Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jo5hm4n on December 08, 2022, 12:07:28 pm
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So we clean a semi detached property which is 1 flat downstairs 1 flat upstairs.
The flat upstairs is a long standing customer who is an elderly woman even though she is a bit fiery and takes no messing about. She is as good as gold, even gave us a £10 tip yesterday been doing her windows for 8 years.
The neighbour downstairs though has a screw loose. Hes on disability for some mental health conditions and you can just tell hes not right in the head. I gave him the benefit of the doubt about 3 years ago and started cleaning his windows. He always owed us money.
Would always promise to pay, but then came up with excuses like hes owed benefits money and his bill company ripped him off, every story all the time. He would always pay but i would have to wait like 3 months.....
Well i put up with it for way longer than i should. Binned him off last year told him we wont clean his windows anymore as he is a bad payer. He was even on GoCardless but it would bounce every single time.
Well since i binned him off hes now giving us lots of hassle. The problem is its shared access to the back of the property between himself and the other customer upstairs. Legally it is supposed to be left unlocked for access for both of them as residents. He decided to put his own lock on the gate though. The lady upstairs has a key, but shes not always home. Shes told the guy downstairs to leave it unlocked, and he agreed, but then just keeps it locked when we are coming.
Well yesterday my worker could not open the gate so politely knocked the guys door and asked him to unlock the gate. The guy went berserk slammed the door in his face and started swearing told him to leave him alone and stop giving him hassle all the time. Then the woman from upstairs comes out knocks his door and tells him off again as hes done this before even though they had an agreement. He then went berserk at her started being aggressive and shes a small old lady, so needless to say my employee lost his temper and threatened to beat the poo out of him and said just leave the gate open and nobody will have any issues going forwards.
My employee was in the wrong to lose his temper but i am not surprised he did. This guy in the downstairs flat had one of his neighbours spit in his face for a so called "dispute". Imagine how intolerable you have to be for your neighbours to spit on your face, this is the kind of guy we are dealing with.
Well ive now had a voicemail from him saying that unless i phone him back hes going to report my company for breaking into his property and abusing him.
I dont even know how to handle this. Personally i just want to ignore him cant stand the guy. However he is classed as disabled and on some special benefits from the council, and hes the type to cause havoc, i dont want or need to get into a situation with him its not worth my time or energy.
So guys on that basis how should i handle it.
A) bin the customer upstairs and apologise and just say we cant clean due to her psycho neighbour downstairs.
B) ignore the guy whos now threatening to report my company for breaking into his property??
C) send him a message and just ask him politely to leave the gate unlocked and we can all just get on with our lives no need for hassle.
D) Tell my employee to go back next month and clean, but do not retaliate to this guy at all, just to protect company reputation if nothing else.
E) (open to suggestions)
Sorry for the essay guys, but its a strange one and just not sure how to handle it. ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Personally I would of dumped the job a long time ago...
Access issues?
Mentally ill ex customer who lives
in downstairs flat?
Just dump and never go back.let the elderly customer know and move on.
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Personally I would of dumped the job a long time ago...
Access issues?
Mentally ill ex customer who lives
in downstairs flat?
Just dump and never go back.let the elderly customer know and move on.
Yes should of been dumped a long time ago, sometimes with my older customers every now and then i dont want to let them go.
Thinking more of her, as she was a customer back when i was still doing trad so i feel a bit of loyalty to her.
Might just have to dump her as a customer.
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I live in an area where there's quite a few unstable characters,drug abusers and alcoholics.
Best thing to do is completely ignore them and keep yourself to yourself....
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Personally I would of dumped the job a long time ago...
Access issues?
Mentally ill ex customer who lives
in downstairs flat?
Just dump and never go back.let the elderly customer know and move on.
Yes should of been dumped a long time ago, sometimes with my older customers every now and then i dont want to let them go.
Thinking more of her, as she was a customer back when i was still doing trad so i feel a bit of loyalty to her.
Might just have to dump her as a customer.
