[James Styles]

First of all when canvassing I always skip flats but this lady was a recommendation & it’s only 2 stories high, needed more customers as I’m still building, so I decided to take her on (about summertime last year).
Anyways she is the top floor and when I do her windows there’s a few splashes that go on the downstairs windows/sills. She’s told me in the past that her downstairs neighbour was moaning & I said to her well I will give the sills a quick wipe but im not doing his windows for free & suggested a solution is to possibly find a traditional window cleaner.

Fast forward to today, I was in the middle of cleaning her windows & the guy came out angrily saying “Everytime you clean her windows all the poop comes down onto mine!” I replied saying “there’s nothing I can do about it, I’ll have to cancel her” he then backtracked a bit but still had the angry tone saying “can’t you just give them a quick wash” I replied “I’m not cleaning your windows for free I only get £8.00 for her top windows I ain’t doing it” he said “don’t cancel her, I’ll just wipe them, give me a rag!” I told him they would look bad just wiping with a rag but he ignored me and attempted to clean the window, he then proceeded to just stand there smoking with a sulky face. What I didn’t like was the way he came out so aggressively.

It really annoyed me & im thinking of cancelling but the lady is old, alone & a really nice person, always chats to me and would be gutted if I cancelled her.

I do think I need to become more thicker skinned as I respond really badly to criticism or confrontation, I’ve been through serious bouts of depression/anxiety last 7-8 years but I’m determined to get past it & keep growing my business and do enjoy window cleaning I just need to not be so sensitive as this bugged me for the entire day & is still on my mind now.

Any advice or experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

[Shrek]

Never ever take on upstairs flats apartments unless your doing downstairs too. I would be completely ped as well if every time you came round , all the water was running down the wall on to my windows. I totally understand why he’s so angry, try washing your own bedroom window and let it run down onto the lower window without washing that too and see what a mess it makes. My advice is dump her or do it trad

[nathankaye]

I have one customer who is upstairs only, hes been a good customer for many years (well b4 i switched to wfp).
All i do is a quick spray of the bottom window, roughly the height of my brush on its side, just to rinse the dirty water off. I dont clean them, its simply a quick rinse.
If you must keep this customer then perhaps just a quick rinse will be good enough. Alternatively, cancel the customer and treat as a lesson learnt, not to do flats

[JandS]

I had 3 x 3rd floor flats  in a row....ended up binning because of threats from ground floor residents....one was a trad window cleaner.

[Stoots]

Yep, i just don't do flats.

Problem solved.

[Richard Groves]

I do plenty of flats. If I didn't in the center of the city I work in I'd halve my market. Its an occasional issue but rare. I can understand their annoyance. If I'm spoken to in a friendly manner on the issue I just apologise and give them a quick rinse. But I hate and can't stand aggressive and rude people who just shout and are not open to any reasoning, in those situations I just tell them to f off and do one. I cannot stand being spoken down to  and yelled at, I just see red. Their issue is with their neighbour, not me.

I have a regular ground floor flat ( with a neighbour in a lower basement ). Been doing it 10 years , no issue until about 4 cleans ago on 2 subsequent visits when he was in. " you get my walls wet, I'm not happy". I tried reasoning and accused me of arguing with him  I was all set to just ditch the job, told him I didn't need the grief, did he want me to tell my customer ? "yes"
Told customer, they had a stern word and not a peep out of him since. Everybody has the right to have their windows cleaned if they so wish.

On a few occasions I've even turned it around and gained their custom.

How much longer is it going to take you to give his the quick once over  ?  Sometimes neutralising a situation with a little goodwill can be the difference between a bad day and a good one and will just lift your spirits and stop you from dwelling on it.

[James Styles]

Think I’ll just agree to give the bottom floor windows a quick rinse on whichever ones it drips on, suppose it doesn’t take long I just didn’t like the guys approach about it but he did back off in the end and kind of apologised about reacting angrily. From now on though i am never taking on flats, it’s a lesson learned.

[Phil J]

I have a block of around 20 flats and do 16 of them. The ones I don't clean are ground floor and don't have a window cleaner. We have one really horrible B***h who always comes out and complains. I just smile, rinse the glass and move on to the next one. Problem solved, job done.

[Slacky]

Cleaning flat windows.

As opposed to undulating, uneven, wrinkled windows?

[alank]

I always try to sort out any issues like this when giving the quote I normally don't take on any multiple occupancy buildings unless I clean the whole building and prefer to have one contact for payment etc. As far as people being prats that's what it's like at times when you're building a round it gets easier the more work you have

[jonboywalton75]

I have a block of around 20 flats and do 16 of them. The ones I don't clean are ground floor and don't have a window cleaner. We have one really horrible B***h who always comes out and complains. I just smile, rinse the glass and move on to the next one. Problem solved, job done.

My solution to this is only clean managed blocks where I clean 100% of them, works a treat

[jonboywalton75]

I always try to sort out any issues like this when giving the quote I normally don't take on any multiple occupancy buildings unless I clean the whole building and prefer to have one contact for payment etc. As far as people being prats that's what it's like at times when you're building a round it gets easier the more work you have

Yeah, when you have more work, dumping the prats has become one of my most enjoyable hobbies 

[Shrek]

The bloke has the right to be angry , your making his windows dirty every time your round . There’s only one way to make both parties happy and that’s trad

[Arnold Palmer]

Politely tell him to bugger off. It's water for crying out loud, you're only doing your job.

[dazmond]

i clean a block of flats and most of them i clean but their is the odd one or two ground floor flats that i dont....if you get any grief just stare at them for a min or two without saying a word.....its always worked for me...they soon go back inside and hide from me next time im round....

[James Styles]

Latest is I’ve told the woman to save any moaning is I will give the odd windows it drips on a quick rinse and that’s it. 
If there’s any further issue in future then I will just have to remove her from the round.

[jay moley]

I only do ground floor flats for this reason.

It's not worth the stress.  Especially as you've suffered with depression and anxiety.

Also don't feel bound to the customer just because she's nice and old etc. This is a business you can't feel sentimental if it's going to cost you money/time/anxiety/hassle.

Plus it's only £8.

Good luck

[david mark]

Teach yourself to trad

[dazmond]

Teach yourself to trad

That's the worst thing he could do IMO..bad advice.......its just not worth climbing a ladder for £8....I wouldn't even take it on unless I could get the majority of them in one block.....

[windowswashed]

Tell him water doesn't defy gravity so blame the architect who designed the flats. Offer him a discounted price to have his cleaned, tell him that's your best offer...take it or leave it!