What should I do about this shady client?

L

LoiG37

New member
I have a problem with an upset or rather "shady" client. That wants her money back, and here's the story:



Thursday 3pm Nov 19th



I got a call from a lady, she asks "how much for detail?" I then informed her about my two main packages (step by step) Express Detail: basic wash and vac, and Premium Detail which included wax, dash protectant, and leather condition and the prices. She agreed to have the Premium. I showed up at her house, did my job, had her look over the car, got paid, then I went home.



As soon as I got home, she calls me. "Hi you just detailed my car and you didn't do a good job, there's still pieces of hay in my tire compartant (Mercury Mountineer SUV). Told me her neighbor saw me wash her car and she will call the cops. ( I'm like *** is wrong with this lady?!) I apologize to her for the confusion and assumption that she thought that was included in the job, but to keep every cool, I promised her I'd go back and clean up the section free of charge Saturday Morning. Okay phone hangs up.



Friday afternoon the next day she calls saying shes at Best Buy detailing center and they told her, for the price I charged I shouldve shampooed her interior also. I told her that was not part of the job she hired me for. She then told me " you got 2 options, come finish your job (shampoo her interior) or give me my money back. I told her let me think about it.



I am not going to shampoo her interior for free and I am not giving the money back because this lady is obviously trying to rip me off and get a free detail.



Saturday Afternoon she calls and left me a message

"hey this is blank, you were suppose to detail my car but did a bad job. I havent heard from you for two days or gotten my money back, so if you dont call me and solve this problem, I'm calling the cops"



So what should I do and what can she do to me that I should worry about? Never have this problem before nor an unhappy client.





Thanks in advance!
 
mmm Got a few options here. 1 let her call the cops.. Hopefully you were smart enough to have a contract signed and a bill of service when you were done. Hence you did the job as outlined and she paid. End of story. Downfall to that is she's obviously out there slamming your good name and rep to anyone that will listen to her. (probably already doing that so it might be a moot point)



The other option would be give her the money back aplogoize up the wazzo and call it a learning lesson to never deal with her again.



That's the bad side effect of offering "lesser services" people don't give a rats if they pay $10 or $1000 they expect a perfectly clean car regardless. I personally don't understand if you vacuumed the interior why you didn't get the spare tire well with hay in it. But it's not my business and if you outlined that was an extra service or somehow indicated it wasn't included in the said paid for service then it really falls back on being her problem not yours
 
Jakerooni said:
mmm Got a few options here. 1 let her call the cops.. Hopefully you were smart enough to have a contract signed and a bill of service when you were done. Hence you did the job as outlined and she paid. End of story. Downfall to that is she's obviously out there slamming your good name and rep to anyone that will listen to her. (probably already doing that so it might be a moot point)



The other option would be give her the money back aplogoize up the wazzo and call it a learning lesson to never deal with her again.



That's the bad side effect of offering "lesser services" people don't give a rats if they pay $10 or $1000 they expect a perfectly clean car regardless. I personally don't understand if you vacuumed the interior why you didn't get the spare tire well with hay in it. But it's not my business and if you outlined that was an extra service or somehow indicated it wasn't included in the said paid for service then it really falls back on being her problem not yours
Click to expand...



Thanks, but no I did not have a written contract, I have a bad feeling that I really need one soon but been to busy with school ( was planning to leave it til Thanksgiving break).
 
Go have a face to face with her, have her go over every detail that she expected you to do, reiterate the services that are offered in your Premium package (if you have a website or price sheet bring a copy of that), then tell her that you'll do her a 'one time only' favor and offer to correct a few of the issues that she is concerned with. If she has more that she would like you to do, make her pay for it. Unless she has some sort of evidence stating that more services were paid for than what was presented, you're in the clear as far as the police are concerned. Her neighbor being a 'witness' doesn't prove jack, except that you were there upholding your end of the bargain.
 
This is part of the reason why I thoroughly inspect the vehicle with the client before agreeing to do anything, everyone has a different definition of what a 'detail' is.
 
I had the same thing happen to me except the lady didn't threaten to call the cops. I did the job made the vehicle look 100X better and she was still not happy. While I was at my regular job she brought it by my buddies shp where I did the detail (2 weeks later) and showed him to get his opinion. He told me that when he looked at it the vehicle was filthy still. Obviously he knew what type of work that I did and that I would never leave a vehicle like that so he was on my side. After talking with my friend (who owns a body shop) I opted to call it a learning lesson and give the money back and apologize to the customer. Unfourtunetly sometimes you learn the hard way on who you can value as a customer and who you just have to say "no" to.
 
Call the cops? Isn't it a matter for small claims court? Would the police even respond? If I'm not happy with the widget I bought at widgetmart the police won't care.
 
zmanz said:
Call the cops? Isn't it a matter for small claims court? Would the police even respond? If I'm not happy with the widget I bought at widgetmart the police won't care.
Click to expand...



ha, good ol widgets....



Most cases it would seem as if the customer has inspected the work and has paid you she is agreeing that you have held your part of the "contract" and is satisfied enough to pay you, her part of the "contract" Now if she found something damaged or missing yes that would be a issue, but because something was not cleaned that she thinks should be, she should of looked before paying you in the inspection process. Also just because Best Buy Detailing does something for a price does not mean you have to, heck Pepboy will replace my battery for free but I go to a dealer and they can change you $60 bucks for it.



Best think IMO would be to clean the area she has a problem with but politely say that shampooing was not apart of any package I had and was not agreed upon.



