Early in the spring a person who flips houses hired me to clean the windows on a property. They were happy with my work and they paid well and on time. More work was promised but I never heard anything from them.
Then I got a call from them to clean the windows in their personal home mid-summer. I let them bully me down on the price way too low and the job was a nightmare (old combination windows, sashes with the weighted ropes). Lessons learned: I do know how to bid right and I wanted no more work from this person.
Fast forward 5 months and they called to tell me a couple of the storms aren’t moving up and down and they think it’s my fault and want me to come fix it. For the record, they did a walk around at the end of the job, nitpicked a bunch of stuff which I took care of and were satisfied when I left.
There’s more I could tell about the general unsavory manner this person deals with and speaks to me. I’ve been at this two years, have never broke anything and more than anything wanted to get this person out of my life because this one job was so miserable.
I told them I’d come out after the weekend but now am going to tell them that I don’t see how an issue with such old windows this many months later is something I did. You can’t tell me any one in the household hasn’t touched those windows at some point in 5 months.
Thing is I’m worried considering the bullying and volatile nature the person shows signs of that they’re going to lose it when I tell them I’m not dealing with this. I can handle getting yelled at. I’m more worried about being sued.
So, yes, I realize I made a number of mistakes through the course of this. And believe me I won’t make them again. So, I’m not asking what I should do in hindsight. What should I do now: please answer: You think they’ll just yell at me and leave it or should I worry about being sued? What would you do different? Never been in court so just the thought is scary.
actually its an alert for anyone when the ‘bullying on price’ starts in
amazing how the 2 are always connected: bullying on price combined with dissatisfaction and accusations at time or a later time
quite the pattern
sorry you have to deal with this
try more absolute and adamant ways of denial: “ohhhhh nooooooo you don’t, I did absolutely nothing of the sort”
combined with the unknown happenings of the time span “It’s been 5 months not 5 minutes and I absolutely know I did not cause that”
at the same time, do not challenge or get provoked into stating a challenge that they will want to win at any and all costs eg: “so sue me” “i’ll see you in court” “prove it” “bet you cant prove it”
you could be dealing with a sociopath
they see you as a ‘nice guy’ they can manipulate into accepting to fix or pay for their issue
you have to give them a stone wall
they’d have to actually be lawyers to actually want to sue you for petty things
the less you say the better, don’t get sucked into a site visit (its been 5 months), find a way to respond once and close it up (you approved everything, all is well) and be done
I would simply tell them that it’s been 5 months. You didn’t do ANY damage to their windows or any of their other property. I would suggest for them to find a contractor to fix their issues at their own expense to fix their problem, and they need to find another window cleaner in the future, as you don’t have room for them anymore on your schedule.
Do it politely, and hang up the phone after you are done. Don’t continue to get into a discussion with them, as they will surely take the opportunity to manipulate you and scare you. He already knows if he is gruff, you’ll do what he wants.
I would go there and take a look at their concern at least with it not sliding properly it could simply be one side of that insert is out of the track. Maybe you didn’t put it in properly, easy fix, maybe they tried to pop it out to do something and put it back in in properly either way easy fix with those.
If it’s the actual double-hung that’s not sliding up and down obviously the old weighted corded windiws can fail at anytime, simply by opening and closing.
By seeing it yourself you’d at least have an idea of what the problem is if any and you might be able to fix it immediately and resolve it.
I may be wrong about that site visit and confronting this person on it with your concern of violence. Leave us their address so we can call the police when we don’t hear from you next week
This is just me , but ya I would go there, An play his game. Be professional , an address his every concern . Look at the windows lift the Window up An down go look at the other windows lift them up An down , then after some convo in a matter of fact Tone say “. My conclusion after inspecting everything is that this is not something I did , An I’m sorry you feel differently
If he starts screaming stop him in his tracks an say excuse me , who the fuck (you can use hell) do you think your taking to I came here to address the situation I’ve came to my conclusion you jace yours I jace mine this is America correct. Have a good day buddy.
He isn’t going to take you to court no way no how for 2 old windows the judge will laugh at him, it’s a he said she said
Windows are old buy new ones loser !!
Also don’t forget it could just be something simple. Fix it an say goodbye forever
Sorry I have no tolerance for guys like this.
Also add they were working fine when I left now 5 minths later you call me the truth is the truth. So ya give him some of that
Honor the fact that you agreed to come out and take a look. Document the whole visit on a pad of paper for your records. (Done more as a professional look than a rebuttal against their perceived legal action).
Ask questions and point out the age of the windows - even asking beforehand the age of the windows. Be sure to note and verbalize any observations of condition and age, as age for this type of window isn’t always friendly.