Yes just dump her and completely ignore the fool who lives below and block his number.he won't follow anything up mate 🙂
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Lol all that for a £10 job I think it’s just dump and move on , oh and report it to the police and get a log number to cover your back
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Lol all that for a £10 job I thanks just dump and move on , oh and report it to the police and get a log number to cover your back
I know tell me about it. I dont get out of bed for enough money to deal with crap like this lol.
Why do i need to report it to the police? What exactly am i reporting....
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Lol all that for a £10 job I thanks just dump and move on , oh and report it to the police and get a log number to cover your back
I know tell me about it. I dont get out of bed for enough money to deal with crap like this lol.
Why do i need to report it to the police? What exactly am i reporting....
Just speak to the local station and explain that you want it recorded that he’s threatening to make false accusations against you.
I doubt the mad neighbour will follow up with anything, but if he does, Atleast you’ve got in first and started the ball rolling. It makes it more obvious that he is the mad one.
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So we clean a semi detached property which is 1 flat downstairs 1 flat upstairs.
The flat upstairs is a long standing customer who is an elderly woman even though she is a bit fiery and takes no messing about. She is as good as gold, even gave us a £10 tip yesterday been doing her windows for 8 years.
The neighbour downstairs though has a screw loose. Hes on disability for some mental health conditions and you can just tell hes not right in the head. I gave him the benefit of the doubt about 3 years ago and started cleaning his windows. He always owed us money.
Would always promise to pay, but then came up with excuses like hes owed benefits money and his bill company ripped him off, every story all the time. He would always pay but i would have to wait like 3 months.....
Well i put up with it for way longer than i should. Binned him off last year told him we wont clean his windows anymore as he is a bad payer. He was even on GoCardless but it would bounce every single time.
Well since i binned him off hes now giving us lots of hassle. The problem is its shared access to the back of the property between himself and the other customer upstairs. Legally it is supposed to be left unlocked for access for both of them as residents. He decided to put his own lock on the gate though. The lady upstairs has a key, but shes not always home. Shes told the guy downstairs to leave it unlocked, and he agreed, but then just keeps it locked when we are coming.
Well yesterday my worker could not open the gate so politely knocked the guys door and asked him to unlock the gate. The guy went berserk slammed the door in his face and started swearing told him to leave him alone and stop giving him hassle all the time. Then the woman from upstairs comes out knocks his door and tells him off again as hes done this before even though they had an agreement. He then went berserk at her started being aggressive and shes a small old lady, so needless to say my employee lost his temper and threatened to beat the poo out of him and said just leave the gate open and nobody will have any issues going forwards.
My employee was in the wrong to lose his temper but i am not surprised he did. This guy in the downstairs flat had one of his neighbours spit in his face for a so called "dispute". Imagine how intolerable you have to be for your neighbours to spit on your face, this is the kind of guy we are dealing with.
Well ive now had a voicemail from him saying that unless i phone him back hes going to report my company for breaking into his property and abusing him.
I dont even know how to handle this. Personally i just want to ignore him cant stand the guy. However he is classed as disabled and on some special benefits from the council, and hes the type to cause havoc, i dont want or need to get into a situation with him its not worth my time or energy.
So guys on that basis how should i handle it.
A) bin the customer upstairs and apologise and just say we cant clean due to her psycho neighbour downstairs.
B) ignore the guy whos now threatening to report my company for breaking into his property??
C) send him a message and just ask him politely to leave the gate unlocked and we can all just get on with our lives no need for hassle.
D) Tell my employee to go back next month and clean, but do not retaliate to this guy at all, just to protect company reputation if nothing else.
E) (open to suggestions)
Sorry for the essay guys, but its a strange one and just not sure how to handle it. ;D ;D ;D ;D
I had a similar issue with a downstairs flat. The fellah reckoned we were getting his windows wet (which he said was vandalism) and told me he was going to phone the council(?) on me, when I laughed he said he was going to phone the police. I said great, I'll wait here got my flask out the van and had a cup of tea. The police arrived and gave the miserable old sod a telling off. I hear he's dead now. Shame.
