Have a situation with a customer that I`m not exactly sure how to handle. (We are located in Maryland but this job was done in Virginia)
We detailed a vehicle on a white concrete driveway. It was pretty new and hadn`t weathered much yet. When the wheels were cleaned, it looks like the brake dust that was dissolved by the wheel cleaner dripped onto the driveway and left darker colored marks. The customer asked us to come out and power wash those areas, which we did using a small 1600 psi pressure washer. The marks mostly came off, but not completely and now he is saying we damaged his driveway with the power washing. I have pictures of the original marks and after we power washed them but was unable to upload them here. I should mention that the marks are not prominent and and fairly faint. After power washing you could barely see them.
Now the customer is asking us to pay $2400 to get the driveway resurfaced. This seems very extreme. However I`m not sure how things like this are resolved. The fair thing to do might be to calculate some kind of compensation based on "accelerated wear". I also wouldn`t mind sending him a few hundred dollars so he can pay to get the driveway professionally power washed and bleached or something like that.
He did threaten us and say his wife was a lawyer (I wasn`t able to independently verify this). If he goes that route, I thought maybe I could just refer this to our insurance which I`m sure has plenty of their own lawyers who will probably not be very likely to pay $2400 just because we left some brake dust on his driveway. I thought maybe I could give him the option for us to send him a check for a few hundred dollars OR if he wants more I`ll refer it to the insurance who will likely not pay anything. I`ve never referred anything to insurance before, so I`m not sure how that all works and if they actually might pay and raise my rates or something.
Any and all advice is appreciated!
We detailed a vehicle on a white concrete driveway. It was pretty new and hadn`t weathered much yet. When the wheels were cleaned, it looks like the brake dust that was dissolved by the wheel cleaner dripped onto the driveway and left darker colored marks. The customer asked us to come out and power wash those areas, which we did using a small 1600 psi pressure washer. The marks mostly came off, but not completely and now he is saying we damaged his driveway with the power washing. I have pictures of the original marks and after we power washed them but was unable to upload them here. I should mention that the marks are not prominent and and fairly faint. After power washing you could barely see them.
Now the customer is asking us to pay $2400 to get the driveway resurfaced. This seems very extreme. However I`m not sure how things like this are resolved. The fair thing to do might be to calculate some kind of compensation based on "accelerated wear". I also wouldn`t mind sending him a few hundred dollars so he can pay to get the driveway professionally power washed and bleached or something like that.
He did threaten us and say his wife was a lawyer (I wasn`t able to independently verify this). If he goes that route, I thought maybe I could just refer this to our insurance which I`m sure has plenty of their own lawyers who will probably not be very likely to pay $2400 just because we left some brake dust on his driveway. I thought maybe I could give him the option for us to send him a check for a few hundred dollars OR if he wants more I`ll refer it to the insurance who will likely not pay anything. I`ve never referred anything to insurance before, so I`m not sure how that all works and if they actually might pay and raise my rates or something.
Any and all advice is appreciated!
