Notice It's been a while.....

[PrimaDonna]

That's a hell of a job ticket, honestly in 28 years in biz I have never done $1200 in 2 and half hours

Do you work alone? Have you done that type of a job ticket in 5 hours? With 2 guys and 2 trucks at 2.5 hours that is like one person doing it in 5 hours.

 

[PrimaDonna]

I missed that your two guys blasted through that job in 3 hours. IMO that's an all day job. Especially if you were protecting all of the uph which means setting up tarps.

I don't see how that's possible unless nothing was dirty and you skipped pre vacuuming all that upholstery easily and hour and a half if done properly) and just ran a rinse though your very fast moving Sapphire tool.
Was he home to witness the speed cleaning?

We don't tarp when we protect unless doing FPA. And you know we don't pre vac, anything. That is on the homeowner to do to prep for us. (I know, I know...but that is a whole other thread)

 

[Mikey P]

You dont pre vacuum uph? and for those rates?

good lord. go post this shit on temf.

 

[Mikey P]

order this NOW.


how the F are you an FPA applicator if you dont pre vacumm uph...



http://www.cleanfreak.com/vacuums/canister/hoover-portapower-canister-vacuum.html



Asking a homeowner, especially this douchbag, to properly pre vacuum ANYTHING is ridiculous when YOU are the PREMIUM game in town.

holy shit...

Marty can you believe this?

 

[BIG WOOD]

He said he prices his jobs on $65/employee. He's looking at you as one of his employees, not as another contractor. You need to enlighten him on how you are your own business and yes, you see your employees as about $65/head also. But you have other business expenses, just like he has his, that determine the cost of the entire job.

He's Bullsh**** you on how he prices his jobs. If he's a contractor, he's making well over $200/hr on his jobs

 

[Zee]

$400-500 to protect a couch?? (I know it's the precious fpa blah blah)

This whole thread stinks from multiple piles of bs.

Although I deleted my initial comments, it was quoted a couple times. I still stand by it after reading more.
It is a ripoff.

 

[Jimmy L]

Seems like a lot of these internet "Guru" type cleaners actually doing when no one is looking........... hack work like the rest of us. : )

SpLASH N' dASH BABY!

 

[BIG WOOD]

$400-500 to protect a couch?? (I know it's the precious fpa blah blah)

This whole thread stinks from multiple piles of bs.

Although I deleted my initial comments, it was quoted a couple times. I still stand by it after reading more.
It is a ripoff.

Yeah, it is a ridiculous number indeed.

 

[BIG WOOD]

$400-500 to protect a couch?? (I know it's the precious fpa blah blah)

This whole thread stinks from multiple piles of bs.

Although I deleted my initial comments, it was quoted a couple times. I still stand by it after reading more.
It is a ripoff.

But I'd rather have more overpriced businesses in our industry than underpriced hacks downgrading the value of our business

 

[Mikey P]

Not if it's a $10,000 sofa.


but we charge $20 per yard for uph, which averages out to about $300

keep in mind thses are not lazy boy owners

 

[Mikey P]

and we vacuum the sofa unless the Oompa Loompa's just finished applying the fabric to the frame ten minutes ago.

 

[Cleanworks]

Not if it's a $10, 000 sofa.


but we charge $20 per yard for uph, which averages out to about $300

keep in mind thses are not lazy boy owners

Lazy men?

 

[Mikey P]

we use Cobb's on LazyMen's and Furniture Barn crap.



and we pre vac, even in white trash Nevada.

 

[FB7777]

Do you work alone? Have you done that type of a job ticket in 5 hours? With 2 guys and 2 trucks at 2.5 hours that is like one person doing it in 5 hours.

