[scott johns]

sounds like his trying it on to me as you have already said probably expected arm to come up
better or just one of them people that think they don't have to pay. I always take pictures b4 and after
just so if there is any problem I have something to show if you have to take things further good luck

[Simon Gerrard]

funny this should come up... had a client, who after the job said he wanted to pay by cash and could I go back the next day as he had none on him, I said a cheque would be fine, I cleaned it last Wednesday and apart from the arms,(that had a lot of dye transfer and needed extra effort) the rest was almost touch dry before I left ( using truck- drimaster upholstery tool- air mover) had a call this afternoon as he is not happy with the clean, "it took 3 days to dry but looked no different why eventually dry, so we have washed the cushions in the washing machine and now the frame looks a different colour"
I SMELL A RAT.... going to see it tomorrow, if indeed when you leave it is touch dry, how is it possible to take another 3 days for the rest to dry....NEVER had a call like this before
1.why didn't he phone the next day when it was still "WET" as he put it
2. why would you wash the cushions Before phoning me with this Complaint
any feed back would be welcome
my thoughts are the arms have not come up as well as they wanted (all explained at time of quote) so making up a load of poope to get a refund

Hmmm, perhaps the result didn't fit the price tag?  That's somethings that  gets the unreasonable to come out of the worwork.

Simon

[Tony Stewart]

How long is a piece of string? Depends on the carpet type and the length of the pile and the relative humidity. In the summer opening a window and getting a breeze through the house aids drying times but many people turn up the heating and the wet air has nowhere to go. The relative humidity can be say 80% inside the room and if they open the window on a foggy day that has 95% humidity outside it just lets more humidity back in!
Better to overestimate the drying times. However customers want to have what they want. Had a customer call me at 10.00pm at night saying that the bedroom carpet was still damp when she walked on it with bare feet and she was worried about the dog getting wet paws. I offered to go round at 8.00am the following morning and dry it off if she called me at 7.30. I also said that I had explained to her that as the carpet was thick shag pile it would hold that water and would take more time to dry especially with the damp weather and the fact I had finished at 7.00pm. She then put the phone down on me but never called me the next day.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Perhaps just the arms were damp customers do tend to over exaggerate, if they have washed the cushions and then compared the end result to the arms then it takes some explaining after the event.

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

Washing cushions in the washing machine with modern detergents will lightly bleach the fabric,  of course the cushions are different from the carcass, more than likely they have bleached them.

 I  always tell customers if they wash the cushions in the machine they use something like Arial Colour which does'nt have the built in Bleaching agents.

[COLIN BRIGHT]

went back on Thursday to see the "3 day drying suite", as suspected there issue is more to do with the arms, its a light cream cotton material with like a sculptured pattern, the arms had loads of dye transfer, and came up (I thought) really well, because all the dirt had been removed, the dye stood out more, I did explain all this on the quote before commencing the job, anyhow the rest of the suite looks great.......then to the cushions that have washed .. probably to remove dye transfer left after the cleaning and as Mike says, indeed now they are more of a white colour due to them washing/bleaching out the colour... I explained this but these two complete pricks were having none of it and said its impossible to wash colour out of a cream fabric and it is whatever process that I have used that has changed the colour of the rest of the suite........MUPPETS....anyhow when I asked, why if it was still WET the next day did they not phone me to tell me this , he said, my wife was so upset she couldn't cope with the stress ( that old chestnut) and decided to let it dry (for another 2 days), didn't like the results so washed the cushions, that then took another 2 days to dry, left it over weekend so hence it took them exactly 7 days to phone back with their complaint ( you couldn't make this crap up)  at the end of the day, the suite didn't look as well as they wanted so this I think in their tiny twisted minds is a valid reason for a refund, NEVER in all the time of cleaning have I met a couple of idiots like this (he looks like a professional type and she look like a high maintenance up her own hole type) anyhow at the end of the day, I said "so what do you want to resolve this issue?"  "a full refund" is his reply......so I agreed to refund his £182. they now seem happy, well its certainly a first for me but to be honest not worth wasting any more time or effort on...........if this was  a genuine claim of what they were hinting at as "all my fault" then a simple refund would not have been good enough....they would have taken a further step down the insurance claim... I gave the refund along with a signed document stating that the refund was full and final payment in light that the suite was not as cleaned as expected.......so that's that, im sure this is not the first time a trade has come across these two and im sure that what goes around, comes around...

[Dave_Lee]

Thank goodness these type of customers are few and far between. We cruise along with reasonable people, then when not expecting it, one of 'them' comes along. I think you did the right thing Colin, they are not worth any hassle and are best shot of asap, even if it does mean a refund.
Dave.

[Mike Halliday]

How did you refund the money? Just give them the cheque back?

Problem is they gave you a cheque, you had no option than to give them a refund otherwise they would have been straight onto the bank and cancelled the cheque.

In circumstances like this you need to remember that nothing you can do can rescue the situation, they think you have ripped them off and done a crap job, giving them a refund does not stop them thinking this or stop telling their friends you are a crap carpet cleaner and a Crook. Giving them a refund serves no purpose apart from costing you money.

I very rarely give refunds,  because every time I charge someone it's because I have done my best to give them the best clean possible, if when I finish cleaning if I'm not happy with the result I will choose  not to charge the the full amount or not at all.......but if I charge it's because they have received thier monies worth of service so they should pay.

[Simon Gerrard]

Well that is a timely reminder that it is important to take into account what the customer has in their 'minds eye'  as to the finished product. Their 'minds eye' view may be of a perfectly clean suite, not dissimilar to the day it was new. Our job is to find out what that minds eye view is before we touch it. If the suite is dirty, or I think it is going to be difficult, I always ask a very direct question, 'so tell me how you expect this suite to look after I've cleaned it?' The answer to that question brings out their minds eye view. If they say, 'like new,' or anything even slightly akin to that and the suite is dirty and worn, discoloured , sun faded etc etc, then you have to go to work on their minds eye view and alter it back to reality. You do this by highlighting the dirty or problematic areas and ask another equally direct question, 'so what if these areas don't come as clean as the rest of it, how would you feel about that?' Most people will quickly  shift to a lower expectation, but only because you worked on that initial minds eye view. Most just say, 'just do what you can.' The important thing here is they told you just to do the best you can. In those circumstances after having cleaned one cushion (the dirtiest) , or the dirty arm, show them the result with the question, 'that's the best I can do, is that ok.' If they say, 'yes' they have just accepted the new view of how the suite will look when done. If they don't accept it, pack up and leave and save yourself the grief.

It sounds like Colin did qualify the customer, which brings us to another reality, that we are dealing with a cross section of humanity and some people, even the ones you pre-qualify to hell can't accept anything less than perfect, even though it was them that got that suit into that condition in the first place. Unfortunately they don't have the common courtesy to have the words ' dick head' tattooed on their foreheads.

Can't believe they washed the cushions, but the fact that they did means they have tampered with the end result which screws them up for taking it any further.

Simon

[JandS]

They paid you therefore they were happy.