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Had a couple of these over the years. Always a flat or maisonette one was a nurse who looked like rose wests ugly sister saying we were looking in her window and blocking the light
One claimed we were wetting her never cleaned windows claiming they’d be done the day before you could write your name in the grime and another demanded compo claiming we’d sent his goldfish mad
I kid you not
Funny old world but odder in flats or maisonettes and shared drives
Dump the job and remember the story 20 years on like we all do as a giggle about the looney tunes we put up with very day
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Lol all that for a £10 job I thanks just dump and move on , oh and report it to the police and get a log number to cover your back
I know tell me about it. I dont get out of bed for enough money to deal with crap like this lol.
Why do i need to report it to the police? What exactly am i reporting....
If you report it should he make false allegations then they already have a record from you looks good also that you arnt trying to hide anything they may already have a file on this guy as well .
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All for the sake of £10 ?? DUMP
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Had a couple of these over the years. Always a flat or maisonette one was a nurse who looked like rose wests ugly sister saying we were looking in her window and blocking the light
One claimed we were wetting her never cleaned windows claiming they’d be done the day before you could write your name in the grime and another demanded compo claiming we’d sent his goldfish mad
I kid you not
Funny old world but odder in flats or maisonettes and shared drives
Dump the job and remember the story 20 years on like we all do as a giggle about the looney tunes we put up with very day
😂😂😂 lol there are some strange people out there
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Its frustrating when you have to dump a good customer because of a bad one.
I think we have all done it, i had 3 houses next to each other 2 good as gold and one was just a pita. I kept it on for far too long because i was sure id lose them all as they were friends and came as a package.
In the end i did dump her and not long after inevitably lost them all which is annoying but easily replaced and forgot about and you wonder why you bothered for so long.
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I had one earlier in the year begged me to come back had 3-4 cleans and then said we will leave it,I do 4 others close by they all know each other I won’t be going back again and I always put the feelers out to other WCs about these people.
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Report his behaviour towards you to the police.... make sure you do . I was in your situation once and I had the police pay me a visit at home so make sure you report him before it gets too out of hand.
Even had one potential customer complain to his local M.P. that I wouldn't take him on for window cleaning accusing me of being discriminative against disabled people, I kid you not. Had to write several response letters all because of a nutter.
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I wonder why he wants you to phone him first 🤔. Why doesn't he ring the police if you've broken into his property?
Save the voicemail, ignore him and if the gate is locked explain to the old lady that can't clean the back.
He'll be known to social services and maybe the police anyway.
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The job sounds like a nightmare without the nutter downstairs, i have never took on jobs like that it's asking for trouble....
Just dump and move on, save yourself the hassle.
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A) all the way. Or pass it onto Nigel 👍
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Lol I’ve had this exact same scenario before I now say unless you get me all 3 floors I’m not interested if I’m dealing with the top floor which I normally am because that’s the floor that can’t be laddered anymore and don’t get or have a WC,always the same if not the bottom 2 floors moan about water splashing about.
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We had a similar situation with one house where the backs could only be accessed by next door’s garden (they had a right of access)
Needless to say, the idiot bloke next door didn’t like that, and every time we went he’d come out and complain about the hoses being a trip hazard, the water spilling onto his property etc etc.
I prevaricated for a while, because on the one hand, the idiot neighbour had no right to go on like that, but on the other hand I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.
Anyway, after about 3 lots of idiot bloke coming out hassling us. eventually I told the customer (who rented the house out as a holiday let) that I wouldn’t be doing it anymore because it was more trouble than it was worth dealing with an abusive idiot.
She was a bit annoyed and said she’d have a word with him and see if she can ask him to be reasonable. I said well you can if you want, but I’m still not doing it, sorry, and that was the end of that.
Now, I will never ever take on a job that requires the use of a right of access, or could potentially upset neighbours (eg an upstairs flat).
And I will certainly never tolerate another idiot, especially now that I employ a worker, we have a zero tolerance policy with abuse, and customers will get dropped the second anything goes awry, even if it’s not their fault.
Customers are easy to replace. Good employees, on the other hand, are like gold dust.
