Almost Called Police On Detail Job Today

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seanconway34

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Today I detailed a Ford Excursion. The person that I detailed's cars son called me to arrange the detail that he was getting for his father as a present. I told the son that it would be $200 for a standard detail (carpets shampooed, vaccum, interior protectant. car clayed, and one step wax). The son said that was great and gave me his fathers address and said he gave his father cash that he would pay me with. After detailing the car for six hours at 7:00 when I was fifteen mintues from done the father came out and asked why the car wasen't compounded and I told him that wasen't included and the father started yelling at me and cursing and screaming. I felt unsafe and threatened by the way that he was acting. He said my details were #### and that you can't do a detail without a compound, he started screaming and scaring myself and my associate. I was about to call the police but then I realized it wasen't worth it, the guy only gave me $60 for six hours worth of work and the gave made me feel unsafe with his yelling. What should I do, take him to small claims court, press charges , or let it go?
 
I tried to be nice to the guy and offer him a lower rate of $150 and he said that's abusrb for a detail without compound and btw the car did not need compound as the polish and the wax I did to it made the car shine nice and also the carpets that I shampooed looked new.
 
Let it go for about a month or 2 then stop back by late night visit take out some windows!!!
 
Also the guy says he'll pay me the rest if I come back and compound but honestly I feel unsafe going there again as the area he lives in isn't nice and his house is dirty and is hoarded with garbage and he wasen't friendly.
 
I would talk with his son, and get him to get Involved. He knew what was included in the detail. He should tell him that you did everything you said you would do. If that won't help the situation then personally I would just drop it and chalk it up as a loss. I hate that you have to go through the situation. I always try to make sure the owner of the vehicle knows exactly what is going to be done and what isn't. Good luck to you.


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Do you have the son's phone number? Perhaps he will be a little more reasonable to deal with.
 
If the father spoke that way I would have gotten the son on the telephone and told him to tell his father to pay him and walk away. If i could not get the son I would finish up and ask for the payment. If he did not pay I would have called the police. The only other thing was that this was planned by the son with the father.

Ed
 
seanconway34 said:
Also the guy says he'll pay me the rest if I come back and compound but honestly I feel unsafe going there again as the area he lives in isn't nice and his house is dirty and is hoarded with garbage and he wasen't friendly.
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That would negate all the work you already put into it.
 
That's crazy man. I wouldn't pursue it... Honestly I would just chalk this up to a learning experience. This has never happened to me but thanks to this post I don't think I will ever accept a detail job for a friend or relative (of a customer) if I didn't already speak to the owner of the vehicle and iron out pricing details before performing any work.

It's unfortunate that this happened to you but thanks for sharing on the forum so others can avoid this type of situation and learn from your experience. :xyxthumbs:
 
cmichael258 said:
Do you have the son's phone number? Perhaps he will be a little more reasonable to deal with.
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I talked to the son and he told me that he was sorry and that his father is known to do things like this and he wasen't suprised. He is very sorry and he would like me to go back and compound his dad's car like his dad wants it and he'll pay me $220, personally I don't think $20 for a compound on a Ford Excursion is worth it, the car is huge. I told him it'd be more than $20 for a compound and he said absolutely not and I said ok let's just do $200 for the detail and he said no because my father isn't happy. I don't get it the car shine is amazing, a neighbor walking by even said wow that car looks great, its shiny.
 
That sucks...I also would call the son and try to get him to make it right. If he won't do anything I doubt it would be worth going to small claims court. Without a written contract ti would be kind of tough.
 
Sorry to hear about the bad transaction. As others mentioned, discuss the issue with the son.
 
seanconway34 said:
I talked to the son and he told me that he was sorry and that his father is known to do things like this and he wasen't suprised. He is very sorry and he would like me to go back and compound his dad's car like his dad wants it and he'll pay me $220, personally I don't think $20 for a compound on a Ford Excursion is worth it, the car is huge. I told him it'd be more than $20 for a compound and he said absolutely not and I said ok let's just do $200 for the detail and he said no because my father isn't happy. I don't get it the car shine is amazing, a neighbor walking by even said wow that car looks great, its shiny.
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After reading this post I think it was a setup. People trying to get something for nothing. An Excursion is a lot of real estate!!! Is he going to pay you 220 on top of the 60 you already got?
 
DaveT435 said:
After reading this post I think it was a setup. People trying to get something for nothing. An Excursion is a lot of real estate!!! Is he going to pay you 220 on top of the 60 you already got?
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No
 
After reading the whole thread, I can't really say what I would do at this point. There are too many variables that we just don't know. I might let it go or I might not.

Did you tell the son that you did what you had talked to him about orignally, so why isn't he paying you what he said he would? You supplied your end of the deal, why hasn't he?

Is the car completely swirl-free? Just curious. Make it a point how great the car looks??

Good luck man.
 
Yeah...at this point I would let it go. As much as it sucks if you go back and put more work into it you know he's going to say it isn't right and stiff you again. The time it would take to drag him into court...even if you ended up with a settlement of an extra 100.00 is it worth the trouble. You could talk to the son again and try to threaten court...I'm sure he knows without a contract you probably won't get anything. Might be a good idea to have a contract template to enter services promised and price and get it signed by the customer before you do any work. I know it doesn't happen often...but it's not really any investment to protect you from this kind of thing.
 
Cut your loss and leave it. These people are best for the 5 dollar car wash places.
 
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