I stepped in it this time...need help with this one!

B

beastud

New member
I washed a cedar deck that had Olympic WaterRepellant stain on it. Strictly light cleaning to kill mold and mildew. Used 12% cut down to 2%, with Dawn soap like we always have. I have done hundreds of these on decks that we put the stain on as part of our maintenance programs. We did not stain this deck. It was pouring rain when we did this. As we applied the cleaner...the deck stain appeared soft...I was leaving footprints in the stain. I gently flushed with a chem nozzle and half the stain washed off the decking...the spindles were ok. Customer is pissed! They stained it 2 years ago, shady area, and they think it looked good until I washed it and it is now all my fault. Stain is so thick on this cedar that you can hardly see the grain. I know that stain too thick will absorb water and get soft. What do I tell these people....I do not want to give them a freebie as I suspect they will want. I want to edjucate them and make them realize I did nothing wrong.....or did I?....HEEEELP!
 
Sorry this happened to you. Others may disagree, but I think you are going to need to fix it for free. Probably should have tried a small test area. It should have been OK, especially since it was raining and the deck was wet, but the bottom line is they were happy with it before you cleaned it.

Sorry.............good luck
 
I'm with Mark. Bad deal but if you bill yourself as a pro with 100% satisfaction you may have to eat this one. They trusted you. That's one reason we don't use chem of any kind on decks to clean. We wash them that's it. I can't imagine that weak of SH cutting the finish in a rain. I think something stinks but I'm guessing you'll have to fix it. Maybe ask for 50% of the normal price?
 
you have to eat it, sorry it sucks. Sometimes the customer passes the buck along, either way no matter who's fault it, you're the pro with millions of dollars and their just the poor little homeowner on a fixed income
 
Knowing Wisconsinites as I do (I lived in Waukesha many years ago, my wife is from Milwaukee and we spend a week or so in Milwaukee/Menomonee Falls every year - just there for July 4th.) I would say that the only way to "fix" this is to offer to make it right. From my perspective, 2% is rather strong for a light cleaning - especially since strong chlorine will soften some stains. (For this type of cleaning, I downstream the 12%.)
 
Russ, sorry, but as a professional contractor you're going to have to eat this one and "make it right" for the customer and to their satisfaction. It very well may be that they knew there was a problem with their thick stain, maybe not. However, any bargaining you do with them I feel is going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. Better to write the expenses off with your accounant as a "loss" and have a satisfied customer. If you don't you may recover some money on this job, but if you do and they let all their friends and family know you "took care of them", you'll make much more in the end. Whatever you do, they're going to tell their friends and family about it. Swallow the pride and do the wise thing Russ.
 
I hear all of you and I expect to eat this but hearing you say so makes it a bit easier. I am more concerned about properly showing the customer what happened and why. Otherwise they will see more of this later if they do this again. I have some of this stain and properly applied...chlorine does not effect it! Originally they told me it was Cabotts and showed me the Cabotts container. I never saw Cabotts do this. After the fact I learned it was not Cabotts.
New problem. The maker of this stain says they do not have any in the US and will not mix more this year. Makes me wonder why? It is not that popular. But so it goes. Lol!
 
Hose Jockey said:
Russ, sorry, but as a professional contractor you're going to have to eat this one and "make it right" for the customer and to their satisfaction. It very well may be that they knew there was a problem with their thick stain, maybe not. However, any bargaining you do with them I feel is going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. Better to write the expenses off with your accounant as a "loss" and have a satisfied customer. If you don't you may recover some money on this job, but if you do and they let all their friends and family know you "took care of them", you'll make much more in the end. Whatever you do, they're going to tell their friends and family about it. Swallow the pride and do the wise thing Russ.
Click to expand...


I hear you but they are already badmouthing me to the neighbors. I lost a small job next store before I could make this right. If this is a no win, if I make this right and still get bombed...takes away the incentive! But then if it was easy..............everyone would be a businessman/person.
 
Russ, Sorry to hear they are bad-mouthing you (regarding their neighbors) already when you haven't even been given the opportunity to make things right for them. That shows low character on their part in my opinion. My advice is, don't compromise your character in response. Continue to maintain your high standard and ask them what it will take to rectify the situation with them so that you can move on with peace of mind.

