jerk customers

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electricalperson

electricalperson

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Location
massachusetts
today my boss pulls me aside and tells me the customer is very angry with me. he said i argued and then he said i scratched his painted floor. he had some old wooden wiremold he didnt want because he was afraid it would cause a fire. i told him that it was perfectly safe and said i would disconnect it but i reccomended to keep the wooden wiremold up because it looked nice and matched the house. i was just voicing my opinion about it yet he had to go tell my boss i was arguing with him.

the floor was already scratched when i got there and all the scratches were more like wear marks from people walking up and down the stairs. all the wear marks were not even close to where i was working infact they were on the opposite side of the house. i had a drill, jigsaw and a tool bag along with my helpers tool bucket on the job and he said i had tools everywhere.

what should i do about this? i dont know if my boss believes me or not when i said all i did was voice my opinion and i even told him over and over again that theres no way we scratched his floor. we didnt even move any furniture on the first floor. im pretty upset about this.
 
As an owner I deal with customer complaints personally I have found that most are smoothed rather easily,some on the other hand can be dificult at best.I tell my guys you can't please them all but we try. If this was a first time complaint for you then just move on learn from it.It is not taught much anymore but you should remember the customer is always right (as long as it is not a code violation) even if what they want does not make sense.
 
Rewire said:
It is not taught much anymore but you should remember the customer is always right (as long as it is not a code violation) even if what they want does not make sense.
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That really is the bottom line.

I have slowly been moving into more of a PM role and one of my best friends was a foreman on one of the jobs I was working. He had a blowout with the GC. I know for a fact the GC is a jerk, still I had to agree with the office that we had to pull my friend off the job for the good of the bottom line.

It stinks, my friend is upset about it but also understands that the office had to do it.
 
the hardest part is that i cant proove that i didnt scratch the floor. he left the door open for us to walk in and didnt show up until 2:30 in the afternoon. he didnt say anything then but he called my boss yesterday and complained about everything. i dont know what to do.
 
Been there, done that.

Was doing some retrofit in a 300 unit apartment building. About every third apartment I was accused of breaking something or stealing something or scratching something, sometimes in rooms I was never in. By about the fourth complaint (all unfounded) the manager and my boss left me alone and usually handled it.

But I did have to justify myself the first three times. Stolen necklace (found under dresser) scratched water bed frame (other side of bed from work area and scratch found on door frame from when they moved it in) broken bottle of perfume (by now manager is getting the idea and lady admits that she broke it and thought she could get us to buy a new one).

Buck it up, it sucks, but it's part of dealing with the public.
 
i had a guy complain one time because he had a couch sitting in the yard and we were cutting in some lights on the porch and the sawdust blew on the couch. he said he had to have it proffesionally cleaned.:mad:
 
cowboyjwc said:
Been there, done that.



Buck it up, it sucks, but it's part of dealing with the public.
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that made me feel a little better. it just seems customers look for a reason not to pay my bill. i had plumbers and heat guys, carpenters and even electricians before i was even in the field and we never had a problem paying them or had a problem with them in general.

on the other hand i have family members that always seem to get bad tradespeople over. they complain about everything they do and find ways not to pay them. i think people just dont want to pay bills and look for reasons out of it. i would still send them a bill to get my money owed and try to make whatever problems they have right.
 
electricalperson said:
the hardest part is that i cant proove that i didnt scratch the floor. he left the door open for us to walk in and didnt show up until 2:30 in the afternoon. he didnt say anything then but he called my boss yesterday and complained about everything. i dont know what to do.
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Dont do anything, just let it drop. some people are just looking for leverage to lower the bill, and some are just plain nuts and anything you say or do will make it worse.... Maybe next time, you should just tell the customer that when you remove the wiremold, they may need to have some touch up repairs to the base molding due to nail holes or mismatched paint under the wiremold. I try not to give my personal opinions on what looks nice unless I am asked, and even then, I am kinda vague....
 
ultramegabob said:
Dont do anything, just let it drop. some people are just looking for leverage to lower the bill, and some are just plain nuts and anything you say or do will make it worse.... Maybe next time, you should just tell the customer that when you remove the wiremold, they may need to have some touch up repairs to the base molding due to nail holes or mismatched paint under the wiremold. I try not to give my personal opinions on what looks nice unless I am asked, and even then, I am kinda vague....
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next time im not even going to voice an opinion at all. just yes or no.

do you think taking pictures of broken walls, floors windows etc before i start any work just to document whats there is a good idea?
 
electricalperson said:
that made me feel a little better. it just seems customers look for a reason not to pay my bill. i had plumbers and heat guys, carpenters and even electricians before i was even in the field and we never had a problem paying them or had a problem with them in general.

on the other hand i have family members that always seem to get bad tradespeople over. they complain about everything they do and find ways not to pay them. i think people just dont want to pay bills and look for reasons out of it. i would still send them a bill to get my money owed and try to make whatever problems they have right.
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I'm glad.

