Gave you ever backed out of a job because it was just too weird

[your_good_sons]

This AM I was doing an estimate. The child, 6 or 7 was home with Mom. He was running around like a maniac, making animal sounds. As I am inspecting this urine job, it doesn't smell like dog or cat urine and there is a lot. They don't have any pets. It was the boy's. Something seems very wrong. He runs into the room and says "look at me" with his pants around his ankles and starts to pee and spin around. He is covered in his own urine. I am starting to realize there is a LOT of urine all over the house. I just looked at the woman and said "I'm sorry, I can't do this" and headed for the door. The woman says "why?" and all I could say was "I can't handle this."

 

[GCCLee]

Damn Foreigners !

 

[hogjowl]

Was Jimmy home at the time?

 

[GCCLee]

Was Jimmy home at the time?

Obviously NOT Bacon Butt : )



Prob wizzin in a vac hose somewhere''s n left last nights leftovers ta man da hatchez.





Can you imagine what that kid does when the light go out! Hate to be his pecker when he hit 15 , lol

 

[hogjowl]

Was his name Blake?

 

[hogjowl]

HEY! I like that new notification feature!

ITS SO T M F!

 

[Shane Deubell]

Whats weird about a special needs child?

 

[your_good_sons]

Whats weird about a special needs child?

This one was too special for me. I clean a group home about every 6 months with 4 adult men. Two wear helmets are in wheelchairs. The other two are ambulatory. Been cleaning there about 4 years or so. I've been told two are at the lower end of moderate mental retardation and two are at the upper end of severe mental retardation. Before I start work and upset them, we have a talk for a few minutes the two moderates remember me. We talk about cookies, because cookies are good. We talk about pita chips, because they are good too. We talk about eggs, because they are good. We talk about the weather getting warmer, because that's real good. Eventually the conversation turns to washing clothes and taking showers, because you guessed it, that is good. Cleaning the house is good. I'm there to help clean the house, because cleaning the carpet is good. Picking your things up off the floor for the carpet cleaner is good. I don't mind this conversation a bit. I wish some parents would have the conversation with their kids, picking things up off the floor is good. A few days ago, I had to pick up no less than 50 pieces of clothes off the floor between the son's and daughter's room. I think the boy actually had more junk on the floor than his sister. I just toss it in a heap on the bed. My special needs men go great. I had visions of this kid having a meltdown where he marked with his scent being cleaned. Not for me.

 

[Becker]

He was just doing the sprinkler.

 

[bob vawter]

i worked for 3 or 4 special needs home management groups.........
great clients cuz they gotta get inspected a lot.......
usually last minute jobs that make you change yor schedule

 

[Ron Werner]

his special need is a diaper that stays ON

there are people with challenges, I think at that point I would have been asking a few more questions to determine what their expectations were going to be.

 

[steve_64]

no guarantees and the kid must not be present.

its bad enough dragging my hoses through dog crap i didnt see, i dont need a kid peeing on me while im working.

cant rember a job being too weird, im pretty tolerant considering how strange i am.

i did tell someone they needed a shovel not a carpet cleaner once though.

 

[bob vawter]

i worked for this gal a few times....it WAS a little weird when i saw the full frontal nude PAINTING on her bedroom wall....
but hey no harm no foul.......HOWEVER
when she came dancing into the bedroom completly nude, asking me what i thought of "these".........
i figgered her husband was a "peeker" and hiding in the closet........lik i need that sh*t!!!

 

[WillS]

Yikes! I've cleaned a hallway that the father said the kid kept going to the bathroom in the corner. It was disgusting. After one time of doing that, my son would definitely learned not to do that. lol

 

[Papa John]

From the very 1st call to the initial inspection we are Psycho Analyzing our clients. If I had learned this sooner and listen to my intuition I could have saved myself money and aggravation. If things dont seem right-- we walk.
However, in this case, It seems you may have missed an opportunity to get a frequent repeating customer.. If they looked wealthy then even better. Of course you would need to set boundaries-- like keeping the kid away from jobsite during the cleaning.

 

[Bill Morgan]

Hind sight being what it is, it could have been a good client, a great frequest repeat customer, provided... specific ground rules/accomodations are agreed to and enforced, ie: the child is not present for obvious reasons. I used to do work for an adult assisted living facility for mentally handicapped individuals. The care givers would take the residents outside, to a park, a different resident home location while I cleaned.

I understand your knee-jerk reaction and honestly, even with my past experience, I might have bolted too. Mainly because he was a minor. With today's society as letigous as it is, I would be nervous that the kid would run screaming naked to his parents making false accusations about something I did or said or God knows what else... and then I'm fighting to clear my name for something I didn't do or worse lose my business.

Don't feel bad for how you reacted.

The question I have, was the child's mother in the room when the sprinkler show started or was she in a different room? If she was, then yes, a frank conversation around expectations needing to be met in order for you to your job could have been had. If she wasn't aware... then you walking out the door for no apparent reason to her, might have seemed quite unusual.

I would have finished the inspection and given her an estimate high enough to cover my time, additional specialty chems or products needed to do the job, profit plus another 20%. Sounds like they were wanting you to bear the brunt of their problem child's issues, at regular prices. Nothing about that job would have been normal. Then, they say... Thank you Peter for coming out but your prices are too expensive for our budget. Rather than you leaving ubruptly with little explanation and appearing a little unprofessional (in their eyes, not ours of course)