Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Amazin on February 21, 2021, 01:01:11 pm
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Cleaned a house on friday, front and back which took me ages. After she paid me she said she's already got a window cleaner but haven't seen him in a long time due to covid. She then said he was able to cleaned the front and back within 20mins and she couldn't get her shopping done because of me. I explained to her that this is a regular service and I don't do one offs, if she told me at the start then I wouldn't have bothered. She then went on and accused me of not telling her that from the start and I didn't clean her windows properly. I got annoyed and undid my work. Few mins later she came out the house and said what I did was an offence and she got my reg. What offence did I cause and how serious is it?
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Not very professional of you imo but i understand why. You need to give them a 1st clean price in future to cover yourself.
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you cleaned the house and got paid?
you then decided to undo your work? by this I take it you spray the house with dirty water?
you have no right to "damage" the property - you were paid for services (when I say damages just the action is good enough as you could have put paint stripper- acid on the house)
Darran
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you cleaned the house and got paid?
you then decided to undo your work? by this I take it you spray the house with dirty water?
you have no right to "damage" the property - you were paid for services (when I say damages just the action is good enough as you could have put paint stripper- acid on the house)
Darran
I just used some soap water on her glass downstairs that's all. No "damage" was caused
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Best just to walk away. Waste of time trying to reason with unreasonable people. Sorry but stupid to "undo" your work, especially as you got paid.
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you cleaned the house and got paid?
you then decided to undo your work? by this I take it you spray the house with dirty water?
you have no right to "damage" the property - you were paid for services (when I say damages just the action is good enough as you could have put paint stripper- acid on the house)
Darran
I just used some soap water on her glass downstairs that's all. No "damage" was caused
the point is you just can't throw stuff at someone property - the fact of damage caused is irrelevant, many years ago a friend of mine was "attacked" in a car park where he was sprayed with a substance - turned out to be water but could have been acid - bleach god knows what - anyway the police took it seriously enough to prosecute
regardless of weather you feel justified - thats a pretty childish response and I would consider yourself lucky you don't end up all over Facebook
BTW - how old are you and how tall ?
Darran
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I didn’t know him personally but I knew of a bloke that if he didn’t get paid he would go out at night and throw stones at their windows 🤣🤣🤣 not a joke either,I would have just put that down to experience nothing to be gained by doing what you did at all really it would only ever look bad on you,it wouldn’t matter what you did she will say another thing to other people if you do something well 10 people will hear about it if you do something bad everyone will know.
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Good on you.
The amount of times ive wanted to do that but restrained myself, i have some non payers to this day i would love to exact revenge on but worried about them having cameras etc. I know its easy to say walk away but in some cases it eats away at you...
I think in your case you didnt commit a criminal act, you just arent very good at your job and left them soapy by accident....its not like you covered them in oil or something on purpose, it was just a mistake as you thought you had cleaned the soap off.
Hope you enjoyed it ;)
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As far as her not wanting a one off did you not get that sorted at the start,I’m very intuitive when it comes to how people will be when I take a new one on.
Body language when you talk about price and frequency in the beginning give it all away to me anyway.
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If the last cleaner did them in 20 mins...sounds like you need to speed up a bit ;D
And always walk away, it's never worth it; don't lower yourself to other peoples' levels.
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Yeah 20 minutes is a lot of windows with the pole dirty or not.
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in OP's own words
SHE PAID !!!!
you have no recourse to then throw anything over the windows...
Darran
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Your own fault for not asking the right questions before you started the job. Just make yourself look like an idiot being unprofessional, word of mouth and the internet travels quick these days ahead of your reputation if you do crazy acts of retaliation, silly chalk it down to experience and learn from it.
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if you were paid and then made them dirty again after then that is most certainly wrong, you should walked away and put it down to experience
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She wouldn’t have even mentioned anything about one offs with me coz I don’t offer them,that’s the first thing I say it saves time talking about it further.
Even if you charge 3-4 times what you’d normally charge if you have enough good work you’ll still earn no more.
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Unfortunately you allowed yourself to get angry and did a stupid thing in 'undoing your work'. Legally she could report you to the police for property damage!!
Remember that the internet is a massively powerful thing these days. I know custys can be stupid and annoying but they hold the power.
If I were you I would go back, apologise big time, explain you were having a bad day, give her money back, maybe even a little bunch of flowers and offer to re clean all the windows - no charge.
The thing to do is learn that communication is very important. i.e. when she asked you to clean her windows your first question should be something like 'would you like a regular clean or a one off?' Then you both know what you are getting into. OK so not everyone will say one off as many know it will be more expensive, so they might try and trick you but that's life.
Above all learn that customers are important no matter what you think of them. They can all type on a keyboard or tell family and friends.
You do have the power to refuse work and drop custys but you have to be polite and professional at all times.
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The customer is always right but in reality they hardly ever are.
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if you were paid and then made them dirty again after then that is most certainly wrong, you should walked away and put it down to experience
Or in this case, lack of it
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Good on you.
