clients. I am one of those “on-time,” “prompt” people who count down the minutes to be on time for the call. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the client doesn’t pick up the phone and often calls back within 10-15 minutes. I get it, as they say, “stuff happens.”

Yesterday, I had a conference call scheduled with a potential new client. One of our other clients called me 10 minutes prior to my scheduled call. Unfortunately, my call ran long, and I was SIX minutes late for my scheduled call. I called – got voicemail. I emailed and explained. Hours went by. I emailed and apologized again. The potential new client finally responded: they would have to reschedule for another time. I followed up the next day. I apologized again. They never responded. I felt punished for not hanging up on another client, who, by the way, was giving us an offer on one of our candidates. I was upset! I have sat by my phone many times waiting on a “late arrival” as I have always accepted that “stuff happens.”

I would not consider punishing a client and never wanting to engage with them again for being tardy for a call. Is it OK to be that way towards a vendor? My team assured me that we are better off not doing business with such people. They’re probably right. But, I’m still upset!

What do you think? Why is this OK? Help me understand – 6 minutes!