Notice It's been a while.....

Mikey P

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Seriously though Meg


Make it your protocol to vacuum at least the horizontal surfaces of upholstery.

especially if you are just FPA'n them..



as far as carpet goes, I would only let my customers do the vacuuming after the first visit, where and when I would inspect their vacuum and interrogated who does the suckmopping.

Are you HWE'ing homes that get vacuum by a crappy canister or Oreck once a month?


I know, "It worked this well for this long"



but has it?



sounds like with the size and scope of your area, you could be up to three or four trucks by now..
 
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I can't imagine a Carpet Cleaner would ever win in Court... so many sleeve ball bait and switch a holes out there that a Judge would just automatically rule for the Customer. Better to turn it into a positive as much as possible and go to the next job. If it gets ugly... we lose. Reputation is everything.
That's why it's important to have ur client sign a work order and an invoice signed before you leave. Not there to sign? Collect payment before u start. Very simple. Friend or no friend it's business.
 
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At this point, without any documentation, I would come up with a figure that you are covering your expenses, making a small profit and offer it to him verbally to try and end this transaction. If at that point he says no, then put a lien on his house and take him to court for the full amount. You will get your money.
 

ruff

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For freaking heaven's sake.

Do you have a money back guarantee?
Or does he have to crawl on the floor backwards to activate it? Is it like the rest of us: "If you're not happy we'll re-do, if still unhappy we'll refund your money" type of warranty?

If so, consider it a "non happy" refund. Take what he offers and move on. Do it with grace, as you never know what may come back to bite you.
The hours you're spending on this and the emotional hassle ain't worth it. Let alone your professional pride in standing behind your warranty and taking pride in making your clients happy.

A quick summery: He's not happy. Give him whatever money (discount he wants) and move on. Otherwise, you may regret it later. No one wins in court and you have a lot more to lose than he does.

And freaking give them a free spotter :icon_rolleyes:
 

MR CLEAN

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You dont pre vacuum uph? and for those rates?

or1d2j.jpg



good lord. go post this shit on ****.
Don't be jealous Mike it's becoming.

We don't need to pre-vacuum clients do that for us because that's part of the prep. And when it's not prepped we take care of that. This situation it was beyond hope the client knew that and now he made it a problem of just that . He has no intentions of paying us. In my opinion he never did . He use the friendship between him and Meg to make the connection and then protocol got broken and now we pay the price .
 

MR CLEAN

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Yes I run 2 trucks Meg

I rarely work alone , IMO you don't need 2. Trucks to do a primarily upholstery job We dual wand it. Job would have taken us about 3-4 hours and I would have been happy collecting a $800 check

Just offering my opinion as you are the one looking for suggestions

Your prices are quite admirable

Expect the occasional resistance

Yes our clients are willing to pay a premium for our service. It's something we take very personal and to the highest level.
 

Mrice

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I had a lady do this to me on a tile job. I met her, gave her the estimate (for free)...she said that's great! I got to work and she left (in her new vette) to run errands. Two hours into the process my phone starts blowing up. She had called me several times and the person that referred her and now he was calling, saying that she was complaining to him that two years ago she had a similar job done for half the price and now she was angry. Her bill was 650 including sealing. At least she said something during the job. Who are these people? They agree to something plainly stated and later reconsider? When she returned I asked her what she felt was fair, she put it back on me I said 500, and she reluctantly struck a check.

Both of you could take him to lunch and hash it out.

PS There are certain parts of our jobs that if calculated separately, hourly cost would be astronomical.
 
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Mikey P

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So you'll vacuum when you see topical soil that they missed?


It's not the crumbs, leaves and Lego heads that are the problem John.

Its the deep particle soil most home owners dont get.

You might as well let them run the wand too...



Dont be aloof about it John, its the next step in your progression to potential guru level cleaner.
 
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MR CLEAN

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I can't imagine a Carpet Cleaner would ever win in Court... so many sleeve ball bait and switch a holes out there that a Judge would just automatically rule for the Customer. Better to turn it into a positive as much as possible and go to the next job. If it gets ugly... we lose. Reputation is everything.


