My customer CALLED ME A CROOK! 

So sorry you had to go through all that. As a small business owner myself, after 8 years I've learned that customers who are biggest beggers for discounts are the hardest to satisfy. They are never happy and just want more from you for cheaper.

well three take aways from this, that customer sounds to me like she had no intention of ever paying you, this shows how much of a decent guy you are and thirdly your irish accent is superb! Customers drive me nuts, nothing funnier than folk as my Dad says!

Any unhappy customers I have almost always have talked over me, disrupted my process and generally lead the interaction. I’ve learned to give conversational ‘speed bumps’ to slow them down and get to them to listen. And strictly adhere to my process, without the process details get left out, expectations don’t get managed and the customer ultimately ends up unhappy. Also try to set an alarm off in your head when someone starts give you a sob story or any reason why they should get special treatment. That’s the kind of situation you need to stick to your processes with the most!

Sounds like a horror story. Personally, I live by ‘you win some you lose some’. It’s amazing you went this far to make things right, I probably would have checked out earlier and wrote it off as experience costs. I don’t have angel patience.

a good deed never goes unpunished

Some tradesmen do take the piss, overcharge customers and then provide a poor service, so deserve a mauling, but not you. Keep on doing the amazing work that you do.

Shit happens, mate. Have 100 amazing days for every day like this.

Don’t kid yourself, Granny straight up hustled you. One of the worst customers I ever had was a “sweet” old lady, (and a lawyer!). People that want quick quotes, don’t want a written bid, and want deals or you to use their materials are usually on the make. You could have J. Christ himself on your crew and they wouldn’t be happy. It’s not about quality to them, it’s a game to get whatever they can out of you for the least price. Don’t feel bad, i’ve been in 34 years and it happens, albeit rarely. You can’t relax and get complacent. These types are masters at their craft.

I see this was posted 10 months ago but only watched now and it brought back some memories from my old job as a project manager for a stone countertop company. After 7 years working there my nerves were streched to the max. Those contract signatures were so important and as a rule if I did something nice for someone that project would end up not going by a plan and the “cool” sweet people would all of a sudden turn into these total 💩 and I would swear to myself to never do anything nice to anyone again. The worst ones to deal with were lawyers. Just plain a..holes who are just waiting for you to miss a signature somewhere and then come after you swinging. I am sorry you had to deal with that lady, and i cant even imagine how much worse it felt to be there with her in that house and still trying to be nice to her and still getting the worst treatment. Ughhhh

You're such a good dude. I wish floor sanders went on tour because I'd book you in New York in a heartbeat.

Some people are VERY subtle manipulators. You ran into one of them. In short order she: - built rapport - talked you into a rush job on your day off - Conveniently blew past a written agreement - Made you question your own pricing - guilted you into discounts - badgered you into extra services - Gaslighted you about the original agreement - shamed you for eating lunch - Refused to pay - Brought in backups to make you uncomfortable & support her position - still had you vying for her happiness - Refused to allow any options to make her happy. And after all of this, you’re telling your own audience that this was probably not intentional. She was a Sensei 🙇🏻‍♂️

I have been in similar situations with customers 2 times...🙈🙈🙈take 5l of Jackobean Morrells stain and spread across the floor 😅

I feel your pain mate. I have been there and done the exact same thing. Even in a similar shaped room. It sucks. I have just started watching stuff up videos tonight. I have gone down a rabbit hole of disaster flooring videos. I have watched a few of yours now. You do good work and know your stuff. One bit of advice and i hate giving it because we all do it differently. Look after your body. Pull the machine apart. Get a lift don't carry it on your own. 25 years in the trade my back is cooked from carrying machines on my own. And we still have to work with a cooked back.

If you ever travel to the states, I can give you and your family a place to stay in New Hampshire in exchange for help with these floors. I will take this "crook" any day. Also you have taught me a lot, the videos you make have been sp educational and that alone is knowledge you give for free. It is deeply appreciated.

