"I'm a Woman"

The other day I was doing a staining job for an elderly couple. We had already completed their roof repairs and were now finishing up by staining their deck, which is quite extensive. Part of the process is having the customer pick out a color, which I did. Then I bought the stain and my crew went to work.

The next day I received a phone call from the woman stating that the deck was not the color she had picked out. I knew that it was and took the color chart we had marked over to her home for comparison. Sure enough, it was the right color. The fact of the matter was, she did not like the color after it was applied. This was a solid stain and she was now stating that she wanted natural wood to show through. I think she was expecting that I would have a magic wand and just change it and eat the cost of the work done so far.

I asked her what had changed from the day before. she said, "I'm a woman, I have a right to change my mind." Excuse me, but I didn't see that clause in the contract.

I told my client that I would make any changes she wanted in the stain at cost (meaning there would be additional costs but no additional profit). So her daughter was going to help her pick out new colors. Later that day I received another call. All they wanted to do now was change the color that the benches would be stained. Fortunately, the benches had not yet been stained. It seems the daughter liked the color..... so now it must be okay again. My only fear is that her daughter is a woman, too.