Email Complaint from customer + Painters Email Back - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

Mr. Mike · 05-16-2009, 02:24 PM

Quote:

I'll be unable to write a recommendation for you as I wasn't satisfied with the quality of the paint job recently completed for us.The workers didn't take sufficient time to scrap, caulk, or allow the paint to dry (and I suspect they didn't prime ). What was to be a 3 day job was done in just 7 hrs.The work just didn't match the samples we were shown and I don't feel it was worth the over $1800 we paid. I'd be glad to work with you to fix the problem and would then happily recommend you to perspective customers.

Quote:

I will be happy to come out and look at everything on Monday weather permitting, if we need to come back out and do some more work to complete our task that will not be a problem and from your message I plan on sending a crew after I come out on Monday. As far as taking the time to scrape, caulk and wait for paint to dry my guys are very detailed and I can assure you we did take the proper time to do these tasks however we could have missed a few areas but I will take a look and plan on fixing them for you.

Primer: I understand your concern on primer and this is a very important process that many painters would leave out, I never leave this step out on an exterior re-paint like the one we did for you and the way this is possible is because we use a self priming finish paint our paint does not only cost more but is worth more because it will never pop, peel or fade.

I will not need to make an appointment with you at this time for me to look, If it is Ok with you I will come sometime during the day on Monday, I assure you if there is some things wrong there is nothing that we can't fix. I am sure we will only need to come back out for a few hours at the most to fix all or any concerns.

With us coming out one more time, and with the double crew there for a day just like I approximated this may be a 3 day job.

I will take a look and inspect what I expect,

I expect she is upset it only took us one day. Now she may say she wanted and expected all the old glazing removed and all the old popping and peeling paint removed from the frames. I have been on about 300 jobs where this has been the case, I know that 300 is a high number but when you do residential repaints most complaints are all the same unless your really hacking around.

ModernStyle · 05-16-2009, 03:19 PM

So if you get complaints about it all the time then why not bring it to the customers attention so that it can be included in the contract if they desire that work done ? I don't know much about self priming paint, I have read about it on a can but never wanted to try it. Duration is self priming, my SW sales rep told me to use it instead of a primer, this is stupid because primer is half the cost of Duration. Why would i throw on an extra coat of expensive material when it is cheaper to just use a primer, and I know my primer will not fail, the self priming paint I am not so sure of.
Did you give the customer an estimate on the amount of time the job was going to take? I usually throw that into a contract, along with weather permitting and such things. 3 days for $1800 seems a bit cheap so maybe you should have informed the customer on how long you expected the job to take.

Tinstaafl · 05-16-2009, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Mike

Now she may say she wanted and expected all the old glazing removed and all the old popping and peeling paint removed from the frames.

I won't comment on the glazing (for now), but you paint over old peeling stuff? I'd stop payment in a heartbeat.

Mr. Mike · 05-16-2009, 04:47 PM

Quote:

I won't comment on the glazing (for now), but you paint over old peeling stuff? I'd stop payment in a heartbeat.

Tinstaafl,

Thanks sorry No, we scrape and remove all popping and peeling paint but we don't strip all the old paint off. I was typing in the heat of the moment I meant they want the old paint and not just the popping and peeling paint removed.

Quote:

Did you give the customer an estimate on the amount of time the job was going to take?

No I told them it would take no more than 3 working days.

As far as the complaints go, I hope I cleared up that we don't leave popping and peeling paint behind we do remove all of it, we are not stripping all the old paint off so there are chunks missing and people get mad about how fast a job is done some times and then want to forget how I show them we are not removing all the old paint. I am very thorough about explaining that to prospects and only 1% of all my paint jobs have ever called back complaining about this.

Mr. Mike · 05-16-2009, 04:50 PM

Quote:

3 days for $1800 seems a bit cheap so maybe you should have informed the customer on how long you expected the job to take. __________________

I did tell them it would take no more than 3 working days, now they did not know if I meant 1 worker or 3 workers, I had 6 workers on it for 7 hours.

Mr. Mike · 05-16-2009, 04:54 PM

At the very least I will discover something to send my guys back for about 2 hours, maybe just 1 or 2 guys.

Edit to add:
New email to her:

Quote:

Will it be O'k for me to come by on Monday and then give you a call after I inspect everything?

Chris Johnson · 05-16-2009, 05:15 PM

The '3 working days' is going to kill you with this client. She is part of the general population who only hears what she wants and when she wants.

Hind sight being 20/20, give the job to 2 guys for 3 days, much the same as what you did, but stretch it out to make the client feel they are getting value for thier dollar.

Mr. Mike · 05-16-2009, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Johnson

The '3 working days' is going to kill you with this client. She is part of the general population who only hears what she wants and when she wants.

Hind sight being 20/20, give the job to 2 guys for 3 days, much the same as what you did, but stretch it out to make the client feel they are getting value for thier dollar.

Exactly my thoughts on this Chris this weather kills me here.

Dave Mac · 05-16-2009, 06:21 PM

Mike when I get call backs wich is very very rare,

1. I want the client their most of the time, to show me exactly what they are talking about. I feel that is best for all parties concerned. Im very nit picky and may find way more things then the client ever will.

