Unreasonable Customer.

We all have to deal with these b!tches and a$$hole$ sometimes, but it’s been a looong time since I had to deal with them, so I wasn’t prepared at all, it happened last week, went to a home, she opened the door and said let me show you what I need done, followed her upstairs and she showed me 2 bedrooms, I asked her “clean around the beds right ?” She said “ummm you guys don’t move beds ?” I said “unfortunately we don’t move heavy furnitures, breakables and electronics”, she said “can you do it tomorrow ? So that I can empty the rooms for you ?” I said “sure”, I measured and told her price, she agreed, went downstairs and showed me a rolled up wool rug, I told her it’s about $ 120 because the width is 8 and I’m guessing length is 10, she agreed, we went home and went back the next day first thing in the morning, I asked her before I left the day before to make sure that the rooms are cleared and ready to go by 8 am and asked her nicely to give us parking spot on her driveway, got there and her car was still on the driveway, knocked at the door and her kids said she’s in the shower, waited 5 minutes, she came out and moved her car, I followed her upstairs and one of the rooms are not completely cleared, I asked her if I should clean around the bed, she said yup, just clean around the bed, Mike ( my tech ) pulled the hoses by then, I was going to start spraying, she was in the 1st room still clearing some stuffs, I waited, her parents arrived, her mom went upstairs and asked me if I’m going to move the bed, I said no we had that discussion yesterday with your daughter, she asked me if I can clean under the bed if she takes the mattress out, I said yup, no problem, she took the mattress out to the hallway ( 2.5’ hallway ), I had to stand the mattress up to give us more room to walk around, went downstairs while they are still clearing stuffs out, sweep areas in the back yard to clean the rug, unrolled the rug, her mom went downstairs and asked me if she can move the bed frame while I clean, I said sure, just make sure you put something under the legs, like plastic bags or something, I have plastic tabs, but I’m already annoyed by the whole unpreparedness that costed me 15 - 20 minutes already, and she raised her voice and told me well you should have them !
I didn’t say anything, her daughter heard that, when I was about to start, her daughter paid me in cash and asked me to be patient with her mom, I said I’ll try my best, lol.
Got the 2 bedrooms done and went downstairs and clean the rug, everything turned out to be perfect, I know her mom went upstairs to check the bedrooms while I cleaned the wool rug, after I was done and pulled the hoses out, Mike packed everything up, I went to the back yard and she asked me why didn’t you clean the backing ? I was like, how am I going to clean the backing ? ( cotton backing with water marks everywhere ), she said, just clean it like you clean the surface, I need those water mark gone, I laughed, those water mark are not going to come out with any cleaning process, then she said, well I just want them cleaned, they are pet pee pee, I told her that nothing is going to happen if I clean it, it’s cotton for god’s sakes. She insisted, I could’ve walked away since I got paid anyway, but I’m worried her daughter might call me and ask me to come back, even though cleaning the backing is not part of my estimate anyway, so I had to pull the hoses back and ended up cleaning just one small section of the backing 2 x 6 areas, if only she knows what I had to go through to satisfy her stubbornness.
Man that’s a long story, lol.

I couldn't work in your market, just too fast paced for me. I do clean under beds and actually do the back of rugs as well if there is any chance of urine contamination....it is the old man in me I guess much like your customer's Mother. That is also why I can't clean very many residential jobs in a day.

You know your customers and service them well, but the Mother was not one and sounds like the kind that was used to bossing people around....your customer sure knew it well and understood the situation.

Just think, that never happens cleaning commercial.

I would have been done with mom when she complained about the bags. I don't take well to someone raising their voice to me.

Glad you got it done and got paid.

Bob, how do you get water marks from urine off of cotton backing ? Also without stretching / drooping the backing ? Not that I will ever provide the service, just curious, who knows someone might give me a wool rug with urine stains on the back and I want to clean it for myself, lol.

James, yeah that mom is a b!tch, I was really pissed off after that job is done.

I don't focus on the removal of the water marks / stains, just the focused removal of any deposits. I see no value in trying to remove stains from the underside of anything, but flushing urine deposits...yup.

Raising the voice would have been a big deal breaker for me as well. You are a contractor and not her employee so I would have been tempted to remind her of that.

I've only had that sort of thing happen a couple of times. One was a landlord that wanted to tell me how to clean things based upon what he learned from a previous cleaner. The other was from relatives that were living in the couple's basement who just complained about everything.

Some people are just jerks.

