Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Soupy on December 18, 2020, 12:16:00 pm
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Contacted me through my website, customer just had their second clean:
I had a ticket through my door stating windows were cleaned with no date. I can categorically confirm the windows were never cleaned. I work from home all day everyday and my daughter is also at home. We also have a little dog who will bark at anyone or anything that comes near the house door let alone someone at the window. There has been no cleaner at this house. This is really bad and therefore I would like this service cancelled with immediate effect.
My reply:
Good morning,
Not sure what’s happened here. This is obviously very serious and I will need to investigate this fully.
I have checked the trackers and it looks like Chris arrived at your house at 09:14 on Wednesday 16/12/20 and was parked there until 09:37.
Can you check the picture below and confirm this is the correct location?
Picture attached that's pretty conclusive
Many thanks,
Soupy
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Lol nice one what did she say to that then. 👍
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Cow
Seems she's not a cow now ;D
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Lol nice one what did she say to that then.
Her reply:
Thank you for your email and supporting evidence. Now i just want to sincerely apologise.
oh my goodness I am just so super sorry for this.
I am all over the place this week with one thing and another -
I left my house just after 9am on Wednesday morning and popped to see my dad to drop something off, to take to my mum who has now been taken to Roxburgh House. As this was such a flying visit I was home within half an hour or so and back to work so going by those times it appears we have overlapped each other.
It absolutely never occurred to me that he had been earlier - sitting at the desk all day makes you forget what you have done - for some reason I marked my entry into my diary on Wednesday so I was not home .
Once again I am so sorry to doubt the cleaner and I am therefore happy to resume my service. if you can let me know what time you open and I will call you to make my payment.
Roxburgh house is a palliative care unit so I feel kinda bad.
Anyway, she's been on the phone and paid the bill, very apologetic. Just goes to show you never know what's going on behind the scenes in these cases and you should always be polite and state your case calmly and sensibly.
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Just goes to show you never know what's going on behind the scenes in these cases and you should always be polite and state your case calmly and sensibly.
Good advice 👍
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Maybe I need to get a tracker for my van. Sometimes I haven't a clue where I am. ;D
Seriously though I don't know what I would make of this Soupy. I'm getting more and more cynical with age and past experience. Surely she would have seen that the windows were clean and in the cold weather there would still have been some water droplets remaining on the windows. What about the daughter being at home?
She sounds like the wife. Shouts her mouth off before investigating the situation. Always emotionally involved and never thinks logically about anything.
Yes, there should have been a date on the slip but that doesn't change the situation. If they pick up their mail when they come in through the door then they will have to conclude that the windows were cleaned on that day as the slip wasn't there when they picked the post up the previous evening.
I'm wondering whether they were taking a chance but got caught with evidence they couldn't argue against. I then wonder if the clean will be cancelled in the near future. I would tread very wearily next clean - possibly text the evening before the clean. As window cleaners we have to gain the trust of our customers. This takes time. On the other hand, a new customer has to gain the trust of the window cleaner. This side didn't go too well.
The trouble with this is that as a sole trader something like this happening to us would mean the only 'proof' we have of cleaning the house was the slip put through the door. That slip alone doesn't mean that much as slips can be put through a door without a clean taking place. In our area, the customer's 'wild talk' among friends and neighbours could hammer our reputation.
We have already been accused of not cleaning the back of a house because he had a locked gate. He wasn't interested in son showing him how we deal with this. So we took half payment and left. We actually spoke to the owners of the house and informed him of the actions of his tenant. (When they lived at the house we got over the same gate to clean the backs.) I also figured that as they were part of the local community they would also counteract any negative stories spreading about this. We never heard another word about it.
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Maybe I need to get a tracker for my van. Sometimes I haven't a clue where I am. ;D
Seriously though I don't know what I would make of this Soupy. I'm getting more and more cynical with age and past experience. Surely she would have seen that the windows were clean and in the cold weather there would still have been some water droplets remaining on the windows. What about the daughter being at home?
