David Gray, who owns Martin’s Custom Flooring in Ventura, Calif., will never forget one time a typo turned into a free sanding job. As he tells it: “When I was 23, I had just bought my company and had a lot of work; I was young and thought I knew everything. One Saturday I was supposed to start a sand job, but I was finishing another job, so I sent my employee to start. I got a call from him saying a handyman at the job told him he had heard nothing of them sanding floors. I told him to tell the handyman my contract was with the homeowner and to mind his own business. So, my guy tore out the carpet. I got done with my job and headed down to start sanding. As I was driving, I saw the stack of carpet on the wrong side of the street in front of the wrong house. I then realized I had flipped the address numbers in the text to my guy: 167 instead of 176. My heart sank. He had torn out and cut up 1,200 square feet of really clean, new-looking berber. I left a note on the door telling the homeowners to call me. I was sanding the (correct) job across the street when they called. They were pretty cool about it; I told them I’d pay for new carpet, or, if they wanted, I’d sand and finish their floors for free. Luckily they had me refinish them, so it only cost me finish, paper and time.”
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