In my training manual I urge people to charge an appropriate surcharge when some unusual aspects of a job begin to overshadow what you are actually supposed to be there for: to clean carpeting. Things like excessive staining; an unusual level of furniture moving, etc.

I agreed over the phone one day last week to do a job described as being 2 small 2nd floor bedrooms, a short 2nd floor hall, and a flight of stairs for $125. Without getting actual measurements, or visiting the property first just to look (I try to avoid this if at all possible) I figured the job might take about 1.5 hours, bringing me in & out at just a bit under $100 per hour.

When I arrived there the people were just going out the door to Christmas shop, supposedly for an hour, and that I could just go in and do the work.

By the time I got my equipment in the door, and got up to the 2nd floor to take a look, they were out of sight. What was in sight, however, was endless black
dog hair on all the carpeted areas in question.

I started with the buildup along the edges of the room, then managed to get up most of the visible pet hair, stopping to empty the plastic cup of my vac several times along the way. Removing all the pet hair (basically, doing their HOUSECLEANING for them, took about an hour, or most of the time I had alotted in my mind for the entire job. (By the way, the house was a complete DUMP, a real pigsty throughout: dirty dishes all over; overflowing trash containers, overflowing ashtrays, etc., etc.) All of this was so far from the typical high end home of my usual customer base that I was wondering: "What the *%@#% am I doing here anyway?" I guess I've become spoiled.

The vacuumed up dog hair revealed the next c.c. challenge: pet stains like I can't remember seeing for a long time. At this point I was nearly ready to pack up and just leave, taking zero $$ from my efforts up to this point just to get away from this disaster. But I decided to stay the course, and took up the challenge. I pretreated the pet stains, got the Challenger going, and pretty soon the place starts to look pretty **** good (TOO GOOD for these jerks, I'm thinking) Problem is now the scrubbing action of the Challenger is bringing up more dog hair from down in the carpet, and leaving it in little twisty "knots" on the carpet, semi-stuck to the carpet so that they wouldn't vacuum away - most of them, anyway. To get these things out, I had to get down on my hands and knees with my little Dirt Devil porta-vac, and vac these up. Some I actually had to pull away first with my fingers, as they were too stuck to come up with the vac alone. As I was wrapping up the 2nd floor work (stairs still to be done) the BOZO FAMILY arrived back home. "How's everything going, HE asked. I was bull****. I told them that they (I had spoken to the woman on the phone) had totally misrepresented the job over the phone, in never having mentioned the pet hair and stains. And that I would have to charge them surcharges for the amount of work that was involved in cleaning their carpets. Now HE totally shuts up, and she starts making excuses: "Oh, we've never had the carpets professionally cleaned before, so we didn't know... blah, blah, blah. She said she could't pay any more than the $125 we had discussed on the phone, since it was "all she had". I told her her I take checks, but now she says they don't have a checking account. Now HE comes back into the conversation, saying, well, just don't do the stairs, and we'll call it even. Yet, even at this point, fully realizing I wasn't going to take more than $125 out of this now nearly 3-hour job, I still had my professional pride, and could'nt bear to leave the stairs looking so awful. So I gave it another half hour, did the stairs, took my money (I knew there was no way to get any more out of these people, and from the looks of them and their awful house, they needed it more than I did.)

I'm not sure what the moral or lesson is here. Maybe to make sure both you AND THE CUSTOMER assess existing conditions BEFORE they duck out of sight, so that matters of price can be fully addressed before things get out of hand. But let them JUST TRY to get me there again!!!

Way to stay the course Mark.
It sounds like you got set up. How can people live that way. I wouldn't have treated the stains.

Mark, did you get a tip?

I would have walked. Your a better man then I am.

That's a classic story there Mark. I get my share of them too. It's just not possible to assess a job over the phone yet I do it all the time. So many people let me do their housekeeping for them before I can even start to do what I bid on. Usually, those folks will have a vacuum sitting right in sight too like they just finished vacuuming. I tell everyone that the price I quote on the phone is accurate 95% of the time but I have to reserve the right to adjust it if circumstances are not what I understood and that they will know my price before I start. I've also begun asking for payment before the homeowner goes off somewhere while I clean. I tell them that I've spent too much time waiting for a few homeowners to return and I can will no longer put myself in that position. It's gotten a little tougher to dump on me nowadays.

Think I'll start bringing that "95% of the time" phrase into all future phone conversations.

Hey Mark. On a side note, tell me, were you using cotton pads on that job?

I first used fiber-plus pads to help break up the stains, then finished with cotton.

The reason I asked is because (you know I'm somewhat of a newb at vlm cleaning) I was wondering if the aggressiveness of the cotton pads (and now the fiber plus pads, too) might have been the cause of the balls of hair entangled in the nap?

Would the use of a CBM, and then Tuway pads have avoided that problem?

The dig-dig-digging action of an OP, as well as its vibrations (I think) bring up additional hair that the vacuum cleaner didn't vacuum up. Deep cleaning has something of a down side where a lot of inground pet hair is involved.

Oh Mark, you bring back the memories.

After being burned before, I never start a job until after I have measured (yes we do measure 100% of the time with laser; not sonic, roller, tape...etc; measure device) quoted a firm price and have the client agree to that price. We never quote, only an estimate, the technician will give a firm quote prior to starting any work.

If a client starts to leave after my arrival, I make sure of the following, 1. A check is filled out, signed and setting somewhere near the exit; 2. I have a cell phone number to reach them in case of an emergency; 3. Instructions on securing the house in the event I am done before their return. All from hard learned leasons. I am a very nice guy as long as you play fair!

As far as the ground in hair, get a good CRB machine, you do distribute Clark's line (I heard a rumor you did and then heard another rumor you didn't ). He as a good CBM 15 Machine, it will dig the hair out. I normally spray the cleaner down heavily on the carpet in this situation and the use the CRB machine to agitate the solution and bring up the hair. Yes, you still have to get down their and remove the hair by hand out of the machine ; but, its easier than getting it out after padding. Plus, you normally use fewer pads (more dwell time/agaitation) and even with the additional machine set-up, spend less time over all.

Thanks for the good tips here, Ray (I'm assuming you are Ray, given your e-mail address, and since Clark mentioned on the phone a couple of days ago that he was expecting you at his plant).

No, Mark, the is Scott, Not Ray, I am the younger one.

Hey Mark, Try this. When they call and ask how much do you charge tell them this. What I do for my new clients is offer a free in house consultation. Ill show you before and after pics and give you an exact price after I see what you want done. If you dont like the price, the consultation is free. If its ok than Ill clean it on the same day. However I do not come out just for estimates, if you agree to my price we will clean it on the same day.
This keeps from having your time wasted. In their mind when they make the appointment with you they are already cleaning the carpet unless you kill them with the price. My close rate is about 98% Just say it with confidence and youll do great.

In my phone conversation with the customer, I refer to that arrangement as setting a tentative appointment, BEFORE which I will "do the numbers". If they don't want to proceed at that point, they are under no obligation. The more empowered the customer feels, the more open they will be to letting you into their home. I don't think I've ever had anyone say "no" at this point. Occasionally, if I think I am perhaps just a bit too high for them, I will offer some kind of incentive or small discount, or do an extra small room for 1/2 price, or maybe even for free. Make the customer think they've just managed a "deal" of some sort, and they will always agree to proceed. But I don't give anything away unless I really think I have to.