This customer...

WillS

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Will
I'm sure this can go in the crazy category.

This lady booked with us a week ago for just a simple $80 job (our min to come out and service any home). We always do confirmation calls a day or two before and left her a message as she didn't answer. Day of the appointment we arrive between the scheduled appointment time 9am to 10am (arrived approx. 9:15am). We called her 30 minutes before the arrival, no answer, so left a voice mail. We get to the street, there is a gate code required. We always ask when booking the appointment if a gate code is needed, she never provided one. We called again twice, once when sitting at the gate, and 15 minutes later after waiting at the gate, still no answer.

I get a call from her husband at 10:25am saying are you guys coming? We only had his wife's phone number and explained to him we called several times. He says, "oh she was sleeping". We offered to reschedule and he said he needs to find someone today. We already moved onto the next appointment since it was a no call/no show type deal.

His wife than sends us a text message at 11am saying, "So you don't wanna clean my carpets?" I responded with, Of course, we arrived at the scheduled time, waited, blah blah blah." She texts me back and says so no cars came in the gate during the time you waited? I highly doubt that. I told her no, other wise we would have gone in and been knocking on her door. She then tells me, "a real professional company, that would want her business, mind you this is a $80 job, would have waited at least 30 minutes plus to see if a car came through the gate. She then texts and says, you should have parked the truck, walked around to this side gate of the community, and walked 10 houses down and knocked on her door. WTF? I said, I'm sorry, we don't do that, we don't like to leave our trucks sitting on the street un areas we are unfamiliar with. (This was in North Las Vegas, not such a great area in some parts). We usually expect the customer to answer or be able to enter with a gate code. She tells me, "We are not a professional service, because any other service people would have walked to her house." She has now texted me about 20 times with different shit, finally I say, you know, we probably aren't the company for you. She than tells me how she is going to find a real service and then send me pointers on how we should run our business. I'm just waiting for her great review. I'm going to have to restrain myself in the response to her review if she does one.

Psycho. Would you have walked to this customers home?
 
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Desk Jockey

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Rico Suave
People are awesome! Crazy is as crazy does.

We had a water call today, caller over flowed the bath tub and it went though the double wide. Trailers can be a reap pain when wet, old ones they put the walls down over the carpet pad or vinyl.The belly liner needs cut open to allow water to drain and to access the wet subfloors. A sucky job but one we are prepared to do....up until she says she only rents.

We tell her she needs to call the landlord, which she responded "I had called him and he said I am responsible for the bill." She said "It needs to be done, sometimes you just have to do things even if you don't want to. Come on out!"

We told her no big deal, we can have a crew out there in an hour. She said "great, it needs to be done." We tell her we need to collect $1,000.00 to begin the project
.
Dead silence. :eekk:

She said "We'll I don't have any money" :shifty:

She didn't have any money, the landlord refused to pay and her renters insurance denied her. But had we went to do the work she would have let us.....and we would have never been paid. WTF was she thinking saying com on out???? :angry:

I don't know who did the work but I have a few select competitors I hope got the job! :twisted: :biggrin:
 
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jcooper

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"We are not a professional service, because any other service people would have walked to her house."

I also would have left. I guess you could have asked for a back up number(we don't), that's about all that would have helped.

But yea... I'm not going to walk the neighborhood looking for a house...


What's up w/the 9-10 appointment? You can't be on time for the first job of the day?:stir:
 
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WillS

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Will
What's up w/the 9-10 appointment? You can't be on time for the first job of the day?:stir:

lol! Oh but sir, that is on time. I wish we would have shown up closer to 10, because her husband called not long after that. We schedule hour leeway appointments. So techs will be there anytime between 9-10, but we give that courtesy call about 30 mins before showing up. Which we exactly did with this lady, and I figured, ok I guess she cancelled. We probably would have been able to go do it still. I think we actually got lucky because in her rambling of text messages say says, "I have white Berber carpet and it is almost black (traffic lanes). I'm going to be trying to clean it a lot now so you missed out on all my business." You know when you show up to a house and pray its not dirty as crap. I lucked out, especially for the small cost we were charging her in the first place.

