[8weekly]

I received this email from a customer this morning:

As agreed we left the side gate open, but no one arrived.
We would like to cancel our contact.
 
Regards
Steve New
 
So I replied with this:

Dear Stephen,

Richard cleaned your windows yesterday. We have a van on The Moors this morning who will be calling to check.

Regards,


Steve Seddon

In the meantime I spoke to Richard and emailed this:

I have talked to Richard and he says you have a black wooden conservatory. He has never cleaned your windows before. Is this not your house?

He replied with:

There was no sign that the windows had been cleaned, and our side gate was not closed and no bill through our door.   We therefore wish to cancel this contract.
Again there will be no-one in today and we do not wish to leave our side gate open on the offr chance.

Steve New


Dan (who looked) caught the customer at home and phoned me to say that the windows were spotless apart from one small run on the window above the conservatory, so I emailed this:

Hi,

I believe Dan has been along and has confirmed the windows were cleaned. I believe however that there was a run on the window over the conservatory. These are difficult to reach windows, but we are happy to pop back and rectify. We will remove you from our round once payment has been received.

Regards,

Steve Seddon

I then received an aggressive phone call saying that Dan had agreed with him that they hadn’t been cleaned. I tried to explain that Dan had said something different to me at which he said “I don’t care what he said to you”. His tone was aggressive all the way through. I said I wouyld come straight over and look for myself. He wasn’t keen but in the end said “you’ve got 10 minutes!” to get here. He also repeated that he had received no bill.

Dan was working just around the corner from the guy so I stopped to see him on the way and he repeated that the windows were definitely cleaned and he had told the customer so. I took Dan with me to the house so that he’d have to call Dan a liar to his face. When he eventually emerged, he had a cheque AND the bill that he said he’d never got.

The moral of the story – when you get a cancellation, don’t assume that the customer is telling the truth.

[Richard iSparkle]

I received this email from a customer this morning:

As agreed we left the side gate open, but no one arrived.
We would like to cancel our contact.
 
Regards
Steve New
 
So I replied with this:

Dear Stephen,

Richard cleaned your windows yesterday. We have a van on The Moors this morning who will be calling to check.

Regards,


Steve Seddon

In the meantime I spoke to Richard and emailed this:

I have talked to Richard and he says you have a black wooden conservatory. He has never cleaned your windows before. Is this not your house?

He replied with:

There was no sign that the windows had been cleaned, and our side gate was not closed and no bill through our door.   We therefore wish to cancel this contract.
Again there will be no-one in today and we do not wish to leave our side gate open on the offr chance.

Steve New


Dan (who looked) caught the customer at home and phoned me to say that the windows were spotless apart from one small run on the window above the conservatory, so I emailed this:

Hi,

I believe Dan has been along and has confirmed the windows were cleaned. I believe however that there was a run on the window over the conservatory. These are difficult to reach windows, but we are happy to pop back and rectify. We will remove you from our round once payment has been received.

Regards,

Steve Seddon

I then received an aggressive phone call saying that Dan had agreed with him that they hadn’t been cleaned. I tried to explain that Dan had said something different to me at which he said “I don’t care what he said to you”. His tone was aggressive all the way through. I said I wouyld come straight over and look for myself. He wasn’t keen but in the end said “you’ve got 10 minutes!” to get here. He also repeated that he had received no bill.

Dan was working just around the corner from the guy so I stopped to see him on the way and he repeated that the windows were definitely cleaned and he had told the customer so. I took Dan with me to the house so that he’d have to call Dan a liar to his face. When he eventually emerged, he had a cheque AND the bill that he said he’d never got.

The moral of the story – when you get a cancellation, don’t assume that the customer is telling the truth.

some people have issues!

[8weekly]

I received this email from a customer this morning:

As agreed we left the side gate open, but no one arrived.
We would like to cancel our contact.
 
Regards
Steve New
 
So I replied with this:

Dear Stephen,

Richard cleaned your windows yesterday. We have a van on The Moors this morning who will be calling to check.

Regards,


Steve Seddon

In the meantime I spoke to Richard and emailed this:

I have talked to Richard and he says you have a black wooden conservatory. He has never cleaned your windows before. Is this not your house?

He replied with:

There was no sign that the windows had been cleaned, and our side gate was not closed and no bill through our door.   We therefore wish to cancel this contract.
Again there will be no-one in today and we do not wish to leave our side gate open on the offr chance.

Steve New


Dan (who looked) caught the customer at home and phoned me to say that the windows were spotless apart from one small run on the window above the conservatory, so I emailed this:

Hi,

I believe Dan has been along and has confirmed the windows were cleaned. I believe however that there was a run on the window over the conservatory. These are difficult to reach windows, but we are happy to pop back and rectify. We will remove you from our round once payment has been received.

Regards,

Steve Seddon

I then received an aggressive phone call saying that Dan had agreed with him that they hadn’t been cleaned. I tried to explain that Dan had said something different to me at which he said “I don’t care what he said to you”. His tone was aggressive all the way through. I said I wouyld come straight over and look for myself. He wasn’t keen but in the end said “you’ve got 10 minutes!” to get here. He also repeated that he had received no bill.

