Getting dicked around...

D

dsms

New member
This is just a quick rant but im sure many of you can feel my frustration...



I scheduled a detail for today on a silver Mercedes S class. The owner (male) was given my name and buisness card by a good customer of mine a few weeks ago and the man decided to schedule and appointment for my detailing services. After speaking with him on the phone he seemed like an extremely straigh forward guy who was very meticulous about his cars (these customers I like).



So today I went to his rather large house at 9:00am to pick up the Mercedes, I was told to ring the bell and that his son would be there open the garage and give me the keys becuase the guy is out of the country on buisness, meaing I cant contact him persoannly.. I didnt think this would be a problem becuase I confirmed this pickup with the son the day before on the phone as per the owners request. I rang the doorbell and a maid answered who spoke very little english, of course she had no idea who I was and what I was doing asking for the keys to the Mercedes. The teenage son who was supposded there be there... was sleeping.



She then placed a call to the wife, who was at the gym WITH the Mercedes I was supposed to detail. I was told by the maid to wait in the driveway until the wife got home, I put a smile on my face and did just that. 15minuets later she arrived with the Mercedes and I though I would just be on my way. I told her I spoke with her husband and we scheduled a detail for this car today.



The wife had NO idea that this car was to be detailed and said me taking the car would be fishy. I explained to her I know her husband and that his is out of the country and that the back seat of the S class has a stain which I was told to remove, thinking she would know now I was legit. I then handed her my buisness card and said I own "so and so" detailing. The wife said to me she needed the car all day today (although in the driveway there was about 4 other cars which they owned) and she told me maybe I could come back another day. This to me was an insult! I went home and put all my pre filled wash buckets, washed MF and brushes etc. away. Now today I am stuck without a detail and will have to explain to her husband sometime when he gets home why his mercedes is still dirty.



This should be fun.
 
Yeah, rich does not always mean classy. Rough break. Hey, at least they allowed you to ring the FRONT doorbell. (lol) Ever been directed to the service entrance?
 
Tell me about it. I had a client wanting me to do an interior only detail so I penciled him in for the day he wanted, that morning I wrote an email to confirm and he stated he wasn't going to be around!
 
Maybe when you enter into an agreement with someone you could have a "cancellation policy" or something like that... if the person doesn't cancel within 24/48/72 hours of the detail they forfeit their deposit (if one has been given).
 
not to hijack the thread but....how common is a deposit for detail services? If its very common how much is the deposit?
 
i had a similar thing happen to me this week.



Last weekend, i get a request on the local import forum im on that he wanted to get his 3000gt detailed before he sells it.



So i ballpark a price, and ask if he wants to meet up so i can quote in person. He agrees, and i drive 20 miles (40 round trip) to meet up with him at a central location so i can quote the car. I see the car, tell him what i would want to do to the car, and give him the price.



I was supposed to do a 2 step polish, and a basic interior detail. Just to get the car looking good and clean for the buyer. I schedule him for thursday at 10.



Thursday morning comes. I get up early than usual to prepare the garage, and my best friend who details with me on occasion gets up as well and and comes over to help with the interior.



10 o clock comes... not here. I figure since he lives 40 miles away he probably hit morning traffic.

11 o clock i give him a call... rings and rings, no answer.

at 12 i started calling every 20 minutes. still no answer.



i checked my detailing email, no email saying he wanted to cancel.



by 1 i figured he wasnt showing up. i kept calling all the way till 3 o clock and still got no answer.



I was pissed that i wasted my gas driving out of my way to meet up with this guy, and the fact that i wasted my time waiting around for him. Even if he didnt want my services it would have been nice to have a phone call saying so...
 
Tough break im sorry that happened to you...lol i mean i doubt people that want to steal their cars would politely wait in the drive way until they GOT home lol..."some people, i mean seriously not everyone is out to get you, get over yourself"....



I would try to work something out with him after he gets back, he should partially compensate you for the missed appt...maybe he will, it may not be a total loss
 
I had a customer that told me that his wife would drop the car off with me at 8:00 am. Well, I gave until 9 and I called him to see what was going on. No answer....I was getting upset. He called me back at 9:30 and said that his wife F'd up and it would be there with in 5 minutes. It got there by 9:35 and I was tipped an extra $45 for my incovenience. Maybe not the whole hourly rate but it made me feel better about the wait.
 
Dude I cannot even begin to tell you the stuff that has happened to me. When I make trips to South Florida, everything is carefully arranged, as I am down on for 4-7 days and cover a 100 mile range. Everything, from hotel reservations to locations, etc is streamlined the best as possible and fix among my and my clients schedules. Sometimes it takes me 5-8 hours to plan the trip, make everybody happy, etc..



One trip I had 2 guys not be home (several hours late, which I cannot wait for because of the time constraints), 3 cancelations (last minute), and on the work I had to do outside (last day) it rained like crazy...



Worst trip ever and it was at the tail end of a long month, so I was ready to quit. Take in account that I had just had my new pads put on my car but one of the calipers was now stuck and my truck was in the shop (on one of the canceled days) and cost 680 dollars to fix, my hotels where pre booked, I ended up profiting 130 dollars for 6 days.



