What would you do

[Tony Shelton]

Chris gets a call from a guy who speaks poor English. He says he manages 7 buildings and he wants a bid to clean and mentions that there are some "stains".

Chris bids the sidewalks and indeed notices iron stains. He faxed the bid over detailing the square footage of each sidewalk and the cost to clean spelling out what he will do.

Customer signs the contract for one building as a "test".

Chris cleans. About 3 hrs.

Customer calls and asks why he didn't get up the stain. Chris explains about landscape iron stains and the guy informs him that he meant for Chris to clean the "building" and remove the runoff stains.

What would you do in this situation?

 

[Alexy]

Refer him back to the contract he signed and what it spells out as to what would be cleaned. Give him an "out" asking if he understood what were the services to be performed and re-negotiate from there.

 

[The Cleaner]

Call Sheriff Arpaio !!

 

[schrec]

It they mention rust stains at the bid time, Why didnt he charge to clean them?
Or why didnt he spell out that he could not clean them or not gaurantee the rust removal. How big are the rust stains? How much more would it cost to do it?

 

[DJ Carroll]

This is exactly why I do not fax bids. Sound like a step was missed in the sales process. Tell Chris to take the client to lunch and ask questions until he completely understand what the manager wants.

 

[tomtucson]

What kind of restaurant would you choose

Try to match his accent to type of food?
Something plain?
Topless?

 

[Tony Shelton]

The customer just mentioned "stains" which Chris took to mean sidewalk stains.

This was a simple miscommunication.

I don't understand the not faxing bids comment. We've faxed bids for years. Even when we email bids the customer faxes them back signed. If you're thinking he should have hand delivered the bid, no one has time for all that. He sometimes submits 10-25 bids per day and can't possibly drive to them. I guess I don't understand the comment.

Here's what Chris is going to do. His mind was made up before I posted this, I just wanted to hear some alternatives:

He's going to go back this weekend when he's slow and clean the building for exactly the quoted price for the concrete. IF it takes him longer than he thinks he will revise his bid for the other 6 buildings accordingly. If it takes him less time than he thinks he will keep the bid the same to make up for the free sidewalk.

Either way, now a guy with 7 buildings knows he has integrity and is willing to take a loss in a misunderstanding and has gotten a full building concrete demo.

I'll update later on what happens with this guy.

*I personally thought he was a con artist, but Chris is adamant that it was simply a misunderstanding and it's his business. I trust his judgment.

 

[Jillian Shelton]

I think chris did a wonderful job with this guy. He apologized for the miscommunication and is fixing the mix up. The guy did not speak very good english.
What I couldnt understand is why this guy did not read the contract before signing it, who does that? O well this guy is happy with us and chris did a magnificent job taking care of this customer.

 

[HotShot_Anthony]

Chris is the kind of contractor that I would hire. I hope he's not being conned.