I've been getting calls after placing counter offers for a handful of tickets. Until recently the calls were a quick review of SOW and confirmation of skill set and availability before the buyer assigns the ticket. That's not happening much anymore. Not one call was to say "Fantastic! We accept your counter. Even the CEO loves you and sent a bottle of 100yo Single Malt to your home, When can you start?". Instead it's been "we saw your counter but we don't pay that much on our tickets, "we can only go $10 higher above our original fixed offer of $45 to drive 70 miles the other way to pick up parts, rebuild a critical-down server at a big box that's losing fork lifts of cash every hour"

I don't haggle. The last time this happened, I was working at a site and busy. The buyer got pissy when on the first call I said "Thanks for calling and letting me know your budget. Have a great rest of your day" I ended the call and went back to cabling a security cam. He called back and his VM was a rant about him being very generous and why won't I work with him, think of the children blah blah blah, my friend. Another VM a few minutes later said that I was being rude to not return his calls. On the 3rd call I blocked him as spam

Silence is best, but I want to tell him that I can't take his ticket because my landlord won't accept "exposure" as rent payment. Again.

What are your Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions on counters?