What is the worse you've been dinged?

[enviropure]

I was at a new customer's home. They had requested a VLM cleaning. I had op'd the Master Bed/Bath/Closet. I only had the steps and an area rug in the living room left to clean.

I was excited about cleaning the steps since I just bought a smaller rotary (11") with a shortened handle to do steps. I think Ultra Dry sells them. Anyways...I set the rotary up and went down to plug it in. Funny thing...I heard a large dog bounding down the steps when I plugged it in. Then it CRASHED at the bottom! The switch on the rotary obviously wasn't working even though it has a dead-man switch on it.

The rotary had bounced down the steps and landed on a one-of-a-kind oil something entry rug. A regional artist had designed it several years ago. It actually punched a hole in it and damaged the wood floor beneath it.

The rug only cost $300 bucks to have made by the same guy. It was about a 2' X 3' mat. It had a black base color and drips of other colors. You couldn't see the puncture wound until you looked at the bottom side.

The wood floor had about $1,200 of damage. Two different planks had dings. If it was mine, I would have "filled" them in. But there was an adjoining area that had to be replaced as well to keep the color the same.

I tried to get the rug to bring home so we could have a one-of-a-kind entry mat. She wouldn't give it up because she wanted to put it at another door. I told her if it is bad enough to have insurance replace it I should take so it wouldn't be insurance fraud for her. She got mad and wouldn't budge. I realized I wouldn't be cleaning for them again. They were moving out of the area. I got pretty tense with her, but then I regained my composure since I was the one who didn't check my new (used) equipment before the job...live and learn...

Eric

p.s. I have had two picture frames over the years break. One from bumping an end table and one from running the blowers to help speed dry the lady's carpet.

 

[KevinL]

I blew a picture off the wall once that was held up by a pin. A f'n straight pin. Stupid people.

 

[Desk Jockey]

This is our 41-year in business and I'd bet ever year we take at least a couple of major hits for something that could have been preventable.

The dumbest was hitting our own building with flip up side doors on a box truck. It the ripped the door off and cut a large gouge in the building.

Dumb right? 6-months later same driver hit the building again pulling into the garage. Ripped the door off again.

This time we remover swing up doors from both box trucks that had them.

We we once cleaning the corporate office for the president of Payless shoes, we were moving a coffee table that had a large eagle on it. As instructed the techs moved the eagle so it would not fall or break while moving.

When the went to put the eagle back, he was not in the exact spot, so the slide him, leaving scratch marks in the newly refinished coffee table.

Seems the janitorial staff had also slide him and scratched the very table.
The repair was not that bad but the incident was still very embarrassing!

 

[The Preacher]

i didn't do it, but was there to see it happen.

the first company i worked for in 1986 was a father/son ran. i was a hose puller and the son was cleaning out of a BR into a hallway, the wand knocked a little lamp (about 12") off a table. the customer owned a jewelry company, turns out the lamp was a gift from the Tiffany Co. to it's top dealers, only a few made and it was not only old but Tiffany Crystal!

the son told the guy about the accident, he said you might want to call your dad and have him call his insurance agent. i heard that it was a BIG loss, worth more than what the company was worth, they sold out a couple years latter and left town!!! :shock:

 

[Brian H]

Danny, makes you wonder why the customer didn't move the lamp!!!

 

[Ron Werner]

my first ding was a Norman Rockwell plate, Couples Commitment. It was on a corner tiered shelf unit which I just tapped with my wand. Hard enough to teeter it and down it came. Showed the owner, told her I'd replace it. Phoned around when I got home and called her within an hour to tell her it would be here in a couple weeks. $55 job, $49 plate, a client now since 94 and her family.

WOrst was 2 yrs ago. Just put an oil burner on my truck. Everyone had been boasting of high heat Sooooo I installed some high heat. High heat it was.
Cleaning a off white $40/yd bedroom carpet and wherever I stopped the wand for a few seconds to flush a spot, it turned black! Turned out to be black death from the 3/8 hose (it was blue and pretty common though not sure if was Neptune) from the boiler. Tried EVERYTHING to get the black out, even redyeing. The black vinyl lining just bonds to the carpet.
$1800 for the carpet and $400 for installation.

The burner itself had steel coils so it started rusting soon after and I had to pull it out. Never even got a year out of it. $2700 for the boiler.

Live and learn.

 

[Aaron Richards]

I've had a sofa bleed on me 18 years ago, before I was on o/o. Broken some figurines, put a table lamp on a bed without turning it off and burned a hole in a comforter. Many more that I've forgotten about.

