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Great Client, terrible contact person

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  abdulrehmanis 
#1 ·
I have been in business for 24 years. I have had this particular client for 5 years. I have had to deal with the same facility manager the entire time. She's actually a super nice lady on a personal level and We do not have many issues, but when one comes up, watch out. The woman will lie to over dramatize what is wrong, or outright lie to make it look like our fault. Example: I was told that people were smoking and throwing their cigarette butts in the landscaping. My crew doesn't take breaks on this job as we are not there for a long period of time, and I'm always there. I see everyone working. But my contact went so far as to say she had one of my "kids" on video smoking outside. I told her I needed to see the video as this breaks one of my top rules of no smoking at the job sights, EVER!! When I asked to see the video she proceeded to keep pushing as to, do my people take breaks, do they smoke (if you have video of them, then you should know the answer to this question). I again asked to see the video, then her story changes, Now it was one of the warehouse kids smoking outside. If we miss a garbage can, it's we missed 5 garbage cans, if we didn't vacuum up a footprint or some dirt the night before in some remote area that only gets checked a few times a week, she says it was there for 2 weeks. And she always says President of the company brought it to her attention. Joe saw these footprints here, they need cleaned up they have been there for a week, maybe even 2. Then the next line of the email is I DO NOT WANT YOU TALKING TO JOE ABOUT THIS AT ALL!!! Why? Because previously she made up a horrendous lie that would have gotten me in big trouble, and the president had to come to the building in the middle of the night. She told me not to even talk to him, he was "Livid" Now I'm freaked out, I didn't do anything, the guys couldn't get the alarm set, they asked me if I could try my code and when I did , it shut the system down. She said she was told I just walked over and started punching in random numbers. I was standing there the entire time the dude was on the phone with her and I didn't hear him say anything like that. So i'm outside doing some work in the parking lot, and here comes the president, I avoid him like the plague, but his dog came running up to me and now I'm stuck face to face with him. I started blubbering like a baby, I was so mad it was the only way I could vent. I told him what she said and apparently he called her up and chewed her out. Then, They did some work on a door they built under a flight of stairs, we only go in that area once or twice a week. She said the dirt was there for over a week, when I know I went in there last Friday. The clients are told if any contractors come in and do work, we need to be informed, so 1. we know it's there and 2. we can charge for the extra work. She never tells me about work being done, I have to discover it for myself... Another one is a long deep scratch in the wall, she said we did it with our garbage can, and one of the "people" in the office took our can over and it lined up perfectly. I'm not sure how, the mark was a foot above our roll around, and it was about 4 feet long, not just a scuff, but an actual indent in the wall, like someone took the can and threw it down the wall, NOPE, there are people there the whole time we are, so I think someone would have noticed. Now, here's what really happened they moved desks around in the office area and that is how it was done. She was on sick leave from October - January when it happened, so I told the fill in contact about the mark on the wall. This was 3 months ago, she just came back to work the 2nd of January and she is just now telling me about it 2 weeks ago. I will add, for the 2 months she was out of the office, we didn't have one single complaint. So, I take my garbage can over, put it under the mark on the wall, have one of my girls stand to the side, point at the scratch, and I take a picture. This scratch was literally a foot higher than my can. So we walk past it and she points it out again, see this, we are having it fixed, but it can't happen again. I show her the picture and tell her that whoever put the garbage can there didn't have my can. These types of things have been going on for 5 years now, I don't know what to do. Do I go to her superior? Do I got to the president of the company, we speak often while we are in there cleaning? Talking to her isn't really an option as she will deny it? I really like this client, and I enjoy my work there, but she is getting to be an unbearable control freak. Help me out, PLEASE.
 
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