The amount of times ive wanted to do that but restrained myself, i have some non payers to this day i would love to exact revenge on but worried about them having cameras etc. I know its easy to say walk away but in some cases it eats away at you...
some people just ain't right in the head. She was talking so much poop like I didn't clean them properly and i was taking too, also accusing me of missing the bathroom window. I felt insulted considering I've worked so hard on her windows. Her back windows was never cleaned so she was obviously talking poop.
I think in your case you didnt commit a criminal act, you just arent very good at your job and left them soapy by accident....its not like you covered them in oil or something on purpose, it was just a mistake as you thought you had cleaned the soap off.
Hope you enjoyed it ;)
lmao!
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Really silly putting soap on your brush , dont see it much these days but if you went
to a job with eggs thrown at the house it was a sign to other window cleaners that the customer was a knocker
and to give it a miss
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There's always a chance that a promised regular service could end up as a one off clean, if you are unable to handle this sort of thing without losing the plot then charge a one off price for all first cleans.
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Or change career. Maybe one where you peel bananas with your feet.
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Really silly putting soap on your brush , dont see it much these days but if you went
to a job with eggs thrown at the house it was a sign to other window cleaners that the customer was a knocker
and to give it a miss
I know of window cleaners who have done this , when i started out nearly 20 yrs ago. Do that sort of thing or what the op did now and word spreads on the net particularly in small towns/villages. Neighbourhood whatsapp groups seem to be taking the place of neighbourhood watch,word spreads quickly. Its not worth the risk to your own reputation, unfortunatly you v'e just gotta take it on the chin sometimes, I think nearly every business in the land has its share of pita customers. At least we're dealing in relatively small amounts of money, so whilst customers may make your blood boil from time to time, its not the end of the world.
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I would certainly go back and apologise, and offer to re clean as someone else said. If I get a new customer I give them a price for first clean then every subsequent clean. If they say they just want a one off ,I politely say no thanks I don't do one offs .
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I got annoyed and undid my work.
This is brilliant ;D ;D ;D
Lot’s of people talk a good game, I didn’t actually think someone was genuinely daft enough to actually do something like this though ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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you cleaned the house and got paid?
you then decided to undo your work? by this I take it you spray the house with dirty water?
you have no right to "damage" the property - you were paid for services (when I say damages just the action is good enough as you could have put paint stripper- acid on the house)
Darran
bang on once you had took the money your were at fault how ever its a different story if they dont pay
as you have the right to put the muck back on the windows undo your service , as its a civil matter we do the same 14 houses this year so far have benn mucky up and there nothing the police will do ,
had them out at the unit 5 times for a cup of tea and a laugh about it all over the years
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you cleaned the house and got paid?
you then decided to undo your work? by this I take it you spray the house with dirty water?
you have no right to "damage" the property - you were paid for services (when I say damages just the action is good enough as you could have put paint stripper- acid on the house)
Darran
bang on once you had took the money your were at fault how ever its a different story if they dont pay
as you have the right to put the muck back on the windows undo your service , as its a civil matter we do the same 14 houses this year so far have benn mucky up and there nothing the police will do ,
had them out at the unit 5 times for a cup of tea and a laugh about it all over the years
What does all of that even mean @Susan?
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It means they get loads of complaints.
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I got annoyed and undid my work.
This is brilliant ;D ;D ;D
Lot’s of people talk a good game, I didn’t actually think someone was genuinely daft enough to actually do something like this though ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
You may put that at the bottom of that post but let’s be honest there’s more people than you think that value my opinion like it or not lol,you must stop reading my posts whilst masturbating I can tell you’ve a soft-hard spot for me. 👌
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I got annoyed and undid my work.
???
how on earth did you connect a general statement like that to a personal attack ?
Darran
This is brilliant ;D ;D ;D
Lot’s of people talk a good game, I didn’t actually think someone was genuinely daft enough to actually do something like this though ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
You may put that at the bottom of that post but let’s be honest there’s more people than you think that value my opinion like it or not lol,you must stop reading my posts whilst masturbating I can tell you’ve a soft-hard spot for me. 👌
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I got annoyed and undid my work.
This is brilliant ;D ;D ;D
Lot’s of people talk a good game, I didn’t actually think someone was genuinely daft enough to actually do something like this though ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
You may put that at the bottom of that post but let’s be honest there’s more people than you think that value my opinion like it or not lol
I’m confused, it’s a direct quote, you said it ;D
Bless...do you want me to get rid of it, I don’t want to give you hurty feelings...?
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I got annoyed and undid my work.
???
how on earth did you connect a general statement like that to a personal attack ?
Darran
This is brilliant ;D ;D ;D
Lot’s of people talk a good game, I didn’t actually think someone was genuinely daft enough to actually do something like this though ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
You may put that at the bottom of that post but let’s be honest there’s more people than you think that value my opinion like it or not lol,you must stop reading my posts whilst masturbating I can tell you’ve a soft-hard spot for me. 👌
I think he likes the signature in my posts...
