I really do try to keep personal feelings out of business dealings - not always easy to achieve.
I probably would have put the customer back on my work list. I would charge more though. I regularly upgrade my charging structure and it's a fair bet that I would have a different way of pricing by the time they asked me back. Also, my rates are based on supplying a regular service (usually 6 weekly). If a customer has gone elsewhere once, I reckon there is more likelihood they would do so again - creating a tiny viability risk. Money lenders charge a bit more for higher risk customers so I just take my example from them
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This happened with me recently too. A customer decided to go elsewhere. Several months later they phoned and invited me back. In the meantime, I had increased her neighbours' prices by £1.00 . So I increased hers too. She did hesitate but I wasn't bothered whether I got the job back one way or the other. In this case there was a more concrete reason for the increase which she could easily verify by asking the neighbours. The funny thing was that much of the upper floor of this job could only be reasonably done by WFP due to the layout. I assumed that she had switched to another W/C with WFP. It turned out he was using ladders and was missing most of the top floor out which is why she came back to me.
I'm not one of the guys who has delusions of power as I know that in a very tight economy a chunk of my business would be history. However, I'm not prepared to let a customer walk over me either. Peaceful co-existence and mutual respect are the way forward IMO.