In my back pocket we have six years of awards in the local newspaper that people take serious in our area than 30 years of my cleaning experience than all the how we're doing cards which is in the hundreds of handwritten cards on our website all positive . Something should be said about that .
 

Zee

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Yes our clients are willing to pay a premium for our service. It's something we take very personal and to the highest level.



I don't think you're serious with that...

Highest level and you guys don't even vacuum.

We see this all the time where the home owner just vacuumed and it was NOT done right and we fill vacuum canister after canister. So who's fault is that when all that powdery, dusty mess gets wet and never gets removed during cleaning and starts wicking?

"highest level".....ok
 

MR CLEAN

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John you're not addressing Facebook rookies here.

We know there is no way possible that you gave them their money's worth on all the upholstery Meg listed in 2.5 hours.
Sorry you see it that way. We do that every day the week this is the first time we've been in this position in many years
 

MR CLEAN

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I don't think you're serious with that...

Highest level and you guys don't even vacuum.

We see this all the time where the home owner just vacuumed and it was NOT done right and we fill vacuum canister after canister. So who's fault is that when all that powdery, dusty mess gets wet and never gets removed during cleaning and starts wicking?

"highest level".....ok


What you're referring to is called wicking soil which rarely happen in our process and I think there must be a misconception here the majority of our clientele have housekeepers the carpets are spotless 90% of the time pre-vacuuming is a waste of time because it doesn't need it . Add Saiger 1 CRB devastator wand clean co truck mount game over oh a devastator filter to
 

Bob Pruitt

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In my back pocket we have six years of awards in the local newspaper that people take serious in our area than 30 years of my cleaning experience than all the how we're doing cards which is in the hundreds of handwritten cards on our website all positive . Something should be said about that .
You just did. Obviously your call on how this is handled. Since this was your take away from my posts then simply - wish you the best... back to the game :hopeless:
 

D Luke

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Sorry you see it that way. We do that every day the week this is the first time we've been in this position in many years

Not many years. Maybe one year since we last had this exact conversation.
 
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D Luke

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Every invoice screen grab I've ever seen Meg post has a disclaimer stating that wicking is to be expected.

It's all starting to make sense.
 

ruff

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For heavens sake. Give it a break guys.

I am sure they do great work. And some here seem to be pissed off about the prices they get. Good for them.
If more charged these prices, some here would be able to charge more as well.
 

D Luke

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I'm happy for them that they can charge that much and will freely admit that I am envious. Problem is, I don't think they're worth it.

Would be interested to hear about their process for $3/Sq Ft on site rug cleaning. If they don't even include vacuuming in that then I really will be impressed.
 
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PrimaDonna

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Every invoice screen grab I've ever seen Meg post has a disclaimer stating that wicking is to be expected.

It's all starting to make sense.

That's exactly what I said to him when I read his post. And that this disclaimer was a topic on here before. I knew someone would bring that up. Kudos!

Good for calling it out. This is getting juicy now.
 

D Luke

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The real (and only) reason it bothers me is that guys that don't know any better are reading stuff like this and feeling like failures for working there tails off to do an honest job and "only" making $100-$150 an hour.
 
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ruff

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I'm happy for them that they can charge that much and will freely admit that I am envious. Problem is, I don't think they're worth it.
Hate to break the news to you.
It ain't about what YOU think its worth. It's about what their clients think its worth.

The real (and only) reason it bothers me is that guys that don't know any better are reading stuff like this and feeling like failures for working there tails off to do an honest job and "only" making $100-$150 an hour.

These guys have some growing up to do. Gullible ain't a virtue. Otherwise consider it a natural selection process.
 
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Mikey P

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If Meg wanted their opinion, she would have pisted her conundrum on a local Mom blog.



Derek maakes a huge point concerning rug cleaning in the home


If John is not flipping the rug and vibrating soils loose, than the topical wand only treatment is worth .60 a foot at best.


Imo.
 
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