A large job yesterday....former competitors house

[Mark Saiger]

When I was doing more restoration work, this guy owned one of the large franchises....but got shut down by local authorities......

Made it difficult to do restoration work locally. All insurance companies Leary to work with anyone in restoration around here, and the community thought any company doing restoration as "evil price gougers....."

I significantly reduced my restoration game and focused on what they were not (carpet cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, Tile & Grout Cleaning) plus we really were deep rooted in that part of the cleaning and they couldn't touch us.....

Someone else purchased his franchise, but not as strong and another large franchise swooped in while the other was going down....

Nice spread....now former band students of mine bought this from the bank.....at great price!

We did Carpets, Tile & Grout including in the showers/baths....

First time I was in the place...and he was driving in the neighborhood while we were cleaning I am told....

So....if anything....always a reminder.....it can happen fast to anyone.

So now for happier thoughts.....

And hope you can see how we take extra care cleaning in a home

 

[Mark Saiger]

Time to clean this shower!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Nice house!

So here is the real judge of character question, did you feel bad for him? or Were you smiling all the time you were cleaning, thinking "YEA! take that one!"?

No right or wrong answer.

P. S.
I would have been the second one, but you guys already know I hold grudges.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Nice house!

So here is the real judge of character question, did you feel bad for him? or Were you smiling all the time you were cleaning, thinking "YEA! take that one!"?

No right or wrong answer.

P. S.
I would have been the second one, but you guys already know I hold grudges.

I actually felt bad for him in many ways.




Was very Erie and haunting feeling




Also an adjuster we both work with called me on a water claim to investigate and it was an interesting but good conversation.... as I told him where I was headed to clean...




And he said "yeah... He told me you were going to be in his house today"

Scary

 

[Desk Jockey]

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I actually felt bad for him in many ways.

I knew it! You're a far better man than I.

Glad to call you my friend Mark!

 

[mirf]

Looks like a nice house, was he doing well or overspending?

 

[Mark Saiger]

Looks like a nice house, was he doing well or overspending?

Both.... And spending a lot of the clients insurance money on jobs too... Insurance industry all did a lot of investigating too...

Always maxed out the clients policy...

More damage would always show up

Was a contractor too... Tried to keep that part of the company separate from the franchise and franchise was not happy, but he kept getting around it...

Same thing happening with that companies new owner.

This guy now doing garment restoration for insurance work...

Living in the back of their shop...

 

[Desk Jockey]

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This guy now doing garment restoration for insurance work...

Oh gawdd "Textile people"

For decades we sorted the clothing separating what was worth salvaging and what should be written off. Ozoned and took the clothes to the cleaners. Cleaned the rugs and upholstery. Now there are "textile people" these guys charge far more than we ever did, do a piss poor job of sorting (Why should they they get paid the more they process) they drive up the cost of the claim when they are "supposed" to be saving the insurance company money. And the insurance companies love those people. What a beautiful marriage!

Ooops I'm holding a grudge again!

 

[Mark Saiger]

Oh gawdd "Textile people"

For decades we sorted the clothing separating what was worth salvaging and what should be written off. Ozoned and took the clothes to the cleaners. Cleaned the rugs and upholstery. Now there are "textile people" these guys charge far more than we ever did, do a piss poor job of sorting (Why should they they get paid the more they process) they drive up the cost of the claim when they are "supposed" to be saving the insurance company money. And the insurance companies love those people. What a beautiful marriage!

Ooops I'm holding a grudge again!

Truth!

 

[Bryan S. Bennett]

Mark, the good guys always win in the end. They are not in for the short term, but the long-term.

I'm glad you had the foresight and vision to minimize and readjust your work activities. That's what we try to do when we smell rats.

 

[rwcarpet]

I've seen the textile people come in to jobs we were cleaning to pick up clothing to separate and clean. Could not under stand the insurance companies insistance of using these companies while my contractor has been doing this for 40 years.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Somewhere at a higher level they have been sold that they will save. They will come from Wichita (3-hrs) Kansas City (1-hr) away to pick up clothing, rugs, upholstery.

More power to them. I just think its ironic they will bitch about how expensive we are yet they throw money at the "Textile" people to do what we can do what they do for far less. Plus we are far better at it. Oh well let them blow their money!

 

[HydroDude]

A heavy hitters that moved back to this area, set up shop a few miles from me and took over as a staging location for a large rental company has sold most if not all of their equipment and has their home and new warehouse up for sale...see auctions all the time liquidating assets from companies getting in to deep.

 

[Captain America]

My experience it is best to focus on either water damage or cleaning.
But to each their own choice.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Captain I think you can do both and do both well. The size of your company make limit how much work you want to take on without killing yourself.

If you're a smaller company you can always partner with another cleaner or with a larger restoration company to give the bigger jobs to. Take on all the work that fits your time schedule or that is within the size of job you feel comfortable with.

Its just when the average water loss is between 2-3K its hard to pass them up. Its takes a lot of carpet cleaning to get to that sales number.

 

[Ivan Turner]

Richard, the entire garment restoration-insurer relationship puzzles me. I have sent countless jobs to one of the national firms through the years, while they always do great work, to my knowledge they have never been questioned on their cost. And their cost is not cheap. Funny how that works, yet for restorers, insurers will argue over a 67 cent charge.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Around here they struggle with quality. We've seen them deliver back pieces that the client was disappointed with so we corrected the issue or in some case ozoned and cleaned what they said to write off. They seem stressed and over worked, business must be good for them because many of the adjusters around here refer the textile people. Competition is high amongst them, we have them stop in all they time trying to sell their service on us.

I really don't care if we deal with textiles or not but its just odd how they seem to have Carte Blanche while we fight over pennies tooth and nail.