Meg worthy, 4th time she's pulled this

[Mikey P]

I meant to red tag her on SM but she got through the cracks...

She manages the house for an out of town land lord. Plays this game every time. Another cleaner was already there and did a horrible job.

Hi Monique,

Thank you for sending over the invoice. A few minor adjustments will need to be made. The invoice needs to be made out to Ted & Sher Quaday. Also, in the notes below regarding odor, it needs to specify strong cannabis odor throughout the home. Additionally, when you and I spoke I requested an approximate quote over the phone and based on the number of rooms that I provided you quoted me $460.00 and said that $460 was on the high end and should not exceed that amount. I needed a quote over the phone to submit to the owners and tenants in order to approve the service. I use your company for all my carpet cleaning needs and always recommend you guys to others. Can you please adjust the invoice to read the 460.00 that I was quoted? in advance, thank you for all your help,

Kindly,

Y*****



Monique told here (and everyone else) that we charge .55 a foot and the range was based on average sf. Her home is NOT average and it's 45 up in the mtns. Monique did not know her history of playing pricing games.
@Joe Appleby will recall the time I had to pull over on the side of 395 in BFE to have an argument with this lady over the phone. My guy at the time was begging me to let him leave the house half way through the job.

She's used us twice and we have no record of any referrals



Do I just charge her the $60 and make sure we never work for her again (sorry we're booked) or do I vent a little..?


She could be a nut job Yelper...

 

[Onfire_02_01]

I see a cylinder with a helically attached inclined plane coming in your future.

 

[D Luke]

I meant to red tag her on SM

How do you go about that, specifically?

 

[Mikey P]

Set the Yellow alert button on her profile and leave a note

 

[D Luke]

Set the Yellow alert button on her profile

Que?

 

[Mikey P]

it's a Service Monster thing..

 

[Mikey P]

 

[D Luke]

That is awesome. Never realized it was there.

 

[Old Coastie]

Mike, the two times I got bad reviews, they generated so much business I was sorry they were taken down.

Everything depends on addressing the new readers of your reviews. A kindly, direct answer can inform those readers as to how you handle complaints, as well as set realistic expectations.

Me, I'd send her a letter explaining the charge and if she only sends $460, accept it and make a copy. Then let her know that you are not the best fit for her needs and wish her well.

Then have a nice cigar with a cold beer and move on.

 

[Mikey P]

yep.



Ely got a 4 star review on Yelp today.


This took place afterwords..

• Hi S*****
  
  My name is Mike Pailliotet and I am the owner of Connoisseur Cleaning. I want to thank you for your review. It sounds like things went well with your cleaning. Can I ask what we could have done better to have earned another star? We are always striving to better our service and results, so anything you could inform me of would be much appreciated.
  
  Thanks again!
  
  Mike Pailliotet
• • 
    
    • S
    • Santa Cruz, CA
  • 
    
    
    • 0
    • 4
  40 minutes ago
  Block User​
  Hi Mike,
  To be honest, we were assured the dog smell would not be a problem but unfortunately it is, our carpets smell like wet dog. I did not want to post that publicly because that would would've been worse than a 4 star rating for you. We are happy with the job that was done and will recommend and use you guys again.
• ​
  • 
    
    
    • Mike P.
    • Gardnerville, NV
  • 
    
    
    • 59
    • 17
  A moment ago​
  Ahhh..
  
  Were there any urine issue going on or just that musty "old dog" smell?
  
  Urine can get into the backing of the carpet, the pad and even the sub-floor and can be impossible to remove completely.
  
  The Old Dog smell can come from embedded dander and hair that is decomposing in the bottom of the carpet. Based on how old, dense and soiled your carpet was, we sometimes have to hold back on aggressiveness in our methods so as not to over wet the backing.
  
  Are you able to pin point areas that have that odor? Usually it's where the pets spend time sleeping or playing. I'd be more than happy to send Ely out to go over those areas again at no charge.
  I can't promise you anything but many times, the second time is the charm.
  
  But sometimes it's the fourth...
  
  When was the carpet cleaned last?
  How often is the carpet vacuumed?
  What type of dog/breed do you have?
  
  Feel free to call me tomorrow if that is too much to type..
  
  Thanks!
  Mike @ 831 588 9063

 

[Old Coastie]

I know you know this stuff. My ACTUAL target reader was....


(Insert your best guess, hahaha!)

 

[Mark Saiger]

yep.



Ely got a 4 star review on Yelp today.


This took place afterwords..

• Hi S*****
  
  My name is Mike Pailliotet and I am the owner of Connoisseur Cleaning. I want to thank you for your review. It sounds like things went well with your cleaning. Can I ask what we could have done better to have earned another star? We are always striving to better our service and results, so anything you could inform me of would be much appreciated.
  
  Thanks again!
  
  Mike Pailliotet
• • 
    
    • S
    • Santa Cruz, CA
  • 
    
    
    • 0
    • 4
  
  
  40 minutes ago
  Block User​
  Hi Mike,
  To be honest, we were assured the dog smell would not be a problem but unfortunately it is, our carpets smell like wet dog. I did not want to post that publicly because that would would've been worse than a 4 star rating for you. We are happy with the job that was done and will recommend and use you guys again.
• View attachment 15043​
  • 
    
    
    • Mike P.
    • Gardnerville, NV
  • 
    
    
    • 59
    • 17
  
  
  A moment ago​
  Ahhh..
  
