I had the daughter in law of a good customer call me ... actually her EX-daughter in law ... but the old lady still takes care of her. Her house flooded. I told her I didn't do water damage work and didn't have the proper equipment. She wanted me to come out anyway. While I was there, her insurance adjuster called me asking what was up. I told him to send somebody out to take over from me, but that I would extract the carpets and place fans under them just to help until the cavalry arrived. The lady asked me how much, because she had a check from her mother in law there already signed. I told her to wait until we knew what we actually were going to do. We did the extraction and left to go back to the office to pick up the fans. When we got back with the fans, she again offered to pay us. I thought to myself, may be I'd better take the check because Mother in Law may not be offering long. So I gave her a total but told her we may be over the mark, and if we were I would refund her.
Sure enough, we were about $600 over and I immediately sent a refund check, but I sent it to the Mother in law, not the lady. It was her money, after all. The day the mother in law got the check, I get a call from the lady cussing me for over charging and wanting to know why I charged the $600 if I knew I wasn't going to do the work? And why hadn't she received my refund check yet?
Later, her mother in law called me to say the girl was bi-polar and made her life hell. I asked her why she took care of her and she said the girl threatened to take her grandchildren out of state if she didn't.
Sad ...
