I had a gentleman call me this evening to ask if we were the ones to grind a stump at a certain address, I said “hold on let me check our records”. I go check jobber and QuickBooks and I have no record of his name or address so I say “no sir that wasn’t us” he hangs up.
Calls back an hour later (9 PM) says he caught me in a lie because he saved my number in his phone and we were definitely the ones to do the work. (Apparently whoever did the work didn’t do a good job.) he’s threatening to bring his wife to the office to go over my head and talk to “the big boss” (I’m the owner) he’s threatening to start leaving negative reviews etc etc. i finally interrupted him and explained that I was the owner and apologized. I tell him if it was us then we will absolutely make it right and stand behind our work. We set up a time for me to come out Friday and “make it right.”
After I got off the phone with him I went through every shred of paperwork and notes that I’ve made in the past 3 months. I called one of my guys to make sure I’m not overlooking or forgetting something we did, and he says no. Neither one of us have any recollection of this address that just happens to be in another town 30 minutes away where we rarely work.
I called the guy back and explained again I have no problem making this right if it was us but that I think he might have us confused with someone else and he then says I’m calling him a liar. To which I reply, “no sir I’m not calling you a liar, I just simply think we may have a misunderstanding” I then explained how we keep detailed records on every client and transaction, but I have no record of him or the address in my system. I ask if there’s any way he could describe the truck and or the person who preformed the work, he says no, but his wife could point out the person if she saw them. (I only have 2 employees and only one of them is capable of doing a stump job solo) so it could only be me or my other guy. He also tells me the date it was done and says he can send me pictures of the stump before and after.
We get off the phone and I check my calendar for May 11 when we supposedly did the job and I see that we did 2 jobs that day in our home town. I vividly remember that day because I was busy trying to get things ready for a family beach trip and we worked late that day removing two trees for two neighbors. There’s no way we would have gone 30 minutes away to grind a stump on this day. Then he sends me the pictures. The stump in question looked to be a massive oak stump at least 5-6 feet across. The after pictures showed at least 15-20 yards of chips. There is no way we would forget doing a stump like this. Someone even had to remove a chainlink fence to grind the stump.
Long story short, we did not do this job. But he is irate and convinced it was us. I’m at a dead end and don’t know how to handle this situation. The stump is too big and too far away from me to go fix another companies poor workmanship on my dime. But at the same time we pride ourselves on customer service and our 5 star reviews on Google.
How would you guys handle this situation? Suck it up and fix someone else’s work for free or do nothing and take the negative reviews on the chin?
Calls back an hour later (9 PM) says he caught me in a lie because he saved my number in his phone and we were definitely the ones to do the work. (Apparently whoever did the work didn’t do a good job.) he’s threatening to bring his wife to the office to go over my head and talk to “the big boss” (I’m the owner) he’s threatening to start leaving negative reviews etc etc. i finally interrupted him and explained that I was the owner and apologized. I tell him if it was us then we will absolutely make it right and stand behind our work. We set up a time for me to come out Friday and “make it right.”
After I got off the phone with him I went through every shred of paperwork and notes that I’ve made in the past 3 months. I called one of my guys to make sure I’m not overlooking or forgetting something we did, and he says no. Neither one of us have any recollection of this address that just happens to be in another town 30 minutes away where we rarely work.
I called the guy back and explained again I have no problem making this right if it was us but that I think he might have us confused with someone else and he then says I’m calling him a liar. To which I reply, “no sir I’m not calling you a liar, I just simply think we may have a misunderstanding” I then explained how we keep detailed records on every client and transaction, but I have no record of him or the address in my system. I ask if there’s any way he could describe the truck and or the person who preformed the work, he says no, but his wife could point out the person if she saw them. (I only have 2 employees and only one of them is capable of doing a stump job solo) so it could only be me or my other guy. He also tells me the date it was done and says he can send me pictures of the stump before and after.
We get off the phone and I check my calendar for May 11 when we supposedly did the job and I see that we did 2 jobs that day in our home town. I vividly remember that day because I was busy trying to get things ready for a family beach trip and we worked late that day removing two trees for two neighbors. There’s no way we would have gone 30 minutes away to grind a stump on this day. Then he sends me the pictures. The stump in question looked to be a massive oak stump at least 5-6 feet across. The after pictures showed at least 15-20 yards of chips. There is no way we would forget doing a stump like this. Someone even had to remove a chainlink fence to grind the stump.
Long story short, we did not do this job. But he is irate and convinced it was us. I’m at a dead end and don’t know how to handle this situation. The stump is too big and too far away from me to go fix another companies poor workmanship on my dime. But at the same time we pride ourselves on customer service and our 5 star reviews on Google.
How would you guys handle this situation? Suck it up and fix someone else’s work for free or do nothing and take the negative reviews on the chin?