  Were there any urine issue going on or just that musty "old dog" smell?
  
  Urine can get into the backing of the carpet, the pad and even the sub-floor and can be impossible to remove completely.
  
  The Old Dog smell can come from embedded dander and hair that is decomposing in the bottom of the carpet. Based on how old, dense and soiled your carpet was, we sometimes have to hold back on aggressiveness in our methods so as not to over wet the backing.
  
  Are you able to pin point areas that have that odor? Usually it's where the pets spend time sleeping or playing. I'd be more than happy to send Ely out to go over those areas again at no charge.
  I can't promise you anything but many times, the second time is the charm.
  
  But sometimes it's the fourth...
  
  When was the carpet cleaned last?
  How often is the carpet vacuumed?
  What type of dog/breed do you have?
  
  Feel free to call me tomorrow if that is too much to type..
  
  Thanks!
  Mike @ 831 588 9063

That's a very nice Response Mikey....well done!

 

[Papa John]

As for the 1st custy you posted about-- we do the same "alert" post on SM, which is very helpful.
Custys hear what they want to hear-- She chose to hear $460.. before we hang up on the booking call we remind the custy that we are giving an ESTIMATE not a Quote which is based on the info the custy has given. The final price will be determined by the tech after inspection on the cleaning day. If they are worried about this, we inform them that IF they were Honest in the info they gave us then the Estimate should be actuate.
Last month we had similar incident when basically the invoice was almost double what was estimated. we informed the custy that he added 45 more stairs and an 8x10 rug to the original work order and that's why there was an increase... He thought we would do his "Throw Rug" for free.-- I replied-- OK, If you can Throw that Thick wool 8x10 rug- I wont charge you... He didn't bother..

 

[Mikey P]

This lady knows how to work my phone people, Full Circle or my daughter to get a number quoted and then plays stupid over the FACT of our sf rate rules all guestimates.

 

[Old Coastie]

Refuse to quote on the phone!

For this one lady, I think it is time to simply be direct. She knows what she is doing and fear of Yelp is no reason to get ripped off.

For about $10 I'll make the call for you. The actual price will vary depending on how many creative (and somewhat unkind) phrases are required to make the point...

 

[Nate The Great]

My pops best line for customers asking for price quotes:

Can you buy a dress over the phone? We do give free estimates... The price shoppers usually get the hint... I prefer to quote the rug cleaning in person before taking it back to the shop... We haven't advertised in years and the people who do call, we're referred by other cleaners who can't do it... So our price is our price, take it or leave it... Knowing others won't or can't clean something, that's when people don't bicker on price...


We had a lady today that we did work for before.... She wanted use to clean it again and kept telling us that we were a lot more expensive than her other guy........but her other guy couldn't get the carpets as clean as we could....

So in reality, he wasn't a lot cheaper than us.... "A good job isn't cheap, a cheap job isn't good".... Take your pick...

 

[Bill Soukoreff]

The older I get, the more I filter my incoming jobs and fire customers that want to take advantage of me. On the positive side, the few problematic ones make me super appreciate the good ones!

 

[hogjowl]

I'm here to make y'all appreciate Chavez.

It's a tough job.

 

[Willy P]

I'm here to make y'all appreciate Chavez.

It's a tough job.

Well it isn't working.

 

[amygeorge]

I laughed out loud the other day when I drove by a former customer's home that said I quoted one price over the phone (which we don't do) and charged another and then refused to pay - use another company from 60 miles away that uses a portable machine and charges a travel fee - I wonder how they like me now??? It's like breaking up with someone and later realize you totally screwed up.

 

[PrimaDonna]

I know you know this stuff. My ACTUAL target reader was....


(Insert your best guess, hahaha!)

Me!!

 

[PrimaDonna]

Was the SM alert visible to the person booking the job? (If so they can take extra precaution to tell the client it's just an estimate. I'd then send an email reminding them that it's an estimate based on the information they provided and could change. Then when they call or email like this, you can refer back to the email they got saying this. I'd go so far as sending the email from Outlook instead of SM and making sure you get a notification when the email was read/opened so they can't say they never got it).

Was it visible to Ely? (If so, he should have known to manage her expectations as soon as he arrived. Say I see you were quoted this...lets do a walk through and see where we are and if anything is different)

When I quote, I do always say an estimate and we will confirm the price when we get there and guys will let you know if it's different than I quoted and WHY.

I put exactly what I quoted in the notes/work order in our calendar. That way when the guys are doing the walk through and see that it's very different, they can address it right then and there. "I see Meg listed your FR as a single, it's actually a double so it will be an additional room charge. You have 20 stairs instead of the standard 13" etc.
I also put our warning/red flag there if it has been a problem customer in the past. That way if they didn't pull up SM first they still know before walking in the door.

I would think if something like this happened during the walk through that you wouldn't get the email afterwards about why there was a difference. If the customer isn't there, then we call them and explain over the phone and get a verbal authorization wit the correct price, to do the work before we start.

I would think you have systems like this in place to prevent this, so what happened? Where was the break down?

 

[Mikey P]

The break down was in her mund. She's insane.

She agreed to the price then left with out paying. Ely didntn think or know shev would pull this bs