You are in the right! And you showed grace doing everything you could under the circumstances.

Thanks for sharing your experience, I noticed some dynamics that influenced your perception, "sounding like your nan", from my perspective and own experience that can evoke a different way of doing business than normal, touching a soft spot based on resonance, knowing that it happens and still staying true to your standard customer approach is worth gold,, trying to stayi nice towards the client who get rude is a point of attention, it feels that you let her play with your boundaries. Overruled truth: you mentioned that afterwards you realized that you didn't offered her to stain the floor, soft boundaries ( nice guy) can be overwritten by firm ( anger / resentment) talks/ expressions by being out of that influence you return to yourself and realized what actually happened, just a matter of "energetic warfare". Nan :trigger" seems to play a role everything on papers is of course a great safety net for yourself, first please yourself and than the customer Thank you for your open sharing and your reflections what your part may / could be Gius

Keep your head up mate it’s obvious to everyone that the quality of your work is at the very top. Remember, you can’t please everyone. Keep smashing it brother. 🤙🏼🤙🏼

Did she PLAN to get you? Unlikely. BUT anytime someone tells you "ahh, that's too much!" they are in effect saying "you're not worth it" which means your years of work in the industry and commitment to high quality work is being discounted. That is not the kind of customer you want. You want customers that VALUE you.

Send her a letter tell her your taking her to court

That was an interesting story to listen to, thanks for sharing, and I think also brave. I've never been self employed so I can't really relate, but I feel sorry for you having to go through all that.

A really honest and humble account of what happened. We've all done it - just ignored some of our standard operating procedures due to some unusual or persistent customer. Then it goes bad and we feel like idiots. What you don't want is to be fuming about it for months to come. The only successful way of I've found is to forgive them in your heart. Sounds lame I know, but it works and you can get on with your life without the ongoing machinations. You lost some money, but you got some payback in that you're never going to make those mistakes again! A day from hell alright, with the hacking on top. All the best.

Wow. You're a good and honest man. I wish I could hire you here in michigan.

When someone insists on a cost pm2 on phone, even though ive offered to survey en route home. Red flag innit? I immediately add +30% to the pm2 price and leave it with them. Rarely they call back but if they do then i send a fully itemised quote and ask for written confirmation back that they wanna go ahead with whats been quoted. Every time, no exceptions. Final thing i try to now live by is: dont be nice to anyone ever. No "ill buzz table if spare time" or "if i spare lacquer ill give it you free". Business is business brother. Plus, a grand for a small 1 day gig is good if everything goes well, but dont put a price on your sunday. Have the rest.

It seems like you have humble and gracious attitude. Please don't ever loose that! The Lord direct you and bless the work of your hands!

Sounds like you were more than reasonable. This is one of those "being the better person" situations where you may feel like you lost, but your attitude & character were spot on. Albeit sometimes a real bummer for the pocketbook, it is soooo much more valuable.

Always have it in writing regardless, even if it’s a text, I’ve fallen into that trap myself

I see it as a lesson in never compromising your worth. You should get paid for the professional skills which was at a cost to you during your life. Good reflection on not giving your talents away to those that don't honor your worth. You encourage what you tolerate is my mantra. By-the-way, been watching your videos and I am certain you are one of the top professionals out there, not only in your craft, but also in your ability to communicate effectively. You have raised my confidence in working on a floor and appreciate you pointing out how to know a floor a crap job can be sold as a "job well done". You must be doing something right for me to be binge watching your videos. Keep crushing it and avoid the scammers.

Thankyou for sharing this day from hell so others can learn from your mistakes very brave and honest

I was a floorcovering installer in a family business for over 30 years. Best decision I ever made was closing my store and became a bus briver. Enjoyed it more and less stressful. Always get a written contract.

I'm so sorry for your crappy day. You don't deserve that. Shame on that lady!!!