She sounds like the wife. Shouts her mouth off before investigating the situation. Always emotionally involved and never thinks logically about anything.
Yes, there should have been a date on the slip but that doesn't change the situation. If they pick up their mail when they come in through the door then they will have to conclude that the windows were cleaned on that day as the slip wasn't there when they picked the post up the previous evening.
I'm wondering whether they were taking a chance but got caught with evidence they couldn't argue against. I then wonder if the clean will be cancelled in the near future.
The trouble with this is that as a sole trader something like this happening to us would mean the only 'proof' we have of cleaning the house was the slip put through the door. That slip alone doesn't mean that much as slips can be put through a door without a clean taking place. In our area, the customer's 'wild talk' among friends and neighbours could hammer our reputation.
We have already been accused of not cleaning the back of a house because he had a locked gate. He wasn't interested in son showing him how we deal with this. So we took half payment and left. We actually spoke to the owners of the house and informed him of the actions of his tenant. (When they lived at the house we got over the same gate to clean the backs.) I also figured that as they were part of the local community they would also counteract any stories spreading about this. We never heard another word about it.
To be fair to her it pizsed with rain here on Wednesday, it would not have been immediately apparent that we'd been there. December being December we clean in any weather that doesn't physically make it impossible. I did offer to go back and do them again if they weren't right; she said they were fine.
I think it was a genuine mistake, my guess is I'll never hear another peep from her.
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Maybe I need to get a tracker for my van. Sometimes I haven't a clue where I am. ;D
Seriously though I don't know what I would make of this Soupy. I'm getting more and more cynical with age and past experience. Surely she would have seen that the windows were clean and in the cold weather there would still have been some water droplets remaining on the windows. What about the daughter being at home?
She sounds like the wife. Shouts her mouth off before investigating the situation. Always emotionally involved and never thinks logically about anything.
Yes, there should have been a date on the slip but that doesn't change the situation. If they pick up their mail when they come in through the door then they will have to conclude that the windows were cleaned on that day as the slip wasn't there when they picked the post up the previous evening.
I'm wondering whether they were taking a chance but got caught with evidence they couldn't argue against. I then wonder if the clean will be cancelled in the near future.
The trouble with this is that as a sole trader something like this happening to us would mean the only 'proof' we have of cleaning the house was the slip put through the door. That slip alone doesn't mean that much as slips can be put through a door without a clean taking place. In our area, the customer's 'wild talk' among friends and neighbours could hammer our reputation.
We have already been accused of not cleaning the back of a house because he had a locked gate. He wasn't interested in son showing him how we deal with this. So we took half payment and left. We actually spoke to the owners of the house and informed him of the actions of his tenant. (When they lived at the house we got over the same gate to clean the backs.) I also figured that as they were part of the local community they would also counteract any stories spreading about this. We never heard another word about it.
To be fair to her it pizsed with rain here on Wednesday, it would not have been immediately apparent that we'd been there. December being December we clean in any weather that doesn't physically make it impossible. I did offer to go back and do them again if they weren't right; she said they were fine.
I think it was a genuine mistake, my guess is I'll never hear another peep from her.
I go with you on this.
BTW, where did you get the photo of the house for them to confirm it was their house?
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If you have an Android phone and haven't disabled tracking, Google maps does track where you are. You can look at your timeline in google and it will show where you were and when as long as you have data turned on.
No idea on Apple but I guess there is a similar feature.
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Maybe I need to get a tracker for my van. Sometimes I haven't a clue where I am. ;D
Seriously though I don't know what I would make of this Soupy. I'm getting more and more cynical with age and past experience. Surely she would have seen that the windows were clean and in the cold weather there would still have been some water droplets remaining on the windows. What about the daughter being at home?
She sounds like the wife. Shouts her mouth off before investigating the situation. Always emotionally involved and never thinks logically about anything.
Yes, there should have been a date on the slip but that doesn't change the situation. If they pick up their mail when they come in through the door then they will have to conclude that the windows were cleaned on that day as the slip wasn't there when they picked the post up the previous evening.
