Vent: Customer's dog decided my power stretcher was a chew toy

I was in Greenville last Tuesday installing a nice nylon carpet in a living room, had my stretcher set up perfect. I turn around for maybe 30 seconds to grab my knee kicker, and this golden retriever grabs the rubber pad off my stretcher and runs off. By the time I caught him, the pad was shredded. Had to pack up and drive 40 minutes to the nearest supply house for a replacement, lost half my profit on that job. Anyone else have animals wreck their tools mid install?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige_harris23h ago

I used to think people were overreacting when they talked about pets wrecking their tools but that golden retriever story changed my mind hard. You had your stretcher set perfect and then boom, 30 seconds and it's done. I had a cat decide my chisel was a toy once, but that was just a scratch. A shredded rubber pad though, that's a whole different level of damage. Did you at least get to bill the customer for the replacement or did you just eat that cost?

leeknight22h ago

Man people really act like a torn rubber pad is the end of the world. @paige_harris I get it's annoying but stretcher bars are like 15 bucks at any hardware store. Sounds like the owner should replace it but I wouldn't even bother billing them, just grab a new one and move on. Now if it was a expensive digital tool or something I'd be mad, but a rubber pad is basically a consumable anyway.