last minute cancellations

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white gecko 99

New member
I've had 3 cancellations in the last two months that were done LESS than 24 hrs in advance. My appointment for today cancelled at 2am! I'm more than a little irritated at this because my entire day is wasted now.



It wasn't even an emergency. His excuse: Well I've got some bills to pay and my paycheck was less than I thought it would be since I went to vegas.



-He took days off of work to go to Vegas (obviously his paycheck would be less)

-He spent money in Vegas for hotel and such (now less money from paycheck available)

-He also lost his *** gambling (because he's irresponsible)



And he is SUPRISED his check isn't covering all of this!?! So he cancels on me with 8 hours notice, at 2am!!!



What do you guys do with situations like this? I'm fed up with them.
 
I've had it happen. Some people just aren't home when you show up. You have to wait around for hours, then they don't apologize at all for being so late. I had someone cancel on me at 5am by TXT message (not even a call!!) a couple months ago. That wasted my entire day.
 
I just deal with it. It happens so infrequently that it's not really a big deal. In fact, I sometimes look forward to it (surprise day off). Of course, if I loaded my truck up the night before, I do get a little annoyed.



I find most people to be apologetic, and they end up rescheduling. IMO, it's not worth getting upset over and possibly losing a customer over. Just kindly let them know that next time you would prefer more notice.
 
If the income is particularly important to you then I suggest having customers sign an appointment sheet that obligates them to the job or they have to pay XXX cancellation fee unless you are given XXX days notice.
 
If somebody is canceling at 200AM because they do not have the money, they are probably someone you would not want as a customer. If it truly is a major problem, make your cancellation policy very clear when the person books the appointment.
 
That sucks...



What I hate is when I have a customer scheduled for tomorrow and he still has yet to get ahold of me to make sure we are still a go... If I don't hear from him by Midnight, he will have to reschedule.



I hate when I wake up at 6:30am to do a car to find out 2 hours later that the customer isn't coming...:wall
 
I showed up at the door of a customer at 9am and he tells me sorry I have to cancel... (appt was made 2.5 weeks ahead of time.)

Sounds like no biggie, but I set up 10 jobs in 10 days. So getting some one to fill that appt was impossible.

I basically told him to never call me again.
 
Bbasso said:
I basically told him to never call me again.
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I'm sure he won't. No one else he knows will ever call you either.





Why do some of you act like you're doing these people a favor by detailing their cars?



You can't get upset about cancellations. That's life, stuff happens, and believe it or not detailing is far from anyone's top priority.



If you all are really this broken up about it you should probably look to another profession.







Lumadar said:
If the income is particularly important to you then I suggest having customers sign an appointment sheet that obligates them to the job or they have to pay XXX cancellation fee unless you are given XXX days notice.
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Good luck with that one. Never happen...
 
MichaelM said:
I'm sure he won't. No one else he knows will ever call you either.





Why do some of you act like you're doing these people a favor by detailing their cars?



You can't get upset about cancellations. That's life, stuff happens, and believe it or not detailing is far from anyone's top priority.



If you all are really this broken up about it you should probably look to another profession.











Good luck with that one. Never happen...
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Everyone's different, just because you and I don't front over a simple cancellation, other people take it to heart. Its what makes the world go round!



I personally can care less if someone cancels, ide rather have them be 100% sure that they want their car done, rather than sitting on the fence about it. I don't have a cancellation policy, but I make sure every time I book a job, that if something comes up, let me know in a timely fashion.



It's all about respect, which alot of people dont have. If your an *** to your customers, word of mouth will travel VERY fast! You cant have a business without customers, right?



Never really had anyone cancel in a super short notice yet, but im sure its bound to happen. Life goes on though...
 
MichaelM said:
Good luck with that one. Never happen...
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Being a mobile setup probably not but it's definatly one of the biggest advatanges to owning a set location shop. When they make the appointment you take their CC info. And tell them flat out if they don't cancel within reason (basically if they just no call no show) you charge them 50% of the appointment. People learn real quick a phone call in advance is not a hard thing to do at all if they really have to cancel.



The way I look at it is your the one that came to me. You sought me out and booked up a block of my time. I didn't come to you and beg here. At least have the common curtosiy to treat me like the professional that you sought out. I'm not some wash boy that has cars going through a tunnel wash all day long. I booked "x" amount of time out of my day and turned away other customers just for you. Now if you give me reasonable time to fill that gap no harm no foul. but to just not show up.... Yea not so much.
 
Jakerooni said:
When they make the appointment you take their CC info. And tell them flat out if they don't cancel within reason (basically if they just no call no show) you charge them 50% of the appointment.
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Do you do this? Does it work? Have you charged a customer and then have they come back?



This policy seems like an easy street to losing customers. I don't understand how you aren't going to piss off a customer who doesn't show and gets a charge on their CC. Dentists and doctors don't even do this.
 
MichaelM said:
Do you do this? Does it work? Have you charged a customer and then have they come back?



