So we clean a semi detached property which is 1 flat downstairs 1 flat upstairs.
The flat upstairs is a long standing customer who is an elderly woman even though she is a bit fiery and takes no messing about. She is as good as gold, even gave us a £10 tip yesterday been doing her windows for 8 years.
The neighbour downstairs though has a screw loose. Hes on disability for some mental health conditions and you can just tell hes not right in the head. I gave him the benefit of the doubt about 3 years ago and started cleaning his windows. He always owed us money.
Would always promise to pay, but then came up with excuses like hes owed benefits money and his bill company ripped him off, every story all the time. He would always pay but i would have to wait like 3 months.....
Well i put up with it for way longer than i should. Binned him off last year told him we wont clean his windows anymore as he is a bad payer. He was even on GoCardless but it would bounce every single time.
Well since i binned him off hes now giving us lots of hassle. The problem is its shared access to the back of the property between himself and the other customer upstairs. Legally it is supposed to be left unlocked for access for both of them as residents. He decided to put his own lock on the gate though. The lady upstairs has a key, but shes not always home. Shes told the guy downstairs to leave it unlocked, and he agreed, but then just keeps it locked when we are coming.
Well yesterday my worker could not open the gate so politely knocked the guys door and asked him to unlock the gate. The guy went berserk slammed the door in his face and started swearing told him to leave him alone and stop giving him hassle all the time. Then the woman from upstairs comes out knocks his door and tells him off again as hes done this before even though they had an agreement. He then went berserk at her started being aggressive and shes a small old lady, so needless to say my employee lost his temper and threatened to beat the poo out of him and said just leave the gate open and nobody will have any issues going forwards.
My employee was in the wrong to lose his temper but i am not surprised he did. This guy in the downstairs flat had one of his neighbours spit in his face for a so called "dispute". Imagine how intolerable you have to be for your neighbours to spit on your face, this is the kind of guy we are dealing with.
Well ive now had a voicemail from him saying that unless i phone him back hes going to report my company for breaking into his property and abusing him.
I dont even know how to handle this. Personally i just want to ignore him cant stand the guy. However he is classed as disabled and on some special benefits from the council, and hes the type to cause havoc, i dont want or need to get into a situation with him its not worth my time or energy.
So guys on that basis how should i handle it.
A) bin the customer upstairs and apologise and just say we cant clean due to her psycho neighbour downstairs.
B) ignore the guy whos now threatening to report my company for breaking into his property??
C) send him a message and just ask him politely to leave the gate unlocked and we can all just get on with our lives no need for hassle.
D) Tell my employee to go back next month and clean, but do not retaliate to this guy at all, just to protect company reputation if nothing else.
E) (open to suggestions)
Sorry for the essay guys, but its a strange one and just not sure how to handle it.
