[master cleaner]

i have just recieved an e-mail from a customer of mine which makes me mad.

we have cleaned his windows for about 2 years and a month ago he cancelled owing us 3 months money = £13.50
i called to see him 5 times before catching him in and then he didnt have the money so he said he would send it through the post , well today i recieved this e-mail from him.

Gary,

 

You came round on Saturday to collect the outstanding £13.50 for cleaning our windows, I must say the reason we cancelled the cleaning is the that we were not satisfied with the results as we pointed out to you on several occasions due to this I am willing to send you a cheque for £10 as final payment. Please reply by return email if you accept this and I will post you a cheque

this has made me mad so the reply i have sent him reads

hi Paul i am sorry that you were not satisfied with the service we supplied , i must say that we did have problems with your property ie getting around the back of the property, the fromt downstairs window has a bush above it that drips water onto the window when it rains and leaves spots, and concrete on the side porch glass which we found very difficult to clean , we did try our best to get around these obsticles and didnt charge you any extra for it.
if you feel that our service is only worth £10 for 3 cleans of your property then send the cheque for £10
 
gary
 
G,L,R Professional Window Cleaning Services


ive got to say that i didnt feel like being so diplomatic i just wanted to rave at him
what would you have said in your e-mail to him

gary

[windows_chepstow]

Gary,

You did the right thing.  Never get into a 'fight' with a customer, even if it's by e-mail.  It's just not worth it; no matter how much you'd like too.

Personally though, for just a tenner, I'd e-mail him, telling him to shove it up his ass.  Then come Holloween, I'd egg all his windows.

But that's just me!

I'm getting very intollerant as I get older!

[matt]

ive got a better 1

though im just off, so will post it tonight

it'll make you either laugh or cry

[windows_chepstow]

ive got a better 1

though im just off, so will post it tonight

it'll make you either laugh or cry

Get on with it then!  Make me laugh!

[freshwater]

This is just a though.

If you have a good relationship with other window cleaners in the area cant you get together and draw up a black list of customers to stay clear off, you will be helping each other and also making hard for those rouge customers.

steve@freshwatersystems.co.uk

[master cleaner]

what annoys me is that this was a well underpriced house for example it had
7 upstairs windows all lead 5 downstairs windows all lead and a side conservatory, now dont laugh but i only charged £5.50 a month i didnt like doing it but did because i have got quite a few in the cul de sac , it was low in price because i bought the work 2 years ago .

i cleaned it once and then they decided to use a still saw minuites later to cut some slabs , now he complains about my service grrrrrrrrrrrrr
some people have no excuse for being thick

gary

[shammy davis jnr]

what a ham shanker  its what keeps the blood flowing  what can you say mate ,ass and kicking spring to mind  i hate this  i had one the other week  keep doing my windows even though the house is still up for sale had them for 6 year did not catch them for 3 cleans niped round put ladder up and bare floor boards  how bloody stupid do u feel when this happens
but to see this coming you need a crystal ball   any one else had the no curtains and bare floor board trick done on them i can laugh now 
more at how wound up i got at this esp when the woman nxt door was out hanging up her washing   and she saw a blue bucket fly past  with  the sound off a thousand swear boxes following behind
the look i got  but im p ing me sel now honest you should have seen her face it was a picture   
she was cool when i told her what happend 

[C Senor]

lol, these kinds of people really make me laugh.

I know it maddening, i'd be much worse than you, no way would i have been that diplomatic in a reply email - good on'yer.

I really don't know how they get on in life, just imagine that you owed someone £13.50 but you weren't happy, now what i can't understand is how these people come up with the idea of just paying £10.00 !! - like the £3.50 saving is any sort of justification. I really struggle to work this out.

Just think bud, you can replace the time it took to do his house with a much easier and much better paid job ! Let him keep his £3.50. - lol

[Jon T.C.]

Gary,

You did the right thing.  Never get into a 'fight' with a customer, even if it's by e-mail.  It's just not worth it; no matter how much you'd like too.

Personally though, for just a tenner, I'd e-mail him, telling him to shove it up his ass.  Then come Holloween, I'd egg all his windows.

But that's just me!

I'm getting very intollerant as I get older!

Did you go to the same school of diplomacy as me then Tosh? 

[EasyClean]

Hi Gary, you did the right then being diplomatic with the awkward customer. If I get in your situation I jump in the back of my van and curse and swear quietly to myself for a couple of minutes to get it out of my system so that I'm not in the wrong frame of mind for my next customer.
I was a rascal once trying to deal with a persistent sod of a customer who I had trouble getting the money out of. It was at Xmas time and being in the Xmas spirit I climbed up my ladder and sprayed all his windows from corner to corner, not leaving a single gap with the Xmas paint you put on glass. It was worth it just to see him come out and have a go at me. He set the record for the most swear words in one very long sentence. It took him hours to clean it off because I stood across the street laughing at him with his wive giving me verbal abuse. Word soon got around the estate where I USE to clean and everybody was going out of their way to pay me if they owed for their windows, BUT shortly after that I lost a lot of customers. It took me quite a while to pick up new ones around that estate so you could say I learnt my lesson the hard way. It was well worth it BUT I wouldn't do it again, ever, not now!

[Paul Coleman]

i have just recieved an e-mail from a customer of mine which makes me mad.

we have cleaned his windows for about 2 years and a month ago he cancelled owing us 3 months money = £13.50
i called to see him 5 times before catching him in and then he didnt have the money so he said he would send it through the post , well today i recieved this e-mail from him.

Gary,

 

You came round on Saturday to collect the outstanding £13.50 for cleaning our windows, I must say the reason we cancelled the cleaning is the that we were not satisfied with the results as we pointed out to you on several occasions due to this I am willing to send you a cheque for £10 as final payment. Please reply by return email if you accept this and I will post you a cheque

this has made me mad so the reply i have sent him reads

hi Paul i am sorry that you were not satisfied with the service we supplied , i must say that we did have problems with your property ie getting around the back of the property, the fromt downstairs window has a bush above it that drips water onto the window when it rains and leaves spots, and concrete on the side porch glass which we found very difficult to clean , we did try our best to get around these obsticles and didnt charge you any extra for it.
if you feel that our service is only worth £10 for 3 cleans of your property then send the cheque for £10
 
gary
 
G,L,R Professional Window Cleaning Services


ive got to say that i didnt feel like being so diplomatic i just wanted to rave at him
what would you have said in your e-mail to him

gary

I once had something a bit like this happen (by snailmail rather than email) but for different amounts of money.  Using your amounts as the example, my reply went something like:

Dear Madam (I deliberately didn't use her name LOL),
 I was surprised to read that my work was not up to the standard that you required.  In view of the circumstances, I accept your offer of only paying £10.  When you send me the cheque, could you please make it out to <charity of my choice>?  If you feel that this is a worthy cause, perhaps you may also wish to donate the other £3.50 either to <my chosen charity> or, if you prefer, another charity of your own choosing.

I found that this really took the sting out of the situation and, instead of feeling bad about being ripped off, I felt good about making a donation to charity.  It also felt good because it gave the ex-customer the message that they hadn't got one over on me and that I didn't give a 4 x about their money. WEALTH WARNING: ONLY DO THIS WITH AMOUNTS YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE      ) .  I got the money (made out to the charity).  I don't know if they donated as well but that wasn't the issue.  The point was that I didn't feel bad.