Customer swears her brown grout that she put down last year was white

[Moser Bros.]

Another lovely nightmare customer form Roseville maybe I should quit servicing that area, I told her up front I can't guarantee that the color would be consistent without color seal. I even thought the grout was a lighter color, she cleans with vinegar and maybe something else that she's not admitting to. I could tell the inconsistencies in the color till after it fully dried. She wants all her money back from a 350 sqft job that she talked me down from from 350 to 300 after I threw in free grout sealer. She's made cause she said I should of tested the area and let it fully dry and she would said no to the job. She's color sealing herself and thinks she wasted money paying me to clean her tile in grout when she would've just put acid on the grout and color sealed without cleaning it, sound like a bad idea to clean the grout first, but cheap customers want everything for free. I cleaned the tile twice now, gave her $200 off my rate to begin with. If I don't give her the money back she'll dispute it with her credit card company, and may give me a bad review either way

Grout after pretreating with powdered viper

I may have better after pic on another camera, I'll post them later

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[Mikey P]

Grout cleaning is tricky business.



its all in the pre conditioning of the customer..

 

[Paul Demers]

Customers that want and/or demand a discount for no reason other than they don't want to pay full price.... are usually always TROUBLE. I do not discount my prices when a customer asks.... let them use another company. If she is color sealing herself, why is she concerned with consistent color????She's NOT.... she just wanted to get the grout professionally cleaned for FREE!I am sure others will say to refund her money so as to not get a bad on-line review. But if you told her in advance you cannot guarantee consistent color, then I would NOT refund her money. She did not ASK for you to clean a test area!!! She did not offer to pay you to clean a test area!!! You provided a quality service, and she needs to pay for that service !!!Just respond to her on-line review and explain your side. AND IF SHE LIES in her review.... have your lawyer send her a letter!!! JMHO.... but these people piss me off.

 

[bob vawter]

Grout cleaning is tricky business.

 

[Moser Bros.]

Customers that want and/or demand a discount for no reason other than they don't want to pay full price.... are usually always TROUBLE. I do not discount my prices when a customer asks.... let them use another company. If she is color sealing herself, why is she concerned with consistent color????She's NOT.... she just wanted to get the grout professionally cleaned for FREE!I am sure others will say to refund her money so as to not get a bad on-line review. But if you told her in advance you cannot guarantee consistent color, then I would NOT refund her money. She did not ASK for you to clean a test area!!! She did not offer to pay you to clean a test area!!! You provided a quality service, and she needs to pay for that service !!!Just respond to her on-line review and explain your side. AND IF SHE LIES in her review.... have your lawyer send her a letter!!! JMHO.... but these people piss me off.

She said she put the grout in a year ago, and it was all the same color when she put it down, I told her I would color seal and clean for $1000 and that she is saving money by color sealing herself, she's upset cause she's doing the labor and paying herself $100 an hour instead of me



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[Shane Deubell]

During estimate i always scrub a line and confirm this is acceptable for final product.

 

[Dolly Llama]

How long you been in biz, Mo?

you seem to be having more than your fair share of troubles/frustrations ...
so much so you were considering changing biz to a moving company ...
(BTW, the grass won't be greener over that septic tank ..I'll guarantee you)

just wondering if it's burnout, inexperience or "other" that puts you in too many of these situations??


..L.T.A.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

The very edges of the grout, next to the wall, will show the original color. It doesn't get dirty.

 

[WillS]

A lot of houses out here have the grout painted in certain areas to cover up cracks or chips. We usually show this to the customer before beginning to demonstrate the grout will more than likely not be the same white color or whatever color through out and that those areas are not dirt, but cover ups for the cracks. This way at the end of the cleaning they know that those spots are not our causing or can not simply be "cleaned"

We always show them the edges of the grout near the wall like Steve said, this is the color your grout should be.

In your case I would maybe offer a small refund but you did the job required. It might be worth just responding to her review if she does a negative one online, but you don't want to lose the entire revenue from the job because you already gave your time and chemicals.

 

[SamIam]

Grout cleaning is tricky business.



its all in the pre conditioning of the customer..

Its also important to find the cleanest place back in a pantry or under a fridge were it can be dirty but also still show original grout color, make sure what they expect and then gets some Oxyblaster!

Still your best loss is your first loss give her her money back as long as she agree's to never write a bad review, also don't admit fault just try to appease her.

Also never perform work for her again.

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[Moser Bros.]

How long you been in biz, Mo?

you seem to be having more than your fair share of troubles/frustrations ...
so much so you were considering changing biz to a moving company ...
(BTW, the grass won't be greener over that septic tank ..I'll guarantee you)

just wondering if it's burnout, inexperience or "other" that puts you in too many of these situations??


..L.T.A.

I've been in this business for 15 years, been cleaning grout for 8. I don't have as much work as I should have an have been too nice an discounted work lately since I get too many price shoppers. I've never seen so much discoloration in grout that is supposedly only 1 year old, I told her that I can't guarantee that the grout will be all the same color because of stains, discoloration etc. I didn't test a small area since she said it was only 1 year old. The grout is lighter closer to the base boards. I can't see how the grout stained brown in only a year and some grout takes longer to dry in some areas and couldn't tell that it was discolored until it fully dried. I speed dried with an Airpath fan. We pretreat grout with viper venom follow with prescrubed with a cimex with nylon brushes and hand scrubbing with a pole tile grout shark. Maybe she bleached her grout with who know what or mixed two different colors of grout by accident. I only guarantee color consistently if I color seal. She wanted miracles that only Jesus could perform. I feel that I can refund up to $100 and she wants me to eat the entire job.


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[Prhea1st]

Reminds me of our very first grout cleaning demo... The store was a converted tire garage that had years of automotive Chems imbedded in the grout lines then color sealed over at some later time to hide the grime. We demo cleaned an area that came out fantastic, only to run into large areas that would not budge... The cleaned lines made the whole thing look terrible. We had to color seal the entire thing to get it back to par on our dime...
Never ran into a grout problem ever again...lesson hurt to much the first time.
Now we under sell just about everything and condition the customer for potential issues based on that one experience.

 

[dealtimeman]

Under promise over deliver usually works very well.

 

[Blue Monarch]

Exactly