Ok folks, lets just say things did not go to plan at all.
First of all i couldn't personally attend the property. I am waiting for a potential operation on my spine and at the moment in alot of pain so i literally can't leave the house most days. I had to send out a family member who is also part of our business now and knows things inside out so is experienced.
We went there with the sole intention to show the customer our brushes and say look its just not possible to cause scratches from using Gardiners WFP brushes. That was our agenda. The customer had their own agenda. They tag teamed the person i sent out and basically said look. My husband is a professional window fitter. He fitted the glass himself and inspected it before putting it on he does this full time so deals with glass every day. He said the scratches were 100% not there when he fitted them and were not there the week before we cleaned the windows. Customer is saying that we used a Gardiners plastic scraper to get rid of bird mess. I asked my employee who is one of my most trusted employees if this is correct and he said no she is lying there was nothing on the glass just the usual 4 weekly dirt buildup.
So its her word vs his word. Customer got very irate when we basically said look it wasn't us, these brushes are designed for the window cleaning industry and cannot cause scratches. After my family member showed him cleaning a window, customer just was not having it.
They were adamant it was us end of. They started getting loud and aggressive and said right i want your insurance details end of, if you don't sort this out im going to post negative google and facebook reviews, report you to trading standards and tell your insurance provider it was you who did it so your premiums will likely go up anyway and if we see you posted on facebook in the local area we will leave negative comments. They went full balls to the wall psycho mode on my family member who had to leave asap.
My family member came back genuinely upset and said im never doing that again, ever.
I sat for an hour and thought about it. Do i believe we caused the scratches? No. Do i want the hassle of a customer who has spent £400+ with us over the last 2 years reporting me to trading standards, leaving negative reviews on google and facebook and contacting my insurance directly to say we did it? Hell no.
I am fortunate enough to be in a position where i have lots of savings, business cash flow is good and finances are good. I like a simple stress free live as is possible.
I'd much rather fork out and pay for a replacement piece of glass then deal with potential hassle and stress from a customer going psycho mode on us. We have a good reputation in our area, i dont want to even remotely risk that either.
I did a full 180 and told the customer, i still do not believe we caused the scratches but given all of the circumstances i am willing to pay to replace the glass. I said, as your husband did it last time can he get me a price from his company to supply and fit the glass and send me the invoice. She replied and was over the moon and went from psycho biatch mode to friendly customer mode again and said thank you so much. My husband will not charge you for fitting the glass, he will do it himself for free, he will just get a price from the company to supply the glass.
All in all the glass cost me £113. It was a wide bedroom pane of glass not a small one, one of those large ones.
So what have i learned from this ordeal?
Not fully sure. Still dont believe we caused the scratches. One thing i did learn for myself is that i do not care about principle. Id much rather pay £100 to get a problem out of my life by clicking my fingers than dealing with the stress, hassle and fallout from a nutter psycho customer starting a witch hunt to damage our company reputation. If i wasn't in a good financial position i may think differently about this.
Also final closing note. 10 years cleaning windows and this is the first time we have had to payout for damage. £100 isn't bad for 10 years i would say.
Lets just hope it doesn't happen anytime soon
Hope you enjoyed folks. My stress levels were sky high this time a week ago, now its done and dealt with i couldn't care less and all is well in the world again, well all is well apart from my ongoing health issues! What can ya do though!
