Am I crazy or just desperate???

JZMechanix

JZMechanix

Active member
Silver Member
I had a lady call me the other day and said that her pool table was damaged when her basement got flooded. I told her that I didn't do any kind of refinishing or restoration work but I would be happy to replace the cloth and rubber and relevel the table. She said that was what she needed and that her insurance would cover the bill.
Here's the kicker... She lives about 120 miles away from me, And since I'd be replacing the rubber I'd have to make 2 trips; one to get the rails and bring them back to my shop to do all the rail work, and of course one more to finish the rest of the job. Do any of you regularly take on jobs that require that much time on the road??
 
work

Why do you have to bring the rails back to the shop? I do all my rubber work including sub rails on the job site. This would save you time and money.
Ron
 
JZMechanix said:
I had a lady call me the other day and said that her pool table was damaged when her basement got flooded. I told her that I didn't do any kind of refinishing or restoration work but I would be happy to replace the cloth and rubber and relevel the table. She said that was what she needed and that her insurance would cover the bill.
Here's the kicker... She lives about 120 miles away from me, And since I'd be replacing the rubber I'd have to make 2 trips; one to get the rails and bring them back to my shop to do all the rail work, and of course one more to finish the rest of the job. Do any of you regularly take on jobs that require that much time on the road??
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I'd guess some of the guys here do but it probably depends on how busy they are.
The job you describe can be done onsite in 1 day. If you choose to take it I'd suggest you include
a fee for your time on the road, meals, incidentals and gas in your quote. Would'nt hurt to bring
a helper and add that cost to the quote also.

Based on the scenario tho - if the table was under water I'd think more then likely it is not repairable
and replacement would probably be the less expensive option for her insurance company.
Why replace cushions and cloth when the rest of the table is screwed.
 
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Make sure you're going to get paid. I've been on the same kind of job before and done the work and waited for the insurance company to send a check only to find out the customer did not have flood insurance. I think I'd pass.
 
I've dealt with many flooded basements before. Make sure you talk to the customer about the strong possibility of replacing their swollen cracked legs. I don't know of any manufacturers that will cover that under warranty.

The other thing that may come up is the fact that new cloth and rubber may not be considered a part of the flood damage depending on how high the water got. If it got that high, I'd say the insurance company will be replacing the whole table. It would still be worth it to you to tear down the old table and get it out and install the new one if you're contracted to do so. But that would be my very first question for the customer is how high did the water get. If the rails and such were not under water, some insurance companies won't pay for the new cloth and rubber.

As far as the distance, I'd do 120 miles all day long. Of course charge for mileage. Reasonable enough to make it worth your time and gas, but don't bust heads, or you won't get the job. I've serviced tables in 5 states. I once did a warranty job 3.5 hours away on a table I'd installed. The company paid mileage, trip and service call to replace a leather pocket. Took all of 15 minutes. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. LOL
 
Make sure you're going to get paid. I've been on the same kind of job before and done the work and waited for the insurance company to send a check only to find out the customer did not have flood insurance. I think I'd pass.
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It's not a bad idea to talk to the customer's insurance agent. Easy enough to let the customer you want to be sure what's covered and not covered, so they don't get stuck with an unexpected charge from you that they though would be covered.

Also at that point, you can find out from the insurance agent if they pay each bill to the biller directly, or if they reinburse the customer. I ran into that before where I thought the insurance company was cutting me a check and it turns out they paid the customer for my work. The guy was honest enough to cut me a check, but I could have gotten screwed on that one.
 
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