Yes I run 2 trucks Meg

I rarely work alone , IMO you don't need 2. Trucks to do a primarily upholstery job We dual wand it. Job would have taken us about 3-4 hours and I would have been happy collecting a $800 check

Just offering my opinion as you are the one looking for suggestions

Your prices are quite admirable

Expect the occasional resistance

 

[Mikey P]

Did you know if you wack a sofa and a burst of dust comes out AND YOU JUST RUN A UPH TOOL OVER IT ONCE OR TWICE, when the home owner wacks it the next day, a cloud of dust will still come out?


How would that look on a Yelp review?

 

[Jimmy L]

Why you vacuum on the upstroke and rinse and extract on the pull stroke. Same as using a wand on carpet.

LOOZERS

 

[steve_64]

When you adjust your price after the fact are you not admitting you overchatged in the first place.

If you threaten small claims he may pay up. It could make him look bad to his customers. He will look like a cheapskate and his prices may look too high to some then.

I'd stick to my prices if I felt I earned it in this situation.

 

[steve_64]

Did you know if you wack a sofa and a burst of dust comes out AND YOU JUST RUN A UPH TOOL OVER IT ONCE OR TWICE, when the home owner wacks it the next day, a cloud of dust will still come out?


How would that look on a Yelp review?

Not if you leave tacky residue behind.

 

[Bob Pruitt]

I would take the 375$ tell him it was great to see an old class mate and move on. My advice above was to give a remedy other than court. What I would do is make nice, get what he is offering and forget it.

Don't forget to take the loss in your accounting for end of the tax year.

 

[steve_64]

I don't like it when people pull what this guy is doing. He's wrong and shouldn't get away with it. He agreed he should pay and get over it. JMO

If he was needy it would be different. What if it was his customer doing that to him.

 

[Nate The Great]

I would take the 375$ tell him it was great to see an old class mate and move on. My advice above was to give a remedy other than court. What I would do is make nice, get what he is offering and forget it.

Anyone else finds out and you'll be shooting yourself in the foot... Granted I never went to high school, any of my friends gets cleanings for free unless it's a rental... When you discount your service, it puts a message in the customer's mind that you were over charging to begin with...

I bet your not the only one he's done this too.... @PrimaDonna

 

[FB7777]

So how does this ' take them to court" thingy work out for you guys?

28 years in and I have never gone that route

6 bad checks and about as many refunds.

Negotiated at least a dozen or so jobs over various satisfaction issues


I'm assuming there is a signed invoice in hand, cause other than that it's easy to say the bill is bloated or the job was done less than satisfactorily


So does small claims work, cause I haven't been in a situation where my time , energy and focus couldn't be directed elsewhere

 

[steve_64]

In ten years I've never had this problem a few gripes one by a lawyer but I've always got paid. Had one accuse me of stealing his wallet when it was time to pay. I told him I'd call the cops for him and I got paid.

I can't imagine a contractor wanting to go to court over not paying his bill. Especially in a small town.

 

[Bob Pruitt]

I can't imagine a contractor wanting to go to court over not paying his bill.

I can't imagine a Carpet Cleaner would ever win in Court... so many sleeve ball bait and switch a holes out there that a Judge would just automatically rule for the Customer. Better to turn it into a positive as much as possible and go to the next job. If it gets ugly... we lose. Reputation is everything.

 

[hogjowl]

I can't believe you don't vacuum.

 

[steve_64]

Judges shouldn't prejudge.

If you are reputable business it shouldn't matter the occupation.

Ive given breaks to my apartments a few times and I'm sure others I don't remember. But this guy is being an ass imo. I might knock a hundred or maybe two in this scenario but not what he's wanting. Time to play hardball and take care of it.

 

[Loren Egland]

I don't care who it is, I would tell them that since they were not going to be there to settle up that I can still get started cleaning by them giving me their credit card number. No payment, no do job.

 

[Mikey P]

I can't believe you don't vacuum.

that other premium pensyltucky high priced cleaner here doesn't even pre scrub..



Jimmy is right.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Blow torch and steel pipe. If he doesn't want to pay...make him.

 

[Cleanworks]

Give him back his dirty water.