Hi all, In the great words of the joker “wait’ll they get a load of me. So, I recently lost a $25.00 wkly. client do because his son ask me to wipe down the face of the metal frame and I said sure but, its going to cost you an additional $10.00. He said “10.00”, let me talk to my dad. Two days later I enter their store to purchase sparkling water. I saw both the dad and son. I said hi and the dad said to the son…“did you tell him” the son didn’t saying anything because he felt uncomfortable. So the dad went on to say " I pay you a $100.00 cash a month and you want to charge me $10.00 for something that’s going to take you 2 mins.” I commented, when I buy something in your store I don’t complain about your prices. I either pay the price or I don’t". Dad goes on saying, " I always negotiate prices". I reply, not me. I’m running a business, I have insurance to pay, an spouse to provide for…etc" Dad replied, show me your insurance and I’ll write you a check" and I said pls. don’t for get the sales tax. Long story short, he thought that I was cleaning his windows on the side of working for another company because I didn’t tell him that I owned the company.
With the above being said, here is what I want to send him along with my proof of insurance.
Greenlife-1.pdf (123.9 KB)
In hindsight, I could probably defused the situation by offer a frequency period that would have resulted perhaps me not viewing it as free labor…not! oh yeah, a few months ago dad tried to get me to lower a res. window cleaning estimate I quoted him.
You have to choose your battles with store front customers. Don’t be trivial with them . I don’t want them being trivial with you so …
You know what I do with most frames is use a 6" swivel strip washer dip take it off the handle an wring it out an just go over the frames. Takes no time st all. If that’s what’s going to make him happy then I would of just said no problem.
Look these people aren’t making a lot of money either. It’s a legit complaint I don’t get it often , but when I do. I just say ya no problem.
I’m not a guy to wipe every frame either especially weeklies . Sometimes I just use my squeeze to wipe the excess water
If the your clean weekly or bi-weekly the glass isn’t that dirty so to me it dries clean
The sillls I always wipe with my 6" squeegee.
Btw is that a weekly are the insides going 1 x a month. 100 a month ??
I don’t know, nice looking store front. If it is just a matter of doing a quick wipe down after squeegee, then as a weekly, why not?
If he is requesting a total scrub down and fine detail, then that is another matter - but ensuring that there is no trace of you being there other than clean windows should be figured into your work and fair price.
Majestic66, its I/O wkly. I did wipe the sills and detail splashes every service. This dad is very picky and he would find something wrong and ask me to add soap or blame me if I damage the finish.
Garry, he would weasel his way to getting me to scrub down and fine detail.
I think its alright that he dropped me because eventually he would pay his employees to do it to save cost. I just couldn’t believe he wanted me to do it for free. Especially after I pay $9.00 for a shake with protein. I don’t complain about his prices and he should complain about mine. In the awful words of Lebron James “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach” In other words…I’m going to get another customer…lol!
Ya sounds like a pIA. If he is nit picking ever time to me it’s not worth it. I usually mive on from customers like this.
Find another customer. Let me clarify where ever your water gets on is basically your responsibility. Not the vertical frames.
The sill gets wipe an the frame below the silk here that’s it
Majestic66, exactly! If my eyes are not deceiving me, the frame where that emergency box is located in your picture is what he wants us to clean.
I’m running out to handle some business but, I will be back in a few hours to follow up.
I think the bigger issue was you were raising the price of the job by almost 50%. Unless you are spending 50% more time to wipe the frames, you can see why he would raise a fuss about such a relatively big change in price.
That’s the strategy I’ve been adopting too. A recent job i started probably hadn’t been cleaned in many years, like at least 10 or more. Omg when i finished those frames went from corroded to shiny silver. They looked awesome, especially next to the yucky frames and windows of the shops next door that turned down my service. But yeah, now that the deep clean is done, the job is a breeze to maintain.
Ya I don’t understand those frames there in the pic are not dirty. I’ve been cleaning that store for 10 years .
These are what need To be wiped up once in a while because you water drips down an after awhile it builds up. So I hit it with the strip washer like in the pic
^^^ look at the frame coming down the right side never ever cleaned that, An it looks clean.
All I can say is I don’t do those frames nobody ever says anything ever. Does Kt make it right or wrong. Don’t know , , but either way I’m not going to start , just wear my water gets on it needs to be maintained
