What would you do?

[Zee]

Gave an estimate on a 20000sqft complex to do common area hallways.

Twice a year at 10 cents/foot. All indoor hallways. 2nd 3rd 4th floor needs 250 feet of hose to reach out and has to be set up twice for the other side of the building. (there are 4 identical buildings, the 20000sqft was to include all 4 buildings) So each building needs to be set up to- twice to cover the lenght of hallways.

Measurements were given to us by the company contracting the job.

Show up to do the first half of the job and got the bad feeling that this looks a lot more than 20000 sqft. Not to mention of the 8 sets of staricases

I started measuring out the place...and ended up with 43000sft plus a recreational room about 500sqft and 8 sets of staircases (2 sets in each building) 16 -18 steps each.


So I called them right away and shut down the unit.... They admitted their mistake and offered to pay $2800 instead of $2000 that was agreed to. (so with that, the price just dropped to 6 cents a foot plus about 360bucks worth of stairs cleaning for free)

What would you do?? pack up and leave with your middle finger waving in the air or suck it up and do it because "its the bad economy" that makes you do it?

On a side note: the hose set ups have to go thru a trash chute and pop out to each floor otherwise you would need over 400feet of hose to do each side of the building. In other words: it is an absoulute P I T A to do the work....

I tried selling them on encap/padcap but they want the truckmount cleaning.

 

[Desk Jockey]

If they want HWE it would have to be at the higher price. I would clean part of a hall as a free demo, with encap to let them see what the results look like.

Method shouldn't matter results are what should matter and it possible the Encap will look better.

What is your comfort level with them Zee? Do you think you're get paid? If so then yes, it's "Bad Economy" work.
The very most I'd do is encap all the halls and HWE the steps.

Some work is always better than no work, however work you don't get paid for hurts twice as much.

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Broke or not I would walk. Its alot of work for half of a already low price entry.

 

[Zee]

If they want HWE it would have to be at the higher price. I would clean part of a hall as a free demo, with encap to let them see what the results look like.

Method shouldn't matter results are what should matter and it possible the Encap will look better.

What is your comfort level with them Zee? Do you think you're get paid? If so then yes, it's "Bad Economy" work.
The very most I'd do is encap all the halls and HWE the steps.

Some work is always better than no work, however work you don't get paid for hurts twice as much.

I'm sure I'd get paid. My brother inlaw owns the company that is contracting it to me... Which is why this is even harder for me to just walk right off the job. One of his employees went out to measure up the place and basically screwed up so now I feel bad for my broinlaw but at the same time my expenses go way up too dealing with 120-130percent more work and 4 days instead of 2 days of driving. A minimum drive time there is an hour and 45minutes. In SoCal terms its a bit more than normal. We drive an hour or 45minutes to get to a job or jobs all the time. You could live in san Clemente and do a job at LAX.


The carpet looks great with steam cleaning. I have done a small part (the worst) of this project before and that's how we got them back to do all of it. They were super impressed with the cleanliness and fast dry times. Compare to what they had used before..which was a local chemwho hack.

Encapping would be a lot easier and faster but the prop management co looks at it as inferior to what they see we can do with hwe.

 

[Nate The Great]

Lol, some helpful info you left out there buddy... I'd still say, take a long walk off a short pier... Bro-in-law or not... Pretty big F-up on the employee's part... Or just encap it and run...

 

[John Olson]

No they agreed to .10 a foot not .6 Tell them you will clean the total amount of sq ft agreed to and if they want the rest cleaned you will be happy to clean that as well at the previously agreed to price. If they refuse you do have a written and signed work authorization right?

 

[Desk Jockey]

Encapping would be a lot easier and faster but the prop management co looks at it as inferior to what they see we can do with hwe.

Tell them to do what they do best and rent out properties. You're the professional cleaner, method shouldn't mater only results.

I'd HWE at the higher price but if they only want to afford the lower price you can only do so by encapping it. Encapping allows you the faster speeds and no extended hose lengths. If they don't go for it, it was they choice, just move on down the road.

 

[Derek]

i to would have stuck to my guns on the price per sq.ft. you had the power position it seems. if they refused i would have walked and never taken another of their calls again.

 

[Zee]

John Olson" data-source="post: 4203064" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

No they agreed to .10 a foot not .6 Tell them you will clean the total amount of sq ft agreed to and if they want the rest cleaned you will be happy to clean that as well at the previously agreed to price. If they refuse you do have a written and signed work authorization right?

Yes we had written down the numbers before I started.
That is what I'm saying too: I gave a price on the sqftage and I didn't even know about all the stairs and now they say they can't possibly pay more than what they are getting..

 

[BradFenstermaker]

Wonder what the bronlaw thinks you should do, your both in business to make money right?? He should understand, man up and talk to prop manager and explain. I like johns idea of doing the 20k and pack it up.

Can they get another company in at .06 steaming with the quality you do???

 

[KevinD]

I know it was quite a drive but I would have looked at it and measured before quoting.
I've been through too many commercial quotes to trust any ones accuracy on square footage.

