A landlord that is out of town called me up to do some washing in the oldest, most congested part of town. Because these units are so small, they don’t have water on the outside. He informed me I’d have to hook up to a water source Inside a unit.
At this point im already leery because this is outside the norm, also there’s no parking, and I would have to drag pressure washer and stuff up and down 25 or so steps in order to clean this place.
I arrive and the “property manager” lets me in. One of the other unit renters. This said water heater is in a small cubby of a room behind a stackable washer/dryer combo with barely any room to work. I couldn’t even fit my left buttcheek in this woman who let me in was 5ft was having trouble squeezing in.
At this point after some finagling I gave up because I couldn’t get a hold of the landlord. On my way home he called and was saying “I dont know what the big deal is, it’s just a washer and dryer.”
From a personal standpoint I’m ticked because he essentially wasted half of my day. I loaded up my equipment, drove out, messed around with his stuff, and had to leave, then have to return back and put away.
From a business standpoint, I seriously doubt that my insurance is going to be happy if that stackable gets damaged, or the floor is dinged, etc. Also you would think he would have mentioned the tight space and whatnot. I think this guy is used to people not telling him no based on his reaction to me doing it.
Now I have to load everything back into truck on Thursday when he’s in town and take another crack at it but the more I think about it, the more POed I’m getting about the situation and how it’s not worth my time.
The catch is if I do this job, it’s over a grand in my pocket. It’s turning into a big pain in the butt though and I might be getting customer from hell vibes…so…am I the A hole?
The first time I hooked to inside water, the valve would not seal when I was finished. Made a mess. Now I state up front on my estimates that a functioning outside water hookup is required. Not interested in replacing flooring and drywall.
You’re going to run into these garbage jobs on occasion and some wise fellas on here made me realize passing on a bad job actually puts you ahead of the game. Imagine something goes wrong like a leak or other damage and you have to pay $2000 instead.
I used to window clean a 5 story retirement condo building. A tenant on the top floor busted a water heater and all five floors had water damage.
Don’t fret about missing out on this one. Remember this as a win, and not a failure.
You could certainly go and put forth quite a bit of extra effort to knock this out of the park and get paid for it. Butyou could also put forth 110% effort and get screwed by this guy, royally. If he’s the type of guy who doesn’t tell you how difficult the water hook up really is, he’s likely the same guy to try and get out of paying you any way he can. Scuffs on the floor, hose markings on corners, etc.
I think I would treat the threshold of a dwelling as though the floor was lava. Don’t step in there past a welcome mat unless it’s to collect your payment when it’s raining outside. No good can come of it.
If they don’t have an outside water connection and want to use one inside then they can do whatever needs to be done to run a hose outside so you can use it. Otherwise, charge them like $1/gallon for you to bring water to the site. If you need to use a fire hydrant, charge them the same water rate plus a hydrant connection surcharge of $100 or something.
If you get out to a site and they don’t have the agreed upon resources ready, charge them 1/2 your hourly rate for up to the first 15 minutes that they make you wait for them to get it together and another 1/4 for every additional 15 minutes. If you have to wait for more than an hour, you consider the job cancelled without proper notice and they must pay an additional 1/4 for that (so their total is 1.5x your hourly target for wasting your time). If it is mutually agreeable, you can reschedule them for another service date.
If there are some unusual conditions that prevent you from setting your equipment up and accessing the areas to be cleaned as you normally would, charge them a PITA surcharge that compensates you appropriately for the level of pain you will have to endure. If you normally work out of your truck, but have to offload equipment, go up 25 stairs, and park two blocks away, charge them an extra $350 or whatever if they disclose the information during the estimate process. If they forget and surprise you when you arrive, charge them an extra $500 instead.
Now I’m not saying anybody should be a ruthless jerk to their customers, but neither should you allow them to take advantage of you. Have policies outlined in your service contract that lay these things out. You should always include them on your invoice, but you can just as easily give them a credit to offset or reduce the penalties if you choose to. Be considerate, but protect yourself.
Oh, and to answer your question; you are not a bad guy for standing up for yourself.
this woman who let me in was 5ft was having trouble squeezing in.
