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"I had this customer. I went ahead of the crew to inspect the "Missed" areas. Upon closer examination I found "fresh" dirt obviously from her morning preparation to go to work. I cleaned with my team for approximately 15 minutes. I later returned and met the customer when she came home from work. I walked through the areas we re-cleaned with her and she agreed we had in fact done the job right this time. As I spoke to her I found her to be a customer that we would never be able to keep happy as she was just angry person by choice. I suggested in a very kind way that she probably would do better with an individual rather than our company. She came to the realization that we were a different kind of company, that I kept my word and followed through on our guarantee. I bowed out gracefully, kept my money, and I still get an occasional referral from this former customer.

I took this as a learning experience. I recalled on my estimate that she had complained about Merry Maids, Molly Maids, and several others. I now am a careful listener for this red flag. Yes, I know my crews do great work but in order to protect them and my company I slow way down when talking with these customers. I take a lot of time and I am crystal clear on there expectations and what we do as a regular and special services. I document everything immediately upon returning to my car. I also always ask what did the last person/company do that cost them the house and write those items as major pet peeves for that client."

Brenda
Company: Maid In America
Location: Roseville, Ca

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"I totally agree with your approach to this Client from Hell. My company had a similar client last year. Nothing was ever "good enough" despite the fact that I made sure that I, personally was on the job each and every time. She would "plant" things, insist on being there with her 2 young children when we cleaned, (usually feeding them in the kitchen at the exact time we were scheduled to come), and insisted on checking everything before we left if she couldn't find anything wrong ..she would invent something..one time she brought us back in to clean a spot (about 1 inch long 1/8 inch wide which could BARELY be seen..actually took us at least 5 minutes to see what she was talking about..you had to stand in the exact spot with the light hitting it in such a way that it was visible..we weren't able to clean it..appeared to be a small faint oily spot.) I finally smartened up, I told her we would not be able to clean her house anymore (even if I wanted to keep her, which I didn't, ALL of my employees REFUSED to clean her house anymore!!) There are definitely clients who are NOT WORTH it no matter what they pay!!"

Company: Unique Cleaners

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"Refunding the full amount sounds like a good solution to the problem. Fast & you have a record of it. Also you have kept your word. However, why should you give her the full amount back if you did indeed clean most of the house?

She sounds like she's nit-picking & interfering. Could you possibly give back a partial amount & still rectify the situation? What if there are more of these types & situations in the future? Should you always lose out on that much money?"

Doreen
Company: Art of Arrangement
Location: New Haven CT

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"I think you did a great job. I especially like the ending, end the relationship is of mutual benefit!

I like that you pointed out no one has seemed to meet her expectations.....but doing it in a nice way.

good luck!"

Sherry
Company: Baywatch MinPins Kennels
Location: Mount Vernon MO

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"In a case like this, I would have handled it exactly the way that Gary advised. It's not worth the headache.

I don't know what area the cleaning service is in, but given that they sent three maids out, their price was awfully low to begin with.

Best to cut your losses with such a client. I believe that client is mentally ill."

Lynn
Company: Upper Crust Maids
Location: Maryland

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"I felt this response letter was very well written. In fact, I copied it and made it our template for "agitated" customers to use in the future. I feel that the action of refunding her and making her go away "quietly" was a good one. We have the same policy in our office for cases like this. Our rule of thumb before addressing a client's complaint is to gather the facts. We consult our team leader to get the "other side" of the story and in worse case scenarios, we go out ourselves to check out the stories told. Sometimes we find the customer is unreal and sometimes we find a crew leader that needs retraining."

 Lanette
Company: Life Maid Easy
Location: Phoenix, Arizona

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"Obviously this lady doesn't want to clean her own home and will never be satisfied so it's really her loss. She may need to clean her own place now. Then who is she going to complain about? You gave great advice!"

Cathy
Company: Smiley's Fresh & Clean
Location: Bloomington, IN

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"I agree with the refund. If a customer complained to me about my cleaning visit, I had a policy to refund. My customers did not take the money, however, but they knew I would back my cleaning job.

I was cleaning houses in a very small county and word-of-mouth was my best advertising. It was cheaper to offer a refund than to have a bad rep get around town."

