Yes, but not many.

As one of Australia’s most trusted repairers and a patient, former science teacher who managed thousands of crazy teenagers, I have very few issues with reasonable adult customers! But, one must keep in mind:

1. You cannot please everyone, no matter how well you run a business
2. Not everyone is reasonable, well-intentioned (or even sane), and
3. The customer isn’t always right.

The Blacklist

Liquid Audio, in collaboration with other leading Western Australian technicians, manages a list of people who are banned from receiving assistance from any in the group. This is known as the black list, and its purpose is to protect the businesses and their owners from unnecessary pain.

For perspective, my database comprises several thousand customers. I’ve added about 10 people to the blacklist in a decade, one so far in 2025. This is only about one per year, and an exceptionally low rate of about 0.01% overall. I thank the 99.99% of reasonable people I’m fortunate to interact with!

The Process

This subset of around 0.01% people is, unfortunately, so painful, unreasonable, and problematic that attempts to assist them must be avoided. We don’t argue or try to reason with unreasonable people, because by definition, there is no point. Instead, we apply this simple, zero-tolerance policy:

Assistance is terminated, details are recorded and shared with businesses in the group, and the individual is permanently blacklisted from all participating businesses.

Irreversibly losing access to the most respected repair businesses in Western Australia is a bad outcome for anyone who loves hi-fi equipment, as it banishes blacklisted individuals to the world of the Hall-of-Shamers. The message, though, is clear: nobody should put up with rude, unreasonable people.

Examples

Blacklisting classics include these real examples:

• ‘You should work for free (though I don’t)’
• I’m going to leave equipment with you for a year without paying (then complain about storage charges and forget to thank you for not selling it)’
• ‘I’ma pound your door at 8 am Sunday (because I don’t care about your business hours)’
• ‘You stole my dead capacitors (but helped me immeasurably)’
• ‘You’re running a brutal scam (where you help people and charge for your time)’
• ‘You’re now responsible for everything wrong with my trashed, WD-40-soaked amplifier’
• ‘I’m going to extort you (despite the generous help and free repair you provided me)’

Again, these folks are 0.01%, but we won’t tolerate this sort of thing, and you shouldn’t either 🙂