2. I dont adress any issues until Im with the client face to face and actually see the work.

She actually sounds very willing to work out the issue, and probally has no idea of how long the fix would take, I would not of already tellher how long its going to take before you even see the issue.

Not trying to say their is a right or wrong way to adress a call back, just saying how I would handle it.

I have found call backs can become a great source for a referall, your obvously going to do what it takes to make her happy, that goes a long way, and makes a very good impression, sometimes a better and a stronger impression then just finishing with no call back.

lets us know how it goes.

Mr. Mike · 05-16-2009, 06:57 PM

Quote:

lets us know how it goes.

Yes I will for sure, happy to share.

Also you make very good points in your post, with me telling her an expected time frame I am able to get closer to the real problem if it in fact does come out to be that she is only mad we made more profit than she see's fit. I kind of lay out traps to find out the real reasons and if that is not the case and we left a bad job we will fix it.

chris n · 05-17-2009, 05:03 AM

[quote=Mr. Mike;679904]I will take a look and inspect what I expect,

Primer: I understand your concern on primer and this is a very important process that many painters would leave out, I never leave this step out on an exterior re-paint like the one we did for you and the way this is possible is because we use a self priming finish paint our paint does not only cost more but is worth more because it will never pop, peel or fade.

I certainly hope you can back up the fact that you said " IT WILL NEVER POP, PEEL or FADE.

NEVER??

Dorman Painting · 05-17-2009, 08:01 AM

The time frame deal killed you, she obviously was expecting a working crew on her house for three fullish type days. I'm sure you guys did a good job but she feels like it's a possible blow n go IMO.

If I had your man power Mike, I would've made the point clear that we will have a six man crew on the job and it would likely take two days max. I've learned the hard way that rushing out on a job just doesn't pay in the long run, even though you maybe finished.

WisePainter · 05-17-2009, 08:13 AM

Man Mike, getting greedy?

You cannot properly complete an exterior in 1 day that requires all of the work you claim was done, I don't care if you have 100 painters. This is ridiculous and I tip my hat to the HO for calling you out in a mature and pleasant manner.

You should sign up for Extreme Home Makeover...

lol.

**ProWallGuy** · 05-17-2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dorman Painting

If I had your man power Mike,

How much manpower does Mike actually have? This has been an elusive fact sine day one.

ModernStyle · 05-17-2009, 12:52 PM

Mike sprays up and down, thats 1 coat, waits 30 seconds then sprays sideways, thats 2 coats, and on the really high end jobs he waits another 30 seconds and sprays diaganolly, thats 3 coats. What more could a customer want ????
Mike has 20 million estimated illegal immigrants ......... errrr I mean employees at his disposal.

Dave Mac · 05-17-2009, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProWallGuy

How much manpower does Mike actually have? This has been an elusive fact sine day one.

1. Who cares how much man power he has.

2. If you care so much, just ask him. But be exact, I think it varies

Mike Finley · 05-17-2009, 02:25 PM

Sounds like you're in for a bash fest in regard to your painting process from some of your peers.

But not going there, I just wonder why in the world you would be thinking this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Mike

At the very least I will discover something to send my guys back for about 2 hours, maybe just 1 or 2 guys.

That's crazy to me. Either you did the job right or you didn't. It sounds like you need to spend a bit more time setting up your customers expectations during the pre-work period so that once the work is completed you aren't dealing with this.

You really think the answer to your problems is to send a couple of guys over to basically waive paint brushes with no paint on them at the side of her house for a little while?

Mr. Mike · 05-17-2009, 03:00 PM

Quote:

But not going there, I just wonder why in the world you would be thinking this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Mike

At the very least I will discover something to send my guys back for about 2 hours, maybe just 1 or 2 guys.

That's crazy to me. Either you did the job right or you didn't. It sounds like you need to spend a bit more time setting up your customers expectations during the pre-work period so that once the work is completed you aren't dealing with this.

You really think the answer to your problems is to send a couple of guys over to basically waive paint brushes with no paint on them at the side of her house for a little while?

I brought this complaint in here and yes my peers would like to kick me in the _____. I was not looking for help to deal with this just more so happy to bring this up for everyone to learn from. Mean while I have picked up some pointers from all of you.

Mike: If I send one guy there, and he takes out a few storm windows to touch up anything he could be there an hour no matter how little there is. and then with him doing a walk through with her he will for sure be there between 1 to 2 hours.

For the record we did a walk through before leaving, she was not there and the husband walked through and was happy and signed off on the job I got an email from her about 4 days later.

Quote:

2. If you care so much, just ask him. But be exact, I think it varies

It varies for sure, welcome to painting 101, right at this second I have only 8 painters and in 3 weeks there will be over 20 painters here and in 3 months I will have over 30 and in 5 months I will have 8 again.

Quote:

You cannot properly complete an exterior in 1 day that requires all of the work you claim was done, I don't care if you have 100 painters.

Not sure how you figure that.

Mr. Mike · 05-17-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

I certainly hope you can back up the fact that you said " IT WILL NEVER POP, PEEL or FADE.

NEVER??

lol, that's Aura for you Chris, says that right on the can.

Mr. Mike · 05-17-2009, 04:28 PM

I better add before we get to carried away, I have had over 2000 customers praise me for getting the job done so quickly.