So, I had to call the cops today

G

Got Wax

New member
I normally try to stay away from price sensitive customers. But, for some reason I didn't listen to my gut and today I got a reminder why I should. I had an interior job scheduled yesterday morning about two miles from my house. I took the truck home Friday and my garage is about two blocks from this guy's house. So, I do this job and get paid to drop the truck off. :2thumbs:I get to his apartment and call, no answer. After a couple more calls, I drop the truck and head home. One hour and thirty minutes later, he calls me, "I didn't hear the phone". He had obviously just woken up. We reschedule for this morning and I just knew this didn't feel right. So, I get to his house, he comes out and tells me he just wants the interios cleaned up. This is the Jeep of a young kid - soda and coins all caked in the cup holders, food and MOLD in and under the seats, etc. Okay, I ask, "Any stains, odors or anything else you want me to take care of outside of the basic interior detail?" "Nope, that's it." So, I go about my business taking note of some, not a lot, just some dog hair - most had been removed on the two vacuum runs and the dry vapor run. After cleaning everything up, I vacuumagain, wipe down, treat, glass,etc. When I tell him I'm done, he waits 15 minutes to come out and performs a thorough inspection of the car. He tells me, "there's dog hair in the car." Yes, I can remove it all for an additional cost." We go round and round and he says, "I'm not the expert, you should have told me before you started." But...I DID..."Do you have any stains, odors or anything else you want me to address out side of a basic interior detail???!!!" He offered to pay me $50.00 - my normal is $125.00 for basic interior.



So, he's not going to pay me. I initially tell him I will just take him to court. Then, he becomes a total D!ck. So, I change tact and tell him that I'll call the cops for theft of service. He tells me to go ahead. I do, the cop comes and tells him, pay me or it's a charge of theft of service.



Moral of the story...go with your gut!!!!:2thumbs:
 
Sorry to say but if I was just some joe schmoe and was paying you $125 just for the interior, I would have expected the dog hair to be removed also.
 
Dsoto87 said:
Sorry to say but if I was just some joe schmoe and was paying you $125 just for the interior, I would have expected the dog hair to be removed also.
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:werd:



10char
 
have to agree as well - if I didn't know anything about detailing and was paying you to do it, I would also think dog hair would be included. I would assume by 'other stuff' you mean something like blood or vomit, not pet hair.
 
Wow, after two hours of an interior detail, you guys would have spent the extra hour cleaning out dog hair at no additional charge?? hmmm. But, my site clearly states that dog hair removal is an "A la carte" service. At $60.00 per hour, a two hour interior worked out exactly as I would expect.



So, just so I understand, if you guys had a stain, exterior scratch...something along those lines, you take care of that, on a basic clean-up, at no additional charge??



Oh well, live and learn!!



Andy
 
Got Wax said:
I normally try to stay away from price sensitive customers. But, for some reason I didn't listen to my gut and today I got a reminder why I should. I had an interior job scheduled yesterday morning about two miles from my house. I took the truck home Friday and my garage is about two blocks from this guy's house. So, I do this job and get paid to drop the truck off. :2thumbs:I get to his apartment and call, no answer. After a couple more calls, I drop the truck and head home. One hour and thirty minutes later, he calls me, "I didn't hear the phone". He had obviously just woken up. We reschedule for this morning and I just knew this didn't feel right. So, I get to his house, he comes out and tells me he just wants the interios cleaned up. This is the Jeep of a young kid - soda and coins all caked in the cup holders, food and MOLD in and under the seats, etc. Okay, I ask, "Any stains, odors or anything else you want me to take care of outside of the basic interior detail?" "Nope, that's it." So, I go about my business taking note of some, not a lot, just some dog hair - most had been removed on the two vacuum runs and the dry vapor run. After cleaning everything up, I vacuumagain, wipe down, treat, glass,etc. When I tell him I'm done, he waits 15 minutes to come out and performs a thorough inspection of the car. He tells me, "there's dog hair in the car." Yes, I can remove it all for an additional cost." We go round and round and he says, "I'm not the expert, you should have told me before you started." But...I DID..."Do you have any stains, odors or anything else you want me to address out side of a basic interior detail???!!!" He offered to pay me $50.00 - my normal is $125.00 for basic interior.



So, he's not going to pay me. I initially tell him I will just take him to court. Then, he becomes a total D!ck. So, I change tact and tell him that I'll call the cops for theft of service. He tells me to go ahead. I do, the cop comes and tells him, pay me or it's a charge of theft of service.
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I notice you have edited your account a bit after the criticism...but you still don't state that you told the owner the dog hair would be extra. Perhaps you would have avoided the confrontation if at the time you "noted" the dog hair, you had also advised the customer that it would be an additional charge to remove it. Perhaps you need to modify your sales language to ..."Do you have any stains, odors, pet hair, or anything else you want me to address out side of a basic interior detail???!!!" to avoid any future misunderstandings and police-involved incidents. Or perhaps note on your price sheet that the standard detail doesn't include pet hair removal.
 
