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I recently cleaned the carpets for a lady just getting out of the Army, I did the entire empty house. The carpet is in pretty decent shape. A couple of Varnish stains and a couple of what looks like a bleach spot but otherwise not bad. I completed the job and walked through the house with the lady and she said she was happy and surprised that it turned out so well. As I was about to leave she asked me if I could do a few area rugs that had been put away and I said sure. They were not in good shape. heavily soiled, some tears along the edges and appeared to be pretty old. I cleaned them and packed up. A few days later I got a call from the husband and he stated that I had burned one of the area rugs, I showed up the next day and he showed me the rug and it seems to have 2 long beads of a clear glue or epoxy of some kind about 6 inches apart and about 2 feet long. He pointed to them and said I burned the rug and what do I intend to do about it. I told him that it does not appear to be a burn as far as I could tell and maybe something had been spilled on it. He then stated that it was not there before I came and it was there after I cleaned them. He then called his wife in and she said again that the rugs were put away and he just kept saying that I burned the rugs. I told him that I thought it might be a glue of some kind and that I maybe able to just clean it. He then said get the F out of my house. He said that I was calling him a liar and that I should pack up my stuff and get the f out of his house so I left.
My question is what should I do at this point?.
Not much you can do at this point. I always hate the added on area rug….
Greg,
Obviously the husband is not rational and I agree with Dan that there is not much you can do when the customer won’t listen to the expert. If you want to try to appease them, I would try and call and talk to the wife and schedule a time to go over when the husband isn’t home. Just as an outside observer, what you described sounds right for what happened to the rug more than likely. If it’s an olefin/polypropelene rug, there is a small chance you could have burned it if the drive plate somehow touched the fibers (but I doubt you did that). If it was wool, wool by nature does not burn. If you have an old wool rug, take it along and take a match to it and show what happens to it under heat.http://www.sheep101.info/warmwool.html
Wool is the only fiber that naturally resists flaming. Unlike many artificial fibers which melt and stick to the skin when on fire, wool usually smolders or chars instead of bursting into flame. Although wool will burn under intense fire, it normally self-extinguishes when the flame source is removed. For safety reasons, many airlines use wool or wool blends for the upholstry fabric on their seats. Wool is favored by the U.S. military (He’s a military guy and should understand this)This is a tough one. Military or otherwise. The main thing I see, is to DO YOUR BEST to correct the situation if possible and let it go. DON’T LET IT EAT YOU ALIVE. February 1st I start my 29th year in the cleaning business. I’ve seen it to often, even gone through it myself. Do your best and let it go. Holding a grudge is toxic. Refusing to forgive is like taking poison and hoping the other person will die. People like this have “mad cow disease”, don’t become infected and transfer it to your herd (of customers). We only have so much time, spend it with the people who are pleasant to be with. I feel for the lady that is married to this guy and everyone else that comes in contact for that matter. If you see him again, it might make him more upset or not, but sincerely thank him for he’s service (in the military) anyway.
I should have spent more time on the area rugs on my last post. Were the rugs being used recently? Often times a person who moves frequently will use area rugs in one place and not in another place. They will get rolled up and put in storage and not even looked at for years. Some will get damaged in storage. Some get thrown in the garage or into an outdoor storage shed. I had a lady leave one on an outside deck through an entire Montana winter (she seemed surprised when I told her it was ruined).
I thought about the burn testing as I was driving home but it mostly likely would have just made him even more mad. I think I am just going to wait about a week and then see if I can just contact his wife, say I am sorry for any misunderstanding and ask if she would like me to try and clean the stuff off the rug.
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