[nevil]

I am spitting blood today. It takes a lot to get me going but I flipped my lid this morning.

I had a call from a customer who wanted a rental cottage cleaning earlier this week. Tiny cottage. One room 10 x 12 another at 8 x 8 and a flight of stairs. Wool loop pile. She asked how much and I told her over the phone. I said if it's straight forward and good access between £75 and £85. That's fine she said. So I did the job, sent them the invoice. Then today her husband called me saying he thought the price was to high. He went on to say that his cleaning lady does carpets and would have done it for £50. Of course I told him all a bout quality. He didn't want to hear it.

I said surely the time for all this would have been when your wife called me when we talked about price. He replied she said that money hadn't been discussed. Implying that I was making it up. I told him that I have never claimed to be the cheapest CC about but that also I am not the most expensive. He wasn't interested.

Then I popped around to confront him, I don't mind people negotiating that's fine. But telling me that I hadn't already given them an indication of the price was essentially calling me a liar. I lost it,shouted, yelled told him he was out of order for questioning my honesty then trying to re negotiate the price. He wanted to pay £ 50 and no more.

Haven't calmed down yet. Pretty safe bet I won't be doing any more work for them but I think I am better off without them.


edited to add the invoice was for £80

[Colin Day]

Book yourself a week at the cottage, when you come to leave, just offer them a reduced price at what "You" think it's worth and play them at their own game.... Oh, and make sure you spill plenty of lucozade on the carpet

[Matt Seymour]

Fortunately something like this has yet to happen to me, but I'm sure it will at some point.

If it were me I'd go back with a water pistol loaded with Lucozade and squirt it through the letterbox!

[derek west]

personally, i'd of taken the £50. £25 for a lot of stress and sleepless nights just aint worth it, and lets face it, numptys like that are few and far between. you didn't put it in writing (i'm guessing) so move on and either learn from it or carry on trusting your custies knowing full well that once in a blue moon, it will happen again.

lifes to short to stress.

chillaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mon.

[benny d]

Just hire a hit man...Job's a goodun 

[clinton]

Same as derek really mate id move on thankfull we dont get many people like that so its a good thing we dont ..

[garyfindlay]

swings and roundabouts really, but I`d bet its not the first time they have done this

[gwrightson]

If you had discussed the price I cannot see were the problem lies, stick to your guns.

and I would have asked why the hell didnt you get your cleaning lady to do it then!!!!!

Only really had one who wanted to try it on , his wife had distorted a draylon suite with a steam cleaner, Pointed all of the problems out when surveying ,no problem as long as you can clean it, went ahead with clean,few days later  husband then saying you have ruined the suite over the phone to me ,  went down took a look discussed what we had already talked about with his wife. he even said " every body who has been in our home has said , whay has happened to your suite " as if  visitors would make a point of this.  :
So i hit him with, well thats exactly why i took numerous pictures of it  he didnt know what to say and then shut up

since then, i know of 3 other tradsmen who have had problems with him . just a tryer who wants some thing done for nothing, sounds like you got the same Nevil

[nevil]

Too right gw.

I couldn't bring myself to be bullied into a corner by this guy. I am pretty straight forward to deal with and I struggle to deal with folks that aren't. If I had taken the £ 50 the guy wanted to pay it would still leave major doubts over future dealings with them. The money isn't really the issue here it's the fact that these people tried to get one over on me in a sneaky and dishonest way. Don't enjoy the confrontation but I am not hiding from it. It's a principle thing. I could go down the road of covering every base doing it all in writing. It just seems like an extreme measure to me and not one I really relish.

[derek west]

Future dealings with them?

really?

[Neil Williams]

Future dealings with them?

really?

That would be me and them finished forever.
If I cock something up then fair enough that's my doing and I'll make it right, but over the years I have gone down the route of County Court submissions to get my money and the working relationship is well and truely over at that stage.

[wynne jones]

These are what I call fire and forget situations. The main thing is not to let it affect your ability to get on with your work whilst at the same time put wheels in motion to get the money you agreed.

So you send them an invoice with terms to be paid and that you pursue all claims no matter how small through the courts on priciple.

Then, forget it. Get on with what you are doing. If you get paid fine if you don't give it up and most imortantly mentally LET IT GO.

Otherwise you will lose a lot of time sleep and money. Surprisingly though I think you will get paid and if trading standards get involved you will find they will side with you if you have a strong local respresentation.

[Mike Halliday]

why are you even talking to him?

you made an arragement with his wife he has nothing to do with the booking. i would contront the wife or at least talk to the husband with the wife in attendance, she agreed the price don't let her hide behind her husband

[fitz2kleen]

we had a similar situation a while back, price all agreed , spec agreed then when job was done she left money with her mum to pay us £40 short of agreed price.
it does eat away at you, like you say, its not the money, its the fact that they can do it and get away with it, knowing full well for £40 your not gonna go to small claims court, its more hassle than its worth.
trading standards will be on their side if you didnt provide a quote in writing.
the lady even slagged us of with a nasty review. makes you wanna get revenge but trust me you need to let it go and remind yourself these are very few and far between.

[Matt Lindus]

Run the tw%t through a wood chipper, Ill hold the bin-bag open.

[Paul Heath]

Empty your waste tank through the letter box,

[Colin Day]

Run the tw%t through a wood chipper, Ill hold the bin-bag open.

[Carpet Dawg]

and then just add your localy sourced generic brand of super market bleach, and squeeze the trigger while shouting "in the face! in the face!!" 

[jasonl]

Put up the url of the cottage , 297 views on this thread , if only 20% of readers enquire taking 1 min to do so , that will keep them busy ,, then we can spam them with carpet cleaning quotations , at £8.99 a go.

[wynne jones]

Put up the url of the cottage , 297 views on this thread , if only 20% of readers enquire taking 1 min to do so , that will keep them busy ,, then we can spam them with carpet cleaning quotations , at £8.99 a go.