Good man ❤

It sounds like an awful customer. Take it as a lesson on nasty customers and what to look out for. You could always get a little picket going outside her house stating she owes you for a job well done showing before and after pictures. She won't be long paying up to move you on 😂. The job looks amazing. Beautiful work.

I know it hurts a bit taking a financial loss, but as a person you very much won that situation. Good to learn from the experience, but I hope you keep your faith in people. That would be a much greater loss. 😊

This will be an appreciation post. My girlfriend and I started the project of renovating an apartment and one of our main goals was redoing the floor. We followed the videos on this channel vigorously, and it has not let us down. We have a mosaic style floor, with small 5x5 squares of tiny finger width wood pieces arrayed alternatively (horizontal vs longitudinal). It had, as far as we know, more than 30y of continuous use. We do not know of any renovation attempts on it. When we started the renovations first thing we did was cover the floor. I cannot state how important this is. Do not assume that you will shave off the top layer anyway. We rented machines from a local floor sanding store. At first they only gave use the round machines, the ones that Ben uses to polish. This proved to be highly ineffective as our floor after so many years is very uneven. Imagine, that after using the different grits we had patches of lacquer because it couldn’t go down enough. Thus, we gathered our strength for another try, this meant an extended weekend (Fri-Sun). This time we rented the belt sander as well and the difference was instantly visible. We listened to Ben’s advice and took at least one cut, diagonally. We also found out that shops don’t like to rent out the belt sanders as some DIY users don’t use them properly and they end up digging into their floor. We used the advice of this channel and faired well. It takes time, go diagonally, use the different grits, and use the landing&taking off plane analogy. As our floor is uneven, I made a diagonal cut, and then went in a straight line. The floor is still uneven a bit of course, even now, but we got that lacquer down! When you have a mosaic type floor, no matter what direction you go, you will hit some wood against the grain. We accepted this. We used some filler, but only on certain spots. I also have to add that before starting sanding, even before covering the floor, we checked for loose pieces and glued them back with standard Bison glue. After applying the filler polishing went fine. Honestly, to me the hardest thing was the edge sander to handle. Ben makes it look easy on the channel, but it is hard work. I also felt scared that I will leave a transition between the edge sander parts and the big belt sander. As far as we noticed so far, this is not the case for us. Our floor was very uneven, especially near the walls. I made the error that I tilted the edge sander a bit, but in the end I learned that you just have to go back-and-forth patiently and the old coating will come off. After polishing we made an error, we cleaned the floor with a damp cloth, and we noticed that the smootheness of the floor wasn’t the same. Somehow the grain of the wood became more apparent after this wiping so we choose to let it dry completely, re-polish it the next day and only then start applying the first coat. My girlfriend chose a very natural, mat finish, without staining. Upon applying the first coat, we had a major crisis moment when certain white milky spots started to appear. We tried recoating them or using the brush to move them but they would just stick where they appeared. We also could not stop applying the coating cause that would leave dry lines. So we accepted our defeat and went to think until our floor dried with those white spots. Internet gave us some answers, they seemed to be humidity spots. We were getting ready to use all types of solutions on them but when we got back they were gone. We had no milky spots! As far as I can tell, these were recent humidity spots and somehow they resolved themselves, I theorize that the humidity came to the surface of the coating. In these areas the coating was more granular a bit, more sandy, but they got smoothed out with the final polishing with a high grit paper before the 2nd coat. It remains a sort of a mistery to us. We learned a lot about humidity and wood and floors in some anxious 2h of our lives. Second and third coat went on fine. We had about 60 square meters. As approximation we used up an entire can of 5l lacquer, and the second and third coats, combined we used up another can of 5l. About the machines. A. Belt sander - it is a heavy machine and I suggest using proper worker gloves as pressing the lever to lift and lower the belt will be hard on your hand. It is a bit noisy, while the sand can be contained well if you tie down the bag accordingly. B. The polisher - it is harder to operate as they have this bizarre way of controlling the left and right movements (you have to raise and lower the main stem of it). It is not as loud as the sander. Imagine a loud vacuum cleaner. C. Edge sander - the bane of your eardrums and your nostrils. It WILL make a lot of noise, it WILL blow sand in your face and it WILL leave ugly black circular marks on your floor if you don’t treat it properly. I felt the edge sander was the hardest to control and to master. Also you get a good lower back workout. D. Orbital and triangular sanders - we used them for the corners and hard to reach areas. These you can get in most stores and if you are a DIY or have a larger project you will use them. After using both battery and cable powered I have to say go for the cables ones. They just last longer, and seem to have more torque. However, I do admit having a handheld one can also help you sand hard to reach areas. Vacuum clean everything. Vacuum clean often! This will be a huge enemy of yours. Get a very good vacuum cleaner and suck of everything. When you think everything is done….vacuum again. We had our expectation set very low to be honest. We wanted to give it a facelift, but now it feels much more! Did I leave some marks ? Yes. Do I care in the grand scheme of things ? No. The places that will be the most exposed, inside door, near terrace entrance and hallway look extremely good. Do I recommend this for DIY? It depends. We had zero experience of DIY activities. We did however educate ourselves a lot on this subject. We saved about 4x the price of what we paid. We spent around 600-700 euroes, while professional sanding would have cost us around 2500-3000 euros. One important aspect - be careful who you hire. This is also pointed out several times on this channel. If you hire floor professionals that is fine, but do not just hire random workers who also do painting, walls, electricity. They will not do a good job. For example, when we went to rent the machines, there was a crew of two bringing their machines back after 3 days of renting cause they couldn’t turn them on. They received the same minimal training as us, yet they, handymen, couldn’t even turn them on. Do you think these people will watch video after video about how to give your floor a nice look? I think you know the answer, I rest my case. If you are confident, if you have time, if you are patient then go for this DIY project. And follow this channel’s advice! Ben feel free to reach out! Massive respect to you and all the work you have done on this channel!

