Nightmare customers: lets hear your stories!

I have a couple (well way more then a couple but....)



Lady calls me about a year ago and wants a "van" detailed. I ask her about the van and what she wants done, etc... She explains what type of van it is and that is a church van. I am not a reglious person (at all) but I want to cut her a break and offer here a really afforable service. I think it was like 250 for a two step polish (12 person bus/van) and FULL interior detail. I mean it was like 150% off.



She starts screaming at me and cussing! I hang up. She calls back just tearing into me and cursing me with the devil, going on and on. I hang up. Finally she calls five-six more times and I don't pick up. She leaves these terrible messages over and over again. Finally the next day I get another message with her apologizing to me and asking if I would do the work (mentioned above) for 125?



Secondly, I get this guy with a black Lamborghini Countach. From the first second on the phone it was evident that him and I weren't really compatible. He goes on and on how bad the car looks now but he had it previously detailed 3 months ago and it looked great (for 250). I tell him the most likely senario (fillers/glaze/etc). He doesn't seem to care, but he keeps telling me the other people only charged 250. I keep telling tjats why it looks so bad.



Anyways 5 calls in a week later and me explaining over and over again that Brian (working with me at the time) and I charge by the hour, etc... I start doing his Countach (hammered, seriously hammered!) and realize it is the hardest paint I have ever polished. Of course my Hitachi breaks about 1 panel in, so I end up using Brian's Makita (one person buffing).



In the meantime while I am polishing, this guy starts pointing out all these "things" he wants done. Engine, he want's the door jambs swirl free, he wants Leatherique, he wants us to polish inside the exhaust tips, he wants the exhaust polished, this and that, seal the glass.



I look at Brian and kinda of shrugg while he gets to it. Finally 14 hours (28 man hours) later we have finished polishing and working on all the odds and ends and haven't even applied the Zaino yet (which we had to the next day). Car looked great, then he asks me how much. I do the quick math in my head and and figure about $1600 dollars. He OFFERS me 400. I say no, you owe me this much . He starts mumbling around and getting pissed. Finally he says 800, I laugh and say 1600. This goes on and on.... I explained to him (like I did the previous 5 times) that everything is billed by the hour and HE requested the extra work, not me. Finally he says 1200, I say 2000, he gets madder, I won't give him the keys....

In the end I got 1600 and a LOT of bad press from his buddies.
 
Wow Todd, I think you win the award for worst customers! LOL I gotta remember that about keeping the keys until paid in full. Do you ever ask for a deposit on work like that by chance?
 
fueler said:
make them sign the estimate (even if its blank) before starting any work. Signature is key!
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Gee, I haven't done that since the beginning of summer. It's a pain to drag out the forms, even if I know I have little/no legal recourse should a job go bad.
 
My process for customers goes like this, and it really helps to avoid problems:



I walk around the car with the customer and video tape this encounter so I can have proof of what I said / they said / and condition of car. I use a form I got from Rick on the ADS website that has condition of car (meguiars form).



I have a flat bed scanner and for each customer I have them a folder on my computer that has: each detail cataloged by month/year with video footage of initial inspection/final delivery, pictures of cars, signed documents, contracts for bi-weekly customers, etc.



A good documentation system for me has saved me recently and sure would've helped me in the past with a guy that called the cops on me.....
 
bwalker25 - Your process sounds a lot like buying insurance. It's not typically a fun process, but well worth it if something happens and you need that documentation...hehe. I'll keep that in mind.
 
yup got burned 1 time at fort bragg, and once here in durham. Wont happen again if I can help it! once they see the tape and pictures before and after they usually stop being such a jerk and pay up! :) Documentation on the cars/customer is key if something were to go wrong, or if the customer deciedes to make up something and get you to pay for damages you didn't do! Initial inspections for me aren't fun due to the necessity of all the forms/video/pictures but worth it in the end for that added "insurance".
 