Had a tech break an antique lamp. Had another one leave a worm trail in a linoleum floor while he was cleaning upholstery. Never seen that one before.

 

[J Scott W]

The worst seemed to be large fire losses that just did not to let go of all the money they suddenly had. They would also find something to complain about and not sign authorization for all the money.

A couple claimed we ripped the fabric along a seam in a new chair. They wanted to be paid for the entire living room suite because the furniture matched. Went to the furniture store and found out they had got it at discount price because of the pre-existing tear. $850 from the job we never saw.

Scott Warrington

 

[Ron Werner]

Had another one leave a worm trail in a linoleum floor while he was cleaning upholstery. Never seen that one before.

I did the exact same thing. 200F water melted and bubbled a lino floor while I was cleaning uph, over 8yrs ago. Never happened before, never since, and I've never heard of anyone else having the problem till now. Just cost my deductable on my insurance.

 

[RC Eden Carpet Cleaning]

Lol I got a good horror story for you.

I have a tech scheduled to clean a home where the custy says she'll leave a key under the door mat on a Saturday. I was not working but happened to be in the area of the job so I decided to stop in and see how things were going.

I walk inside to find my tech "pleasuring himself" while wearing the custy's thong in the middle of the living room! I didn't even know what to say. I just said "get the f*** out of this house! I was extremely embarrassed and wished he had just broken some $400 lamp instead. I'm not sure if the custy noticed but I definitely felt "dinged."

BTW I finished the job

EDIT: Damn you guys are pervs lol! I fired the tech and finished the custy's home on my self granted day off (fathers day).

 

[Becker]

Parlex hose, loped over caught a clay pot on a porch. Cost me $20 off the bill.

She said no big deal, but I said it had to cost you something.

In the end I wrote the bill for $20 less.

 

[Scott]

Lol I got a good horror story for you.

I have a tech scheduled to clean a home where the custy says she'll leave a key under the door mat on a Saturday. I was not working but happened to be in the area of the job so I decided to stop in and see how things were going.

I walk inside to find my tech "pleasuring himself" while wearing the custy's thong in the middle of the living room! I didn't even know what to say. I just said "get the f*** out of this house! I was extremely embarrassed and wished he had just broken some $400 lamp instead. I'm not sure if the custy noticed but I definitely felt "dinged."

Wow, this one takes the cake.

BTW I finished the job

Errr...ummm...next time I would seriously think about rephrasing this sentence.

Scott

 

[RC Eden Carpet Cleaning]

haha Ok your right Scott, I finished the customers carpet and returned the thong to the laundry room.

 

[Becker]

no freaky way....

 

[steve g]

BTW I finished the job

uh what...... cleaning the carpets or pleasuring the tech??

the worst one I can think of was when I worked for another company, this company had a policy if more than half the carpet in a room was wet, they wanted the carpet taken out and dried at our shop, it was a policy I hated and thought was stupid because it limited how much equipment we needed and thus what they could charge for, anyways me and another guy where lifting this big ole donkey dick of a living room carpet and struggling with it to get it down the stairs, these people had this grass cloth wall paper throughout the whole basement, we didn't know it at the time but apparently we scratched the grass cloth, and they had to pay out 10k to replace the whole basement wall paper. serves them right for a stupid policy, I don't feel a bit bad.

the most irritating for me while having my biz was last year, I went to move this coffee table, I just pushed it over a little and the whole thing litterly about self destructed I put the legs back under it as best I could, the screws where not in the bottom part that would have kept it from happening, the customer was gone at the time, so I thought pushing the legs back under it was like it was, later that day I get a call from the customer about the table, I go back and look at it, and I had broke a lot more than I thought, I explained to the lady yeah I did it, I am sorry but look there should have been the screws put in here and it was very flimsy, anyways I could see she wasn't happy with that, when I asked how much the table was she said about $150, so me being nice I said well what if I give you your check back, I was thinking she would say oh you don't gotta do that as it was for $300 bucks, she said sure thats great, so I was out $300 bucks for breaking a POS flimsy coffee table that was barely able to stay in one piece before I touched it. oh well I guess I did the right thing

 

[Greg Loe]

I've only had 3 things in all these years. A small ceramic vase the customer was told to move. Still my fault for not looking behind me. Hit it with my elbow. Husband even said don't worry about it, he told his wife to move it too. I just didn't charge them for the protector that I watered down.(4:1)

Split the leg on an old table moving it 3 inches. The lady was gone for 3 weeks and I had a key. So I took the leg and used wood glue and a few screws to fix it and put it back. She never knew it till I told her what happened. She laughed at me and said I must have been scared, poor baby. I clean for her in 2 weeks again. Told her I'm not moving anything this time.

