[sunshine windows]

I turned up to clean a job the other day.

To give you all an impression of what this old bloke is like, he originally called for a window quote and i gave him the price. "Oh but we're pensioners, we can't afford that. How about every other month". I agreed to this at no extra cost than monthly.

Turned up to clean the windows and he asked if i could do the guttering aswell. As i was in the early stages of building my round and wasn't that busy i agreed. Was charging £20 per side then so it was a £60 quote. Plus windows should have been £72 total. He nearly had a heart attack and in the end i agreed to do the lot for £52. He begrudgingly agreed to this.

After i finished the clean he and his missus were well impressed and decided that they would have the windows cleaned monthly after all.

Every month since then i dreaded going round to clean his windows because he would always try and get me to do the job for cheaper but i insisted that they were £12 or not at all.

Started offloading my ladder the other day and he comes to the front door. "I haven't got any money for you today". That's ok i tell him, i'll leave you an envelope and you can send me a cheque. "No, don't want them done, they're rubbish". I asked him what was the problem and he said they were smeared and streaked everywhere.

Even though i know (or hope so) that this is complete C**P. I haven't had a single complaint since starting up, i actually let this old T****R get to me and started to doubt myself. For the rest of the day i was re-checking all of my work just in case i was leaving smears on the panes.

The point to this is, i was wondering how any, or all of you have coped with being dumped by a customer because of complaints about your work. Do you think you were genuinely dumped and did you let it affect you in any way.

Boy am i glad i got rid of that one. 

Sunshine

[craig jwc]

He obviously didn't like paying out for just having his windows cleaned.
People will make all sorts of excuses for you to stop cleaning their windows because they don't like admitting they can't afford it.

[windows_chepstow]

This has happened to me twice, (pre-WFP), where a customer has slated our work to drop us; purely because they - for whatever reason - don't want a window cleaner anymore.

The third time this happened, post-WFP, I took my ladders and checked every window on a Saturday morning.

They were spotless.

I knocked and told the customer what I found.  He blamed his missis.  The following month I was told that they didn't like the WFP as it took the windows 'too long to dry'.

I dropped them.  They obviously didn't want a window cleaner.

It's impossible to do this if a month has elapsed in-between the clean and them informing you though.

In this instance, take the high-ground, and give them a serious quizzing on why they didn't phone you when they realised they had a sub-standard job.

Tell them that your contact details are on ALL your chits/stationery that you push through their door; so there's no excuse for them not knowing your number.

Imply that you think there's something 'fishy' going on, because it is strange that they complain a month after the clean they're upset about.

[carl stanton]

had this lady some years back, she was my first customer in that area! she had a wc befor got rid of him leaving smears!   hmm
she had an extention built so price rise from £4 to £5
she said but i have only had 2 windows put in [my maths is bad but there was 3]
me the sucker ok ok £4.50 for 10 windows yes 10! any way every so often i would wipe frames, foc, as she was my 1st customer there, as agreed i would put a chitty in to say cleaned and she would send a cheuqe in the post, which i say again we agreed
so she called up one day to say not happy left black marks on cills,  and i never colect the money so she had to get a stamp, so  i said i do the frames foc, never thanked me and i she knocked me down in price! so naff off! but with out naff off so i was another wc to add to her list, im sooo sad as that  is my biggest round there what does that say

[Trevor Knight]

If I get a complaint I always apologise, get back ASAP and re clean. If when I get ther I feel the complaint is not justified I explain that on this occasion I will not charge for the call out but will in future.

A point to note, whenever I take on a new customer I always explain that we are human too and can make mistakes and all I ask is the customer contacts me within 24 hrs, for two reasons, 1) To see what I have missed, and rectify the problem 2) I am not going to come back for something that happens over a week ago as to many other factors may be involved, rain, dust etc.. My contact details are on ALL paperwork etc.. so there is no excuse for not ringing. I politely drop into the conversation that I was called back last month to a job that wasn't my fault so I charged them a call out fee to cover time and petrol.

Generally now, any call backs are down to me and my guy's and not a blag from the customer. Its handy as well as I can give the lads a kick in the knackers if its their windows that are bad