Charge A Fee For Weeks Of Contact Flaking?

[straight-outta-compin']

Good afternoon, folx!

I'm an office manager at a small appraisal collective.

We had an order for a refi that I accepted and immediately reached out to schedule.

This is where it gets tricky. We never actually went out to the property, but:

On five occasions over the period of a month, the owner/contact flaked on us less than 24 hours prior to the scheduled inspection time. Every time she cancelled, I would update the client, who would then ask when we could do it. I would immediately try to reschedule with the contact (via email/text/phone) twice a day and hear nothing for almost a week each time, at which point she would then tell me what worked for her and I'd confirm and schedule another inspection that ... again, she'd cancel. All the while, the client is asking for updates and all of my updates are "still nothing". We repeated this process five times in the past month.

I kept the client updated at every turn and every attempt to contact, so there's a paper trail where they can see our efforts. They finally cancelled the order today and asked for any fees we would require.

I know we never went out to the property, so there's no trip fee. But we lost revenue trying to decline/reschedule/shuffle/re-map weeks of other orders and rushes and quotes and bids to fit her in every time, only to have that spot vacated with little opportunity to fill it (we seem to get more rushes than anything so it's not super fluid).

So, friends: is there anything I could charge for the wasted time/loss of income/ibuprofen we had to take to deal with it?

 

[BRCJR]

I probably would not charge anything. That, in my opinion, is a good client that will ask "what they owe you".
They will remember how you handled that situation.

 

[straight-outta-compin']

I probably would not charge anything. That, in my opinion, is a good client that will ask "what they owe you".
They will remember how you handled that situation.

Yeah, that was my gut feeling. Ugh, damn you, Tammy*!


*not the contact's real name

 

[Overimprovement]

I agree--cost of business. Do other business with them? Hope to do more in the future? If 'yes' to either, no fee. Doesn't really take much time to make appointments.

 

[J Grant]

Good afternoon, folx!

I'm an office manager at a small appraisal collective.

We had an order for a refi that I accepted and immediately reached out to schedule.

This is where it gets tricky. We never actually went out to the property, but:

On five occasions over the period of a month, the owner/contact flaked on us less than 24 hours prior to the scheduled inspection time. Every time she cancelled, I would update the client, who would then ask when we could do it. I would immediately try to reschedule with the contact (via email/text/phone) twice a day and hear nothing for almost a week each time, at which point she would then tell me what worked for her and I'd confirm and schedule another inspection that ... again, she'd cancel. All the while, the client is asking for updates and all of my updates are "still nothing". We repeated this process five times in the past month.

I kept the client updated at every turn and every attempt to contact, so there's a paper trail where they can see our efforts. They finally cancelled the order today and asked for any fees we would require.

I know we never went out to the property, so there's no trip fee. But we lost revenue trying to decline/reschedule/shuffle/re-map weeks of other orders and rushes and quotes and bids to fit her in every time, only to have that spot vacated with little opportunity to fill it (we seem to get more rushes than anything so it's not super fluid).

So, friends: is there anything I could charge for the wasted time/loss of income/ibuprofen we had to take to deal with it?

This Client OFFERED to pay for any fees, why wouldn't you charge them ? . Charge them whatever you think might be appropriate-$100,, something to recoup your loss

 

[miktay]

I just came here to see your screen name!

 

[J Grant]

IF a client offers to pay a fee knowing you did not visit the property but spent lots of time on it, they expect a charge and will think you are unprofessional for not charging. They won't "reward" you for not charging. Either they like the work your firm does or they don't. If at some point they don't like it, they will drop you and the fact you did not charge for this will mean nothing. Whatever you charge will never really recoup all the wasted time and effort and loss of other business as you put aside appointments for this property only to be cancelled multiple times.

 

[glenn walker]

Nothing- Just move on

 

[Deleted member 130081]

Good afternoon, folx!

I'm an office manager at a small appraisal collective.

We had an order for a refi that I accepted and immediately reached out to schedule.

This is where it gets tricky. We never actually went out to the property, but:

On five occasions over the period of a month, the owner/contact flaked on us less than 24 hours prior to the scheduled inspection time. Every time she cancelled, I would update the client, who would then ask when we could do it. I would immediately try to reschedule with the contact (via email/text/phone) twice a day and hear nothing for almost a week each time, at which point she would then tell me what worked for her and I'd confirm and schedule another inspection that ... again, she'd cancel. All the while, the client is asking for updates and all of my updates are "still nothing". We repeated this process five times in the past month.

I kept the client updated at every turn and every attempt to contact, so there's a paper trail where they can see our efforts. They finally cancelled the order today and asked for any fees we would require.

I know we never went out to the property, so there's no trip fee. But we lost revenue trying to decline/reschedule/shuffle/re-map weeks of other orders and rushes and quotes and bids to fit her in every time, only to have that spot vacated with little opportunity to fill it (we seem to get more rushes than anything so it's not super fluid).

So, friends: is there anything I could charge for the wasted time/loss of income/ibuprofen we had to take to deal with it?

I would have informed the client fees would apply after the second cancellation, then collected on the 3rd, 4th and 5th. That would have put the problem in their lap early on. In a business where clients routinely take advantage of our bottom line, why would you bend over and take more of it just to "be a good service provider". You sound like a sucker to me. Give me a call, I have a property to sell you.

 

[straight-outta-compin']

I would have informed the client fees would apply after the second cancellation, then collected on the 3rd, 4th and 5th. That would have put the problem in their lap early on. In a business where clients routinely take advantage of our bottom line, why would you bend over and take more of it just to "be a good service provider". You sound like a sucker to me. Give me a call, I have a property to sell you.

I like your idea. **** happens, I get it - but I was definitely miffed after the second time.

Eh, then my employer is the sucker - I know he would have wanted me to "bend over", but that didn't sit well with me. I'm basically a glorified secretary/preliminary researcher - I call a lot of the shots with orders and things, but when it comes to client interaction, he wants us to be nice. Everyone's "a good client". It was more of a "principal of the matter" sort of thing for me... it affected my time/stress levels more than anyone else's, but it certainly shaved off a couple hundred bucks from the company's earnings.