[AuRavelling79]

As in dropping an awkward customer!

Last month I dropped Mrs. T - the absurd bungalow owner who saw us in her village and asked me not do do her windows this month because "the ground hasn't dried out and it gets wet and it does her husband's head in."

Then when we get to do her next door neighbour's she asks Dan the man if we can do them after all and as I'm parked too awkwardly to get the hose through the gap in the hedge I decide not to and drive away.

So now today I'm due to clean her son's which is a biggish house about three miles away from Mummy's at the furthest point of my round which I have done as a "recommend" from the first one.

This is how it goes:-

Me: Well Dan we might get dropped here because we've dropped Mrs T senior and I won't be too unhappy about that!

DtM: Well it's out of the way on it's own and underpriced (£22) and really awkward to get the hose round (down twenty steps and round each side of the house)

Me: (mock japanese accent) You learn fast Daniel-san; if hubby is home he might have a sly dig about cleaning the cills upstairs like he did a couple of years ago when I put the price up by £2.

So the second car is well in the way but we negotiate that and we pull the hoses to the relevant points and not getting a reply I call round the back to find Mrs T hanging out the washing when I ask if she wants to close the windows so I can get the frames better. Being school hols she calls out to one of the children to do it.

So I use the few minutes while she closes the upstairs windows to wipe along the top of the patio doors and as I do a young lad about ten or twelve closes the curtains and sticks a post-it note reading "Get lost!" on the inside of the glass so I can read it - grins and disappears inside.

I smile back and log it and when Mrs T comes out I say "Your son is a wag! Look what he's put on the patio doors."

She looks and says that's not my son's writing it must be his friend.

At that point Daniel comes round from the front where unbeknown to me he has had an encounter with Mr T. and hopping from foot to foot in Mrs T's presence says "apparently we need to pay extra attention to the cills".

Part Two soon!

[Granny]

As in dropping an awkward customer!

Last month I dropped Mrs. T - the absurd bungalow owner who saw us in her village and asked me not do do her windows this month because "the ground hasn't dried out and it gets wet and it does her husband's head in."

They're are some real nutters out there - just like I got "Can you leave the windows until the flowers have stopped flowering?"
Looking forward to part 2

[AuRavelling79]

So I'm thinking if my child had acted in that way I would have torn him off a strip and made him apologise but he's probably just reflecting what's been just said in the house anyway.

So we carry on and finish the job and DtM tells me that Mr T. had a right old snooty attitude on and told him that perhaps a ladder and a bit of elbow grease would be in order.  

Anyway as I'm dragging the hose up the steps to the van I can see the tops of the upper cills on one side of the house and if I say so myself they are spotless. So I think I will go and find Mr T. for a chat a la dumpee.

So I go to the door and Mrs T has the cheque in her hand and I ask if her husband is about as when he spoke to Dan he seemed to have "some concerns about the method we use and the cills and that Mr T wonders whether he wants to continue using us but that he'll see how the windows are this time."

Mrs T looks a bit surprised but said that Mr T  was reaching out the bedroom windows to wipe the cills on the weekend as they were quite mucky. I say I'm not surprised as they are surrounded by trees and it's been eight weeks since we've been.

She says that her husband likes the old way where the cills can be wiped but that "not to worry as we can't find anyone"    

So I say well if you want someone who is prepared to risk their neck getting a ladder down all these steps and then climbing up it ten times to do your upper cills then you might have a problem.

"What's that?" she asks.

"When he falls and is sat watching Jeremy Kyle and the ambulance chasing solicitors get through to him and you know he could've cleaned your windows a safer way you might get sued."

"Point taken." says she. "But anyway we can't find anyone else so we'll stay as we are."

Me: "Are you sure Mr T isn't available because I'd like to say the next thing direct to him."

Her: "No he was on the phone; you can talk to me."

Me: "Well as you'd like someone else to clean your windows I'll help you galvanise your decision more quickly, because we won't be cleaning for you anymore, goodbye."

Her: "Oh er um well we're quite happy with the windows really .... um er where can we find someone?"

Me: "That's something for you and Mr T. to ponder as the long winter nights draw in but as for me, having been asked to "get lost",  I'm "getting lost". Good day.



As Paul Coleman says - it's like having a weight from your shoulders when you ditch a customer that you really don't want to call on anymore.

[bobplum]

god i wish i was there,

[elite mike]

 

[AuRavelling79]

god i wish i was there,

Thanks Bobplum

I've got to say it was a lovely feeling - I didn't get angry or lose my rag (I did grit my teeth when I smiled back at the post-it note posting little brat mind!) I almost skipped back up the steps.

[Small but perfectley formed]

Felt like that this evening with customers that owe 2 cleans and don't want to pay you . Owe I only had 1 ticket that old chestnut again, I texted to so not to clean  don't think so

[rosskesava]

Nice story with a satisfying ending.