In the end you only clean windows and open and close them as they are designed to do if in proper working order. It is the homeowners responsibility to maintain their homes doors, windows, gates, and gutters; Not push the burden onto whomever they can.
Keep the dialogue professional and stay on the high ground.
Price for the job and unexpected issues that always come up. If their budget is lower than your price - beware.
I would tell the grouch that the windows were working fine when I left FIVE months ago and after reviewing the situation I am not going to go there. An additional factor for any component of a structure that has moving parts is the structure’s movement and settling. Dealing with these issues is outside of your scope of work as a window cleaner.
Filing suit would cost the grouch a lot of money and even in the extremely unlikely event a finding was made in his favor he would still have to collect for damages, which could also be expensive for him.
Tell them you have a guarentee for upto one month and you have went past the guarentee. Next time you can get satisfaction sheets for customers to sign and you can go…
On June 2017 - you said there was no problems and you signed the paper work to say you were satisfied. I guarentee one month from this point and beyond that is out of my control.
negative fantasies will only make u age, or worse.
go out there, look at it, if it’s not your fault, just tell them. keep it simple. acknowledge his concern. state the facts. recuse yourself from liabilty. suggest a fix.
“oh yeah mr customer, i see what you mean that it doesnt work anymore. when i left here 5 months ago, it was definately working. something must have happened since then, but this definately wasn’t anything i did. I can suggest a good window repair company if you’d like.”
if he starts yelling, calmly ask him to stop yelling or you will leave. If he threatens to sue, just acknowledge his threat and dismiss yourself from the situation.
“mr customer i understand that your upset, but please lower your voice, or i will have to leave”
“mr customer i understand your upset, and since you have said u wish to file a law suit, under the advice of my Atty, i must cease all communication and leave the premmises. if you do decide to file, my lawyer will speak to you. if you decide not to file suit, ill be glad to continue this conversation, but i maintain that this broken window was not of my doing.”
its all good… just be chill… don’t worry about it… probably the worst will be a bad review, which u can rebuttal online.
I’m with Bruce on this. I’d say this advice is dead on.
First,
Why would you go out there anyway? A phone call is best.
They can TRY to sue you for anything they want…but they still have the burden of proof. The scales tip in your favor on that.
If you do a google search for statute of limitations small claims court (your state) you should see a result for the department of consumer affairs in your state. It will let you know what the limits are in damages for sole proprietors being sued from an individual(s) would or could be, but in descriptive terms will state what the accuser has to do in order for the judge to award the accuser a win.
No judge is going to rule in this person’s favor. If he gives a bad review online, don’t see it as a bad thing. Paste it here and we’ll all give you pointers on how to respond, because guys like this are a gold mine for reviews depending on how you word your response.
This is what needs to be consoder when taking on someone as a customer. If you want to build a solid company with a great reputation you have to go above and beyond for your customers and unfortunately sometimes that includes entertaining their fantasies. That means you either have to either refuse to service some customers or raise your pricing to make dealing with them worthwhile.
I would see this as an opportunity to insure he doesn’t ruin your reputation which he might be using as a tool to bully you. At this point the more you bend over backwards for him the more proof you have that he is simply unreasonable and you end up with the upper hand. The more demands he makes at this point will only serve to strengthen your position.
I would go out there and if in the off chance it’s something you did fix it. If you didn’t do it then you can fix it for free with the satisfaction of knowing it gives you the justification to take the upper hand in the relationship or to end the relationship and leaves him no reasonable basis to retaliate.
The other option, after examining it and confirming you didn’t cause it, is to show him what is wrong and how you didn’t cause it and give him a process to fix it and you can make it as hefty a price as you want. This option gives you imediate satisfaction wether he takes the bid or not. If he takes it, as long as you priced it high enough, you can make up for what you didn’t get on the original job. If he refuses and gets pissed off then you get the satisfaction of putting your foot down with him and showing him you can’t he bullied.
If you fix it for free it also gives you the upper hand if you opt to keep him as a customer. Next Tim he calls you can feel justified in giving him a hefty price and staying firm on your pricing.
Is it possible that the storm windows that are not sliding properly came from another window? They may be slightly bigger than the ones that were in that window originally. The customer would have no way of knowing about this problem until the fall, 5 months after the cleaning, when the screens go up and the storm windows come down. If you gott’m mixed up it’s going to be a problem for the customer even if all the windows are SUPPOSEDLY the exact same size.
do you think your taking to I came here to address the situation I’ve came to my conclusion you jace yours I jace mine this is America correct. Have a good day buddy.
the truth is the truth. So ya give him some of that
come on 
