My first unhappy customer...

[Jeepster04]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

There is some messed up people out there dude. You will meet people out there that make so sense what so ever. They will continue to make no sense and there is nothing we can do about it. The way I look at it, whatever you refunded her, thats how much money it take to shut her mouth. I would of went off on her and told her it sure takes alot of money to shut her up. Crazy people.

I thought only insane people like me waxed their door jambs, and Ive never heard of someone waxing a fender wells. Mine are plastic so thats impossible but they usually have under coating in them if they are metal so you couldnt wax them anyway.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

When I decided to refund her money, I simply put myself in her shoes. Paying hundreds of dollars, and not being happy with the end result. Did she go into this deal knowing that she was going to complain, and try to get a refund? Maybe. But unless I can prove that, I'm not going to upset her with an arguement over it.

I know some of you think I was foolish for refunding her money, and thats fine, we all have made foolish decisions in our life. But you have to understand that if someone is unhappy with my work, after they spend hundreds of dollars, I can not sleep. If she purposely complained to try and get a refund, and she can sleep at night, then more power to her. I have made things right on my end, and I am sleeping with a good conscious.

On a positive side, I learned how to comunicate with my customers BEFORE any work begins. I lay out exactly what work we are going to perform, and then I ask them if they have any special requests that they would like completed. I hope to never have this happen again. Can I make everyone happy? No, probably not. Will I refund the next persons money that is unhappy? Probably so, if they have a legitamate complaint.


And BlueLibby04, the wheel wells on most vans are painted and left untreated with any undercoating material. I know my 2004 Chevy van has painted and untreated wheel wells on the front. The backs are traeted with an undercoating material, but the fronts are just painted...........and unwaxed

Nick

[stealth]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

1st time customer w/the worst van to date. I had to respray the rugs & carpeted floor mats along w/scratch,chip repaint, scrape the residue out of the seat hinges so they'd move for interior access. I got paid but lost $$$$ doing it. The lady arrives to pick up the unit in another "fright pig" w/a jumbo coffee cup. As she enters the unit she tries to force the cup into the cup holder & spills it. 3 weeks later she calls me & says I missed a spot in the back cup holder. I told her bring it back & I'll look@ it & clean if I did miss it. I've been in business for decades w/o any complaints for refunds. No refunds from me only credit for another unit. They accept that & usually don't return so you got your $$$.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

They accept that & usually don't return so you got your $$$.

While money does make the world go around. A satisfied customer is more important to me. That statement you made above, while it may be innocent, still strikes me as greedy. I'm sorry, but I feel I made the correct decision in refunding her money.

[Jossy92]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

Nothing like self-righteous indignation based on a blend of ignorance and entitlement. You handled it well, IMO.

I have a lot of respect for what you did.

Years ago my dad owned a water-softener business. Free installation...... One installation involved a 100 foot hand dug trench (in adobe) for the copper pipe. Took all day in 90 degree heat. After the installation, the guy quit and had a competitor's automatic softener installed.

My dad felt like you did. But, the installation was "quality". The quality paid off in the long run. It's the best advertising. This lady will be driving your advertising. Free advertising.

The right way is sometimes the hard way. IMO

[stealth]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

I'm not bashing your decision to refund just giving a suggestion of an alternative for dealing w/the situation if it occurs again. BTW it's not about greed-it's business savvy & your work shows you should be paid your fee for the services provided. IMHO experience not shared is knowledge wasted & the only lessons we learn are those w/a high tuition.

[Superior Shine]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

Maybe a partial refund was in order. I believe a 100% refund was too much.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

Maybe a partial refund was in order. I believe a 100% refund was too much.

I took this into consideration as well. Maybe giving her half of her money back. But, after thinking long and hard about it, I decided to give a full refund since she traveled such a long distance. Think about how much gas it takes to drive that van 6 hours roundtrip @ $3 a gallon.

Like I said, maybe I was foolish with the full refund. But my head is very comfortable on my pillow at night.

[Executive Detailing]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

You have already done the work, according to contract, and even though it was dark she should have checked it over before she paid you.

Now granted, it was dark, and some stuff was going to be missed upon final inspection, however, IMOHP, I would have made arrangements to either meet her halfway, and paint the wheel wells (as you can not wax them) and apply some wax to the door jambs, or have returned about 10-25% of her money, but not all.

Your work was extraordinary, given the before pictures, and the job was done, so you should still get some form of compensation, even if it means that you do lose her as a customer (who would want her anyway?) or if she does bad mouth you, how many customers do you have that LOVE your work.

Age old saying- You can not please all the people all the time.

(added because my g/f lkes to see him dance)

[yalerd]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

Don't be sad about it, just keep on moving.

If you feel ok with yourself and for you the decision made was the correct then I guess it's fine, if you don't feel guilt at all then you'll have a good night, maybe she did it on purpose, maybe not, only God knows.

Maybe like Joe said, not a full refund but it's your business and you handle it the way you want it to, and like you said, FIRST time for you, hope it would be the last but that's not what happens in the real world so you'll learn from situations and each time it happens you'll take a better approach.

Good luck with future customers.

[Joe's detailing]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

Eventially, I refunded the womans money.

Id tell her to get lost.
Chances are if she disliked the job even if you reinburst her she's probably going to slander your name anyway...

[mckeand13]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

And here's the only large shot of the finished product.

I would agree that you should have kept the money since you're going to get bad press from her no matter what.

Just a question though. You did wash the van first right? I'm a bit surprised to see that the tires look untouched and there is a very noticeable amount of dirt on the mudflap. Were you doing a wash/polish, right? I know you said perfection wasn't the goal, but taking care of the obvious should be. Maybe there is reasoning that I don't know.

Regarding the polishing, it looks like you did a nice job. Paint is a lot shiner. It looked quite dull and a bit chalky before hand.

[seventhson]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

I would of said, well I am not exactly happy with the money you supplied me with. There was folds in them, they had uneven numbers in the serial numbers and the peoples pictures on them were not smiling!!!

[G Force]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

Don't be surprised one day she works hard designing someones interior and her customer ends up making ridiculous assessments of her work and refuses to pay her. What goes around... [/quote]

Knowing that kind of people they would have papers signed before starting the job,what ever could happen they would win materialy but not morally.
i have been in the garage trade for thirty years.i believe that the way to avoid these situations is to have set ups as main dealers.It does only take two minutes to have a customer sign a detailed Garage works order.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: My first unhappy customer...

I would agree that you should have kept the money since you're going to get bad press from her no matter what.

Just a question though. You did wash the van first right? I'm a bit surprised to see that the tires look untouched and there is a very noticeable amount of dirt on the mudflap. Were you doing a wash/polish, right? I know you said perfection wasn't the goal, but taking care of the obvious should be. Maybe there is reasoning that I don't know.

Regarding the polishing, it looks like you did a nice job. Paint is a lot shiner. It looked quite dull and a bit chalky before hand.

On this van, we washed the wheels and tires after the buffing and polishing. See that Silver car parked right next to the van? Well, it was in my way to get the pressure washer into the wheel wells, and I had no keys to it. So I decided to wait and wash the wheels/tires and wheel wells after the job was complete.
The silver car belongs to an employee of mine, and he was out on a job when I started the van. By the time he got back, I had already finished washing the van, and had started buffing. So I just decided to wash them after.


Nick