The worst for me was a RX20 incident. The dam string from the blinds fell to the ground right as I was passing under it. In the blink of an eye, the blinds were ripped out of the window on the end and bent the blinds in half. Must have been a lag bolt holding the middle of the blind up. Customer would not let me fix it or pay for it. I've always done extra stuff for this customer because he's handicapped. And have spent time just talking with him. Some call it Karma, I just say humans can be nice to each other sometimes.

 

[B&BGaryC]

Lol I got a good horror story for you.

I have a tech scheduled to clean a home where the custy says she'll leave a key under the door mat on a Saturday. I was not working but happened to be in the area of the job so I decided to stop in and see how things were going.

I walk inside to find my tech "pleasuring himself" while wearing the custy's thong in the middle of the living room! I didn't even know what to say. I just said "get the f*** out of this house! I was extremely embarrassed and wished he had just broken some $400 lamp instead. I'm not sure if the custy noticed but I definitely felt "dinged."

BTW I finished the job

EDIT: Damn you guys are pervs lol! I fired the tech and finished the custy's home on my self granted day off (fathers day).

I thought we agreed you would not discuss my termination with the other members of this board!

:shock: :!:

 

[John Olson]

My Monthly Budget for damages was $500 for the Janitorial company I was area Manager for. We always had a picture frame or nick nac getting knocked off a desk. The worst was the floor guy I had just hired (The Bishop from my ward asked me if I could help him out).

I had left him at the State Building to strip and wax all the landings in the stair wells' Well the knucklhead dripped stripper/wax down every single stair 5 FLOORS! The stripper discolored the rubber coating. Almost cost us $10 grand to tear it all off and replace but I found a combination of cleaners and elbow grease to get things to look uniform. Basically I changed the color of the whole stair to match the spots Yes I fired him.

I have "ate" more phones with the RX-20 and swing machines then I care to admit. I about choked the first time I had to pay for a $400 phone.

I had a policy that if you broke something and called me immediately you would never get in trouble. You break something and the building manager calls me at 8 in the morning to tell me and your FIRED. Only had to fire 1 person in 7 years for trying to hide their f-up.

Oh forgot to add the General Manager at the time got a call to come into A Bank they cleaned up north. He sat down with the Lady Manager who had a monitor and VCR hooked up in her office. She didn't say anything except sit down and watch then pushed play. It was the surveillance tape. On it you see her walking up to the front door. As she is opening it out from the back comes a naked man pushing a garbage can. You see him walk up to her as if he is trying to talk to her. You see her turn and bolt out the door.

Patrick told me he stood up and said I'll take everything out of the building with me and have the keys to you in an hour. She said yes, yes you will..

 

[Eric Valentine]

Worst I have had so far was the wand fell over and scratched a wall. I did have a helper that didn't know the meaning of being careful around wood railings, and dinged the hell out of them with the wand. The helper was on the hook for that one.

 

[ruff]

Hey Bryan,
I stayed in bed, put on a sweat shirt and broke a lamp.

Correction:
The only way not to reak anything is being 6 feet under.

 

[ACE]

I was working as a sub and had an early AM job on a Saturday morning after parting a bit too much Friday night. I set up and stared prespraying and noticed that wet dog smell of wool. O well, I thought it should be fine because the prespray was a mild PH. Before I could even start to extract every seam started to pop and tackless was ripping out of the concrete. We ended up not having to pay because it was not correctly installed.

I used to have a janitorial account with the local TV station. The customer had been sorting out some old video footage and filled up our 55 gal trash barrel with what they didn’t want and 5 boxes that was going to storage. I had made it a point to always train my employees to never throw away anything if it wasn’t in the trash. He saw the trash filled with video disks and figured the boxes where trash too. Apparently there was alot of exclusive footage of old KU athletics. They said to footage of Danny Manning could have been worth a small fortune on eBay. They put a price tag of $60,000.00 on the video based on original production hours. Insurance denied the claim and the account was lost.

 

[Brian R]

Broke leg off of dining room chair that customer places on dining room table...hanging over edge...she said it was here fault. I'm pretty sure I didn't even touch it...it just slid off.

Presently fixing a screwed up tile clean...costing $2400.00. Yikes...the job was $850.00.

Pretty good all things considered. Been using subs for 2 years and this is the worst of it. Knock on wood.