Those were the easy ones the one the could have been a problem was when the lady came home and I was working in her unit (front door open) and she started screaming and yelling, wanting to know what I was doing in her home, she called her husband and was screaming that there was a strange man in her house and of course by that time the manager and a couple of other tenents had come out. She threw the phone to me and said her husband wanted to talk to me. I asked him if he had gotten the letter from the managment company telling them that I would be there that day, he said yes. I then asked him if he told his wife and again he said yes. I asked then why is she acting like this? I told him if he could keep her on the phone for ten more minutes (I also winked at the manager) that I would be done. I finished, walked by the lady and apologized for causing a problem, said it was all my fault and went on my way.

Like my grandpa used to say, if everyone was the same they'd have all been chasing your grandma.
 
electricalperson said:
next time im not even going to voice an opinion at all. just yes or no.

do you think taking pictures of broken walls, floors windows etc before i start any work just to document whats there is a good idea?
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Its not a bad idea, but its hard to imagine everything that someone will blame on you... I do make a point to inform customers when I see broken, cracked, smudged or dirty hand prints on ceiling tiles before I start working in that area, and there has been times that I noted it on the invoice that that customer was informed of such items before I started work....
 
electricalperson said:
do you think taking pictures of broken walls, floors windows etc before i start any work just to document whats there is a good idea?
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I think your getting carried away, there. I do sometimes take CYA pictures of somethings but I would not start taking pictures of everything around me.

How long have you been doing this work?

In that time how many nice people did you run into?

How many jerks?

In my experience the jerks are far out numbered by the nice folks, you do a nice job and treat them how you wish to be treated and things usually go smoothly. :smile:
 
ultramegabob said:
Its not a bad idea, but its hard to imagine everything that someone will blame on you... I do make a point to inform customers when I see broken, cracked, smudged or dirty hand prints on ceiling tiles before I start working in that area, and there has been times that I noted it on the invoice that that customer was informed of such items before I started work....
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thats what i mgoing to start to do. it sucks to learn the hard way but i guess its just experience after all. i just dont feel like getting yelled at for things i didnt do. i take extra careful not to mark walls i take my shoes off when needed and wear rubber gloves so i dont mark up anything with fingerprints. i make sure everything i install is perfectly level (bubble completly in the middle of the lines). i do whatever it takes to make everything i do perfect so no one complains but i cant win i guess
 
iwire said:
I think your getting carried away, there. I do sometimes take CYA pictures of somethings but I would not start taking pictures of everything around me.

How long have you been doing this work?

In that time how many nice people did you run into?

How many jerks?

In my experience the jerks are far out numbered by the nice folks, you do a nice job and treat them how you wish to be treated and things usually go smoothly. :smile:
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i went to trade school for 4 years and ive been working in the trade 6 years had my license for 2. i never had a customer complain like this but i do know customers dont want to pay because they think it was too expensive or whatever. i dont think i had any direct complaints about me before this.

i guess i might take things a little too personally and i do take my job very seriously. i feel electricians are not respected anymore for what we do and deal with and that makes me a little upset as stupid as it sounds
 
Be as polite as possible and take it with a grain of salt. Electricians get blamed for everything. How many times have you walked into a workplace and a circuit trips or the lights flicker and you get blamed and you haven't touched anything?
 
electricalperson said:
i went to trade school for 4 years and ive been working in the trade 6 years had my license for 2.
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So your doing great. :cool:

One real PITA jerk in 8 years of field work, not bad at all.

Don't get discouraged (but I do understand why it bothers you, your proud of your work)
 
SEO said:
Be as polite as possible and take it with a grain of salt. Electricians get blamed for everything. How many times have you walked into a workplace and a circuit trips or the lights flicker and you get blamed and you haven't touched anything?
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that happens all the time actually. the building looses power and everyone looks at us like we did something wrong. what if a toilet clogs? do plumbers get yelled at by everyone?
 
you seem like a very knowledgeable person...go work for yourself and try to steal some of his customers(not this one though)
 
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NolaTigaBait said:
you seem like a very knowledgeable person...go work for yourself and try to steal some of his customers(not this one though)
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the day is coming where im going to open up shop for myself. this economy is not the time to do it. plus i need to save up money for it and trade my truck in for a nice van with shelves.
 
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