Fuzzy Math

I called an upholstery cleaning company, Coit, who shall remain nameless, and asked, roughly, what it might cost to clean two love seats.

"Seventy-five dollars each, but this month we're having a 40% discount," said the nice lady.

"Send 'em over," I replied.

Tech comes in the next day, looks at the furniture, strokes his chin, and sits down with a calculator (I should have know that was a bad sign).

Eventual estimate, after carrying the three, came out thusly:

$75 + $75 - 0.40 x ($150) = $200.36

I cursed him like a red-headed step-child and escorted him from the building.

FOLLOW UP--- I called the company, COIT, who shall still remain nameless, and politely inquired: "Good afternoon. I am a dissatisfied prospective customer. May I speak to whomever handles complaints?"

"The manager and supervisor are out of the office for a training session. I can transfer you to their voice mail," was the official response.

"Hmm. Now I have two complaints," said I. "I'll try again tomorrow."

Continuing...

Reply to
HeyBub
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I guess it would have been too easy to just tell him that the price should be $90 plus tax, if any?

And what exactly is the objective at this point? If they are too dumb and or lacking in customer service, why not just find another company?

Reply to
trader4

Why? While some people are able to do that type of math in their head, why is it a "bad sign" when the estimator pulls out a calculator?

The guy cleans furniture for a living - and I say that with all due respect to a hopefully hard working guy. Odds are he doesn't have a degree in mathematics.

I work with numbers all day and I'd be lost without my calculator.

OK, so this might be a silly question, but why didn't you simply point out the math error to the tech? If at that point he was still confused, he could have called his office for verification.

What did you gain by cursing him like a red-headed step-child and escorting him from the building?

Why? Because no one was sitting around waiting for you to blow in an employee for a math error?

Now that's a shame.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

I'm not sure what the problem is here. This is the same math that Nobama's been using for the last 3+ years.

Reply to
rlz

What's your point? If you wanted to show just how big a jerk you can be you succeeded. Normal people would have shown him his error.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

Hi, You must have too much idle time to waste. I don't want to deal with a guy(s) who needs calculator to figure that out. That is elementary school algebra. Don't even call it math.

I just went thru similar experience trying to find a reasonable contractor to replace our aging furnace. I had two model choices with result of manual J calculation I did.

4 guys in a row JUST gave me total cost+tax. 5th guy did his own manual J which was very close to my calculation. Needs 100K BTU 96% AFUE furnace, 2 stage variable speed). His quote had detailed itemized costs including tax. Surprisingly his price was the lowest. He knows what he is talking about and doing. No sales man no fancy office, but doing this for 35 years with good references.(my BIL who is in commercial side of HVAC business confirmed this independent guy's reputation. Once local tech college instructor) Only thing I have to do to help him is setting up wireless 'stat (I have two of them already, one as a back up 916MHz one and 433MHz one)
Reply to
Tony Hwang

I'm confused. Did you give him the 200?

If so, shame on you.

Reply to
gfretwell

If he gave him the $200 then he shortchanged the upholstery guy.

Reply to
badgolferman

Yup, one of his secrets as to how unemployment has gone down ;)

Reply to
Frank

Would you or somebody please explain how you can get that answer with those numbers?

If you do it the way you have it you get $22,440

If you do ($75 + $75) - (0.40 x $150) it works, ditto for $75 + $75 - (.40 x $150).

Reply to
dadiOH

Tax.

Reply to
badgolferman

Really? Do you really fault a guy who cleans furniture for a living for using a calculator to figure out a 40% discount on a $150 job?

Would you also expect him to figure the tax on the discounted amount in his head? I've lived in places where the total sales tax might be something like 8.25%. Sure, I'm not putting a man on Mars with these calculations, but I wouldn't be embarrased to use a calculator to find

8.25% of $90.

HeyBub may have too much time on his hands, but you are way too harsh on your contractors.

Did he do the calculations in his head? Where's the line where it's OK for your contractors to pull out a calculator?

Hide quoted text -

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Well it is "heybub" who demonstrates the only reason he/she is here is to screw with people for personal entertainment. Who knows if he/she even called the cleaning company or if he/she even owns furniture. It was just time for another ridiculous story from a bored housewife...

Reply to
George

I did. $118.00. Total.

Reply to
HeyBub

Huh? Business Administration 101 emphasizes that an enterprise must ALWAYS handle complaints expeditiously. That the company was unable to even acknowledge the misunderstanding (at a minimum) simple ups the righteous indignation level.

It may turn out, that because of this thread, thousands upon thousands of potential customers are lost to Coit (who shall remain nameless).

But you raise a good point. I wasn't cursing him for a math error, I was dismayed that MY calculation of $90 was nowhere close to their final offer of $200.

I am not the sort of person who falls for the "Invisible Rust Protection Coating" on a new car either.

Reply to
HeyBub

Nah. Another company was eager for my business.

Reply to
HeyBub

Maybe. But I don't get screwed on contracted projects. Sorry about you.

Reply to
HeyBub

Ooo! Wish I'd thought of that. But no, I gave slightly over half the $200 to another company. The other company didn't charge a $45 service call, $8 for chemicals, or threaten me with perdition if I didn't include a ScochGuard treatment.

Reply to
HeyBub
[snip]

Which is the normal way of doing it (multiplication before addition). My calculator knows that, and gets $90.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Huh?...right back at you. The only thing that you posted was that the rep who answered the phone offered to put you through to the manager's and a supervisor's voice mail. If what you said that you said is true, i.e. that you politely asked to speak to whoever handles complaints, the rep did the correct thing: (S)he told you that the person(s) were not available and offered to put you through to their voicemail.

Where's the lack of acknowledgment of the misunderstanding? If you've left the rest of that conversation out of your post and you were actually treated badly by the person you spoke to, then don't "Huh?" me because there is no way any I or anyone else reading this thread could have known that. For all we know, you spoke to a receptionist who is not responsible for dealing with complaints but who *is* responsible for getting you to the right person, which, according to you, (s)he tried to do. (S)he in fact did acknowledge your situation by trying to get you directly into the proper person's voice mail so that you could explain the situation in your own words.

That's a lot better "acknowledgment" than simply saying "No one is available, call back later." or "Leave your name and number and I'll have someone call you."

The fact that you chose not to leave a voicemail with the person(s) that *you* asked for doesn't give you any right to be indignant.

Have you noticed how many people have not said a single thing about the company, but have only talked about how poorly *you* handled the situation?

It may turn out, that because of this thread, thousands upon thousands of potential readers will ignore the furture posts of HeyBub (who shan't remain nameless).

You were "dismayed" so you cursed out the guy and then got indignant with the person who answered the phone? Did you ever ask for an explanation of the estimate when the guy said $200.36? If you did, you sure didn't mention that in your OP nor show any other numbers that would support that value. What you posted appears to nothing more than a math error.

How does that relate to this thread? Did the tech try to sell you something extra - something that you never mentioned in your OP - that caused the estimate to be higher? If so, how are we supposed to know that?

Go re-read you OP and see how silly you sound.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

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