I'm wondering whether they were taking a chance but got caught with evidence they couldn't argue against. I then wonder if the clean will be cancelled in the near future.
The trouble with this is that as a sole trader something like this happening to us would mean the only 'proof' we have of cleaning the house was the slip put through the door. That slip alone doesn't mean that much as slips can be put through a door without a clean taking place. In our area, the customer's 'wild talk' among friends and neighbours could hammer our reputation.
We have already been accused of not cleaning the back of a house because he had a locked gate. He wasn't interested in son showing him how we deal with this. So we took half payment and left. We actually spoke to the owners of the house and informed him of the actions of his tenant. (When they lived at the house we got over the same gate to clean the backs.) I also figured that as they were part of the local community they would also counteract any stories spreading about this. We never heard another word about it.
To be fair to her it pizsed with rain here on Wednesday, it would not have been immediately apparent that we'd been there. December being December we clean in any weather that doesn't physically make it impossible. I did offer to go back and do them again if they weren't right; she said they were fine.
I think it was a genuine mistake, my guess is I'll never hear another peep from her.
I go with you on this.
BTW, where did you get the photo of the house for them to confirm it was their house?
It's tracking info. When we first clean a house we add the location that the lad parked in to our tracking system, we can use that to show when we've been there.
The image I sent her shows a map with arrival times etc.
Also the tracking software had an app that can link to google maps and navigate you to the exact spot. Super useful.
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If you have an Android phone and haven't disabled tracking, Google maps does track where you are. You can look at your timeline in google and it will show where you were and when as long as you have data turned on.
No idea on Apple but I guess there is a similar feature.
Maybe I'll forget about Google tracking me.
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Ive had a few of these, telling me ive definitely not cleaned the windows as they were in all day... And proceeded to not pay or cancel. Shame i never had any tracking evidence.
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Ive had a few of these, telling me ive definitely not cleaned the windows as they were in all day... And proceeded to not pay or cancel. Shame i never had any tracking evidence.
But the loss was probably not worth the monthly cost of the trackers. I can see that it great for Soupy and Lee Prior as they both have a few vans out there. Trackers do help to keep the staff more focused as they are being monitored.
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The trackers are great for this. At least a couple of times a month they prove their worth.
I particularly liked the “can you confirm this it’s the correct location”. I assume you used Streetview for that?
In general though, when I get messages like that, the customer is unpleasant as a person and not just rude in writing. The vast majority of customers are fantastic. It’s probably only about5% percent that aren’t. Unfortunately that works out to be quite a lot numerically. I got to the point where I was just rude back I’m afraid. :-\
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Never experienced anything like this to be honest , but they would be an ex customer I certainly wouldn’t tolerate a customer speaking to me or staff in that way , there are plenty of decent people out there any problem customers are dumped and told why they have been dumped and never taken back under any circumstances
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Just goes to show you never know what's going on behind the scenes in these cases and you should always be polite and state your case calmly and sensibly.
Good advice 👍
Spot on. Well said.
We can all judge people far too quickly. You never know what’s going on in people’s lives, until you know, you can’t judge.
My wife works at the local nhs hospital, I used to drop her in every morning, sometimes Id get a bit of road rage at people’s bad driving pulling in and out of the hospital. Wife reminded me ‘remember, you don’t know what bad news some of these people have had, or if they’ve just lost a loved one’.
Since then, I never get impatient with other drivers (well at least not near the hospital) as it’s so true, who knows what’s going through their minds or what awful stress they may be under.
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Just goes to show you never know what's going on behind the scenes in these cases and you should always be polite and state your case calmly and sensibly.
Good advice 👍
Spot on. Well said.
We can all judge people far too quickly. You never know what’s going on in people’s lives, until you know, you can’t judge.
My wife works at the local nhs hospital, I used to drop her in every morning, sometimes Id get a bit of road rage at people’s bad driving pulling in and out of the hospital. Wife reminded me ‘remember, you don’t know what bad news some of these people have had, or if they’ve just lost a loved one’.