Aww i hope the lacquer she bought was cheap as hell and fucked up on her lol on a good note you learned a valuable lesson ❤❤❤I hope your over it now . she's the fool not you

What I used to have on my phone was a call recorder app. Then it's very easy to re-play the conversation later when there was a verbal agreement, but one party remembers the conversation differently. Although, nowadays, Google and Apple no longer allow these apps on their download stores.

It seems you caught yourself a KAREN mate. Yeah, you probably shouldn't have gotten out of bed on a Sunday. No contract, no job. Favors will screw you frequenly. You learned the hard way. Clients are clients only!

Some people just don't want to pay and go in knowing that. Be carefull with pushy customers or people that either don't want to put a down payment in or want to negotiate it. They're always trouble. Through the years I've set a rule for myself and steer away from these situations, despite what job it might be.

We have met before years ago on a training course and even then we thought this guy knows his trade. We have these problems occasionally due to being over generous . Continue to be generous and professional although occasions like this can make you feel deflated. Just a bad experience. The fact that you even bother to post your videos shows you love the profession and want to lift the the profile of our work as unfortunately we are under valued and need professionals like you to educate the public to understand and appreciate the value they are receiving for their money. Take care . Mark

Sir, u r a gentleman, a ripped off gentlemen who fell for the oldest trick in the west coast old lady playbook !

Sounds like a nightmare and you didn’t deserve that! Some people really suck. It’s good to hear from you but wish it was under better circumstances.

Dude your doppelgänger is called Steve he has a channel called Reaction To My Roots!!❤❤😂

I had something similar happen to me. When they dont want to hear your innocent side of the story they make you feel like a piece of shite. Sometimes crap just doesn't line up for you. I feel ya bruv.

Hi, any reason why do you use Junckers Base Prime instead of Bona Classic (since that is the lacquer you utilize)?

Dang Ben, absolute nightmare. At least it wasnt a big job. It happens

I feel like "conducting business" is almost or even more challenging than doing the work at times. Unrelated question: how do you finish sand your floors? Im tired of cross grain scratches....😂

I hate Kanen... You are awesome!

