Excuses 101

I received the following from a new company bidding on a cleaning job and followed it up with the customers reply comments. They had to raise the bid price once they realized the job actually had to be clean when done!!
Of course one wonders what part of "Remove all Grease" was not understood. At least they were far better than the previous companies at getting the bid information out!! The previous company would not even describe why the cost was going to be so much or what a normal repeat cost would be.
Nelson said it quite eloquently: "It’s kind of like a dentist who says that he’s getting a lot of the decay now and he’ll be sure to get the rest of it on the next visit. That’s OK for him, he’s never going to get the toothache!"
Here You Go:

"XXXX,
I spoke to Don yesterday and tried to reach you. I am a bit embarrassed to have to have this conversation, but in order to ensure that we meet your needs and quality standards, it is necessary. After my discussion last Friday with Don, and his emphasis on his program and the absolute requirement that all areas be cleaned to bare metal, the first time, I had a follow-up conversation with my Hood & Duct Cleaning Manager, XXXXX, to ensure that he understood these requirements.

Given the condition of the two sites we visited, and the excessive grease buildup, XXXX's strategy was to really attack the initial cleaning and then on the subsequent quarterly cleaning, to get it bare metal. He felt there was not enough time in one night to get to bare metal, especially at XXX. Don made it clear on Friday that this approach would not cut it. So, I asked XXXX to devise a plan to get to bare metal on the initial cleaning. He came back with the requirement to come in two evenings in a row in order to achieve this. This has obvious implications on manpower and cost.

To achieve this goal, the costs are reflected below. We want to work with you on this to ensure that the job gets done to Don and your standards. The costs that changed are the initial cleanings, reflecting the increased work to achieve the desired result. The regular quarterly cleanings have had no change in cost. Please let me know what we need to do here to meet your needs?

Cost Summary
XXXX
· I will forward the new proposal (including the language that all areas will be cleaned not just accessible areas) once I hear back from you. My office number is XXXXX or cell is XXXXX. I am in meetings much of the day but will break out when you call.

Regards,

XXXXX

and the reply to their letter from the customer:

Hello XXXX,
Wow! I can certainly understand why you’re embarrassed. Is it standard practice for XXXXXXX to not clean exhaust down to bare metal? Just makes me worry about what would’ve happened if we hadn’t had Don’s inspection program involved. I had to work very hard to try to push this through at the old cost as the budget is very tight right now, but with this added extra expense I don’t know if they’ll accept it or not. Is there anything you can do with this price? Maybe through in the access panel installations for free to make up for your embarrassment? Let me know please. In the mean time I’ll try to justify to my superiors why the cost has gone up. Thanks.

XXXX