Also, dont think the cops are going to care much as all about this situation if she calls them.
 
Sounds like someone looked at the car after you left her house...Probably the nosy neighbor..The neighbor must have told her that for what you charged, you should have done this and that....If you are going to make a business of some sort out of this, make up some contracts that have an outline of what the service includes..It is not unrealistic on her part to think that you should have shampooed the carpets or vacumed the spare tire area for a premium detail job...That being said, this has nothing to do with the cops...Even if you took her money and only cleaned her tail-pipe, the situation is a civil matter and the cops can't do anything about it other than asking you to give her money back...They can't make you do anything becasue no law was broken..Just my $.02 and good luck.....



Sean,,,,
 
The good news is that in this case you don't need a signed agreement of work. By her paying you after the job was done she is acknowledging that you completed the job. She can call the cops but it won't matter.



She will bad mouth you no matter what you do at this point. Giving her the money back will not help you. The other good news is that she will be bad mouthing you to her friends who are probably just like her.



Offer to clean the spare tire area at no additional charge so that you can say you tried. Do not clean that carpet. If you do she will find something else to complain about.



Don't sweat the agreement thing, big dog. You're good. ;) BUT GO ON AND GET THEM SIGNED ANYWAYS IN THE FUTURE!!
 
If she carries on contacting you after the matter is settled, tell her that you will get a restraining order on her if she ever calls you again. You can only be tactful to a certain point then you need to be blunt.
 
I hate to chime in with Business 101, but I have to.



First, some interesting lessons to be had here.



(Also, before you flip with her threats, the police don't have anything to do with this, unless there is vandalism, theft, destruction of property, etc.. You did a service, which is in dispute re: "quality" and were paid. Otherwise, it's a business issue and at most, she could pursue, if she was nuts, a legal resolution. Don't let it worry you.



But, for your situation, as others have said, you should face it head on and directly. You could offer her resolution (aka, clean the part under question, gratis) as a matter of good will.........or if it is completely out of hand and she doesn't act professionally/proper, you can just tell her again that it wasn't included in the price and let it go....see what happens. I'd recommend the former..........and go to number 2 if she flips.



And, whether you are a kid/student or not, you need a contract/bill of sale. It should layout what you will do, for what price, etc.. That way, no mistakes. Also, do you have any kind of insurance/bonding? Even if you are doing this on the side, you should find out about it and what you liabilities are.



This is just part of business & life. It will happen again sometime and you'll need to deal with it. Do so, honestly & directly. Be assertive but professional and always remember, customer satisfaction is probably most important. If your business relies on word of mouth.....no sense in having a bad-mouth out there, unnecessarily.



That's just my opinion..................I could be wrong! :) (But, probably not.)



Good luck and remember, this is business....stay professional.



See ya. :wavey
 
Some people just don't know what products cost nor do they understand that they're paying for your time. From experience, I know that money isn't the issue here, it's the individuals morals of "what she's owed". There is no winning this one. Whether you pay her back or do the extra work for free, you're still going to feel some guilt because you care. Everyone has good info stated above. I say you've learned your lesson. For me it's always 2 things: (1.) contract signed before starting (2.) 2 simple pics of interior/exterior before starting and 4 corner exterior and 2 interior shots when finished. That way you secure the final checkmate under all circumstances. Don't worry yourself on this legal matter, it was simply a verbal agreement between two individuals in which the contract was fulfilled after inspection and payment on her behalf. If you were an LLC then this would be a possible issue of fraud and tax evasion, but that's a different story lol.:argue
 
I would not worry about the cops they would only write a report and besides she looked over the car and paid you if she was not happy about the detail then she would not have paid you. Once you left her property then anything could have happen between the time you left and the next time you saw the car. Her having paid you almost seals her case for any complaints about your work. If she thought you did that bad of a job then she would not have paid you right away.
 
If you know you did the job that you both agreed to in a verbal contract, let her call the police if she wants. Maybe the police will find out what kind of person she is too. If she ends up suing you in small claims court, go an defend yourself. I think all too often we cave in far too quickly just to please a customer when we did nothing wrong.



Oh, and if Best Buy was so much better and cheaper, how come she didn't go there in the first place?
 
Some people have no life, and derive personal satisfaction and get the attention they need by treating others like crap. No matter what you do here, you're not going to get repeat business from this lunatic. I wouldn't worry too much about word of mouth, because anyone associated with her is either of the same midset (read: owed something for nothing), or they know she is unreasonable.



If it were me, I could go back and vacuum out the spare tire well, and apologize. Tell her that carpet shampooing is not including in your service. Hand her your card, and tell her to try the competition (Best Buy) next time. Tell her that if she is not satisfied with their work, that you will be glad to place her car on your regular rotation. If she's dissatisfied with your service, imagine the shock she'll experience when she sees what the "detailers" at Best Buy do for her.



You have zero to worry about re: the police. Calls like this piss them off, and the dispatcher will probably tell her it's a civil matter. If she does threaten court action, so be it.
 
Guys, I did offer to go back and clean that section free of charge but before I even went she called back and demanded me to shampoo her interior also. This is lady is all trouble, I know if I ever affliate with her again it'll just give me more problems. I haven't returned her call, I'll just wait until some authority calls me and I handle this legally if it has to go to court. This lady does not deserve her money back and I did nothing wrong to refund the money. so i decided I will go to court and defend myself if that's what it takes.
 
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