 

[Derek]

i learned a similar lesson from a resi client. i believed her numbers and they were of course too low. most of us have run into this. now i always tell any prospect commercially or residentially, over the phone that, "this quote is based on the numbers you gave me. when i arrive i'll re-measure and the price will either go up or down accordingly." --- so far they have always understood this simple concept. if someone doesn't get it, then they're prolly hiding something.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I didn't even know about all the stairs and now they say they can't possibly pay more than what they are getting..

Nope the stairs will be a huge loss, you can't do them for free. No need to burn bridges or get pissed just tell them you're not on the same page and you cannot lose money.

Walk....no run away, then punch your brudder inlaw in the nose at the next family outing. SERIOUSLY!

 

[rwcarpet]

Two words........bye bye.

 

[Mardie]

Sounds to me they know exactly what they are doing. Are you not smart enough to know when you are being punked ? Have you no dignity.

 

[Zee]

Can they get another company in at .06 steaming with the quality you do???

Simple answer: no.


At least I don't think so...


All of you are pretty much saying everything I thought of. Just wanted to check how others would respond to a situation like this.

I even wanted to offer doing the 20000sqft for 10cents and bill them with an estimate on the other 23000sqft, attached....for 9 cents plus the stairs charged spearately...

 

[BLewis]

I agree with Mardie (Sounds to me they know exactly what they are doing). I would give them a revised quote @ .10 psf and add stairs separately and extrea room. It's up to them but if they agree I would get that in writing also before beginning work. Their scamming you

 

[Desk Jockey]

Sounds to me they know exactly what they are doing. Are you not smart enough to know when you are being punked ? Have you no dignity.

A Von Shredder talking about dignity?

I owed you for the TM comment yesterday!

 

[Shane Deubell]

They made a 20k sqr ft mistake?
No way, .10 was the deal. Your word is ALL you have in business.

 

[spotman123]

I agree

 

[Derek]

i've learned the hard way not to do business with family or friends. even an honest mistake can affect relationships and it just not worth it to me.

 

[Johnny]

Have you spoken to your broinlaw or just dealing with one of his minions?

I really dont see how can you make money @ .10.

 

[Zee]

Have you spoken to your broinlaw or just dealing with one of his minions?

Yes I spoke to him a few times over this.....he doesn't wana pay any more than what they get from the building managment. So I told him I won't do it.

I don't have a problem working for 2800bucks for four days...however I do have a problem with the principle idea of me lowering my prices to encap prices and still deal with a pita hose set up job. If this was one of those jobs we do where they have a 35-40000 sqft open banquet room, I wouldn't make such a scene out of it. That would be easy to just keep wanding away like we aways do. But this job's sqftage is not the same effort to get done as an open large hall.

 

[Derek]

good on ya.

 

[Desk Jockey]

To me it was the 150-Steps FREE that were the deal breaker.

No one should or could realistically give that away. They are insane even expect it or ask it of you.

 

[Jimmy L]

Have you figured out how much time it would take?

Besides the sqft price that is the other thing tying in profit levels.

And I can see the 10 cents a sqft around here but in calif that seems too low.

Judging by standard of living .

 

[Zee]

Have you figured out how much time it would take?

Besides the sqft price that is the other thing tying in profit levels.

And I can see the 10 cents a sqft around here but in calif that seems too low.

Judging by standard of living .

When we do open hotel banquet halls and convention center areas, we can knock out 40-45000 sqft with 2 wands in 1 day. We have done that many times.

This job however would take 4 days with 1 tm 1 wand. Because of the difficulty of the hose set ups and constant moving of the hoses. We couldn't use a Sprinter there or the NPR style Isuzu, they couldn't fit in the parking garage. Only vehicle that can do it is the e150. Even that needed the top of the gate at the entry to be removed to fit under...

As you can gather from all the bits of info...this job is really a pita.


Jimmy I would have no problem doing all of it for 10cents. Even though we are in SoCal.

 

[Bill Morgan]

I gave a price on the sqftage and I didn't even know about all the stairs and now they say they can't possibly pay more than what they are getting..

Talk about "Bait and Switch" tactics... nobody simply overlooks 23,000 sq feet of cleaning by accident.
Glad to hear you decided to walk away from that job.
After getting bent over like that from your brother-in-law.. you might want to consider divorcing your wife ASAP too!
I hope he kissed you.. because he sure did F_ck you.

Have fun at the next family BBQ.
Good luck Zee.
Bill

 

[beagleboy]

You can clean 40,000 sq ft with 2 wands in one day? How is that possible ? How long are the days down there?

 

[Zee]

You can clean 40,000 sq ft with 2 wands in one day? How is that possible ? How long are the days down there?

Why wouldn't you be able to do it? Start at 7am go without stopping until around 12, eat lunch hit the restroom (20-30min) Get the machines up and running and work till 7-730pm. You are done. Only time you stop is to empty waste tanks. An occasional quick snack bite and drink that takes 2minutes is what you need to keep going. (while a helper moves hoses or presprays etc.)