Any time you don't follow your normal business procedures it will always screw you over. I know from experience! As you experienced in this situation you ended up with a problem customer that you would have never taken on had you stuck to your normal process. Lesson learned, or relearned. Bad customers are attracted to poor business procedures.

I only watched to the first 41 seconds. I hate to say this but it definitely seems to hold water. The customers you go out of your way to help ….feel bad for...etc. are the ones that you regret ever taking the job. Hearing your 41 second story it sounds so familiar to times I have tried to "help" people. In my experience tell people what you are going to do and then do it and get paid for your services.

It sucks because you are in the right in regards to doing the right thing, but yes as you said, do nothing without a signature. It's unfortunate people can be terrible and take advantage. Sorry to hear about your day from hell hope it gets better.

damned i feel your pain!

I really appreciate hard workers , I thought Bob's flooring from Allentown pa was a good company, but it wasn't, I had them sanding my floor, then I heard one guy say to the other guy , "You burned her floor , I came out and saw a black small area , I said wants that , he said a dog must have went to the bathroom there, I had a big dresser in that corner no dog could have been there, watch theses people, the owner wasn't even there the entire time, only his men who love to lie alot we're there , sadly we all have to deal with unpleasant, and bad characters,😂 I'm sorry you had to deal with a nasty person, you do a good job always have everything down on paper, and if they ask you to take down there curtains tell them it's not included, but I'm more then glad to add it to your bill , please sign here 😂 , krama will bite them , do unto others as you want for yourselves, God bless you ❤

I get customers like that to the ones I always do favors for are ones that always screw me

When you point a finger at a person there are 3 fingers in that hand pointing back at you. It sounds like the customer is a crook by nature and uses the tactic to deny the reality. Personality disorder is becoming more and more common.

I've been looking at becoming a floor polisher/refinisher. What's the hourly rate for this job? Ive found that people say it's 60/hr-160hr but that seems way to high to be true.

There should be a platform where you can let other trades know these certain people a going to be a nightmare. Totally unfair by her and hard to believe people can do such a thing. Looks like you done a good job tho mate.

Verbal contracts are legal in the UK. Small Claims Court could be a solution.

Love your videos mates, I've recently started a floor sanding business and have just ran into a little problem, could i contact you privately? Thanks!

How sad that this woman took advantage of your kindness.😢 Seems like she tried to bully you into making a quick decision and may not have intended to pay you from the start!😮 Maybe she IS a con.🤔 How right you are when you said ALWAYS get your contract put in WRITING! Then it cannot be disputed.😊👍💜

Everyday is a school day

You got played by an old paddy lady, clealry you don't know how tricky they can be. You live and learn mate.

Irish accent, red flag there, it happened to me

In America we would have taken a saw to that floor... I have done it lol

I am a pro but I will not tell you anything negative. You just good man wanted to help older person.

Sounds like you were working for my in-laws, lol. I never get paid (including for materials) for the work I do for them at their place or their rental places. Live and learn I guess. Some people are really nice and decent people, but just get funny when it comes to the money part.

There's a spectrum to people.... The way I see it, at one end there's the like of Donald Trump, Sheev Palpatine and Vladimir Putin, and at the other end, there's you !

You did what you could with what you had. Sorry, that customers can be this way. I believe they got taken before and unfortunately they must have had that negative experience and equated it to what they would expect from you. We know you aren’t like that, but rather an honest tradesman. Seems they had a vendetta from some bad experiences and figured they’d choose to use you as the one to get even with. I like your philosophy of under promise over deliver. The next job will be better and maybe check off the steps to your plan of action to not be misled. Consider an Internet service protection that covers your PC, cell phone, other devices to your business that have identity protection included. It’s become too easy to get hacked and then your identity is stolen if not even sold out to other hackers.

