Good input - excessive cost sensitivity is a definite sign that the customer cannot afford the work. Personality mismatch comes into play as well... I recall a customer the boys had in that made me feel very uncomfortable.
The sort of behavior I've seen is the irrational response which some customers have to their inability to find a handy Time Machine to undo the damage they/their family member (s) have done to their instrument and at a cost that they could afford.
- I've seen a client accuse the repair person of surreptitiously swapping out the A grade WRC top for another A grade WRC top on her student-level German-made classical guitar (and then accuse the repair person of swapping the back/side set... mediocre EIR).
- The second situation I discussed with another repair person was a gentleman that came close to destroying his 1980's plywood back & side, solid spruce top Korean-made dreadnaught in an attempt at DIY repair (these were the days of the lawsuit Asian guitars and '... by Martin')... a back replacement was done for 4x the as-presented value of the instrument, but the customer just could not get by the witness lines left on a finish repair to a superficial scratch left by a previous repair shop's neck reset (despite being invisible from more than an inch or two eye distance).
Both incidents eventually led to the repair people involved walking away from the well-repaired guitar and firing the customer, with losses in time, sunk cost of materials, and the inevitable anxiety that close approaches to crazy produces in the clinically sane. In terms of signs, the barely suppressed rage directed towards her spouse on the part of the first instrument's owner at time of drop-off would likely have been a no-go had this been my decision, while the second incident highlights the role which problematic self-repair attempts might play in an owner's fantasy of turning back the hands of time to undo his own extraordinarily poor judgement and lack of skill. An unreasonable desire for a do-over on the part of the client can drag repair people into the role of both psychotherapist and possible target... so I suppose this ends up being a discussion about the art of differentiating between the truly crazy client and the usual, run-of-the-mill semi-sane musician/instrument owner.
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