Response to property manager?

Steve Mueller

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
12
I cleaned a 4 bedroom town home last week (1000 sq ft of carpet). The tenants lived there 6 years and I don't know if they even vacuumed once. I am new to the carpet cleaning business, but have been a fireman for 15 years and this place rated as one of the worst carpets I have ever seen. My station runs alot calls in the low income apartments, I have seen nasty carpet.

The property manager calls today and says the carpets are not thoroughly clean. She did not see the carpets before I cleaned (urine, grease, silly putty, chew spit, motor oil). I pre-sprayed, agaited the spots and traffic lanes, rinsed and got the spots out. The carpet was left with a grey hue in the traffic areas. Overall 100% better then before I started.

I need to call her back tomorrow. Her message was some what nasty, saying I needed to come back and redo the carpets. I don't want her to bad mouth my company, but I am not going to redo the carpets. My question to you guys is how do I eloquently tell her the carpets are beyond cleaning? The tenant has already payed me. Any input would be great.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Tell her the truth.
That through extreme abuse, that there is extreme fiber damage, of which there is nothing more you can do.
That the carpet is as clean as it can get, that there is nothing you can do
to reverse the fiber damage.

Hope this helps, AL
 

John Watson

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,885
Pig sty's are fun, prolly has a wick back problem... Hope you made enough to make a profit. If you want to build your rep with this land lord, Meet land lord there, explain how soiled it was, show demo about abrasive soils in TA's and then offer to go redo. Use a 175 and just bonnet or encap fiber pad for appearance. This will let them know you stand behind your work even on the rat nastys. On the Nasty's we get we charge extra for a possible 2nd trip and I have been doing this for years. If 2nd trip not needed I just got paid a little more for the extra work to do the excellent job we did on the first trip..
 

XTREME1

RIP
Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
9,681
Location
Ma
Name
Greg Crowley
Keep a digital camera with you and take before and half way through and finish pitures and you will never have this problem again. Also, you should have called the landlord/tenant when you went in and gave your diagnoses of the situation and let them decide.
 

steve r

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2007
Messages
1,109
you say the tennant paid you so i assume the tennant hired you. i dont understand why the property manager has anything to do with it. i often have tennants call me to clean before they move out and then i clean them again when they are ready to rent which is paid for by the complex.

if you have a rotary and bonnet id just make a quick pass with a good shampoo if you want to make her happy.

most managers understand the life expectancy of rental carpets is on the low end. if 6 years isnt long enough than her expectations are out of wack.
around here some get replaced in 2 years because of abuse.

like greg said, pictures are a good idea.
 

Chris A

Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2007
Messages
5,475
Location
OH
Name
Chris
Response= KMA! (sorry Jimmy), seriously though, you should probably take another look at it, you might be able to run a pad over it if you have the ability
 

Joe Couch

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
94
We clean thousands of apartments a year and 30% of them are trashed. When we have a nasty we use the rotovac. If you are not using some sort of scrubber on trashed carpets you will most likely get a lot of call backs.

We also give the property manager a carpet cleaning report (a form we made up) on carpets that we run into problems with so we have documentation of what was wrong.
 

Joe Couch

Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2007
Messages
94
I forgot to mention that we will always reclean an apartment if the manager is not happy. This shows that we stand behind our work no matter what the circumstances.
 

Dolly Llama

Number 5
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
30,495
Location
North East Ohio
Name
Larry Capitoni
you can't address the prop mngr's concerns if you don't at least go look at it first.

she may have a legitimate complaint.

go inspect the carpets and see how they look

BTW, what type carpet?
nylon?
Olefin?
plastic?
loop or cut pile?

..L.T.A.
 

TimP

Member
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
4,055
What did you use to clean it. Something like power burst or similar? If you used a lower pH chem I suggest recleaning it with something stronger. And maybe running a buffer over all of the carpet, yeah it may seem like it will take longer but you are saving time over the long haul.

If you did all the above and have gray hues it is because of the abuse on the carpet. The gray hue is what we call traffic lane gray. It's from the fine scratches from the dirt and grime that has been in the high traffic areas being sanded down by the dirt and traffic agitating the dirt into the yarns. The best way to tell if it's clean is to put some spot cleaning chemical a VDS or similar to a towel and rub it across the carpet. If you have a white towel after you're done then it's clean.
 

joey895

Supportive Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
2,436
Location
Florida
Name
Joey J.
Like the others you really need to look at it before you decide how to proceed. It's possible it could look considerable worse now than it did immediately after you finished, due to wicking.

Bottom line is you are going to get bad mouthed if you don't do something. Just make sure as Greg says next time you come across one that bad let them know what to expect before you do the job and let them decide how to proceed.
 

breathe72

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
355
Yes, the fine particulate matter (dust) combined with heavy foot traffic & never vacuuming, will wear-down the optical brightness of the carpet, acting like a fine-grit sandpaper, causing it to look old and soiled and 'still dirty'... Do the terrycloth test on it, if its clean its clean. Once you have removed the soil, thats where the buck stops with you.

Explain to her the difference between 'Worn' and 'Soiled'.

One is a matter of carpet CLEANING...

The other is a matter of carpet REPAIR or REPLACEMENT.

Ask her if she knows Devil Dog.
 
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
352
Steve, I had the exact same thing happen to me. The tenant hired me to save some money ( I gave her a deal, she works with my wife) The carpets came out great except a gray huge in one traffic lane. The manager called me and said that I need to come back and redo it , she was very rude! I went back and explained to her that it was fiber damage and not soil, I re cleaned anyway and she still wasn't happy. The problem was she didn't see the carpet before I cleaned. And she is very friendly with the guy who normaly cleans for them. I won't let tenants hire me any more. I will only deal directly with the manager as they are the ones we got to answer to.
 

Steve Mueller

Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
12
Thanks for the tips. It was simple as a phone call. I explained to her the condition of the carpet before I cleaned. I then explained to her about wicking. I offered a second clean at a reduced price, she said that was okay. So in the end it turned in to a sales and marketing call, she said she would keep me mind for future jobs. It was nylon carpet and I used Powerburst with a citrus boost. I know your not suppose to a ph of over 10 on nylon, but this carpet was one step from the dumpster.
 

windmarkbob

Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
99
We do a few apartments, and when it comes to pH, typically the higher the better. I've yet to see a residential carpet warranty good for rental housing. Don't sweat it.

windmarkbob
 

Scott S.

Supportive Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
3,224
Location
PA
Name
Scott
I suggest buying a high quality digital camera. and a one gig card for it this way you can take a whole lot of pictures of before and after and just delete them after they are satisfied

I always take before and after pictures i have only ever had 1.
and the carpet was trashed. i just showed up with the land lord and showed them the pics, so they could see just how bad it really was, and how much of a difference there is now.

after i show the pics and explained the damage issue to the carpet they were satisfied with the difference. even got a tip.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom