[matt]

now as people wil know, i dont do it

today, i was bored at home and the rain had stopped apart from a light drizzle

i decide to go out

1st house -- i clean the upstairs front and the guy comes out,

Oh hi, he says, your not doing them in this
yes, its only very light rain and it doesnt make any difference to the job
of course it will, and it might be light now, but its due to have heavy rain at anytime
but it could rain at any time in the UK, it might be sunny all day and rain the the night
if thats the case we wil not have it done in the winter, from oct -- march
well i might not have space on my books to take you back on
we will run that risk, loads of other window cleaners around
i explain that ive allways done a good job, for the last 5 years
yes, your right, but you have never cleaned in the rain


he has a point


next house, they are out, so i clean them

next house, old lady comes out
is it worth it in this weather
well, yes, it still cleaning the last 8 weeks dirt off
Oh, ok then, but i will be honest, i would prefere them not done in the rain

next house ( bungalow )

i arrive, clean the first window, the kitchen
she come sout and says " they will be fithly by tonight, you might aswell not bother"
same chat, it will clean off the last 8 weeks dirt, i still have to earn as i have bill to pay
she says " of course you have, and you do such a great job, next door wants hers done "
shall i carry on then, this is my last job of the day
her you go, have the money, you stll have a living to earn, but dont bother doing them, its just not worth it

now she is 88 years old and lives in a council owned bungalow and is what i would say "not well off "

i came home

im afraid to say, my customers have come to expect a good job done by me, my reputation as a window cleaner is " a honest bloke doing a good job ", they dont want it done in the rain, and why should they

[Village Gleam]

Self Justifying idiot.
Worked every day rain or not. WFP tops and bottoms.

[matt]

Self Justifying idiot.
Worked every day rain or not. WFP tops and bottoms.

a bit harsh on yourself there

i guess you must need to work, dont make you a idiot though

[paul saunders]

Nice comeback. 

[Dale Smith]

Good come back Matt.....
Your custies say the same as ours, and we are WFP. Same comments totally, so I see where your coming from, as we ended up stopping today...

[xxmattyxx]

Self Justifying idiot.
Worked every day rain or not. WFP tops and bottoms.

   who Matt or some of the customers?

Its a serious question, Im unsure what was meant?

Matt

[ronaldo]

im afraid to say, my customers have come to expect a good job done by me, my reputation as a window cleaner is " a honest bloke doing a good job ", they dont want it done in the rain, and why should they

EXACTLY !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rogue Trader]

The reason you are having problems with your custies and working in the rain is because you are changing the rules , you need to train your customers, i always work in the rain and my customers expect that. I never have any probs and if anyone mentions anything just hit em with the rain guarantee.

[Dale Smith]

Yeah true Matt99, we have a rain guarantee so I will be going for it next week if the weather is the same. The bills have got to be paid...

[dai]

The old ones are the worst, When I first cleaned windows nearly 50 years ago, you just couldn't work in the rain. They were mostly small pane or leaded windows, we used a chamois mop and a scrim. Working in the rain always left smears. You can work in the rain trad on big panes, but it needs to be done carefully without detailing.
WFP is a different thing all together, we know that we can do a good job in the rain most of the time, but not always. The wind is the deciding factor for me. If the wind is blowing hard off the sea, I don't bother trying.
Rain actually keeps the windows clean, have you noticed that the windows that have a roof protecting them are the dirtiest.
I did a fortnightly pub job today, even with all the rain we have had, most of the windows were clean before I started. It was the protected from rain windows that were the dirtiest. This is down to wind born debris and sea salt, that doesn't get washed off with the rain.
I worked in the rain yesterday on Conwy Marina, it seems the richer they are, the less they mind cleaning in the rain. It's the older working class folk that are the hardest to educate.

Matt, I think your round is much like mine, a bit under priced but very compact. I tell my customers that at my prices I need to work every day just to make a living, and if I charged them what some other cleaners charge, I could afford to take 3 months off in the winter. Dai

[Paul Coleman]

Self Justifying idiot.
Worked every day rain or not. WFP tops and bottoms.

a bit harsh on yourself there

i guess you must need to work, dont make you a idiot though

I enjoyed your reply Matt.
Just because someone disagrees, it doesn't mean they need to be disagreeable about it.

[frames to panes]

The thing is, if you turn the debate around and say your missis wanted a tenner to put the car through the carwash you would tell her not to be so daft, you wouldn't want to waste your own money so you can't automatically expect all your customers to accept it either.

[The Seven Bays Window Cleaning Company]

I know folks clean in the rain.

But I know for sure I'd get grief if I turned up and started cleaning there windows in the rain.

I feel guilty cleaning them in the dry, but knowing it's going to raining again in an hour or two

I have a good relationship with my customers, and want to keep it that way - so for me I don't clean windows in the rain.

I try and make sure I keep enough wet weather jobs in the pipeline to cover my bills.. gardening, woodwork, gutters ect

If your customer trusts you, then there's is a good chance they will want some odd jobs doing too... just save them up for rainy days, then you don't have to clean winodws in the rain - and everyone is happy.

Although I'm now running low on wet waether jobs - so now the rain can piddle off, please !!

[windowwashers]

The thing is, if you turn the debate around and say your missis wanted a tenner to put the car through the carwash you would tell her not to be so daft, you wouldn't want to waste your own money so you can't automatically expect all your customers to accept it either.

I wash my van in the rain 

[frames to panes]

Here we go again  :
So you would PAY someone to was your car in the filthiest weather of the year with more forecast for the rest of the day?

[windowwashers]

Here we go again  :
So you would PAY someone to was your car in the filthiest weather of the year with more forecast for the rest of the day?

because if you keep it clean it will not get as dirty. 

just admit it you dont like getting wet 

[frames to panes]

Ian i'm afraid you talk a load of tripe, unfortunately not everyone is of the opinion that working through the worst weather is something all customers agree with. See Matts post. It's up to you if you want to carry on working some do, some don't but it would be nice to have sensible discussions sometimes.

[Tim Rose]

The more I rad about it, the more I realise that the general feeling on this forum is the it's BAD FORM to take money from people when giving them a service whereby they might expect there glass to to stay clean long enough for them to see some benefit of handing over their £4 or £18/whatever you charge.

People here need to realise that customers don't spend hours thinking about lceaning windows like we all do!

[L.J.Thorpe]

horses for courses here surely? if customers dont like it there aint much you can do and i must say that if its p****** down i feel like a prat and i would rather not be getting soaked so i dont work in persistent heavy rain but on off showers  i will and do what i can get away with.If you need (or want) to work in the rain then fine and just as fair if you dont but no need to be rude about it we are all different and all have diferent work practices and goals and (most important) reasons why we do what we do .I for one quite enjoyed lazing about this morning,i did enough this week to get by so why stress all those in favour of an end to "do you work in the rain " threads....... say AYE :

[windowwashers]

we are all different thats true some dont want to work in the rain for there own reasons and thats fair enough, I choose to as do others, I was not being rude (was not sure if that was aimed at me or not so put it anyway)

Dave, why do I talk tripe ? because I have a different opinion than you ?
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