Sept. 8 2002, Ft. Bragg NC. I was detailing an Accura for a friend of my NCOIC. No forms were signed, verbal agreement only for price of detail. Thanks to this guy I now have forms/video/and photo evidence of the detail and its happenings. After a full detail inside and out including carpet shampooing and my best OTC wax (before I came to realize the goodness of a sealant or IW845). I told him initially it would be $250 he agreed and said "just do a good job and no problem." 9 hours later on my Saturday off, I called him and he came to pickup the car. He said he was impressed and wasn't going to pay because "higher ranking officers dont have to pay anyone less than there paygrade." I was pissed told him I wouldn't give him his keys, he called the Military Police and long story short, no contract, nothing signed stating he had actually agreed on a price or work to be performed on his car. I was told by the MPs to give him his keys or I would be arrested for attempted theft of an automobile. I was like *** I wouldn't have detailed this thing if it was for free, he then told the MPs that I did it as a favor to my NCOIC.....I didn't get paid at all.....
 
I guess I can't call them nightmare "customers", because they never become that, but this past year or so we have had so many people call us at the last second wanting us to drop everything and come out. We get calls at 3:00 on Saturday telling us that they need their car detailed that day, you know, by $5:00 or so. Or, we get people that will see us driving away from a job, flag us down because they are soooooo interested in our services, then never hear from them. Why go to all that trouble to catch our eye, and then not call? We were just driving through a new neighborhood and one of the workers comes running and yelling for us to stop. We talked to him, he was cool with everything and said that he would call us at the end of the week to detail his car, as it got so dirty on the jobsite, then nothing. Never heard from him again.



I just think people are crazy for the most part. Everyone today wants something for nothing, they want it now, and you better do it above and beyond their expectations. Okay, not everyone, but we run into a lot of the crazies.



Oh, and I also like the people that ask me how often their car should be waxed, and then don't believe me when I answer them. If you know better than me, then why is your car all oxidized and spotted, and why did you ask me to begin with? Crazy people.
 
Yeah, some guy called me the other day needing an interior only detail on a PT Cruiser. It was noon when he called, and he needed it done ASAP, that day. I declined. I assume he had just transported a dead body in there or something, and needed the evidence cleaned up ASAP?????
 
When I hand out my business card to someone, I have a notebook I keep with me, the small flip type. I hand the card to them and ask for there Full Name and 2 Phone#'s if possible, and date I gave out the card. This allows me to make first contact with the customer if they dont call within a week. Plenty of time for them to think over getting a detail and what not.



Most of the time when I call they answer and say not now maybe later. I just keep these people on my list and call once a month sometimes every 2 months, just to let them know we are still interested in detailing their car....this has paid off for me :)
 
bwalker25 said:
Sept. 8 2002, Ft. Bragg NC. I was detailing an Accura for a friend of my NCOIC. No forms were signed, verbal agreement only for price of detail. Thanks to this guy I now have forms/video/and photo evidence of the detail and its happenings. After a full detail inside and out including carpet shampooing and my best OTC wax (before I came to realize the goodness of a sealant or IW845). I told him initially it would be $250 he agreed and said "just do a good job and no problem." 9 hours later on my Saturday off, I called him and he came to pickup the car. He said he was impressed and wasn't going to pay because "higher ranking officers dont have to pay anyone less than there paygrade." I was pissed told him I wouldn't give him his keys, he called the Military Police and long story short, no contract, nothing signed stating he had actually agreed on a price or work to be performed on his car. I was told by the MPs to give him his keys or I would be arrested for attempted theft of an automobile. I was like *** I wouldn't have detailed this thing if it was for free, he then told the MPs that I did it as a favor to my NCOIC.....I didn't get paid at all.....
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You should have came back later and keyed the **** out of it. What a d-bag.



I never really got any problems from my customers, but I damn well shouldn't considering the prices I charge (I just do this for a little extra $$, I'm only in HS).
 
weekendwarrior said:
Yeah, some guy called me the other day needing an interior only detail on a PT Cruiser. It was noon when he called, and he needed it done ASAP, that day. I declined. I assume he had just transported a dead body in there or something, and needed the evidence cleaned up ASAP?????
Click to expand...



Oh, that reminds me of another one. We get a lot of people that call and want us to detail just a few select things, thinking they can get it for practically nothing. Hey, can you just clean my wheels, wash it, remove the trash, and condition the leather on the front driver's seat only, you know, just the bottom part where I sit? Okay, maybe not that bad, but you get the point.



Oh, and NO, I DON'T GIVE DISCOUNTS! I don't charge that much anyway, and I get people that think because I detailed for their long lost cousin twice removed they should get a discount because they exist and live and breathe. Does your boss cut your hourly wage because you've already worked so many in the past? No, then why should I?



Again, people are crazy.
 
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