Dumping a pain in the rear customer has a peculiar sense of satisfaction about it.

[Fin Clearview]

I had to do one of my more fussier custy's today for the first time using wfp, luckily she was out at the time and I explained the process to her husband - no problems, he asked me to do one window I never bothered with before when trad, so I did it and stuck a quid on - again no probs. 1hr later while now working down the road, mrs fusspot comes along screaming 'you shouldn't have charged me for that extra window, just because you couldn't do it before, so it's your problem blah blah blah. Honestly I wonder why I bother sometimes!

[AuRavelling79]

I had to do one of my more fussier custy's today for the first time using wfp, luckily she was out at the time and I explained the process to her husband - no problems, he asked me to do one window I never bothered with before when trad, so I did it and stuck a quid on - again no probs. 1hr later while now working down the road, mrs fusspot comes along screaming 'you shouldn't have charged me for that extra window, just because you couldn't do it before, so it's your problem blah blah blah. Honestly I wonder why I bother sometimes!

How did you respond to that?

[Fin Clearview]

I had to do one of my more fussier custy's today for the first time using wfp, luckily she was out at the time and I explained the process to her husband - no problems, he asked me to do one window I never bothered with before when trad, so I did it and stuck a quid on - again no probs. 1hr later while now working down the road, mrs fusspot comes along screaming 'you shouldn't have charged me for that extra window, just because you couldn't do it before, so it's your problem blah blah blah. Honestly I wonder why I bother sometimes!

How did you respond to that?

It was never included in the original price so if you don't want it done in future we can leave it out. (and I added that I could have done it previously using an unger tele plus but as its leaded lights I didn't want to make a bad job worse, also that wfp is now doing frames at no added cost! )  So she smiles and says oh no I'm actually really pleased its been done well - carry on and I'll pay the extra.

[robertphil]

great post Goldie. !

[Ronnie Bryce]

That's all very well Gold, leaving them in the lurch n all, but call yourself a businessman? Don't think so......you totally forgot to pick up two new one's on the way home. tut tut tuttity tut.

Your fired.

[EandM]

It's an excellent post and great result because you did it politely !

If it turns into a shouting and venting of anger match you lose.
If you do what you did you retain the moral high ground and win extremely graciously and very effectively with no comeback on yourself whatsoever.

 I recommend the 1969 Western ' Support Your Local Sheriff ' as James Garner spends the entire film doing exactly this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgtHl08mI0U&feature=related

Nice One !!!

[G Griffin]

I'd have dumped by post-it note. Either stuck to the window or dirty sills.

[rosskesava]

I had a customer a few years back who became ever more fussy and demanding. Somehow I went from just doing the outside windows to cleaning the insides of her kitchen window, several mirrors, the inside of the front door and washing down the garage door.

The last straw was when she asked if I could possibly give the funny bubble glass thing on the flat roof over the kitchen a bit of a clean. That meant getting the ladders off the van and down an awkward alleyway and over an 8ft brick wall. When I said that'd be a fiver extra she got very funny with me.

Anyway, I did what she asked and when it came time to pay she just had the usual £15. I said it was £20 and reminded her of the extra's that get done, unpaid, as a matter of course and that her windows now takes well over an hour to do. Eventually she went back inside and came back with an extra fiver, commenting about having to pay extra for a few little bits and pieces.

In complete silence I tore all the notes up in front of her into little tiny pieces and let them drop over her perfectly clean tiled patio.

I walked off without saying a word and she was too stunned to say anything to me.

Boy did it feel good or what.

[Ian101]

Her: "Oh er um well we're quite happy with the windows really .... um er where can we find someone?"


I had summit simlair when lady accused us of damaging her gate by climbing over (which we hadnt) I told her nicely to find another window cleaner if she wasnt happy and told me to keep coming as "window cleaners are hard to find" so like a fool I kept cleaning as wanted to prove to her we could keep her happy - started to call night before to leave gate open -

6 months later she dumped me as she had found a couple of old fashioned window cleaners that were just down the road working away ... she said it in a way to try and get me to react so just kept smiling and took her money but she still wanted a row but just kept on smiling and being polite which just wound her up even more .... her house happens to be on a road where I spend a day and a half working so most months see her at least twice and especially as I clean the 2 either side of her so I always say hello Mrs Murphy and give her a cheary smile 

when she first dumped me I went up to the 2 trad lads for a chat to warn them about her but they swore blind she hadnt employed them ?? so guessing she was skint all along.

[Ian101]

btw cracking example of how to rid yourself of a PIA job / customer.

Fortunately not got too many left as they have either binned me or more likely I have binned them ... sometimes worth it just for the fun 

[Perfect Windows]

I didn't get angry or lose my rag

That's the part that makes it worthwhile.  If it has to be done, do it calmly and in control.

Vin

[AuRavelling79]

I'd have dumped by post-it note. Either stuck to the window or dirty sills.

 

I wish I'd thought of that! That would have been class!