Sure it was the irish accent, that reminded you of granny. Unfortunately she didn't intend to pay you, as the red flags were flying. Horrible day indeed. Hope all things are sorted re the hacking..aarrrgggghhhh. All will be well, its now in the past.

The guy that taught me and I still work with him would have done it like you. But I wouldn't have put up with that. I'd have told her exactly what I said and I'm not doing anything till I'm paid.

0:16 Good on you for not working on the Lord's Day normally

Drives me nuts when people complain about time wasting. Did they pay for a good quality end product or did they pay for 10 hours of blood sweat and tears with no toilet breaks?

Wow! Sorry to hear that. In her age she might have some degree of dementia, which can explain many things. Forget about her and move on. The hijacked email and cloned SIM looks like a more serious issue.

Sorry brother. That’s awful. You need a few days off after that.

thats so sad. i would pour water on her floor.. and go.home...🤷‍♂️

She may have had dementia or something so that she couldn't recall the details. You did the best you could in the situation, but definitely should have insisted on a written and signed estimate especially considering that she said she only wanted the sanding and not a finished result...

Don't envy honest people like yourself with a trade. Not sure I could stay calm in this situation. I notice in my work (IT) some people can just be complete ar$€holes even when you've done a good job, having money on the line must make things miles worse.

Sorry this happened. What an odd series of things to happen, and it sucks that your altruism backfired. No good deed goes unpunished… Been following your content for a while and just recently sanded my floors. May post a short video to see what people think, maybe if you have a moment Floordan Ramsey can lay into me lol. Have you made a video about pet urine stains? It would certainly be an idea if you didn’t. I’ve heard of sanding them down far enough so that they aren’t as visible (only worked to a certain point, diminishing returns after a few passes) I’ve also heard of using oxalis acid or hydrogen peroxide. I’m sure you’ve just replaced sections of floors but curious what your take is. Thanks!

You were played like a fiddle

You’ve just been unlucky, I don’t care how experienced someone is, we all get caught off guard at times, I’m relatively new to floor sanding (4yrs) but I’ve had a floor care business doing other floors for 30yrs, I’ve stopped trying to be a hero as much these days, but occasionally somebody pulls on the old heart strings, I’ll do the same again, virtually all are really good, I don’t judge a majority on the actions of a minority,

Take it to small claims she 100% scammed you.

shoot

Did you shoot through whole family?

Pt Barnum said there’s a sucker born every minute You got suckered I had a guy try to treat me like that once. I had a signed contract with a written specific cash deal The dude brought a bunch of finish from the local Home Depot I told him to pay immediately or his floor sanding would not be completed And he would be sued and have a mechanic lien Needless to say I got paid Fuck scammers I work way too hard to play games Be reasonable,but in a polite way let them know they are trying to cost you dinner tonight

She scammed you and it’s probably just her nature which is why you’re questioning it. She probably put her husband in the grave having spent a lifetime with her gaslighting. Being in business for yourself can suck. I’ve run into this problem as well as underpricing jobs. People who give me shit about taking lunch or talking on the phone I always remind then that they are getting charged the same either way and if it takes me longer then I’m only screwing myself.

Did you get any money from them? Nightmare day.

Change all your passwords again

Wow that's horrible. Sorry buddy. Well you did the right thing to hell with some of these people karma's a bitch.

Was she a traveler 😢?

Sounds like pikey behaviour

Sounds terrible and awkward as sh**. The more I watch your videos the more I wish I’d hired you to sand and finish my floor. I’m too far into it now myself and it was clearly originally put down by the previous owner (diy job)I had to re glue about 700 pieces of wood. Taking me ages. Anyway don’t change who you are, keep up the good work.

They basically scammed you, the floor looks great after sanded , what she did looked crap beforehand. Maybe they cloned your sim lmao??

Check your astrology. Maybe something is happening you are not aware of. Sounds like a lot of things went bad and you made decisions that you self don't understand. I know someone that can help you understand what is happening in your life

HARRY I WAS ROBBED my a sweet old lady on a motorized cart