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Had a couple like this over the years. The end of a terrace of six didn't like me using the shared path to two properties in the middle.
One summer she said to me 'I don't want some stranger looking at my grandchildren in the paddling pool.'
I nearly blew a gasket but reined it in and said 'Sorry? what do you mean?' through gritted teeth.
She got flustered and blustered 'Well errr I don't like you turning up unannounced!'
I said 'Fair enough madam but statistically adults that show an improper interest in children are likely to be much closer to home.'
Her jaw hit the floor!
Then I explained in full the issue to my customers and only did the backs when I could go through one of their houses.
I have since passed the work on and learned to be more careful about who I take on.
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Had a couple like this over the years. The end of a terrace of six didn't like me using the shared path to two properties in the middle.
One summer she said to me 'I don't want some stranger looking at my grandchildren in the paddling pool.'
I nearly blew a gasket but reined it in and said 'Sorry? what do you mean?' through gritted teeth.
She got flustered and blustered 'Well errr I don't like you turning up unannounced!'
I said 'Fair enough madam but statistically adults that show an improper interest in children are likely to be much closer to home.'
Her jaw hit the floor!
Then I explained in full the issue to my customers and only did the backs when I could go through one of their houses.
I have since passed the work on and learned to be more careful about who I take on.
There's nothing more awkward than having to go through someone else's back garden whilst they are sunbathing or throwing a party to get to the neighbours.
I only have a couple of terraced like this now and thankfully never encountered the neighbours but I would dump it if I had to go past kids in a paddling pool too socially awkward for that kind of confrontation haha
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Hence the reason why I passed it on after changing my way of doing the job.
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Had a couple like this over the years. The end of a terrace of six didn't like me using the shared path to two properties in the middle.
One summer she said to me 'I don't want some stranger looking at my grandchildren in the paddling pool.'
I nearly blew a gasket but reined it in and said 'Sorry? what do you mean?' through gritted teeth.
She got flustered and blustered 'Well errr I don't like you turning up unannounced!'
I said 'Fair enough madam but statistically adults that show an improper interest in children are likely to be much closer to home.'
Her jaw hit the floor!
Then I explained in full the issue to my customers and only did the backs when I could go through one of their houses.
I have since passed the work on and learned to be more careful about who I take on.
If you had a bit of go about you and weren't such a miserable faced flouncer; you would have got the end terrace person on your books.
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Had a couple like this over the years. The end of a terrace of six didn't like me using the shared path to two properties in the middle.
One summer she said to me 'I don't want some stranger looking at my grandchildren in the paddling pool.'
I nearly blew a gasket but reined it in and said 'Sorry? what do you mean?' through gritted teeth.
She got flustered and blustered 'Well errr I don't like you turning up unannounced!'
I said 'Fair enough madam but statistically adults that show an improper interest in children are likely to be much closer to home.'
Her jaw hit the floor!
Then I explained in full the issue to my customers and only did the backs when I could go through one of their houses.
I have since passed the work on and learned to be more careful about who I take on.
If you had a bit of go about you and weren't such a miserable faced flouncer; you would have got the end terrace person on your books.
I don't have your engaging, flexible and personable people skills or your ability to cheerfully deal with adversity Soupy.
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Had a couple like this over the years. The end of a terrace of six didn't like me using the shared path to two properties in the middle.
One summer she said to me 'I don't want some stranger looking at my grandchildren in the paddling pool.'
I nearly blew a gasket but reined it in and said 'Sorry? what do you mean?' through gritted teeth.
She got flustered and blustered 'Well errr I don't like you turning up unannounced!'
I said 'Fair enough madam but statistically adults that show an improper interest in children are likely to be much closer to home.'
Her jaw hit the floor!
Then I explained in full the issue to my customers and only did the backs when I could go through one of their houses.
I have since passed the work on and learned to be more careful about who I take on.
If you had a bit of go about you and weren't such a miserable faced flouncer; you would have got the end terrace person on your books.
I don't have your engaging, flexible and personable people skills or your ability to cheerfully deal with adversity Soupy.
Ach, you're alright Jack.