My Bad?
 

If you spoke to someone else about his business its your bad.

Yeah that is bad business overall and horrible customer service. It's just not professional. If you get yelled at (which you probably will) just strap in and hold on. I mean, that's all you can really do at this point, unless you tell your father about it first, then it might not look as bad...

I agree. It was extremely unprofessional of you.

It was your bad - very bad business to not keep stuff like that private.

My dad also owns his own small business - and no matter how good/bad the customer, I don't mention about people outside of our house. You never know who knows who,and like everyone else said, it's bad business.

Yes, it was not good form to talk about a client, especially in a family business. I know of which you speak!

Chalk it up to a learning experience, though, and don't let it get you down.

ETA: remember the saying, "Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows the President."

Definitely tell your dad about it first if you can. It'll be better for you if he hears your side first.

My parents owned their own business for years, and i'd never talk to other ppl about their transactions. It's not my place, they know what they're doing.

Although perhaps the business ethics point to it being a bad call, I'd have done the same thing probably. I mean if you saved the conversation and showed it to your father....I'm sure your father a) wouldn't be very happy with what was being said by either parties and b) would agree that this punk needs to settle on his bills. I mean if he can afford to pay his internet bills to pick up on chicks then surely he can afford to pay his storage bill.

I don't think that legally he can do anything and could legally break his lease with your facility. I think that (especially if you saved the conversation) that you could point out that the screen name belonged to one Mr. Jerk, and that it wasn't as if YOU sought out his friend to tell him about Mr. Jerk's debt. It's JUST LIKE sending a reminder of payment due and someone else could open the mail at his house and read about his business.

1) You should not have discussed client business with other people outside of the family. (i.e. if this was a patient and your Dad a doctor, or a client and your Dad a lawyer, this could be VERY serious).

2) That bring said, if this guy leaves as a client, good riddance.

3) I would tell your Dad what happened so that he is aware of it (sorry, I know you wouldn't like that part). [Ditto on the strap in, hold on tight thing, as mentioned above].

Don't be too hard on yourself, but don't let it happen again ("Think of it as a learning experience" as my Mom says).
If weirdos are IM'ing you, hang up, block them, whatever it takes.
Good Luck.....

I was given the impression that it was against the law to discuss a business matter with someone other than that person. Of course my boss might have just told me that to keep me from doing it ;) But where I work, when I do collection calls, I am not even allowed to speak to the spouse of the person about their account (unless it is someone that is a repeat customer and we are 100% sure that they would not mind).

Of course sometimes we bend this rule. For example, if we have two sisters who both have accounts. Sister #1 has had her phone disconnected and Sister #2 is in the store making a payment... more than likely, my boss will ask #2 to get #1 to come in and pay as well.

Either way, I agree... it's bad business, but the guy sounds like he was being a complete jerk anyway.

just out of curiosity, how did this guy get your screenname?