So I am in Hawaii, and people are NUTS here. Can't wait to leave. I got called by a vacation property management company in the ritziest part of the Island. They told me they have an owner wanting some grout cleaned. I get there yesterday, and it's a 3 million dollar oceanfront condo, and the lady had some guy seal some cracks in the lanai (deck) tiles with some grout or something. He didn't clean it up afterwards so every crack had like 2 inches of brown grout or epoxy or something on each side of it. I took a little white pad and some stone scrub and tried an area by hand. It looked pretty good. I told her I could come back and do all the areas by hand the next day (today), and that I would only charge her my minimum charge ($100). $100 doesn't go far in Hawaii. I was giving her a deal just cause I didn't have to pull hoses. There was probably 40 tiles I needed to scrub vigorously by hand.
So I come back today, and use about half a bottle of stone scrub with a little pad and start scrubbing away and wiping up with a wet cloth. It was like 90 degrees and my knees were burning just from kneeling on the tile. The sun just absolutely bakes that tile and radiates heat. So after about an hour or 90 minutes of scrubbing, I call it good. She had told me that it looks great halfway through and she was glad to get the residue cleaned off.
So I go to get the check from her. I tell her "Alrighty all finished up here" and she says something like "well you have some time to fill, can you go take a look at my closet". I say "Oh, you have grout in your closet? Do you want to schedule something? I can take a look". She's like "No I need some help in there moving stuff". I said "Oh, hah, I'm not from the management company, I am my own Carpet and Tile cleaning company contracted to do the tile work for you". She proceeds to get irate, and tells me "I know you told me yesterday 100 dollars, and you know what, that's just insane, you were here an hour! That's $100 an hour! You mean to tell me you can't even spend some extra time and reorganize my closet for me? I'm paying $100 for this!" I'm speechless. I tend to have anxiety, and people are fudgeing nuts here, and these are the moments that I have to deal with a lot. I was kinda just laughing awkwardly and I was like "Uhhh well..like... I'm a business,...and I literally turn down jobs all the time because I stay so busy, and in this business you usually make about $100 an hour , so I charged you my minimum charge of $100 because it's really fair" And then I told her that any of the stone professional companies around here would've charged 300 minimum. She was like "well my property management co told me that you were cheap!!! and it turns out you are just ridiculous priced! I thought they'd send me a teenager or something that I could pay a few dollars for scrubbing the tile. This is just ridiculous" She looked at me like I was the seed of satan and was just acting like I was being absurd. Again...this condo is about 3 million. She acted like she wasn't gonna write the check but I just sort of stood my ground and she wrote it and I basically ran outside to leave. I emailed the property management co just to tell them that the lady did complain. They were shocked, to say the least, lol. fudge these people.
Also, as a bonus for ya'll. Last week I cleaned a house that is valued at around 30 million dollars. It was just a small area I was cleaning though. The property manager informed me that the owners request that I bill directly to them and not through him because he charges 15% convenience fee. Yes... people with a 30 million dollar house shafted their manager out of 15 bucks. He had to come and unlock the gate and house for me, show me the area, and then lock up and leave when I was done. But god for bid he earn 15 dollars from their billion dollar pile of cash.
Edit: This forum seriously turned my F bomb to "fudgeing". wtf. are you kidding me. Are we in 3rd grade?
So I come back today, and use about half a bottle of stone scrub with a little pad and start scrubbing away and wiping up with a wet cloth. It was like 90 degrees and my knees were burning just from kneeling on the tile. The sun just absolutely bakes that tile and radiates heat. So after about an hour or 90 minutes of scrubbing, I call it good. She had told me that it looks great halfway through and she was glad to get the residue cleaned off.
So I go to get the check from her. I tell her "Alrighty all finished up here" and she says something like "well you have some time to fill, can you go take a look at my closet". I say "Oh, you have grout in your closet? Do you want to schedule something? I can take a look". She's like "No I need some help in there moving stuff". I said "Oh, hah, I'm not from the management company, I am my own Carpet and Tile cleaning company contracted to do the tile work for you". She proceeds to get irate, and tells me "I know you told me yesterday 100 dollars, and you know what, that's just insane, you were here an hour! That's $100 an hour! You mean to tell me you can't even spend some extra time and reorganize my closet for me? I'm paying $100 for this!" I'm speechless. I tend to have anxiety, and people are fudgeing nuts here, and these are the moments that I have to deal with a lot. I was kinda just laughing awkwardly and I was like "Uhhh well..like... I'm a business,...and I literally turn down jobs all the time because I stay so busy, and in this business you usually make about $100 an hour , so I charged you my minimum charge of $100 because it's really fair" And then I told her that any of the stone professional companies around here would've charged 300 minimum. She was like "well my property management co told me that you were cheap!!! and it turns out you are just ridiculous priced! I thought they'd send me a teenager or something that I could pay a few dollars for scrubbing the tile. This is just ridiculous" She looked at me like I was the seed of satan and was just acting like I was being absurd. Again...this condo is about 3 million. She acted like she wasn't gonna write the check but I just sort of stood my ground and she wrote it and I basically ran outside to leave. I emailed the property management co just to tell them that the lady did complain. They were shocked, to say the least, lol. fudge these people.
Also, as a bonus for ya'll. Last week I cleaned a house that is valued at around 30 million dollars. It was just a small area I was cleaning though. The property manager informed me that the owners request that I bill directly to them and not through him because he charges 15% convenience fee. Yes... people with a 30 million dollar house shafted their manager out of 15 bucks. He had to come and unlock the gate and house for me, show me the area, and then lock up and leave when I was done. But god for bid he earn 15 dollars from their billion dollar pile of cash.
Edit: This forum seriously turned my F bomb to "fudgeing". wtf. are you kidding me. Are we in 3rd grade?
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