Karen
Location: Upper Lake, CA

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"I would not have given all the money back. I would have offered to come back and re-clean what was missed even though it was not a timely request. If paying back money then I would have reasoned with the customer that she was not entitled to a full refund since some of the work was done poorly but not all of it. Perhaps a reduction of some sort was in order but not all. It is apparent to me that this lady was in the market to get the one time cleaning for free. She is blowing smoke and most likely has done this same thing in the past. I had a lady once turn me in to the BBB. I dropped her because she did not trust our work even though she was not there. I saw a staff member vacuuming the bedroom even though the customer said it was not done. When the BBB called and asked me to work with her to resolve our differences they were dumb founded when I told them I have already fired the customer. They also said that this was my only incident and that there would not be a
record of it. They only record such problems when they re-occur."

Jim
Company: Mr. Maid Residential Cleaning
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

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"I actually had this exact scenario and went one step further. I suggested the customer come in to my office (and also offered to meet at her home) to meet with my as well as the cleaning staff who provided the cleaning services so that we could discuss her dissatisfaction and come to some kind of agreement and adjust the bill accordingly. The date was set and she did not show for the meeting. I then contacted her to see if she wanted to reschedule and she said it was not worth her time and said she would pay all but $50 of the $250 bill. It doesn't work all the time, but it saved me from issuing a full refund."

Terrie
Company: Ghost Runner LLC
Location: Perham, MN

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"I've had a similar customer problem.....and ended up refunding the money as well....it at least brought an end to the situation for us both."

Karen
Company: Heavenly Scent
Location: Buckner, KY

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"I think it is a mistake to guarantee a Full Refund. People can ACT like they are dissatisfied just to get a free job done. A Service is something you cannot take back. A discount may be in order,  but the COSTS of doing the job should not be reimburse, i.e. gas costs, equip, equipment costs and wages paid to employees on the crew-the fact that interference on the clients part is involved needs to be addressed. I do not like working while the client is there. They can mess up my work or tell me to do something a certain way after I have been successfully serving them ALREADY for a "season".  I just tell my customers if there is something they don't like, I'll fix it. They are usually so pleased with my work its never an issue"

Leslie
Company: One Step Cleaning
Location: Kingsport, Tn

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"I would cheerfully refund the money along with a note that is upbeat. The former note will just be upsetting to that customer and even tho she cannot make a formal complaint to BBB, etc, I am sure she knows plenty of people and will spread the word about what a terrible .....

My note would be like this.

"Thank you for making me aware of the situation. At XYZ Cleaning, customer satisfaction is our utmost goal and I am truly sorry our team did not meet your expectations. I am looking into the situation to see ways we can improve our service. Enclosed is a full refund and my apology for not responding more quickly."

This will leave her feeling satisfied and will probably not badmouth too much to people she knows. Better to wash your hands of it and leave the best impression possible because a voice can do a lot of damage.

Sherry
Company: The Original Dust Bunny, LLC
Location: Orlando Fl

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"Yes, fully agree. Finding work is not the problem, keeping staff is. By letting problem customers go we help to create a better working environment."

Rob
Company: Pro Clean
Location: San Diego CA

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"I had a similar situation and unfortunately I knew the client's boyfriend personally. I did a re-clean at no charge. She had complained of sloppy work on more than 1 occasion so I had been personally checking my staffs work at her home. On the day in questions I did not see any deficiencies so why I received her message and that included a complaint of a email that I never returned I was shocked. First of all she sent the email to the wrong address which even though I was able to prove she had a hard time accepting then instead of arguing with her I simply apologized and agreed to do a free cleaning.

I debated over firing this client since I know her boyfriend and he works with a lot of my other clients. Finally I chose to speak to him directly about the situation since I was sure she had. I explained my situation and about not being able to please her and my desire to terminate any business with her. He asked me not to stating that he didn't see any deficiencies in!

our work either and that he believed it was a personal issue with her so I agreed to continue unless it got worse. Lucky for me they decided to move to a larger place so when I gave them a new estimate I upped the price to allow for the extra headache and in hopes that she would decline and decline she did. Thank heavens.... she was not worth it at any cost."