Do you guys always call prior to arriving? If they don't answer do you wait for a call back? Then, if no call back do you still go? We will always will go to the house if they had confirmed previously and don't answer on the day of the appointment. If it is a customer far out in like Boulder City Area and they don't answer at all, we cancel it. (It is quite a drive from Central Vegas to Boulder City).
 
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jcooper

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Jerry Cooper
Do you guys always call prior to arriving?


No call for first appt of day(9am on the dot!). Others will get a call if late or to get permission to be significantly early.


If they don't answer do you wait for a call back?

No, just go...

Then, if no call back do you still go?

Yes

Getting blown off happens, the 2-3 times a year... I'm normally happy - few hours off!
 
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Mikey P

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My guy got a $100 tip today on a tile job were were provided no visible difference.
Clean clean stuff and rechaulk and seal.



sorry your day sucked.
 

steve_64

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once its scheduled i rarely call to verify. i dont wait long neither if its a no answer at the door.

i also dont reply to nasty calls or texts. i forget it and move on.

i wouldnt have walked into the community looking for her. but i wouldve tried to get back out later in the day at my convenience.
 
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Ron Werner

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Nov 25, 2006
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Sooke BC, Lower Vancouver Island
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Ron Werner
Its like at a condo building. I won't enter if someone else goes through the door. If my client doesn't answer, I will respect the building security.
I have given 30 min, but then that messes up the next job.
You made the right choice in leaving. Esp for $80!
If she REALLY wanted it done that day she would have been awake and ready for you.
 

bob vawter

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bob vawter
wow...i alwez tol em 8:30....sharp.....usually had three done before noon......all little old black ladies...

poor CRASH..the hood is REALLY getting ghetto.......
 

WillS

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Will
Received a complaint from this customer from the BBB. I'm glad I waited 2 days before responding and thinking it over before saying something crazy like you dumb ass #$()ESDJ@#()*)@!@E)E*@*DJWDJOD(@*)@# and $#)*#@) YOU. :) This was our first ever complaint through BBB, I found it interesting they give the consumer "suggested way to settle dispute" and they right a statement. Hers, she wanted an apology. Just to get rid of it so it didn't go on our BBB page, I apologized for any inconvenience (even though it was completely on her) and reminded her of what I said previous, "We probably are not the right company for you, as you agreed. Best of luck!"
 

WillS

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Las Vegas NV
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Will
I did include also what you said, good advice: We didn't have permission to enter by following a vehicle in. I did contact her HOA and per their HOA Rules, that would be considered trespassing. So...
 

Mike Draper

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i had a lady call me once and get upset because I couldnt come out and immediately clean. She wanted her rental deposit back and fast. I told her it sounded like we were not the right company for her. She then cussed at me to just get the damn job done. An hour later I had a nasty, nasty review that looked as though we cleaned for her and did bad work so she had to hire someone else. I Hired an attorney and that review went away very quickly. It sucks it has to be that way, but many people have an entitlement attitude these days.
 

WillS

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Las Vegas NV
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Will
It's crazy how adamant people are about getting their carpets cleaned. Sometimes it feels like we are coming over to do heart surgery - that it's so important it must be done asap. We get about 25 -30 calls a day and the ones that want same day, if we don't have it they get crazy.
 

WillS

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Will
Actually, the ones who say "your to expensive or I wouldn't pay that much" are worst than the same dayers.
 

Hoody

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Bowling Green, Ohio
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Steven Hoodlebrink
We always had a set routine for the day.

Arrive by 7:45-8:00am - change into uniform, grab some coffee, and say hello to other staff.

8:15 - I would go around and make sure each van was ready for the day - any tech that failed to do their evening prep didn't get the weekly bonus we gave. If it happened more than once during the week they would get wrote up and coached. While I was doing that - each lead tech would call their appointments(the client was pre-warned during scheduling this would happen) to confirm them for the day, and remind all of them they would get a call when we were on the way(30 mins or less). If we got an answering machine we asked that they kindly give us a quick call back or we had a phone they could text to let us know they got the call. We also gave them the option to have morning confirmations via text and one of the office staff would do it from the office cell phone.