Dan was working just around the corner from the guy so I stopped to see him on the way and he repeated that the windows were definitely cleaned and he had told the customer so. I took Dan with me to the house so that he’d have to call Dan a liar to his face. When he eventually emerged, he had a cheque AND the bill that he said he’d never got.

The moral of the story – when you get a cancellation, don’t assume that the customer is telling the truth.

some people have issues!

Staggering really. He's mid 50s I guess. I just wondered how anyone could go through life like that. It was a real eye opener in that it did show me that people are prepared to tell huge lies to save £23. It was the second clean btw.

[M & C Window Cleaning]

In my experience people often find it easier to lie when they want to cancel than tell the truth. The 'You've done a bad job so I wish to cancel,' is often told to save face when what they really mean is they've got someone else.

[Tom White]

Fair play for the way you handled it.

[Stoots]

It happens a lot. All kinds of bs is told rather than just saying we don't want a cleaner anymore.

[Mike55]

What a numpty......karma will catch up with him

[sunshine windows]

As Tosh said, handled it very well in my opinion.

Could have easily led to you losing money,  or not trusting your cleaners, had you believed the customer.

[Smurf]

Nowt queerer than folk for sure.
If it's an older customer onset of dementia springs to mind.   
Dealing with people losing their marbles can be a challenge at the best of times to say the least.

Mind I expect he was just wanting to dump you after a knock on the door when some numpty quoted him a fiver and said "don't worry about the locked gate as I can jump it" as they do   

[Soupy]

Fair play for the way you handled it.

You think?

You've had three men visit this property, one of them your good self (who I assume's time is charged at a decent rate?), and what did you get? £23 and a smug feeling inside?

I get this crap from customers from time to time, I send them a screenshot or temporary log in to RAM tracking so they can see for themselves exactly what time we were at their property, if they are going to flat out accuse me of lying I politely explain that we are professionals and we're not in the business of ripping people off. If their windows are not cleaned up to standard then we will happily come back and clean them again. If they wish to cancel our service after only the second clean then the one off price they were quoted in the beginning (normally 3x a monthly clean price) will be charged.

The moral of the story – when you get a cancellation, don’t assume that the customer is telling the truth.

If I thought for a second that an employee would lie to me and say he had cleaned a house that he hadn't, he'd be sacked. I have been bitten with that before and I like to think I'd know if it were happening again. There needs to be a level of trust there (RAM tracking does help with my trust issues).

[8weekly]

Fair play for the way you handled it.

You think?

You've had three men visit this property, one of them your good self (who I assume's time is charged at a decent rate?), and what did you get? £23 and a smug feeling inside?

I get this crap from customers from time to time, I send them a screenshot or temporary log in to RAM tracking so they can see for themselves exactly what time we were at their property, if they are going to flat out accuse me of lying I politely explain that we are professionals and we're not in the business of ripping people off. If their windows are not cleaned up to standard then we will happily come back and clean them again. If they wish to cancel our service after only the second clean then the one off price they were quoted in the beginning (normally 3x a monthly clean price) will be charged.

The moral of the story – when you get a cancellation, don’t assume that the customer is telling the truth.

If I thought for a second that an employee would lie to me and say he had cleaned a house that he hadn't, he'd be sacked. I have been bitten with that before and I like to think I'd know if it were happening again. There needs to be a level of trust there (RAM tracking does help with my trust issues).

I don't have a vehicle tracking system so that wouldn't have helped. The one off price is all well and good but if he claims they weren't up to standard he can withhold it. Would you take someone to court for £79 ?

[Tom White]

Fair play for the way you handled it.

You think?

Possibly; compared to the way I may have handled it (in a Geordie kind of way), or even unleashed my attack dog (Wor Lass) and let her savage him.

[lucky15]

"When he eventually emerged, he had a cheque"  Good luck banking that

[8weekly]

"When he eventually emerged, he had a cheque"  Good luck banking that

It's s criminal offence to knowingly pass a dud cheque.

[Tom-01]

I had one cancel yesterday, £50 8 weekly job, £2.5m house, been doing it a few years - cancelled because they are trialling the gardener (not Alex) cleaning their windows as he is cheaper.. said he would be in touch if the quality isn't as good. I replied and said I know times are tough  and there's definitely cheaper alternatives out there, then said about our equipment, insurance etc. Thanks for custom.

[Soupy]

"When he eventually emerged, he had a cheque"  Good luck banking that

It's s criminal offence to knowingly pass a dud cheque.

Yeah that won't work.

There were 3 of them your honour. I told the first one that my windows weren't cleaned then another came then another. I gave them a cheque to make them go away.

Vi coactus.

[Dave Willis]

He gave you a cactus 

[Soupy]

He gave you a cactus 

Vi

[DaveG]

[AuRavelling79]

The thing is, I know Soupy is always utterly and completely right but does he mean Vis Compulsiva?