Since then, I never get impatient with other drivers (well at least not near the hospital) as it’s so true, who knows what’s going through their minds or what awful stress they may be under.
I agree with what you are saying but just beacause they are having a bad day doesn’t give them the right to speak to you in that manner , instant dump , I don’t go verbally abusing my customers if Ime having a bad day , they need to learn to deal with there issues , the old saying don’t take your problems to the work place comes to mind .
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Yes, although I don’t think what she said was abusive, just sounds like a stressed out woman writing a stressed out message.
I’d give her the benefit of doubt and see how it goes, obviously if she became a nuisance customer after this, then it’s a drop.
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Yes, although I don’t think what she said was abusive, just sounds like a stressed out woman writing a stressed out message.
I’d give her the benefit of doubt and see how it goes, obviously if she became a nuisance customer after this, then it’s a drop.
She categorically stated that the windows hadn’t been cleaned so was suggesting that they were trying to charge her for something that hadn’t been done, she also wasn’t going to pay and cancelled the agreement to have her windows cleaned on a regular basis so has gone back on her word , before the accusations she should have looked at the windows , once evidence that was irrefutable was provided she backed down , personally I won’t tolerate that behaviour from any customer, not that I have had a situation like that in well over 20 years , but we wouldn’t tolerate it Evan once .
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Given that her mum is very possibly about to die, I’d give her the benefit of doubt, but then, I’m more sensitive in that way, to me, it’s Just one of those things.
Its a rare these situations arise, so wouldn’t bother me too much.
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I have had this a couple of times over the years.
this is how I reason with them.
It makes no logical sense to not clean your windows , or miss out a window.
I work very hard, and sometimes spend money to obtain customers.
my aim is to keep you as a customer for as long as I possibly can, so that each month I am paid £xxx amount.
therefor it makes no sense to not clean the windows in an attempt to extort 1 payment of x amount.
just to then spend the said x amount on more advertising to find another customer.
usually this works . but if they can not grasp the concept then I am gladly rid of them
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I would dump her and never go back, she is a messer looking for a free clean simple as that.
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Stress does funny things to people I’d give her another chance.
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I personally wouldn’t believe anything she says or writes.
If you want to keep her that’s fine, I’m not sure I would.
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Somebody that is that quick to jump to conclusions or think the worst of you is probably not someone I would want as a customer .
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I've had similar experiences to this and the messers usually don't respond, they certainly don't apologise. She did have a foreign accent though, sounded Geordie or Scouse or summat, you lot all sound the same to me ;D
Obviously if I didn't have the set up that I do the situation would likely be very different, maybe she wasn't expecting the kind of response that she got, maybe it was a genuine mistake.
I'm perfectly willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes life can get on top of you. I'm not going to get my knickers in a twist about it either way.
My bet is that I'll never hear another peep from her. She set up a direct debit last night and we've quoted her next door neighbour who we'll be cleaning in January.
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I agree with you soupy - in all likelihood she probably asked the daughter did she see the windows being cleaned and got the obligatory "grunt and nah" response, which would have added to the belief you had not been there.
Nearest I had was a new clean - got a call - customer just back from work the windows are awful - I dont believe you cleaned them, or did it badly etc... so I popped round and it was immediately clear (no pun intended) that the crud was on the insides - I cleaned one to prove - she couldn't apologize enough - 6 years later will still clean every four weeks and never a complaint, late or missed payment
Darran
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I find this post interesting as the replies show how different we all are. If you have had real, hard stuff to deal with in your life, insignificant things like this 99% of the time, just roll off your back.
Soupy handled it perfectly for him and in this case for the customer. I bet she appreciated the response. I have seen my arse before now and have a couple of non payers who are really taking the p out of me but the only person it's affecting is me, if i let it.
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What tracking system you got m8 could do with one myself ?
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What tracking system you got m8 could do with one myself ?
https://www.samsara.com/
The tracking is brilliant, the customer service is non existent at the moment. I've only been with them a year so I assume it's covid related.