Just did a quote at a residence with 7 large Dogs(bouviers) and about a dozen cats, existing wireless on Doors and one Motion operating on a 9 volt flashlite(jerry rigged). Never seen this audible system which arm/disarms via phone with central station audio.. AlarmBxxxge.. Either way, doing a walk through and there is dog crap all over the place in the basement, place is completely discusting.. I really don't want to spend a day working and stepping in dog crap, I would like to politely decline this job, I would price this job through the roof but don't want to be known as abusive. (small town!) Any one run across a similar circumstance? At what point does one say THIS JOB IS NOT FOR ME Feedback..
You big pussy, you shouldn't have even quoted it. Tell the slob that his property is too dangerous even for the cops. Your insurance wont cover it, blah,blah...
I don't judge a customer by how clean his house is. If the installation requires my having to access certain areas of the house that may be messy, have them remove any "offensive material" beforehand. Don't jack up your price because you don't like the neighbourhood. Everyone that calls you deserves a fair shake and your best effort. That's what "being a professional" is all about. Make damn sure he can pay you for your time and professional attitude though.
get one of those chemical gas masks to wear during the installation. I think homey depot has em. Dam right I would charge more. Hazardous duty pay and a new pair of shoes. ];) I had a job like that once only with cats. The ammonia from the urine burned my eyes and my lungs. I did all the crawl under the house work [not too bad under there] and left my poor partner to finish. The customer got mad because I wore a dust mask in the house [I didn't give a shit, my f****ng eyes were running and I could barely breath by then] before I finally left. I wish I had had one of those gas masks. Would have been the only way I could have stayed in that godforsakenhouse.
Had a similar situation couple years back where customers steps and side walk were snow and ice covered and I explained to them problem I have with my legs being unstable and the husband cleaned what he could and threw down some sand and helped me in with my equiptment. They were very understanding they were a younger couple in good shape and lived up on a hill side with very few visitors so snow and ice was not an inconvience for them. I own a dog and 4 cats and keep my place clean but yet cats and amonia smell are an unfortunate problem that comes with the territory. I always make sure cat boxes are changed house aired out before inviting guests in because as i have found with owning cats the smell may not be aparent to my self and others who own pets . But definately to some one who does not own pets. Biggest problems with the amonia smell is when pet owners do not keep cat boxes changed or pets spray walls etc and they do not keep after them and clean up. this is unsanitary not only for the home owner but the pets as well and dangerous. i will not work in a place where pets are not properly taken care of and will turn them in. pets are a responsibilty. just like when i walk my dog i clean up after him while others do not and let there pest run around the neihborhood.
It is just common courtesey to make sure house is clean and safe for a repairman or guest to enter. not doing so is inviting trouble luckily i only do couple resi installs a year so it is not a big problem
I do have commercail and industrial customers with large dogs and ocassional cat and they do a good job cleaning up but ocasionally one of the dogs will have an accident but they clean it right up and its not a problem.
I've walked on less offensive jobs. I reserve the right to do or not do a job for absolutely no reason at all. Just politely decline...no reason given.
good thing you don't do much resi. man those houses they build now a days with 3 and 4 floors will either keep those legs in good shape or totally break you down with all the stairs up and down esp if you have to work one by yourself.
I did another install where their was so much "stuff" in the house that there was only enough room for a path through house that a person could walk through. Standard ranch with three bedrooms and barely enough room to walk in . same in living room and kitchen and garage. what a pain that was, couldn't even get to some of the windows, had to climb over and reach over 'stuff' just to drill the windows. took a couple days to do that one. at least it was close to home. ain't life interesting?
Price the job so if you get it, it will be worth the trouble. Or just tell them you are too busy. If they challenge you, tell them you don't want to work in their dogs' toilet.
You do not have to take every job that comes along. js
Don't you have any competitors in your area? Tell the customer that you can't get to them right away. Then get the alarm company that is always looking for work and give (or sell) the lead to him. I don't suppose either would be too fussy about the switch.
What small contractors (carpenters, roofing, home repair, etc) do is to make an appointment and then not show up. Or say "I will get back to you", but then don't call back. Or don't return their calls.
I know a few of these construction workers and have seen why they do this. Sometimes they know the customer will be more trouble than it is worth. Sometimes they are busy with a more profitable job and don't have the time.
Most of the time they were out partying the night before and are hung over!
I had a friend get new carpeting in a house they bought. The old carpeting had cat/dog urine in it. The carpeting company REFUSED to remove the old carpeting. They even had this written into their contract.
So I suppose you could also refuse to do any work there because of the working conditions.
Sometimes when you do service calls, you walk into situations. How you react has a lot to do with you. If you're a dog lover, you might have a higher level of tolerance for that crap. If you're struggling to pay your bills, you might overlook something else.
Remember your health and safety are #1, and then you need to be guaranteed to get your price, and then get paid.
Maybe tell the client you have a compromised immune system and you also do not wish to subject your employees to hazardous conditions, so they need to address the filth before you can address their alarm. These homeowners might be in need of some attention from the health department, or require psychological help if they're in someway afflicted. Can't you tell? Or they might just be animal lovers in which case you need to read them the Riot Act.
The original person who posed the question had really only one problem; their own indecision. It takes a professional to recognize a hostile environment and know when to bail out. There are a lot of diseases associated with feces. Do you want to carry that home to your wife, kids or grandchildren? They all are counting on you to stay healthy and not expose them to danger too. This post must've pushed my button. We all encounter issues daily for which we're unprepared to deal with because we're confused about priorities. If you're not sure, call the boss. If you're the boss, then call your wife. If neither are available, ask God, he knows. God knows I've been there too.
Well I got a wide range of responses.. I think TimO's seems most to the point here. As a profestional we slowly get eroded into accepting things that we would not normaly otherwise accept. I think personal health issues that have been brought up... others (family) depend on us not to risk ourselves and there health. I think this post was refreshing in that I did get a good sampling of reactions... "Pussy.. to indecision to Health... and your own good judment" I don't think I will do this job, was going to price it so high they would not call back because I did not want to insult the potential client by telling them it was a pig sty... to each there own castle.. to my peers.. thanks a bunch
All the feed back has been pretty good on this one.
As for me, when I run into something like this, I just don't get back to them. But at my stage of business, work is no problem. I can understand your reluctance, if you live in a small community, though. Therefore, you may want to "kill two birds with one stone" You can tell the person that your are really, really busy. That you are working on a great big job and you don't know how long it's going to take for you to finnish. So, rather than putting them off, you'll do the next best thing. You'll refer them to someone who will be more than happy to do the job for them. Then give them the name of your best competitor or two or three . .....
Now you can walk away contented knowing that you've done the best that you can, to help your business progress.
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