Do I fire a customer???

I have a customer that has many rental properties in my area. Only problem is that every time they need something cleaned it is last minute. These are extremely poor conditions and always trashed. Have been only charging $80-90 for 1 and 2 bed rooms units because in past lots of work for his dad. Cheap because I thought many units. Last year 12 jobs at $1290.00 or $107.50 ea. Previous years about $3000.00. Always very nasty units and carpets trashed. Of course most second floor units. What do you guys think?? If I fire him, not too worried because everyone in town knows he is a knucklehead. Dad was great to work for. I do not want to start getting picky, but I am pissed every time I am in one of these. Thanks for the input.

I would just sit down and tell him in order to keep up with others demand you need to start charging more. If your broke don't lose the account if u need it.

last thing I heard you can do what ever you want except refuse to bake a cake for a same sex marriage .LOL

So since your not making a cake I guess you can fire the customer in question or raise your prices to make it worth it or the customer can then fire you

either way is a win

I'd let them fire you, by raising your price to a fair amount.......and better yet if they don't move on, you get paid a fair price for the F'ed up jobs you're doing for them.   

Pull the trigger and let them decide!   

Tell him you have put your prices up. If he pays the higher price well and good if he doesn't who cares!

Just raise your price to what you think they are worth. If you fire him, you'll never know if he would have paid what you need.

It is a bad feeling letting something go only to find out that someone else got the work at a better rate than you were getting.

I once had the same costumer, GETTO rentals. Last minute demands always.

The last straw was when I cleaned a rental house that was being staked out by the DEA. The next morning after I dropped my girls off at school I had 6 swat team members with ski masks charge my van with guns drawn (at the school parking lot)

After they detained me, they asked questions, found out I was not part of the drug ring , but just cleaning the carpet, they said "we were wondering why you were wheeling that green machine in and all those sprayers" apparently they never seen VLM cleaning before and didn't' know what I was doing there with all that gear.

Any ways got it cleared up real easy, but I was PISSED!!! I called the slum lord that evening and told him I will no longer work for him.

Andy Mc wrote:I once had the same costumer,  GETTO  rentals.   Last minute demands always.  

The last straw was when I cleaned a rental house that was being staked out  by the DEA.   The next morning after I dropped my girls off at school I had 6 swat team members with ski masks charge my van with guns drawn (at the school parking lot)    

After they detained me, they asked questions, found out I was not part of the drug ring , but just cleaning the carpet,   they said  "we were wondering why you were wheeling that green machine in and all those sprayers"     apparently they never seen VLM cleaning before and didn't' know what I was doing there with all that gear.

Any ways got it cleared up real easy,  but I  was PISSED!!!     I called the slum lord that evening and told him I will no longer work for him.

^^^ WOW    
If you decide you're going to raise the prices, this is the perfect time, gas prices is on the rise, you can tell him I can't hold the line anymore, I would give him a couple weeks notice just to be nice, I've done that a few times and usually I save the customers from going somewhere else.
Like Charlie said, do it only if you'll be ok financially without his business :-)
Good luck in whatever you decide to do :-)

Holy Moly Andy that's crazy. I'm glad they decided to stop you after you dropped off the kids.

It's just business Terry if no longer profitable for you to clean for this customer you have no alternative but raise your pirces. If he can't pay let someone else take the loss

A few years ago I cleaned some carpets for some people and I had a visit by the FBI a couple places they were watching I cleaned the carpets

They found out I was just the carpet cleaner not the ( Cleaner )

Gerry,
Would you like to continue to clean them?
How much would like to reasonably get?
*I've told some PM's that it will cost : $20 if not pre-vac'd and $10 extra per room for hvy soiling. Just got $20 extra from a job the other day cuz not vac's. It was like they opened a vac bag and spread it all over. Underneath the debris, the carpet wasn't that dirty.
Andy; Pasco? DEA- I've been there! OR was that SWAT? Apparently they didn't find the hidden compartment in your sprayer(wink, wink)

Matt

I just fired him. Did a job and then called him. Started by saying he and I get along and I like him. But Contientiously I could not continue cleaning his units. He knows they are trashed. Told him ea unit would cost $200.00 if I were to still clean. Thanked him for his business and parted ways. I feel cleaner and better. His properties are becoming nastier every year.

 

You made the right decision, it sounds like he was taking advantage of your good nature. Don't be surprised if he calls you again and offers more after others turn him down as well.

Stick to your guns, there is easier money out there so don't waste your time.  