On my customers cars, if i do a wash and wax, and see a minor scratch or so, I fix it. No biggie, takes me 2-3 minutes. AND it lets the customer know I was willing to go the extra mile.



Now I hear what you say about your dog hair removal service being a la carte, but honestly, if it would have taken another hour to remove it, you need another shop vac. I did a tacoma 4-door yesterday filled with dog hair, and I removed it all within 20min.
 
Yeah, I did change it, added all the details so that I am giving the total story and getting advice based on the entire scenario.



My price sheet/work completed check sheet as well as my site do indicate that dog hair removal is an "A La Carte" service and also states it is billed at an hourly rate over and above a basic detail. He sihgned it prior to the work even beginging. When I mention that little fact to him, his reply: "I didn't read that!" I asked the kid if he had any stain, odors or anything else that he wanted tended to. I don't want to stop and have to call this customer every time I find something new...stain under the seat, stain in the headliner, gum in the carpet, etc. I don't know, in all these years I've never had this problem. Like I stated at the beginning; I just don't like dealing with price sensitive customers. They always want WAY more than they contracted for. Guess I'm really surprised that most appear to include dog hair removal in their basic service. I also charge extra for odor removal (running an ozone generator). Now, I'm kinda curious to know if most also do that gratis? Just trying to find out where I'm going wrong here.



Like I said, live and learn.



Thanks!!



Andy
Setec Astronomy said:
I notice you have edited your account a bit after the criticism...but you still don't state that you told the owner the dog hair would be extra. Perhaps you would have avoided the confrontation if at the time you "noted" the dog hair, you had also advised the customer that it would be an additional charge to remove it. Perhaps you need to modify your sales language to ..."Do you have any stains, odors, pet hair, or anything else you want me to address out side of a basic interior detail???!!!" to avoid any future misunderstandings and police-involved incidents. Or perhaps note on your price sheet that the standard detail doesn't include pet hair removal.
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Yeah, maybe. For me, minor scrathces are just another quick pass with the rotary, in most cases. I get that completely. And, I also make it a point to point it out to the customer. The "extra mile" thing. I get that and copletely agree with you!



But, I've had a few vacs over the years and have never been able to completely remove dog hair from seats and carpet with just a vac - at least not the short wirey dog hair like I experienced yesterday. What vac are you using that removes hair like that??



Thanks!!



Andy
Brandon1 said:
On my customers cars, if i do a wash and wax, and see a minor scratch or so, I fix it. No biggie, takes me 2-3 minutes. AND it lets the customer know I was willing to go the extra mile.



Now I hear what you say about your dog hair removal service being a la carte, but honestly, if it would have taken another hour to remove it, you need another shop vac. I did a tacoma 4-door yesterday filled with dog hair, and I removed it all within 20min.
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Sort of have to agree with the customer... I would rather spend the extra couple of mins removing all the dog hair, then to get in an argument
 
I just try to stay far away from those types of customers. I can usually tell real quick who they are. I ALWAYS say to a prospective customer, that the price of the service is X, however, the FINAL price depends on the condition and how long it takes.
 
This is beginning to remind me of that time in motor vehicles when one of the customers got so frustrated he shouted "this is f'ing ridiculous" and walked out...and the people behind the counter didn't say "oh, wait, sorry, come back" they all cheered!



You seem almost proud of the fact that you called the cops on this kid. I've seen your reflections and I think you're a bit older than 18 and have a lot more life experience than this kid, perhaps this was the first time he had ever had his car detailed. If all your customers aren't going to be F40 owners, then I think it's incumbent upon you to make sure your customers understand the scope of your service at the price they agreed to. If your customers are naive, then it's incumbent on you to do a more thorough job of explaining it to them. If that's too much trouble for you, then listen to your gut and turn down the work, and find some more F40's to detail. If you do due diligence and explicitly explain, and then the same crap happens, then you have to resort to the police, as you did.
 
Sounds to me the issue here is you really don't know how to remove dog hair properly and it's a pain in the a$$ for you so you charge extra for the service. removing dog hair with just a shop vac is probably the most aggrivating, slow, and annoying methods to try. Get yourself the proper tools and use the proper techniques and dog hair removal is a snap. Dosen't take but just a couple of minutes to go through an entire car and completly remove it all. You need a static brush to go along with your shop vac and an air compressor with air gun. Using these tools dog hair will never be a issue at all. Because I have to agree with the masses here. If I shell $125 I better have a damn clean interior when it's back. Otherwise I might as well just gave some bum on the street the money because it's all the same. Just tossing it out the window.
 
i understand the arguement for paying 125 and not have all the hair taken care of. I truly do.



i'm still with Andy on this one though. It seems people feel he didn't inform his customer enough which i think is BS. If pricing and information is on his site, I'd think a younger guy would be computer savvy enough to read it. I'm also sure that most hair, but not all of it was removed with the multiple vacuum passes. Some pet hair comes off easy, while others seem stuck. It matters on the type of animal as well as the type of fabric. Anyone thats dealt with pet hair knows that it's not always a smooth removal. I keep lint-role brushes just for this purpose and I find them amazing, but have yet to have a "fast and easy" method of hair removal.



