Thread: Two Cancellations In the Last 24 Hours

My 9am inspection for today canceled on me about 2:00pm yesterday and my Tuesday 9am inspection canceled at 8am this morning. Oh well. I need to get some yard work done anyway.

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I don't mind cancellations when work around the house is piling up. For me it's easy to loose track of how long some of the unopened mail has been on my deck.

As if these two last minute cancellations weren't enough, I got screwed for the 3rd time in one week. I spoke with a buyer on Monday who was referred to me by his realtor. The buyer said he would take my Thursday slot this week and I gave him the option of a 9am or 2pm start time. The buyer said he would check with the sellers as to what the best time was and he would call me back. This was at 9:30 in the morning and I sent an e-mail to his realtor immediately afterwards letting his know I was waiting for confirmation on what start time would work best. The rest of the day Monday went with no communications. Today, I call the buyer and leave him a voicemail message. Later in the day, I send an e-mail to him and copy his realtor asking for confirmation on the start time. Tonight, I've still heard nothing so I leave a voicemail for the realtor. The realtor calls me back about 9pm and leaves a message stating the buyer already had his home inspection done today. WTF??????? Common courtesy says that somebody should have contacted me to let me know my services would not be needed. This is the 2nd time this realtor and/or one of his clients has left me hanging due to a lack of communication.

Lesson learned.

Nick, that really stinks. We've had similar issues but generally deal with them by telling callers that they cannot reserve a time slot without going through the full process of making an appointment. And we generally won't book tentative appointments. It's happened that someone has called and wanted a certain slot but didn't want to make the commitment; they call back the next day and are dismayed to find out their preferred slot has been filled in the meantime. But often they'll then decide to take a different slot.
We've toyed with the idea of a cancellation fee but ultimately decided against it. Do any other inspectors have cancellation fees?

It just happens, and we really can not do much about it. We live in a "Me" society and it seems that it is only getting worse.

I seldom have cancellations and the ones I do seem to be made an hour or two after the person books the appointment.

I do not know of any home inspector who has a successful cancellation fee program that is in place and that they actually collect the fee. I know if I was a buyer I would not even deal with a person that had a cancellation fee, things happen and folks have to cancel or reschedule.

About the only folks I know that say they have cancellation fees are hair stylist and doctors! But then they also deal in repeat customers so if you screw them by not showing up for an appointment they will get you the next time! We as home inspectors do not have this type of client...

I stopped the the whole "penciling somebody in" thing a while ago. As for this last guy, I had all his information, house info, services he wanted, his e-mail, his phone number, address, etc. He said he was going to call the owner and call me back. That was 9:30am on Monday. The inspection was essentially booked and just waiting for confirmation on the start time. My error in this was giving him a choice of times. But I think even if I had told him the inspection start time had to be at 9am, he still would have screwed me and never called me back.

Cancel fees are unenforceable. Some people have offered to pay me something but I always turned it down. At least these type of people get it and understand they're screwing you even if it's not intentional. As for the others and their realtors who play a roll in pulling the rug out from under me, they go to the bottom of my priority list if I ever hear from them again.

I too have quit "pencilling in" inspections. When clients call I tell them the times that I have available are as of right now and that if they call back later to firm up an inspection those times may be gone.

What helps in my small corner of the world is that I'm in regular contact with the 3 other inspectors in the area that I consider to be very good. If we get a "time shopper" and become aware of it (client says they have another inspector scheduled but likes my time better), we start calling each other for a heads up. We also tell the clients we'll schedule them as soon as cancellation of the other inspector is confirmed. That tends to keep the no-notice or after-the-fact cancellations to a minimum and also prevents the appearance of stealing work out from under other professionals.

I would love to have today's job cancel. Small house with crawl in a poor neighborhood. Vacant so I expect the A/C will be off. 105 degrees is expected. I hate this weather.

I tell people what the available slots are at the time of the message. If they don't commit at that point, I tell them to call asap when they decide, and if their option is still open, we'll book it.

I have no problem waiting for any slot to be filled. With that in mind, I never wait for a specific person to fill one.

I just factor in cancellations as part of the cost of doing business. It's been super busy lately and I typically schedule 2 a day. Honestly, I don't want to do 2 everyday and on average lose 1 a week for some reason. Some weeks 2 or 3, some weeks zero. I always keep my golf clubs in the truck or have a project at home that I'm ready to dive into with the unexpected free time.