I was actually thinking about that during my last job for him. Complete waste of my time. Thanks for all of your input guys..

Gerry's not broke.
It was a good learning experience, both the work and learning to recognize getting taken advantage of.
...he was taking advantage of your good nature. Don't be surprised if he calls you again and offers more after others turn him down as well.
Exactly. Happened to me like that. Don't fire them, just tell em the hassle, infrequency, health risks, just not worth it. You have much better cleaning jobs waiting. That's when they start begging. That's when you realize you were right to say thanks anyway.

Forgot. Little white lie. Told him after cleaning these units seems like I get a respitory issue that lasts a few days. Thought that sounded diplomatic. He understood. He knows these are all trashed. No joke though. Who knows what the hell we are breathing with these jobs.

I cleaned a few ghetto apartments a week ago and found out that the former tennant had been fighting swine flu for the last 2 months.

Never know indeed.

Joe has made a great observation, (as per normal)    GOOD nature , invites some people to take advantage,    

I say don't change your good nature if you have it,  but at the same time  learn to recognize the leach  people,  

these are the 10 percent of the population,  

Who  actively ( sometimes unknowingly)  seek out the good natured  ( the other 10 percent of population) [If one of these leach humans gets a hold of you , they will suck  ALL   the good nature out of you,  

unless you have heroic virtue. RUN from these leach humans, they are stronger then you.

And you will be left with no more good nature to give to  the normal public ,  that is the  other 80 percent of the population, who truly can benefit from your goodness.

Deja vu...flash back. Leach sucks my time and effort to the tuneof $450. All 3 parties(adults) live in the same triple wide. Party 1 calls to schedule. Party 2(mom/dad) are there to meet me. Party 3 is the check writer. ONLY its a check written on a closed account!&&%%$&%>.
*turned it over to the prosecuters office. They couldn't even get $ out of them.(don't get me going on that). And they hosed wal-mart for $1400.

Andy Mc wrote:Joe has made a great observation, (as per normal)    GOOD nature , invites some people to take advantage,    

I say don't change your good nature if you have it,  but at the same time  learn to recognize the leach  people,  

these are the 10 percent of the population,  

Who  actively ( sometimes unknowingly)  seek out the good natured  ( the other 10 percent of population) [If one of these leach humans gets a hold of you , they will suck  ALL   the good nature out of you,  

unless you have heroic virtue.  RUN from these leach humans,   they are stronger then you.

And you will be left with no more good nature to give to  the normal public ,  that is the  other 80 percent of the population, who truly can benefit from your goodness.

This was my biggest hurdle in business the first few years and to some extent, still shows up on occassion. You have to be able to do exactly what you described or you were get frustrated fast.

Well,

This is how I handled the EXACT same problem.

PM was paying too little, so we worked it out so in the lease there was a 150.00 carpet cleaning deposit. Its a law here in Seattle that you have to have carpets professionally cleaned after each tenant.

They were just small 1 bd units, kinda trashed.

Turned out the clause was already in the lease agreement and someone down the totem pole was just trying to save some money. When the owner of the PM company found out how clean these units can get, he made sure we got the total amount for each cleaning.

I did these about 7 years ago when I was just starting out so was only charging $90

It was a pretty easy thing to work out, I just had to take 1 trashed unit and give it everything in the arsenal.

but to answer the fire him or not.....   I would not

those are great jobs that you can hire a tech to do down the road,   its perfect because if a minor mistake is made its no big deal.   Perfect for learning curve, good practice on tuff stains, etc   

I would just set up someone with a good vac,  and a decent VLM set

3k/ yr is a good customer,   just have to squeeze a little more $ out of them.

I always give people the benefit. Get burned once by them and forget it. With smaller rural communities, need to be careful. Word of mouth spreads fast and everyone hears a different version. Not worried at all about this guy. Everybody has his number. I do many of rental properties and have them trained well. I enjoy those. Hated his.

I've fired customers a lot, especially on the janitorial side. One office I had for 12 years, great relationship with the Drs and staff. They hire a new office manager and first day on the job gets 5 bids from other companies. I guess that's all she could think of to show her "authority" right away. Drs told her that they wouldn't even consider it, she's wasted everybody's time. So she made my life miserable. Moving filing cabinets and hiding post it notes under them and then calling me to tell me that I "missed" them. Lol!

I finally showed up to field another complaint and just handed her the keys and said bye. She was furious! She needed 30 days! I said "you need a lot more things than just 30 days."

There is too much good work to waste time with bad. There are too many good people to put up with idiots.