[derek west]

my first clanger and what a clanger it was.
quoted for 2 bedrooms a set of stairs3 lots with 2 small landings and just a walk way in a bedroom on the ground floor. £150, that'll be lovely she said so got the job.
got there today, nightmare getting the pipes up to the 2nd floor round this twisty staircase, put card board on evry corner so pipes wouldn't scratch paint, did the first bed, came up like new, did the lads bedroom and came up ok so did it again and was again like new, had a brew, then did the top section of the stairs, looking gorgeous, another brew and on to the second set of stairs, fantastic, packed the pipes away and started edging the bedrooms and the stairs, job looked great, called the lady to get back home as i'd finished, showed her the 2 beds and then the stairs, she was over the moon, "heres your cheque, i'll deffo reccommend you" and off i went,
have you spotted the mistake yet?
got a mile down the road and "shhhhhiiiiiiiiit" yes thats right, i forgot the bleedin walkway in the 3rd bedroom. going back monday morning to do it,
we live and learn
whats your biggest clanger guys.
derek

[carpet_care]

I had one a while ago in a barn conversion large double bedroom and large hallway picked keys up from ladies office and said I would ring her when finished.

 Job done ring her to say finished comes round and says yes looks great but youve done the wrong bedroom


 Had to unpack all the gear and do the other bedroom for nothing.



Also had one on monday hall stairs ,landing and through lounge, can you just do the rug on the landing aswell ,yes no prob .
,

   Then forgot about it when he came back said I,d take it with me and bring it back another day  : :

[Jim_77]

Luck is smiling on you Derek, the forgotten room is normally on the top floor!

The biggest b***ck I've ever dropped in this sort of sense is cleaning the wrong office carpet for a commercial customer.  They emailed me saying "I presume you ran out of time to do the last room?"

The one I forgot was about 4 times the size of the one I did by mistake, so didn't give them much for free but milked it anyway

Worst thing that's ever gone wrong for me is ending up owning a Marks & Sparks suite.  The foam wadding on the arms had broken up into tiny pieces and was being pulled through the fabric and deposited on top.  Extracting it more obviously made it worse, and it wouldn't towel away.  I sometimes joke with customers "Oh I won't turn it purple, don't worry".... this one did!

The suite was out of its warranty and the customer's insurance didn't cover it, so I had to do a little Del Boy work and it only ended up costing me time

It was a microfibre fabric and the model called "Modena", just for the record if anyone comes across them.. They will be minimum 8 years old by now, as M&S stopped using the manufacturer of these ones around yr 2000.

I got presented with a sofa bed from the same range about 6 months later, I dry cleaned it!

[Jim_77]

Oh I forgot my best clanger!

Customer lets me in, then goes off to the train station.  I take half of my kit inside, stick some water in the machine, start to vacuum then go outside for something.

It was one of those double glazed front doors with the security handle that only opens the door from the inside; you need to have the key in the outside lock to open it from outside.  I didn't.

She was half way to London on the train!

I had to go home, couldn't do any other little jobs because half of my kit was in there!

Tip: always check you haven't got one of these type of door handles if working alone!!

[M.Acorn]

Left my wand in a customers hall way,just pulled up in the drive at home after a 20 mile journey down the a14 and he called me !
Left a full tub of defoamer at a customers house,not worth the journey to collect it  
Recently burst one of my high pres hoses,so using the other set which has an open end at one end,it popped out of the connector yesterday and soaked me,was flying around like a hosepipe,it was all dry by the time i went .

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Seem to be leaving things a lot lately.

Left my gloria sprayer at one job 10 miles away.

Left 3 different sweatshirts at 3 different houses in the same week !

Didn't think I was old enough for "senior" moments yet.



Steve

[*neal down]

Oh I forgot my best clanger!

Customer lets me in, then goes off to the train station.  I take half of my kit inside, stick some water in the machine, start to vacuum then go outside for something.

It was one of those double glazed front doors with the security handle that only opens the door from the inside; you need to have the key in the outside lock to open it from outside.  I didn't.

She was half way to London on the train!