This policy seems like an easy street to losing customers. I don't understand how you aren't going to piss off a customer who doesn't show and gets a charge on their CC. Dentists and doctors don't even do this.
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The policy isn't there to try and scare off customers It's there to eliminate no call no shows and it's been 100% effective ;) And exactly where do you think I got the idea? Almost all Dr's and Dentist offices do this. As well as most other professional services I've ever used that accept CC's have something of this in place. (Massage thereapist, Mental therapist, Salons, Spas, etc etc etc...) Just search around the nets awhile I'll bet you'll find all sorts of places that have cancellation policies in effect.



And if they did no call no show i honestly wouldn't want them as a customer anyways.
 
Ive had several people in the last year do this to me, I usually just take the day as a day off and sometimes they reschedule, sometimes I dont hear back and I dont care too much either. Ive actually had the same person cancel twice, you can bet I wont be doing any business with him in the future. Ill accept it once, but twice and your not getting work done by me. Ive also found that a courtesy call a week in advance and then a couple days ahead of time keeps the customer on their toes. If they do get back to me the day before the detail I start calling customers to move their appointments forward to cover the spot. Just happened to me today actually..I had a fairly big job scheduled on a Z06, the guy came to my house a week and a half ago for a estimate, told me to book it, I emailed, PMd and called several times leaving messages through the weekend, he never called or showed. I called up another customer who was waiting for the OK, and now I have a job just a big to cover this weeks earnings. You never know whats going on with your customers, I like to give them at least a chance to redeem themselves before I will not accept the job.
 
I've never done business with someone with a cancellation policy other than a massively booked restaurant only because I really wanted to eat there.



If I hear a receptionist say to me "There is an x charge for cancellation". I say, "Cool, cancel it now for me".



Maybe I'm 1 out of 10, or maybe 9 out of 10, but I'm civilized enough to call and cancel with plenty of notice if I cant show up. I don't need to have some zero violate the RICO Act to get my pennies.
 
:hairpull



Had a CLK320 scheduled for 9 AM, had this in my e-mail inbox this morning:



Scott, something is up that is related to work....I'm going to have to reschedule. I apologize for the short notice bit it's unavoidable.



Sent from my iPhone
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Time stamp was for 7:05 this morning....
 
Jakerooni said:
The policy isn't there to try and scare off customers It's there to eliminate no call no shows and it's been 100% effective ;).
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I guarantee that you have lost/scared away at least one customer because of that policy.



If you have a long time customer who misses an appointment for some odd reason, do you charge them? I don't see the logic if you did.



I can also guarantee you that there are people out there you would like to have as customers who may on the odd occasion not call or show for an appointment.



The big problem I have with this line of thinking is that you are putting yourself and your services on a pedestal perhaps thinking that detailing is more important then it really is. If you tax a customer for not showing you will piss them off, no doubt about it. Will they come back? Doubtful. The whole idea is very "me" centered and not customer orientated.



Perhaps for those of you detailing on your own as a job it will work because you don't do all that many details in a year but if you're trying to build a self sustaining business this policy has the potential to cause much more harm then good.
 
MichaelM said:
I guarantee that you have lost/scared away at least one customer because of that policy.



If you have a long time customer who misses an appointment for some odd reason, do you charge them? I don't see the logic if you did.



I can also guarantee you that there are people out there you would like to have as customers who may on the odd occasion not call or show for an appointment.



The big problem I have with this line of thinking is that you are putting yourself and your services on a pedestal perhaps thinking that detailing is more important then it really is. If you tax a customer for not showing you will piss them off, no doubt about it. Will they come back? Doubtful. The whole idea is very "me" centered and not customer orientated.



Perhaps for those of you detailing on your own as a job it will work because you don't do all that many details in a year but if you're trying to build a self sustaining business this policy has the potential to cause much more harm then good.
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Hate to say it and maybe it's because you just don't get it but your about as wrong as can possibly be on this. If you want to be treated as a professional you need to act accordingly. Having policies in place helps that image greatly and seperates the lower class wanna be's with the true business minded individuals. Like I said look around. Having policies in place like this is far more common than not having them. Regardless of profession. It's not self centered, it's policing and protecting my business. If I have ample time to fill the void I can continue creating a revenue. If that opportunity to create revenue is just taken away from me with absoultly no regards to me and my livelyhood then why should I feel bad about trying to make up even a portion of that lost income? There will always be exceptions to every rule. But having rules like this clearly stated in the first place tells people alot of things. First there's a policy. Policy come from professional establishments. All professional businesses have policies regardless if they cover this topic or not (almost ever service based industry has something like this in place) It tells the customer your time is important AND valuable and needs to be taken seriously. (If I'm going to take the client seriously I would hope they would take me seriously) It's not there in place to be a D*ckwad.. It's there to deter a problem. And regardless if enforced or not it works great. If people have a problem with it so much so that they want to second guess my abilities to service their vechile then there are plenty of other options around me that they can go to. I have zero issues with spreading the wealth around to other detailers. there are millions and millons of cars driving around every day. I can only do so many of them. ;) I'd much rather work with customers that want to be taken seriously and want to treat me like a professional that can address their needs long before I want to work for a person that is afraid they might have to shell out a few coins because they know they won't have the common curtiosy to pick up a phone and call ahead.
 
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