How do you handle this?

[Gkleen]

Cleaned for a lady today. Did whole house. Repeat customer. Always been satisfied. Well, she went to the dentist before we finished, payed us, thanked us and said see ya later.
We finished. Raked carpet. Everything looked good.

7 hours later she calls and questions us about a scratched piece of furniture. She wants to know if we did it. My wife tells her no. (That particular piece was a very small chest that I lifted by hand and set it on sliders and moved it well out of the way of any cleaning to be done.) My wife explained that if we had damaged it we would certainly have left a note saying so. The lady wasn't in a rage, but my wife felt like she wasn't convinced of our innocence.

This is one of those situations where we have absolutely no doubt. The way we handled the piece, it would have been impossible to scratch it.
I believe that the woman probably had not looked at the piece for a while, along with the fact that she has young grandchildren that frequent her house.

This has really bothered my wife and I told her that all we can do is tell the truth and let the chips fall. Really, after over 10 years of business and hundreds of customers, it's a miracle that these types of accusations aren't more common. This is our first that we know of.

We have done minor damage on 4 jobs over all of these years and have always told the customer and payed for the damage. My worst was a lamp that I accidentally knocked over and broke. Customer was gone and I was all alone, but I contacted him and told him. That lamp cost me a whopping $700.00, but I could sleep at night and learned to be more careful.

Just curious how you guys would handle this lady that I had today.

[Derek]

This has really bothered my wife and I told her that all we can do is tell the truth and let the chips fall.

i think that is the best thing you can do. me personally i wouldn't take it any further...to continue the conversation with the Client on this topic might make her wonder if you are guilty??

leave it, you didn't do anything wrong, you told the truth.

[David Edwards]

I agree with what Derek said. Unless she pushes the issue further, let it go.

[jtmellon]

Deny everything.

[Hoss]

Whenever I do an estimate, I take before and after time-stamped pictures of all of the areas being cleaned. This documents prior damage and also provides references for estimating. Other than the cost of a digital camera itself ~ unlike chemical photography where you would be using up rolls of film ~ there is no added cost for taking lots of pictures. My little Casio holds thousands of pictures in memory. On top of being able to better estimate, those time-stamped pictures are a record that can help to prove damage already existed or happened after you were there.

In addition, they can be submitted to the Encap forum contest !

[Lefty724]

I agree, you have told the truth.

Unless she pushes the issue any further, get over it?

[SLOTOOLS]

I have at least 3-8 pics of every job I do, I have never scratched a piece of furniture but if accused and not guilty, never admit liability, and redirect the conversation if possible.

[MikeB]

If she's a repeat customer she has a certain amount of trust in you already but Some people just have a hard time placing blame on themselves (or grand kids)...easier to blame the cleaning people first to see if they can avoid the possibility that the kids may have done it. I would let it go also.

[TheCleaningDude]

Free Scotchgard.

[leofry@1966]

I feel your pain... it happened to me once and it hurt and it just keep bothering me but the best advice was giving above... you explained it and that's call you can do you have to move on... not sure you will ever convince her.... truth is if we clean enough homes, there is gong to be a few issues from time to time...

[Derek]

truth is if we clean enough homes, there is gong to be a few issues from time to time...

well said. chalk it up to the cost of doing business. we can't cover every base, no matter how many warnings we give or pictures we take.

[encapman]

You no doubt didn't damage the piece. However in your customers mind - you did it, and it's unlikely that you will ever convince them otherwise. So try to show kindness and assist them if you can, even though this wasn't your fault.

Here's a simple little remedy that will correct furniture scratches. I've used it many times.

[MikeB]

When I first started cleaning I got a call from a lady for a quote and she spent a great deal of time asking if I could do it without marking any walls or baseboards because she just had everything painted. I assured her I'm very careful and so on...
That day the wind was blowing 25-30 mph and starting to storm. The first trip i made out to the truck after doing the initial walk through and chatting, I came back in and the door handle flew out of my hand and Whammo! Door knob through the drywall!

[Gkleen]

Thanks for all the replies guys.