Boss Ultra Said they wanted to refer a carpet cleaning customer who needed a job done tomorrow but they were going to bill customer themselves Nationwide
I received a voicemail from a guy (maybe Shawn? his English is not very clear) on July 12th saying they needed carpet cleaning and tile cleaning in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and to call between 8-9 AM on Friday.
On the 13th the gentleman calls back and I answer the phone. After I introduce myself and tell him that yes I do carpet and tile cleaning he immediately asks me if I have time available tomorrow between 8-9 AM. I ask him what the job is. He declines and again asks do I have time available in the morning.
I explain that if he has a one hour job, I may be able to fit it in on short notice however, if he has a five to seven-hour job then no, can he please tell me what the job is and how many square foot needs to be cleaned.
He then begins questioning me about my equipment. I told him I use bonnet cleaning machines, he then begins asking more questions about my cleaning process to which I told him I wasn't going keep telling him how I do my work.
Then he introduced himself as "my competitor" the National cleaning company Boss Ultra and they have "technicians" in my area but were over scheduled with a customer that needed their carpet and tile cleaned tomorrow and he is "possibly" interested in referring this customer to me, but he needs to make sure my quality of work is comparable so he knows the customer will be in good hands.
This all sounds very nice. I then told him I work for several other national cleaning contractors already and stated that basically what he does is find the jobs then find other local cleaners to do the work. He corrected me and said no they were "technicians."
I smiled but didn't continue to argue the point, I already knew where this was going. He then proceeded to list off all the rooms in his customer's house that would need to be cleaned tomorrow. I stopped him and ask for square footage. He told me they did not charge based on square footage. I laughed then ask, who is going to be billing the customer, you or me?
He told me that Boss Ultra would bill the customer and they would pay me. I laughed again and told him I wasn't interested in doing the work for him. For any others who get into this situation here is why:
First we had about an hour left in the work day. It takes several days to finalize contracts (you never want to sign the first one they send over otherwise if legal action happens you'll find yourself driving to THEIR state to attend court) setup direct deposit bank accounts, proof of liability insurance etc.
Second they were going to dictate how much they were going to pay my company, without even knowing how much it costs me to do the job. If they don't know the square footage, then they don't know the cost.
Third if this company is willing to promise a customer that they will have someone to their house tomorrow, and they are still trying to find a cleaner, they aren't a serious company that cares about their reputation to their customers, so they sure won't care if they burn their vendors by underpaying or simply not paying them at all.
If I had accepted the job, I wouldn't have ANY contracts, guarantees or way of getting paid because there simply isn't enough time. As a "National" contractor they should know there wasn't enough time to get something set up. I have never talked to such an unprofessional national cleaning broker.