If you think $125 is too high to pay for an interior clean-up that doesn't include pet hair removal: great, join the club. I'm sure a lot of us also believe $2k is too much to spend on a wax, $350k is too much to spend on a single car, adjustable rate mortgages aren't very smart, and nor is leasing vehicles.

This is the price he charges. It wasn't a hidden price. If the customer had additional questions or was worried about the hair - he would have asked about it from the get go. I'm surprised so many good detailers here seem to be sticker-shocked when the majority of the population thinks it's crazy for anyone to spend $300-2000 to have paint swirls and such removed from a vehicle.
 
Wow, what a tough spot to be in. I'm a newb at this so take my comments with a grain of salt please.



I generally charge $50-$75 for interiors. I did a Benz Wagon Saturday. Nearly pristine but looked like some friut juice had stained some one of the mats. I just considered that "part of the work". Maybe I am naive.



I went to Petsmart and got a brush for dog hair. I've yet to actually do a car with pet hair, but it seemed prudent to be prepared. I've got heavy compounds and wax that I've never used also, but I got them to be prepared.



As a general Joe, if I paid $125, I would want my interior CLEAN. Pet hair and all. I'm not saying the price is unfair, just saying that's what I would want. And I wouldn't be happy with a lot of a-la-carte upcharges either. Now I don't expect to pay that low amount for a show car prep, but we are talking about daily drivers here.



This is also one reason I like to go over the vehicle thoroughly with the owner prior to beginning work. If I see anything that will fall outside the scope of what I have quoted I make note of it with them. It avoids issues such as this.



I think it comes down to something really simple. The average customer expects a clean car. It may not be swirl free, and it may not be showroom perfect. But it should be clean. Whether you charge $50 or $350 for your service, I think this is the least of what we can offer.



I was unable t get the weatherstripping on the Mercedes totally clean with what I had. I showed it to the customer, explained what I did to them, used 3 different methods to try to clean it, even in front of them. They completely understood, and it was ok. That car was adult owned, no kids, and nearly pristine, and the interior still took nearly 3 hours all told. And other than a few spots on the weatherstripping, it looked new when I was done. I really think this is what we should strive for.



Just my $.02
 
Part of being a businessman is being able to size up your customers. When you are in a high-end business, which Autopian-level detailing certainly is, you have to be very careful with your customer screening. If your gut-check bell is ringing, you need to make sure the client has the ability to pay and he understands what he will be getting and what the limitations of the service are.



The OP alludes that he has been in business for some time, if it was me, I would double my efforts to ensure a client as described understood the service. This is yet another reason why many members state they walk around the car with their customer to manage their expectations before they start, like "some of these scratches are deep and may not be removable without compromising the clear" or "the basic one-step polishing you are paying for will remove some of the lighter swirls but perhaps not the deeper scratches, if you would like to be sure they will be removed please consider going to the more expensive 2-step polish" or "my standard interior clean will remove dog hair, but perhaps not all of it; if that's acceptable, ok, if not I will have to spend additional time at additional cost to remove the hair if that's what you want".





Got Wax said:
I don't want to stop and have to call this customer every time I find something new...stain under the seat, stain in the headliner, gum in the carpet, etc. I don't know, in all these years I've never had this problem.
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If I bring my car to the car dealer saying it runs like crap and I want a tuneup, and I go to pick it up at the end of the day and it still runs like crap, so I refuse to pay for the tuneup, and the dealer says "well, when we got the car in here we found that it was running like crap because the O2 sensor was bad, but instead of calling you and telling you that we just tuned it up like you asked"...
 
Here's the only question I have about all this really. And maybe it was glossed over so I didn't catch it but why didn't you try to make it right with the customer? He obviously had an issue with the amount of dog hair left over. (he might have been planning on being a pain in the a$$ from the get go but lets assume he had a legit gripe) Like MattGrunt satated I would have to assume that most of the hair was cleaned up already due to the vacuum process. so I can't imagine there was a great deal left anyways. Now you know full well this guy is out bad mouthing you left and right to anyone that will listen. Calling you a hack and all sorts of other nasty's as he see's fit. over a little bit of dog hair. I don;t know maybe it's just me and I've delt with my fair share of problem customers in the past but My reputation really isn't worth a few extra minutes getting some dog hair out. Regardless if your stance is "My price is my price and everything else is extra!!" or "Go the extra mile for the customer" Your reputation is your business and I would've done whatever it took within reason to protect that. and like stated a few extra minutes to get the hair out just isn't worth all the bad mouthing this guy is now doing to you out there.
 
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