There is nothing you can do to change their neighbor's minds and get that business back. All you can do is what you know in your spirit and conscience is "right" and the Lord will honor and bless that more than you know. God hates dishonest scales (Proverbs 11:1) and if you keep your business honest and honorable you will find favor.

Good Luck!!
 
i don't know if i would be so quick to consider a conversation between neighbors bad-mouthing. i think it couldn't help but color my end of the relationship with them and make it unnecessarily difficult for me to feel good about doing the right thing. all they know is they liked it before i showed up, and didn't when i left.

i hope i'd consider instead that they may be close with the neighbors, and frequently chat about things going on...

a question no more innocuous than "so how'd the deck cleaning turn out? we're planning on having them do some work for us too, did he do a good job for you?" my customer may have reasonably, i think, responded with "no, it wasn't what we expected, and honestly, we weren't happy with it at all. he says he'll fix it, so we'll see." i have to think the only prudent course of action for the neighbor is to wait to see if i will indeed "fix" it, or to look around for someone who they feel would be a more known quantity. after all, given the situation, i'm thinking we'd all react along those lines - just consider how we on this board as a group tend to treat suppliers who goof up.

i have to hope that i would just make it right, chalk it up to an "education expense" and believe that maybe not with these particular customers, but eventually, this lesson would someday work out in the end.

i'd try, i guess, to never assume malice that which could as easily be explained by ignorance. good luck, here's hoping that education isn't too expensive...
 
Even though they are bad-mouthing you, it is your responsibility to make things right as you did cause the damage whether it was brand x, y or z.

Once you pay to have it done, or do the job yourself sooner or later the neighbors will see the job one day or the customer will tell them how you made things right then that will give the neighbors a good image of you as having good character and integrity.

It might or might not matter to how the damage happened to the customer, just making things right is probably all they are thinking about. Whether they did the job themself or had it done really does not matter, just that they had something that they liked and it got damaged is what they are thinking about right now.

Make things right and it will come back to you in good ways either now or down the road. I would not worry about the bad-mouthing as when you do the right thing people will find out and that will put a good image of you in their eyes, it always does.

Good luck.
 
From the customer's perspective, you promote yourself as "Wood Deck Restoration Experts". They have every right to ask why you didn't know what would happen before you washed - if you are an expert? Playing devil's advocate here, but I expect experts I hire to be experts. You were stumped, but that isn't their fault. You've got to fix it. (Better hurry before the first snow!)
 
John Orr said:
From the customer's perspective, you promote yourself as "Wood Deck Restoration Experts". They have every right to ask why you didn't know what would happen before you washed - if you are an expert? Playing devil's advocate here, but I expect experts I hire to be experts. You were stumped, but that isn't their fault. You've got to fix it. (Better hurry before the first snow!)
Click to expand...

I agree, especially about the snow, but right now it is 88 degrees with 95% humidity. I do not agree with your assumption that 2% was too strong....it was raining and that will greatly dilute the mix and in my experience, downstreaming tends to blast the solution into the surface a bit more than spraying it on with a Delavan like we did.
But all this banter about what I should do was not my goal. I know that. MY goal is to make sure the customer understands what caused this to prevent them from experiencing this again. Much of the stain is still there but the explanation why my procedures helped remove some but not all is my goal. If my chlorine was so strong.....why is there any stain left? Why will even straight 12% not touch the remaining stain? Why is the area next to the house walls, which saw the most chlorine from running off the walls during spray and rinse, still have all the stain on the deck boards (I will help you......the sun never shines there). Why were the spindles not effected?

This is not a test but I appreciate the insight and unique perspectives that you guys have to offer! I hope to get even one thought on this that I may not have considered.

I want to explain this as well as I can to these people as they were certain they did this deck finish as good as it could be done. If that were true....we would not be having this discussion.

Also, some of their accusation have been off the wall. Without getting too specific, leaving some water spots on an entry door was described by them as "destroying the door" and prompted them to ask me "why did you even clean the door?" Well there is nothing wrong with the door and to not clean the door would have been very odd! I would never consider a house wash to not include the outside of the entry door.

They loved our work right after we were done...and paid us...then is dried! Lol!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top