Theresa
Company: Five Star Cleaning Service
Location: Leander Texas

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"This sounds like a problem that will keep occurring if your are priced as low as it looks like this job was. I had this same problem many times until I started setting minimum charges on all one time services.

There should be a minimum price set for all one time cleans because of the costs involved and the higher risk of dealing with a new client for the first time. Explain to your client that you have a minimum charge that includes a time limit. Our minimum is 6 labor hours or a team of 2 for 3 hours. Anything less probably isn't worth it. If they can afford this service and understand the time it takes to do a job well, they will probably allow you to go over your minimum if needed and be willing to pay, but if price is an issue, they will appreciate that you lay it out for them in this way. You can also allow your client to put a cap on the price at a certain dollar amount and then explain to them how may hours of work that will purchase.

You then discuss your clients priority list and explain that you will follow that list and guarantee that the areas completed will be of high quality, but that if they are setting a price limit, you also have a time limit, you will do as much quality work as you can within that limit.

It is much easier to do this than to promise you will be able to clean a whole house for a set amount, only to find that you have under estimated the job."

Carla
Company: A Clean Sweep Services, Inc.
Location: Washington State

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"Wow! What a touchy subject!

We did a one time clean and encountered a similar experience. The couple were quite rude to my staff and rushed them to finish because their realtor was coming to list the home.

As a result, when I called them to see how the job went, they both went ballistic and did nothing but complain. When I asked them how the bathrooms and kitchen were done, it was OK. However, they were very angry and felt that they should get a full refund.

Since they were displeased and I wanted to keep a good reputation, I called to let them know that I was returning their check. ( they probably would have stopped payment on it anyway). With the check, I asked them to only pay what they felt the cleaning was worth.

I never heard from them again......."

Renee Rawcliffe
Company: Do You Need Me? LLC
Location: Warrington, Pa
 

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"Hi I have a situation where myself and my staff cleaned a one time clients kitchen that was so dirty the white cupboard doors where yellow with fat build up, we removed all this to leave behind beautiful white clean cupboard doors the client saw us removing the grime and saw that we were using a very light all purpose with water and soft cloths, the client was extremely happy with the job at the end. the client contacted me two weeks later to tell me that we had damaged her cupboard doors, that we had left streak marks and our product had eaten into her vanish on the doors and left permanent drip marks. the kitchen is 12 years old.

I immediately went to look at the damage and the client said she only ever used Ajax spray and wipe on them or detergent and water. I proceeded to show her the label on Ajax spray and wipe it clearly states that it should not be used on varnished or lacquered surfaces would have noticed the damage if I had caused it as it is very visible ,she also would have noticed it at the time, it was definitely not caused by us. I do believe she caused it by using Ajax after we had cleaned it as she would have phoned me straight away with such major visible damage not 2 weeks later, the client was present at the end and during the clean she also inspected the work at the time and said it was great.

Now she want us to pay for new kitchen cupboards around AU$3000 OH AND IT JUST SO HAPPENS SHE ALSO WANTS DOORS THAT WERE NOT DAMAGED REPLACED so there will be no colour difference between old and new doors its funny how she has decided to renovate the entire house at this moment, I feel she is trying to get us to help her with her renovation cost. The product we used is safe as we have used it in hundreds of kitchens and never have we had a problem. The question is should we go to court over this or pay for something I know we did not cause.  Oh and just to top it of the client still wanted us to clean her house for her on a regular basis. And at no stage did she ever mention that we should only use washing up detergent."

Jennifer
Company: Action Domestic Services
Location: Australia NSW

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"This is another excellent article.

I have always taken the approach you suggest and offer the same guarantee.

Look out for your best interest when dealing with someone unreasonable and keep a good paper trail just in case they start to get scrappy."

Avalon
Company: Positive Touch
Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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"We've had a client similar to this one, only she wanted us to hang pictures and go to the restaurant for her, because of her partial handicap.

She did not ask for a refund, but she waited a month to tell us that we forgot some things to be done and that she wanted that done and some extra.

The things she complained about were things that were obvious before we left her home and she knew we knew they were done.

So, we explained that we were not doing those objects over again a month later and I do not accept her calls.

Maybe I'm wrong, but with some people there's no win."

Ron

Company: Joyce and Ron's Maid Service
Location: Tampa , Florida