Window Seal Blown by WFP?

Sorry to have to revive this thread but we are now in the same position except the homeowners don’t know yet that they have busted seals. They so far think we didn’t clean the glass properly.

Older pella windows. An employee cleaned them and we received an email saying that he missed a bunch of areas. They are assuming the window is dirty but I can see from the pictures that they had broken seals which leaked when we cleaned with the WFP.

Thanks to this form I have a general idea of what to say to them however I’m worried that they may be unreasonable. Insurance probably won’t cover this since we didn’t damage his windows nor do I think I should be paying for them.

Oh and we also don’t have a preexisting form.

Anyone care to say how they would handle this? Is not having the form now going to cost us?

Hand it off to your insurance, that is what you pay them for. They will explain to the customer about faulty seals or that you were negligent - those are the only two possibilities. You can explain to them that if the window were not already compromised by leaky seal then no water could get in which is one of the functions of the window. If they insist it costs nothing to let insurance take it from there. That removes you from being the bad guy.

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The problem is that I honestly don’t know who is liable. We didn’t know he had bad seals and neither did he. We’ve though about Offering To pay half of replacing His glass But I don’t know how much that would cost. Is it worth it if the cost to replace the glass is reasonable? We advertise as using waterfed systems so had he known his seals weren’t good he wouldn’t have hired us. Seems to me more like a freak accident - If we were negligent then by all means we need to make it right but if it’s his weak seals to begin with, then I don’t want To take the blame and to look like we are amateurs.

That being said, what about offering paying for 50% cost of glass replacement?

  • I should mention that he has 4 widows that this happened to out of 34

I wouldn’t offer that as it could easily cost you thousands depending in which window brand and how many. One or two maybe, but not numerous windows.

Think of it like this. You borrow someone’s car and tell them you’ll take good care of it. You drive carefully using normal roads, don’t hit anything, and on the way back to the friend a tire blows. Turns out the tire is 10 years old and the thread was showing. Do you feel like that tire was your fault? (I hope not)

The point is everything has an expected life, and even with the best care will need to be replaced. People think of glass as nearly impervious but its not. It has pores, and gets scratched, and can be affected by some chemicals. Double pane seals will break, and even if you had used a squeegee and didn’t notice the seal breaking condensation likely would have shown up in the next few months.

I would explain all this to the customer, apologize for the situation but point out if they were that weak any method likely would broken the seal. Even the new top of the line Anderson only have a 20ish year warranty, which means the manufacturer expects that some or all will fail after that time. (I think it was 20 years, can’t remember)

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Yeah that entirely makes sense - and great illustration too! I’m honestly wondering if insurance would even cover this… Like you mentioned, we did things in a standard way and if he had hired someone else the exact same thing would have happened.

We have a relationship with one window installation company which I thought about bringing into this. Maybe using them or the insurance company as references for broken seals.

I honestly preferred this situation MUCH more when he just thought we missed some windows… it’s going to be brutal explaining that those are in fact damaged.

Unless Iam mistaken. That Pella looks like it has the clips around the pane. Take it apart reclean and let it air out

Water fed system isn’t the problem. What happens when a blowing rain storm comes through? Who’s fault is it then?

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I don’t get it - you say you performed service normally and that all you did was clean the windows; why on Earth would you offer to pay to fix someones faulty windows? Did you cause them to fail?

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Yeah totally agreed.

I feel bad for the homeowner because he likely didn’t know the state of his windows (his former window cleaner did everything by hand). But I guess we are the ones with the worst luck because had he hired any other window cleaning company using poles then the exact same thing would have happened. It’s an unfortunate situation and I don’t want to have an unhappy customer. Our primary source of getting new work is through a review website and now I’m worried our status will be jeopardized over something we didn’t cause. What can you do…

And hence the saying - “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”.

Don’t admit guilt to something you didn’t do?

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Just a thought, but to me it seems like the time to schedule an in person meeting with the homeowner, come prepared with facts, clarity and empathy. Examine the windows together, see what actually happened before jumping to conclusions and offering to pay for damages you may not be complicit with.

Paying for something that you are not to blame for is the path of least resistance in that it removes the awkward and uncomfortable conversation you know is necessary to clear the air properly; however it could be the first step down a path you may regret taking.

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I had a customer a few years ago blame me for a broken spigot. I gave all of the information to the insurance rep and he followed up with the home owner. Never heard from him again - and was good with that. He looked at me and said I stood on the spigot to get to the window - WTF? 7 more windows lined up next it that I used my adder but for some reason I would have stood on the spigot to reach that one! People are crazy!

@HLWC older pella windows often have a removable inner glass. it is not sealed and has little lever action clips that hold it in. to clean these fully they must taken apart and 4 sides of glass cleaned

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Wait a minute? WFP isn’t used on interior windows, so the “leaking on the inside” would just be a matter of should have pulled the removable panes, cleaned in/out, then replace. Exterior would be WFP and if those stationary panes leak it is a product problem not a window cleaning problem.

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Right! This happened while doing the outside windows. I see a lot of people mentioning latches to open the pella windows but I’m not sure that those are those windows. They seem to me like regular double pane windows that had broken seals and now I have to find a way to explain that we didn’t cause the break. We’ll definitely have to go there, examine, explain these are leaks in between the panes, how that happens, give homeowner a few options on what they can do to fix it and leave it at that.

I like the idea of if he persists to just give him our insurance contact. I would also encourage him to look it up online because everyone says one and the same that this WILL happen with windows.

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do check to make sure what type of window, and it would make sense that they may leak if they are the removable pellas. They do look like normal windows sometimes.

I zoomed in really, close, and I can see a couple little things that make it sorta look like the clip-in Pella’s, but I don’t think that’s actually the case with these.

I’ve definitely had older clip-in pella’s leak on me, and that was an easy enough fix that I just ate the labor on to make the customer happy.

But I wouldn’t offer to help pay for window replacement

Yeah I tried googling what the clip pella looks like but I am almost 100% this isn’t the case (though I’m open to being wrong).

I’ve been trying to educate myself up till now a little bit about seal failure and how the moisture gets inside. That’s definitely going to come in handy when I talk to him.

Everyone is right, I’d live to regret paying for it

the cold water on the glass can make the moisture condense making the problem appear or appear worse but wfp cannot cause the problem
the clips can only be seen from the inside.
those may be add on storms which are not sealed and have allowed the water to get in between.