[Spruce]

This is a follow on from Roy Harding's thread on his broken window.

About 8 years ago I got a referal from a customer asking me to knock on her friend's door who was looking for a window cleaner as their's had stopped coming (I know what you lot are thinking.)

This is one of those long rows of Victorian terraced houses in the town we live in. I speak to the lady and we agree a price and I start cleaning the windows. Whilst I'm busy I get about half a dozen women all coming over to me asking for a price and would I do theirs.

I didn't know any of them personally, but within a few days I had about 15 customers all in the same street.

Now this was in the middle of winter and I had done the second clean. For those not in I put a ticket through the door, and as per our tradition, we collect payment on a Friday evening. The street lighting was rather poor down this street and it was blowing a gail with a bit of rain. I knock on the front door of our customer only to notice there are a set of keys in the outside door lock and nobody answering the door.

What would you do?

[8weekly]

Egg the windows. 

[steve123]

Dump and replace with two £25ers owned by celebrities who love to bake and invite you in to drink tea and try their scones.

[Jonny 87]

It's a tricky one,

Do you put them through the letter box and potentially lock someone out of the house.

Or leave them their so someone can get burgled.

I actually think I would leave the keys in the door carry on collecting.

[Smudger]

Had a customer who had rushed off to work leaving the front door wide open, I called inside - no answer   Checked with neighbours and had gone to work, so explained to neighbour the situation they returned with me, wrote a note, shut and locked the door.

Got a call that evening, very, very grateful 😃

3 month later  we get a call from her, it was my birthday yesterday, treated myself to a window vac, don't come again... 😫

I would lock up, leave a note that keys are at number. Xyz -  job done

Then expect to lose them 💩

Darran

[robertphil]

dont touch it    or you could be blamed if anything is missing

[PoleKing]

Was gonna say, pocket them and leave a note until RobertPhil posted. He has a point.
Perhaps let the neighbour know.
Don't think you can just leave 'em.

[Spruce]

The trouble is you don't know any of the neighbours and who they would trust and who they wouldn't trust.

[PoleKing]

in that case-my first thought. Pocket them and leave a note.
If anythings missing your fingerprints etc won't be there. (Unless you've done them over )

[rosskesava]

Make sure the door is locked, take the keys, put a note on the door with my phone number and then phone 111 and report it.

[C o z y]

We get this all the time with soldiers wives. Leave the door open and go to see their friends 3 doors down  Haven't really got the crime here, and MOD estates seem pretty safe. We tell the neighbours and leave the keys with them, and a note on the door. Everyone's happy, can't really go wrong.

[TomCrowther]

Let yourself in, take the tv, iPad and anything nice in the fridge. Simples. It's what the public expect from a window licker isn't it?

[Spruce]

After giving this a fair amount of thought I took a cloth from the van and removed the keys from the lock and posted them in through the letter box. As robertphil says - you could be blamed if something went missing, so the cloth made sure my finger prints weren't on any of the keys.

I reasoned that if the keys belonged to A then his wife G also had her own set of keys or vice versa. If they had to call a locksmith out it would cost them £80 in those days, which would be cheaper than the excess of their household insurance. If the house was burgled then there could be the possibility that insurance wouldn't cover their losses as there wouldn't be an indication of forced entry.

I have never mentioned this to them or anyone else. A & G have now gone their seperate ways and I still clean G's windows in her new house when finances allow.

Having worked in the street for many years now I know who I could leave the keys with if the same thing happened again. However, as I would always be worried I might get blamed for any missing jewelery (even if they had mislaid it) I would still do exactly the same thing again - pop the keys in through the letter box with a cloth and not say a word to anyone.

[Spruce]

We get this all the time with soldiers wives. Leave the door open and go to see their friends 3 doors down   Haven't really got the crime here, and MOD estates seem pretty safe. We tell the neighbours and leave the keys with them, and a note on the door. Everyone's happy, can't really go wrong.

Hi Cozy

In 1988 I was in Switzerland on a Service Manager's meeting from South Africa. Our Swiss factory was in a place called Solothurn which is half way between Zurich and Geneva -no crime whatsoever.

In the evening I was invited to my Swiss counterpart's home along with a couple of others. Parking in the street outside was very limited and residents in the street would park in front of other residents driveways. But there was no problem as they all left their keys in the ignition. If the owner came home and found a car blocking his driveway, he would simply get into it, move it out of the way so he could get his car onto his driveway and put the car back.

Their front doors were also left unlocked through the day even when they were out at work all day. If the postman needed to deliver a parcel he would just open the door and put it on the table inside.

Coming from Johannesburg, the crime capital of the world to this was unbelieveable. In fact I felt extremely uncomfortable. Even today, I get very tense when I'm left alone in a house to clean internal windows.

[Roy Harding]

I have had this very thing. Turned up to clean no cars, door open keys hanging in the lock. I rang door bell and no answer. So text the woman's mobile and carried on cleaning, got a text back five minutes later asking me to lock up and give the keys to her neighbor.

She said she was in a hurry and thinking of several things at once and got in car and forgot to lock up.

She had left the house half an hour before I got there, so the house wasn't open that long. 

But I think you need to know what sort of customer you are dealing with, as you could be blamed if anything went missing.

Roy

[H20cleaning]

Check the biscuit tin if the owners are old! We all no thats were they keep there millions  💩💩💩💩