It was up to the techs discretion whether or not they would still drive to the job if they didn't answer the 30 minute confirmation appointment. We weren't allowed to drive to the job if they missed the morning confirmation and the 30 minute one.

During scheduling we would let them know of this process and make sure they were going to be able to either confirm or answer the 30 minute phone call or get specific instructions from them. At the time very few asked for emailed morning confirmations.

8:30 - Techs were out the door to be at their first arrival by 9:00.
 
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PrimaDonna

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MB
We always had a set routine for the day.

Arrive by 7:45-8:00am - change into uniform, grab some coffee, and say hello to other staff.

8:15 - I would go around and make sure each van was ready for the day - any tech that failed to do their evening prep didn't get the weekly bonus we gave. If it happened more than once during the week they would get wrote up and coached. While I was doing that - each lead tech would call their appointments(the client was pre-warned during scheduling this would happen) to confirm them for the day, and remind all of them they would get a call when we were on the way(30 mins or less). If we got an answering machine we asked that they kindly give us a quick call back or we had a phone they could text to let us know they got the call. We also gave them the option to have morning confirmations via text and one of the office staff would do it from the office cell phone.

It was up to the techs discretion whether or not they would still drive to the job if they didn't answer the 30 minute confirmation appointment. We weren't allowed to drive to the job if they missed the morning confirmation and the 30 minute one.

During scheduling we would let them know of this process and make sure they were going to be able to either confirm or answer the 30 minute phone call or get specific instructions from them. At the time very few asked for emailed morning confirmations.

8:30 - Techs were out the door to be at their first arrival by 9:00.
I love SOPs like this....makes so much sense
 
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Papa John

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John Stewart
Its Odd that our profession is held to such a high standard compared to other services; Custies want us NOW and they want us on Time-- (no 2-4 hour windows) even 15-30 minutes late gets some of them mad. But how long after your scheduled appointment do you wait in a waiting room or treatment room for a doctor or dentist?

I'm tired of custies disrespecting our time-- we give discounts if we are late or need to reschedule -- but we haven't charged a fee if THEY no show or cancel-- but That's going to change for me. see my flaky custy post.
I can see why the airlines have their change/cancellation fees.

If more of us CC start charging for missed appointments then Maybe they will start to respect our time more. Remember! our time is also the next customers- or the turned away customers time-- so in away they are disrespecting each other.
 
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Jesse
Actually, the ones who say "your to expensive or I wouldn't pay that much" are worst than the same dayers.


Agreed. I hate when they want to fight with you about how your "ripping them off" because you gave them an honest phone quote. About a month ago I had a lady get mad at our $100 min for one room and ask if it was cause she was black:oldrolleyes:
 

mike r

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Michael Ramsey
Stories like this are precisely why we don't do residential. There are great customers I know but too many like this. Love doing industrial/commercial only. I'm sure we could write a book on stories like this. In the past have had our share of residential customer nightmares.
 

hogjowl

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Oct 7, 2006
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Prattville, Alabama
I have a high minimum charge to weed out unprofitable jobs. I am certain there a some minorities that think that practice is a result of prejudice.

I can't help that. This business is not a ministry, nor is it part of the welfare system.

I had a guy call me today asking what I'd charge to clean three spots. I told him $120. A few minutes later, a female called from the same number, who's English sounded a bit more mainstream, asking how much for 1 room. Told her the same thing.

No doubt he was expecting me to tell her something different.
 
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mike r

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Being that we are only a couple of states away we are on the same page as far as minimums go. Our min. charge was $100. but a year or so ago went to $150.
 

Mikey P

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Last week a young sounding woman asked if I would make an exception and clean her 8x10 synthetic rug for less than the minimum because we cleaned her sofa back in June....for the minimum.


When I went into my business 101 speech she interrupted to say "I know, I know I have a job too.."
 

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