Very sad indeed.
Makes you feel like telling those customers who don't like wfp to get lost. Your safety is more important than keeping every single person happy
Ironic isn't it? The day after this post appears I get a phone call from a longstanding customer cancelling. The cancellation was due to alleged scratches on the glass supposedly caused by a very soft bristled WFP brush. I don't doubt there may have been scratches but not from my brush. Such marks are often on glass prior to installation and I suspect that this was an excuse rather than a reason. He told me that he was going with his neighbour's window cleaner because he will clean his gutters out and because he uses traditional methods for window cleaning. I did point out that he had never actually asked me to clean his gutters and that gutter vacuum equipment exists.
This house, like many on the estate, is one of those that has a sloping, tiled roof above the ground floor. It is necessary to walk on tiles to get to the upper floor windows if cleaning the traditional way. Tile breakage is unlikely because they aren't old houses and the tiles are those largish "pan" tiles that seem stronger than most. I have been working on this estate for at least 15 years and used to dread it in the winter before switching to WFP. This was because many of the tiles got mossy (particularly the north facing) and when wet they were lethal. Also, if there was ice on the tiles they were quite dangerous. I was even thinking of packing the jobs in around the time that I found out about WFP. In very cold weather, I even used to work it so that I did these houses in the afternoon when hopefully the tiles were drier.
I'm not saying that this person is a bad customer. They have always been OK. Never messed me about. Paid within a reasonable time frame. I think it's more about a lack of awareness of the issues involved. I don't expect them to be aware of the issues because they probably have never needed to work at height.
I would have liked the opportunity to inspect the scratches though. Although I'm sure they weren't caused by me, I would have like to have seen them in order to be totally certain. I can't be that bad. I cleaned there for maybe 12 years.
I suspect that the real problem is that the woman is rarely there when I clean but she was a couple of cleans ago. Maybe she wasn't aware that I left the glass wet until then. I could be wrong of course.
I just hope the traditional cleaner who is taking over from me knows what he is doing. I wouldn't want someone hurting themself or getting killed. The trouble is, on jobs like that you can be fine for years then one day, you fail to notice a bit of wet moss or an icy patch and that's your lot.