I had to go home, couldn't do any other little jobs because half of my kit was in there!

Tip: always check you haven't got one of these type of door handles if working alone!!

 

[Kev Loomes]

Didn't think I was old enough for "senior" moments yet.



Steve

But Steve, 58 isnt old

[Dave_Lee]

Turned up to do a job at a house the customer was moving in to. She was going back to the house she was moving out of, so left me to it. Got the job finished, nipped round to her house to get paid. "Have you got the keys" she asked, Ooops! I had posted them back through the letterbox after locking up, like I thought she had asked me to do. Her huband had the only other set and he was away for another two days. She wasnt pleased, but paid up.
Dave.

[clinton]

Me too locked myself out while working in the house,went out to get my diary and bang goes the front door

my phone, van keys were all locked in the house so had to get there neighbour to phone a taxi for me to pick up spare keys from her shop :

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Once walked in whilst doing a rental property as a couple were doing press ups on each other using the bed to break the fall.

Whoops I said

Shaun

[Jim_77]

At Least they were using "precautions"

[Mike Osbourne]

Derek

Didn't take you long to start slacking.

3 cups of tea? Only a few weeks ago you weren't having any of it.

This means by Christmas you will be on ten brews a day.

[carlton care]

I think 3 cups of tea in an hour and a half is a bit OTT.  You mentioned cardboard for corners, which could slip, there are corner protectors available, but I have always found towels to be the most successfull for this protection.

rbert m

[derek west]

mike
she's lucky there was no viking lager in the fridge.
carlton
3 hours not 1 half, don't forget i pre vac and i edge all the carpet and wipe down skirting and moved furniture, could of done it in about 2hrs 15 without the brews and a bt more haste but last job of day so took me time. ish
and the cardboard was masking taped on, not 1 slipped and worked really well, if i;d used proper corner guard they wouldnt of worked, the stairs were steep and the pipe kept riding up the bannister poles, i cut the card board in 2 feet strips to compensate that, she actually comented on how professional i was bein careful.
next door neighbour came out and asked for a card so i hope my custy doesn't tell her i missed a bit,

guys
nice to see i'm not the only one going a bit senile, i was starting to think it would be just me, youve all made me feel so much better, and i must admit, ive had a good laugh at some of your clangers
left me wand behind on one job, luckily custy rang me before i got to my next job otherwise i'd of had to clean a 24 sq metre room with a stair tool, phew!
derek

[Mike Osbourne]

I was pooting myself last week. Went leafleting and parked the van up in a new estate. 2 hours later I came back and it had gone

Then I realised it was in the next road down that's identical, same houses, same road layout as well. :

[nevil]

In my porty days when cleaning an upstairs cafe with a downstairs bookmaker. I managed to over fill the machine ( I used to fill my porty with a hose and a tap connector ). I completley forgot the machine was filling and was prespraying. Efficient or what ?.

The first I knew there was a problem was when the manager of the bookies came flying up the stairs yelled at the cafe owner.  While they were talking I had my eureka moment, ran to my machine, switched off the tap, Picked up excess water on the carpet.  Then practiced my inocent expression for the inevitable moment I would need it. They both approached me while I was wanding away and asked me if I had had a spill, "who me guv, no what's the problem"  They told me about the the bookmakers downstairs having water flowing from the light fittings and with a small river running acrross the floor.

I developed slopey shoulders and admitted nothing and started looking at the toilet cisterns as a distraction. Fortunatley for me both the cafe owner and the bookie were very gulable and although they were deeply suspicous of me they wern't certain. The water stopped flowing pretty quick, the river ran dry and they stopped asking questions.

I fitted a toilet ballcock to the machine after that.

[Mike Osbourne]

Nevil

It's your business, but if it was me I'd of owned up even if it might be painful.

[nevil]

Nevil

It's your business, but if it was me I'd of owned up even if it might be painful.

Thanks for that Mike.

 I thought we were doing a humerous exchange of storries thread. Your post belongs on a thread titled who's going to go to heaven. I don't know what forum it's on though. 

[CARPET KNIGHTS]