Was I in the wrong to charge my client for a special paint brush ($10) that I needed to finish painting the room (please read description)?

[Anonymous]

I paint rooms as a side hustle. I actually got so good at it that it eventually became my main job and I quit my old job to focus on this small business.
Anyway, there was a room that required a special brush that was $10 and I charged him the brush because I do everyone’s shopping for them. I buy the paint, the suppplies and everything.
He goes down my receipt because I always show it to everyone so they can see I’m honest. He says “hey what’s this $10 brush for?” I told him “yeah I needed that brush for one of your rooms.” He said “oh I’m not paying for that.”

I said “that’s fine. I’ll deduct it from my labor cost.”

He then says “oh and I’ll need my exterior painted as well.” After he finished paying me labor and the receipt cost of supplies minus the $10 brush because I deducted it.

“I’m sorry, man. I’m not doing business with you anymore.”

“You serious. Why?” He asked.

“It’s about the $10. $10 is nothing to me but I don’t want you as my business partner from here on out.”

Updates

+1 y

Refusing to pay for a $10 brush means he is cheap and it’s just bad for business to continue with people like this.

[WindAtMyBack]

I was a tradesman and have many thousands of dollars tied up in tools. I don't think you should have charged a customer for the tool. If it was something expensive you could have taken it into account when you bid the job. If $10 makes a difference to you then you are bidding way too low..

Stop kit-picking about $10. Keeping the customer happy is FAR more important than ten bucks. It's not about right or wrong. It's about good customer service. Treat your customers right. Give them a fair deal. Be honest with them. Even if you take a loss, treat your customer right. That's part of the business. If you take a loss then learn from it.

[Astarlessnightsky]

No, everyone is directing the costs for supplies back at the customer, but usually you split the cost and charge multiple customers partially for the same supply.

So in your case, you would usually estimate how much you can paint with that brush and than charge the next 5 customers or 10 customers with 2 or 1 buck extra, depending how long the brush lasts.

If its a really special brush, you would only need every 1000th customer, i would just have discussed it with the customer and explained it to him/her.

[19magic]

The only thing I don't get is if your a painter surely that same brush would be used over multiple projects, so you would have a tool budget split evenly across many. If you take care of your tools they can last for decades (obviously home use) but surely they'll still be usable for months as a business.

[Asker]

I needed brush strokes effect on the wall

[Ευδεμονια]

I think honestly you didn’t anything wrong, you’ve been honest and showed him receipt… one only thing you should have done maybe is to inform him of the need to buy a special brush before doing the paint, so the client can be prepared. I know it’s only 10$ but I see people complain for 1€ or cents difference for things… people are so greedy.

[jamesgoldman]

Not at all, my dad did decorating for a few people and one job needed a wallpaper steamer

It cost £50, the client paid and he's still got it, he did offer it to them but they let him keep it because he'd use it more

Clients pay for tools, materials and labour unless it's a big piece of equipment that can be shared across a lot of jobs

[Chazmatazz269]

It’s not unusual for bigger businesses to do as much, mostly because they can cut the cost across multiple client charges. Personally, i’d have eaten the bulk of it and charged a little more across other contracts whereupon the brush was necessary.

[exitseven]

I would have just painted the exterior of his house and figured out a way to overcharge him twenty bucks on the materials. Then I would stop doing business with him.

[Pudsmucker]

Most paint brushes are more expensive than $10.

[msc545]

Deciding to pick a $10 hill to die on is a very bad choice.

[Anonymous]

Seems legit to me.