I polietely declined to reschedule with the two of the clients who didn't think it was a big deal.
 
though i'm sure you are very trustworthy, you can't blame the wife. if she had NO idea about the situation, it would be hard to just give up the keys to a $40k+ car. hopefully, you can talk to the owner (lack of communication on his part) once again and explain your inconvenience (every bit of it), and maybe he'll take care of the situation and compensate or reward you if you detail his car...



p.s. i hope this never happens to you again, yes it sucks and i feel for you... :(
 
Wow, Todd, that's almost depressing. I know how it is when you are that particular about a schedule and others that are dependent on that schedule don't respect their portion of it.

Like someone else already said... Wealthy /= Class.



I had someone do this last month as well. They had scheduled 3 of their family vehicles to be detailed for a Saturday, my day that books up the fastest. I had blocked the whole day for this client while turning down other appointments because the day was booked. I sent a courtesy email that Monday reminding them of the detail and confirmation of the time and location. I didn't get a reply until Friday stating he needed to reschedule for the next month. That blew my whole weekend.



The worst part of it, I had already budgeted getting the payment for the weekend so I payed a couple bills early expecting the income from that job to pay rent. I ended up being late on my rent because of it, but that was my mistake and I learned from it. No job is definite until I am on site accepting payment.
 
i am not that busy where i am asking for deposits. but my wife has a party service for childrens entertainment and she regularly asks for depostis. at least $100. nothing like getting everything ready for the party only to be told it was cancelled. maybe deposits on full details, so that way it covers at least trip, milage??



i had a lady go from a full detail, to just a wash and 1 step the other day. i gave her a hell of a good deal because she works in the same business park as my shop. i see her everyday and thought i would be nice. guess sometimes nice guys do finish last.
 
[quote name='BigAl3']though i'm sure you are very trustworthy, you can't blame the wife.



The simple solution seems to have been for Mom to wake up Junior ask ask "Did Dad tell you to give the car to this guy?" IMHO she's a b**ch.
 
I had an interesting one as well. I spoke with a gentleman about returning a Corvette to pristine condition in order to sell.



I spoke with him in detail what the detail consisted of, a ballpark price, as well as a scheduled date and time. (Which was about 2 days later)



I drove out to the guys house(about 30 mins away) about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled appointment. What do I see???????



A pair of guys detailing the car I'm supposed to be detailing. I walk up and ask if they were the owner, they quickly replied "No". So I walk up to his front door and knock...I can see the guy through the stained glass door looking out at me, he must've realized he screwed up and walked away. I waited a minute and knocked a *bit* harder...he answers with the most dumbfounded look on his face.



I told him I was here to detail the Vette, who are the other guys? He replies, "That's not you out there?" I said, "Obviously it's not me out there...Did you happen to schedule two people for the same car on the same day? Because I know I confirmed my appointment with you"



He had absolutely nothing to say. He then asked if he could have my business card and that he'd call me for another car. I politely declined and left.



Some people are unbelievable.
 
John Henry said:
The simple solution seems to have been for Mom to wake up Junior ask ask "Did Dad tell you to give the car to this guy?" IMHO she's a b**ch.
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or try calling the father as well (hopefully the son gets the wrath for not waking up and taking care of the situation) . sometimes the little things are such a big inconvenience for some. it sucks, what do ya' do...
 
I've had those situations come up too. People set up an appointment and cancel at the last minute or completely forget. I've actually had to drop a couple regulars because they can't bother to either be there for their regularly scheduled appointment or give me 10 minutes notice they have a meeting or something came up. :wall



Just yesterday, I went out to my regular Saturday morning customer's house and I get a call when I am about 5 minutes away. They were letting me know they were going to work out but the other two cars were in the garage (I know their code) and to go ahead and start on them and they'd be home in an hour or so with their other car. 2 hours pass and I am finishing up the two cars that were there. I give the owner a call on his cellphone and I get his voice mail. I let him know that I have an afternoon appointment so please call within 15 minutes so I know whether to stay and wait or not. 20 minutes go by, no call so I start packing up my stuff and by then it has been nearly 30 minutes so I go ahead and leave. 20 minutes later, he calls to ask if I am still at the house. Told him I was already on the way to my next appointment. He said he and his wife decided to get lunch after working out and he left his phone in the car. Anyway, he said he'd leave the money in their mailbox since they were heading back out. Glad he did that, but it was a 20 minute drive out of my way. He did leave an extra $20 though...which was less than I would have got if I had cleaned the other car, plus the extra gas driving back.



I can understand them forgetting I was there if I didn't clean their cars every single Saturday and have for the last 6 years. Just part of the business, I guess. My brother goes through that with his computer business, my other brother with his lawn care business and so does my sister with her practice (psychologist).
 
Scottwax said:
Just part of the business, I guess. My brother goes through that with his computer business, my other brother with his lawn care business and so does my sister with her practice (psychologist).
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.......and so did I with mine. Life is too short, hard as it seems, it's WAY easier to just let it go and "make it up" if there is a next time.
 
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