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All you are doing is reminding everyone about me when they read one of the pointless posts you put up I don’t mind please keep it,plenty of room for you in my queen sized bed 🛌 m8 no problem. 😉
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All you are doing is reminding everyone about me
I’ll reply to you with one of your own posts...
you must stop reading my posts whilst masturbating I can tell you’ve a soft-hard spot for me. 👌
All joking aside, I didn’t realise you were so precious mate. Sorry for hurting your feelings, I’ll delete the signature of your own post...
Please don’t get too upset...
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No m8 you won’t hurt my feelings skin like a 🦏 no problem. 👍
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🛌 still available though 😉
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Remember that the internet is a massively powerful thing these days. I know custys can be stupid and annoying but they hold the power.
i dont agree with this statement in regards to window cleaning TBH.
some of the biggest businesses on here, making decent profit have mediocre to bad online reviews.. average ratings of 3/5 and some with very bad reviews spelled out by ex customers on google.
this doesn't mean i think you should argue with customers and throw dirty water on windows.
of course you shouldn't, and you must have been pretty wound up to do that.
like previous have said here, most of this can be avoided just by communicating clearly with enquiries when you first speak with them. however, some people are very difficult to deal with and are infuriating for sure.
saying that, most people are reasonable enough if you can calm the situation down, listen to them, and treat them with respect.
it sounds like you were having a bad day to be fair
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That’s the problem and the dilemma you face when deciding which route to go down,it’s a numbers game window cleaning and once you get silly busy and start pushing workers mistakes will happen and they will just end up running.
They won’t look at a job as far as quality goes it’ll be I need to get to that job for the 🏁 chequered flag,I’ve been there went on Holiday for a week came back 2/3rds only completed and Hi Nigel the windows weren’t that great last time,never a problem when I’m there as well though.
You’ll never get someone like you if you want to keep a good name stay smallish and in touch you’ll still earn a great living.
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Remember that the internet is a massively powerful thing these days. I know custys can be stupid and annoying but they hold the power.
i dont agree with this statement in regards to window cleaning TBH.
some of the biggest businesses on here, making decent profit have mediocre to bad online reviews.. average ratings of 3/5 and some with very bad reviews spelled out by ex customers on google.
The problem is that window cleaning hasn't been targeted by a leach company yet!!!! What I mean by that is year ago running a hotel required you to be in the local councils tourist brochure. Then the internet came along and it was easy to have your website on front page of google, then hotels.com, booking.com etc came along and ploughed millions into their leach company and now virtually the only way to get booking is via one of the leach companies charging 20% or there about! Then they targeted takeaways and look how just eat, deliveroo etc are doing!! Plus Uber have started taking over taxi firms - OK so they have hickups.
So the danger is that a big venture capitalist sees Windy as a good target to leach from and starts targeting this market.
OK so I have probably blown this all out of proportion but each and every day the internet is getting more powerful. Ignore it at your peril. ;)
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Yeah you have blown it out of proportion a bit m8 window cleaning has only just evolved from a Bycycle ,bucket 🪣 and ladders m8.
Go back 40 years and see where we were then it was like a different world literally people have only just within the last few years realised you can earn decent money,I don’t think this job is going like Uber anytime soon m8 lol.
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Or change career. Maybe one where you peel bananas with your feet.
But definitely not counselling ;D
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I think in this crazy world it’s very easy to lose your cool. I don’t think previous comments were meant to offend but I do agree it is unprofessional. 15 years ago when I was trad I had a non payer (3 cleans @£7.50 each) and they just refused to pay with no reason. I lost it and applicated all the windows. I just wouldn’t do that now.
I do understand the utter frustration with rude/annoying customers but in your shoes I would take some very good advice on here and apologise to the customer. I don’t personally think you need to buy flowers also as a little OTT but you could reclean the windows and apologise. (Just say you have been under some severe stress or something)
Good luck 🤞
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About 15 years ago. An extremely toffy nosed rude customer owed me money. he had moved without telling me but still was going back and forth to the house to do maintenance and collect post.
I accepted I wasnt going to get paid, and whilst it was a tad annoying it wasnt a big deal.
however whilst I was cleaning the neighbours... they happen to mention that he had openly told them he had no intention of paying me ... his words were , " he is just a window cleaner"
I was really cross. my first job was working for a sign company where I learnt to do poster sign writing the old traditional way.
so I popped to the local art store , got some luminous paper about 3ft by 3ft. and did a proffesionaly written poster
it said
shame on you mr x
pay your bills
and I put it on his door
Later that afternoon my phone rang
DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM
I AM A PILOT AND A CAPTAIN
i AM WEALTHY AND LIVE IN A NICE HOUSE.
I just replied , I am a window cleaner and I need paying to feed my children , then I hung up.
A few days later a cheque arrived.....
I didnt pay it in , I put it in the bin.
I do chuckle to myself when I look back.
I certainly wouldnt react like that now.... however back then I had a young family and money was tighter. ;D ;D ;D ;D
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That’s a terrible thing for someone to say to you,I also do a Captain and Pilot he’s a lovely human being.