[Neil Grainger]

Great I thought 3 Jobs booked in for Tomorrow, Nice earner tomorrow. Every single one of them has cancelled today.

first one, Not going to be home now so you cant come, Would you like to book for the new year, no i will call you.

Secound one, I have found someone cheaper, why did'nt you ring me to cancel as soon as you changed your mind, I forgot said customers, right ok I said i wont forget to send you a cacellation invoice. You cant do that we have no contract she said, I said I can and I will.

Third one, I am ill can I move you to after xmas, no problem i said and she gave me a date and booked for January.

Customers 

[chosker]

Why ndon't you get a debit card machine and take a deposit for the work, even if it's only a tenner, they will soon think about it if they're losing money.

We started doing this with all end of tenancy and spring cleans - more due to the fact that we had people who didnt pay and then moved house, obviously much harder to chase and not as worth it if its a small property. Got card machine to sort this out, and as a sideline noticed our cancellatyions went way down.

So long as you provide a good service there should be no problems...
hope this helps?

[Joe H]

Three in one day for the same day is a bit extreme, feel sorry for you Neil.

Chosker, is'nt it a bit expensive to set up card payments?

[Neil Grainger]

Does not happen much, so will put it down to experience. Paying by cards costs 2% of every transaction. Is just not worth it, it does not happen that often, just around xmas, today was extreme.

[chosker]

its something like 2% per transaction

 its actually well worth it, no bad debt and we get their deposit if they do cancel, We certainly don't mind paying £1.80 or whatever it is per £100.
Of course, its worth it for us because we now use it quite a lot - we never thought we would so didn't get one for ages, but it saves loads of money on time and chasing payments. We use it a few times a day now but hope to increase usage as that side of the business increases.

Anyway, was just an idea

[maxcarpets]

Christmas shopping tomorrow then Neil. 3 in one day! I had one this morning it drives me mad, Dec & Jan always bad for cancellations. You'll probably get 5 calls tomorrow asking if you can do it straight away!

Cheers


Justin

[Neil Grainger]

Will go car shopping tomorrow as wife is expecting baby number 2,

I want a Chelsea tractor and she still wants something sporty. I wonder who will win.

[maxcarpets]

Congratulations on Baby no 2. How old is your child?

[Neil Grainger]

she is 8 years old, big gap but i think it will be good, she is really looking forward to it.

[maxcarpets]

I have a 7yr gap between my 2 oldest. I tell you onething you really do forget how hard it is to have a baby in the house. Our latest ( and last ) editition is now 6 months, still not sleeping!

Cheers


Justin

[Ian Gourlay]

I find its always the poor parts of town that cancel
 

Phoned today to check details oh we left messageon answer phone no they did not.

[PaulKing]

it's silly season

[Mike Halliday]

Single parent females are the worst, they want to have their carpets cleaned, book an appointment then cancel because there are other demands on their meager money which is more important than us.

I often feel like going round and giving them a good spanking

[stevegunn]

Taking deposits with credit card machine seems a real good idea,saying that only had 3 this year better type of customer

[Les]

A slight twist on the cancellation theme is the 'changed my mind' customer.

Went to clean 3 rooms yesterday as booked to discover she'd had a 'change of mind'  and now only wanted the lounge done.

That was bad enough but she hadn't moved anything out of the room as requested, kept coming in the room to point out stains  for me,( like I can't spot a big dark mark on the carpet), had me dragging the Christmas Tree around the room and then when I'd finished, kept saying, " I hope those stains won't come back".

Don't be pleased that I got them all out in the first place, I thought. 

To be honest I really just wanted to poke her in the eye  to give her something else to think about, but thought better of it and decided to just take her money instead.

Dammned frustrating though as I always ask them to give me a call if they want to change anything.

We'd be fine but for the customers 

Les