[Neil Williams]

I had one of those cringe moments this morning.
Few weeks ago quoted an elderly lady to repair, clean, condition leather sofa (£210). Numerous splits, holes and grease build up due to dog.
She was happy with quote and we agreed a date (today)
Did the job, she was chuffed and then said do I pay you now?
I said yes please and she gets her purse out... and then it happened.
She get's a £20 note out puts it on the table and then starts fumbling around for coins
I'm thinking yeh very funny let's get to the serious money.
So she says How much more do you want (messing around with coins).
I said £210 would be good so she puts another £10 note down
By now I'm starting to think, 'She's serious, she thinks my 3 hours is worth £30.' 
So I show her the origional quote which had £210 on it (the one left with her).
She says "I can't see a point in there should there be one" (decimal point clearly).
Now I'm starting to seriously get worried that she thought it was £21 or something.
Anyway
She says "Can you write the price out in words because I prefere it that way then I can read it."
I do it because I'm really seriously starting to get concerned now.
I show her and she says how many more of these notes do you want as small bundles of notes come out of various pockets of her purse
We get there in the end but in 12 years it had never occured to me that there are people who need to have an amount written out in word form.

[Jamie Pearson]

A friend of mine has bad dyslexia and when he looks at numbers they move around on the page.

[Neil Williams]

Serious questions:
Did she think that £21 get's you several hours work?
If she struggled with numbers why didn't she ask at quote stage for it to be written in words?
At 84 years old is she still safe to be driving given the eye sight?

If it wasn't for the fact she kept talking every minute I was there I might have tried to get the answers myself, but after 3 hours all I wanted was out and some quiet

[Jim_77]

You're gonna end up on one of those telly programmes about rip-off tradesmen!!!!

[Mike Halliday]

Talking of rogue tradesmen did you see watchdog on Wednesday night?

Nick Albright ( I think that's his name) had a bottle of pee poured over his head

[clinton]

Your lucky she had the money

Maybe she thought it was 21 pounds..

[david@zap-clean]

Similar story:

I did a job for a 91 yr old lady last week.  She obviously had vision problems, and didn't really have much idea what she really wanted from me - apart from a 2hr chat!  I gave her fair survey and a fair price, and made sure she understood exactly what I was going to do for her before I started.

She gave me lunch (more chatting).  When it was time to pay she said she wanted me to write the cheque out as she 'couldn't see very well'.  I made it very clear exactly what I was writing - and completed the cheque stub too.  Another hour later (chatting) I managed to leave.

I didn't make a good profit on this job, but I did a good job, and had a very interesting chat with someone who'd seen a lot in her life.  Result :-)

Oh, I had to go back later that day - she called me to tell me I'd left some kit behind :-)

[Russ Chadd]

After reading this strung to mind...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUlfNMTc6Xc

[Kinver_Clean]

I have a similar annual customer who is in her late 90s who still lives alone. It takes nearly all day with cups of tea that she insists I stop for.
Her memories are absolutely fascinating, stories of old England in the twenties. From some of them I think she must have been a bit of a goer.

[andrew stone]

Some years ago i turned up to clean the carpets in old blokes flat.
He was a lovely bloke and was telling me stories of the old days and about the war.
When i had finished he thrust a twenty pound note in my hand ,shook my hand with both of his and said"Youve done a lovely job son,keep the change and have a drink on me"!

It then dawned on me that he had misheard my quote of £80 and thought i had said £18!

When i mentioned it he looked at me in horror and started fumbling around in an old pot for money.
There was only loose change in it. It was obvious he didnt have the money.
What can you  do?
I said to forget it and just tell your family and friends about me.Just dont tell them you got the job done for £18!

Andrew.

[Buckland]

Meeting and talking to a wide variety of people is at least half the joy of the job - lets face it if you can't do that easily and enjoy it you are probably in the wrong sort of job.

I turned up to do an eot recently and having let myself in found there was a cat still in residence - it was old and responsible for alot of the hair and fur around the place - anyway within minutes an old german (as I thought) lady turned up and picked up the cat and all its bowls, bed etc and whisked it off to her place - she returned for something and we started to chat as you do - really fascinating as she had been thro the 2nd war in germany - I made some comment referring to her as german and she corrected me and said she was austrian and therefore not responsible for all the unpleasantness(!) that went on - I thought hang on wasn't the bloke with the moustache also austrian - anyway we put europes troubles to rights - she had lived in england since just after the end of the war and had some fascinating memories of those events...

[david@zap-clean]

Meeting and talking to a wide variety of people is at least half the joy of the job - lets face it if you can't do that easily and enjoy it you are probably in the wrong sort of job.

Totally agree. 

It took me a long time to realise I was in the wrong job: 12 years in IT, not talking to anyone. tap-tap-tap. One lunchtime I chatted to a work colleague briefly, I'd known him for 8 years, he was surprised to learn I had children!

...I know I'm in the right job now...

[garry22]

Yep.

It's only the cleaning bit of the job that I cannot stand

[rycalshaw]

i,m new to the carpet cleaning game but i have met some very nice but somewhat confused customers through my window cleaning business, it may be better to deal with a younger family member just in case, if the old dear misplaces something and convinces herself its missing we could be on a very sticky wicket..