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Every business owner has an unhappy customer. I've been in business for a while now, and I've never had one. So I knew it was coming eventually 
A while back I was contacted by a woman who wanted us to detail her van that she just purchased. The van is a 1993 Ford 15 passenger van. She was converting it into a cargo van to use with her business. The van was seriously mistreated, as 90% of most vans are. All parties agreeded that perfection was not the goal. Only to give her a van that she could be proud to drive with her new business. Here is a before picture...
She was very happy with our conversations and made the appointment to bring her van to me. She lived about 3 hours away, so scheduling an appointment was nessecary.
She dropped the van off, and me and the guys went to work. A few hours later, the job was completed. The van looked great in my eyes. We weren't going for perfection here. Just getting her a good looking van for her business.
It was completely dark when we finished, so after pictures didn't happen. But I did get a couple during the work process.
Here's a close up of a test spot(smae spot as above)
And here's the only large shot of the finished product.
So why was she unhappy? Well, I'm glad you asked
After she made the 3 hour drive home, and got a chance to really go over the van in the daylight the next day, she called me VERY UNHAPPY. She claimed that we were the worst detailers that she had ever used, and really got on to me(kind of like your grandmother or mother would). I asked her to explain to me why she was unhappy with the work we provided. She proceeded to tell me that she was unhappy because we did not remove the cargo windows in her van to buff and polish the channel BEHIND the glass(We buffed every inch that was visable, and the part she was talking about was impossible to get to, even by hand). She said that she could see a noticable difference between the paint on the side of the van, and the paint in the channel behind the glass. She was also unhappy because she could not detect any wax in her doorjams. And her most serious complaint was that the WHEEL WELLS WERE NOT WAXED! Now, I'm all for making a customer happy, no matter what. Even if I have to loose money, I will make the customer happy in the end. This has been my practice since I started, and my customers know that I will take care of them no matter what.
But, this lady, I felt, was being unreasonable with her requests. I tried to explain to her that what she was complaining about was not a normal practice for a detailer, especially taking out glass(can you imagine the liability of she got into an accident and that glass popped out and killed someone?).
Eventially, I refunded the womans money. Not because I thought we did anything wrong. But mainly because I didn't want bad press out there about us, no matter what. After paying my guys, and loosing the time involved with this job, I lost quite a bit of money. But in the end, she was satisfied, and I hope, not bashing our business name.
Moral of the story? Make sure you get a full explaination of your customers needs BEFORE you start or even agree to the job. I learned my lesson the hard way. Now it''s a running joke between the guys, they'll throw out some comment about me not waxing this car's wheel wells or something like that.
A while back I was contacted by a woman who wanted us to detail her van that she just purchased. The van is a 1993 Ford 15 passenger van. She was converting it into a cargo van to use with her business. The van was seriously mistreated, as 90% of most vans are. All parties agreeded that perfection was not the goal. Only to give her a van that she could be proud to drive with her new business. Here is a before picture...
She was very happy with our conversations and made the appointment to bring her van to me. She lived about 3 hours away, so scheduling an appointment was nessecary.
She dropped the van off, and me and the guys went to work. A few hours later, the job was completed. The van looked great in my eyes. We weren't going for perfection here. Just getting her a good looking van for her business.
It was completely dark when we finished, so after pictures didn't happen. But I did get a couple during the work process.
Here's a close up of a test spot(smae spot as above)
And here's the only large shot of the finished product.
So why was she unhappy? Well, I'm glad you asked
After she made the 3 hour drive home, and got a chance to really go over the van in the daylight the next day, she called me VERY UNHAPPY. She claimed that we were the worst detailers that she had ever used, and really got on to me(kind of like your grandmother or mother would). I asked her to explain to me why she was unhappy with the work we provided. She proceeded to tell me that she was unhappy because we did not remove the cargo windows in her van to buff and polish the channel BEHIND the glass(We buffed every inch that was visable, and the part she was talking about was impossible to get to, even by hand). She said that she could see a noticable difference between the paint on the side of the van, and the paint in the channel behind the glass. She was also unhappy because she could not detect any wax in her doorjams. And her most serious complaint was that the WHEEL WELLS WERE NOT WAXED! Now, I'm all for making a customer happy, no matter what. Even if I have to loose money, I will make the customer happy in the end. This has been my practice since I started, and my customers know that I will take care of them no matter what.
But, this lady, I felt, was being unreasonable with her requests. I tried to explain to her that what she was complaining about was not a normal practice for a detailer, especially taking out glass(can you imagine the liability of she got into an accident and that glass popped out and killed someone?).
Eventially, I refunded the womans money. Not because I thought we did anything wrong. But mainly because I didn't want bad press out there about us, no matter what. After paying my guys, and loosing the time involved with this job, I lost quite a bit of money. But in the end, she was satisfied, and I hope, not bashing our business name.
Moral of the story? Make sure you get a full explaination of your customers needs BEFORE you start or even agree to the job. I learned my lesson the hard way. Now it''s a running joke between the guys, they'll throw out some comment about me not waxing this car's wheel wells or something like that.
and had totally wrecked it. When I called him to ask how he cracked the casing, he said that I must have done it !?!?...long stort short, I had to take him to small claims court to get the $700 dollars it cost me to get it fixed. People are sometimes......NUTS !!!!...nice recovery on your end to at least "make her happy"....not sure how these kinds of people sleep at night...
(I couldn't find the making my skin crawl smile)
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