Man if youre not careful you can spend more time moving furniture than cleaning carpet

Mo wrote:Man if youre not careful you can spend more time moving furniture than cleaning carpet

You think residential is bad, try cleaning a clothing store. I spend as much time rolling clothing racks around as I do cleaning. In comparison, homes are really easy. Wheeled coasters are your friend in this business, I have several that I use to move furniture.

Landlord has a rush request, during the busiest part of my summer. Only time I have is 8am(im not an 8am kinda cleaner). Waters on? Leave me a front parking spot. "Sure", he said.
I show up. His truck is in.... the front parking spot. He's cutting some wood with a saw in back of his truck. Saw dust all over by front door. Water is NOT on. Not that dirty. He starts telling me about is regular CC showing up and doors locked, waters not on AND he wouldn't wait around or call him. Happened after times over the years. Tingily Spidey sense was going off. I set up back wards in the small, short drive way. I clean, just 1 coffee spot, which I had nothing in the van for it(offered to come back), he goes off about not being professional and he could have rented a machine and done what I did.
Rush job,
Parking issue
No coffee remover
His #1 cleaner walked away from this job
An Everest or a rug Dr.?   Hmmmmm

Wow Matt, that dude needs a wake up call. I just had a call from one that sounds like that. He said that he just needs the living room done right away before the wife returns from her trip. I told him that I charge a truck minimum and he started cussing me out on the phone.

I decided to let some other cleaner enjoy that customer while I sat back and enjoyed a second cup of coffee.

ouch,   we have pretty strict policy for this type of garbage.  

house call changed the entire game for us,   everything is real clear in writing..  if they waste our time or do stupid sh!t its going to cost them.        

pre house call days we ran into sooo much more bullsh!t...   unprepared customers,  kid toys everywhere,   driveway not cleared for us,    asking questions about bed moving,   kids running around the house while we are setting up and having to waste breath telling customer to keep them secure,   people asking why areas cost more to clean than others,   the list goes on.  

I honest to god have no idea how we ever survived before using a good CRM software, it pays for itself for a year about 8-10x per month just in added services

I still use the House Call Pro as well, but it isn't so cost effective for me since I am still predominately commercial and many of residential use land lines still.

I haven't dropped it though as when it does match the customer situation it is a fantastic app. I keep paying for it thinking that I will be thankful for when I become busier. Right now it is a bit expensive for me.

milspec6 wrote:I still use the House Call Pro as well, but it isn't so cost effective for me since I am still predominately commercial and many of residential use land lines still.

I haven't dropped it though as when it does match the customer situation it is a fantastic app.  I keep paying for it thinking that I will be thankful for when I become busier.  Right now it is a bit expensive for me.

Brag about it on your facebook page! Tell customers how you put it in place to make their lives EASIER.

Freemind1 wrote:

milspec6 wrote:I still use the House Call Pro as well, but it isn't so cost effective for me since I am still predominately commercial and many of residential use land lines still.

I haven't dropped it though as when it does match the customer situation it is a fantastic app.  I keep paying for it thinking that I will be thankful for when I become busier.  Right now it is a bit expensive for me.

Brag about it on your facebook page! Tell customers how you put it in place to make their lives EASIER.

That's not a bad idea

I have been cleaning for over 30 years and there was 1 time the customer was so demandinh, that she was issuing order even as we set up. Before we really got going, I said ma'am, I don't believe we will be able to meet your expectations, I suggest you call someone else. We packed up and left.

kleen1 wrote:I have been cleaning for over 30 years and there was 1 time the customer was so demandinh, that she was issuing order even as we set up.  Before we really got going, I said ma'am, I don't believe we will be able to meet your expectations, I suggest you call someone else.  We packed up and left.

Thats what I would have done.

I one time had a guy call me and i gave him a quote over the phone, he didn't like it and told me what he would pay me, told him sorry but that is my price and informed him he did not have to use me and was more then welcome to call someone else, that was the end of that conversation, or so i thought
he calls me back 30min later and tries again to get me to do it for what he wanted to pay telling me my price was ridiculous so, as I say "be nice till it's time to not be nice"
I told him sir, its my business, i own it i do all the work and I not you set the price and at this point even if you now agree to pay my price I will not clean for you, have a nice day, then i hung up idiot.
Yeah it felt good

That last line is the key Kevin, idiots only piss me off if I let them walk over me. If you leave a job after being "too nice" feeling angry, then you should have pushed back.

I never really get mad at those idiots, I get mad at myself for letting them abuse me. It doesn't happen much any more, but when I was starting out years ago it seemed to happen a lot.

Well, you guys brought valid points and I sure learned from this which thankfully don’t happen a lot since I, too screened them out on the phone like you guys do.
Thanks for the input guys.