Running the Business · Part 5
Delivering bad news: it is worse than you thought, and how to say so
Lesson 3 of 9~8 minFree previewCurrent as of September 2026
The wall is open, the drain is on the camera, or the slab is warm, and what you found is bigger than the job the customer approved. The next five minutes decide whether the customer trusts you or calls a second plumber. This lesson is the delivery: stop the work, show the evidence, say the cause and the consequence plainly, give the ladder including the option of stopping here, write the change order before anything else happens, and never let the surprise arrive on the final invoice. It is the human side of lesson 3.5, and the case in lesson 3.12 is what happens without it.
What the full lesson covers
- Stop before the extra work, not after. The discovery is a change order (7159(e)(3)) or a written authorization to exceed the estimate (7159.10(e)(7)), signed before you continue.
- Show, don't tell: the photo, the camera recording, the gauge, the corroded pipe in your hand. The evidence is what makes the bad news believable and keeps it inside section 7161.
- Say the cause and the consequence in two sentences, then the ladder, including "we can stop here and make it safe."
- Price the new scope from the book or the worksheet, on the sheet, with what it does not fix; the customer chooses; the change order is signed; then the work.
- The bad news is delivered once, in person, with the customer's copy in their hand. A surprise on the final invoice is the complaint.
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More lessons in Customers, Warranties, and Complaints
- 1Presenting options and price without apologizing
- 2The other guy is cheaper: what to say, what to let the customer check, and the line not to cross
- 3Delivering bad news: it is worse than you thought, and how to say soYou are here
- 4You are liable for four years (patent) and ten years (latent), and CSLB accepts complaints that long
- 5A warranty policy that protects you: what to promise, for how long, what to exclude, and what a warranty cannot do