[DASERVICES]

Every time I go in "it's the window cleaner " then someone will come up and ask for their windows to be cleaned. Tonight it was different, people were slagging wfp and saying what a rubbish job it was.

Apparantly a new w/c has bought this round and uses wfp but is leaving every house with streaks, a lot of houses as well. As you know this gets my on my nerves as this w/c is giving wfp a bad name. Told them all that it's not the tools but the work man, which they all new as they have spoken to the people I do.

They wanted to sack him and for me to do their houses which I have said no, and advised they speak to their w/c to resolve it. If I spot him around I will give him some advise but once again he has received no training from his supplier.

Rant over, something needs to be done.

Doug

[Londoner]

This happens a lot. There was someone cleaning windows in my mum's road with the same problem. I don't clean in that road before you ask, not even my mum because hers are done by the management company. Anyone going down there now with a pole is going to get a very hard time.

[Paul Coleman]

Every time I go in "it's the window cleaner " then someone will come up and ask for their windows to be cleaned. Tonight it was different, people were slagging wfp and saying what a rubbish job it was.

Apparantly a new w/c has bought this round and uses wfp but is leaving every house with streaks, a lot of houses as well. As you know this gets my on my nerves as this w/c is giving wfp a bad name. Told them all that it's not the tools but the work man, which they all new as they have spoken to the people I do.

They wanted to sack him and for me to do their houses which I have said no, and advised they speak to their w/c to resolve it. If I spot him around I will give him some advise but once again he has received no training from his supplier.

Rant over, something needs to be done.

Doug

Well done for putting them straight.  It sounds like they were complaining about the first cleans though.  I had complaints about first cleans too but I did tell them not to judge irt until after the third one.  It sounds like the other W/Cs biggest problem is not keeping them informed.

[tom_currie]

first cleans or not makes no difference we are there to clean windows . if new spend time learning how to as to many chase the money first leaving bad job done

[DASERVICES]

This is after the third clean, runs all down the windows. Speaking to them they told me the guy just scrubs the brush up and down and does not rinse

He is paying no attention to making sure the top frame is clean, that's where all problems come from.

[captain lard]

Bad news when work follows you into the pub!

[Trevor Knight]

They wanted to sack him and for me to do their houses which I have said no, and advised they speak to their w/c to resolve it. If I spot him around I will give him some advise but once again he has received no training from his supplier.

Rant over, something needs to be done.

Doug

Hi Doug,

Its good to see you flying the flag for our industry, the more people like yourself the better!

Did you get his phone number? maybe a friendly telephone call would be the way forward.

I agree that training needs to be available and better publicised, its something I am working on with the APWC, more will be revealed very soon.

Best wishes,

Trev

[ronnie paton]

I have to say the supplier i bought my machine of just said "its easy" and i presumed it would be, but that was far from the truth.

If it wasnt for help of furoms it would all of gone wrong!!

The supplier is just wanting sell but they should offer training or tell them were they can get training without there only thoughts being to sell the machine.

Like people have said it gives us a bad name, i mean when you buy a new vehicle they make sure you can drive first!

[Paul Coleman]

first cleans or not makes no difference we are there to clean windows . if new spend time learning how to as to many chase the money first leaving bad job done

My own findings were that first cleans are a more hit and miss affair even when doing them properly (by this I mean going around the job twice, using plenty of water etc).  Even when doing them properly, a proportion of jobs would not come up so well on first cleans.  Most would but some wouldn't.  However, the jobs that didn't come up so well on the first clean were fine by the end of the second clean (or occasionally third).

[Clive McDonald]

Shiner is right about first cleans. You DA are too critical of another cleaner whose work you have never even seen.

Firstly the next time you mention this in the pub they won't even remember saying it. Secondly has it occurred to you that you dread going in the pub because you have become the pub bore. All you talk and think about is window cleaning. If they want a bite or a rise out of you all they have to do is dangle a WC carrot.
As soon as you leave they say,'off he goes to tap it all out on his computer....'

[cybersye]

I have to say the supplier i bought my machine of just said "its easy" and i presumed it would be, but that was far from the truth.

If it wasnt for help of furoms it would all of gone wrong!!

The supplier is just wanting sell but they should offer training or tell them were they can get training without there only thoughts being to sell the machine.

Like people have said it gives us a bad name, i mean when you buy a new vehicle they make sure you can drive first!

I see your point
but you would'nt expect to be given training when you buy a squegee or a ladder would you?
wfp is a tool, like any other, any equipment in the wrong hands can be used badly.
When i set up my wfp gear, the first thing I did was clean my own windows.
If i could'nt do a good job of my own then I could'nt possibly have had the confidence in it to make a living cleaning others. It took a few attempts until I was happy with my own windows , but once I had practiced through trial and error it was EASY!

[DASERVICES]

Shiner is right about first cleans. You DA are too critical of another cleaner whose work you have never even seen.

Firstly the next time you mention this in the pub they won't even remember saying it. Secondly has it occurred to you that you dread going in the pub because you have become the pub bore. All you talk and think about is window cleaning. If they want a bite or a rise out of you all they have to do is dangle a WC carrot.
As soon as you leave they say,'off he goes to tap it all out on his computer....'

 

And I wear an anarok

If they had told me their windows were spotty then would have told them it's parts of the first clean, but when you have dirty runs all down the window then you cannot blame it on the first clean.

A lot of guys on here are blessed with the good info that comes from everyone from this site. The problem lies with those who have no knowledge about wfp when they buy the equipment there are no instructions saying you have to change the resin when it reaches xxx tds and this is how to clean windows with wfp. Off they go and start cleaning windows and end up with bad results which then gives a bad relfection on wfp.

There are a lot of good wfp suppliers that go all out to help you but some will just fob you off when you ask questions. This was not aimed at the window cleaner but the lack of information you get or wrong information you can get from some suppliers. It's not the case as we all know just move the brush up and down the window and that's it as some have been told.

I have spoken to window cleaners who have bought wfp and then chucked in the garage because of poor results. They are not blessed with the information from this forum as a lot of w/c are not on the net. Hence the information they have received when they bought wfp was not enough for them to get perfect results.

As for the guy if I see him I will let him know what I have been told and help him if he wants as the last thing I would like to see is someone who has invested in wfp start loosing customers.

Cheers, and I'll have a pint on you 

[captain lard]

I found this site 18 months ago at a time I was thinking of going into window cleaning and I was looking for information on trad cleaning, to be honest I had no idea wfp existed. The advice, tips and info I found on here re trad methods and WC in general gave me the confidence to give it a go. I am not going to go wfp but a while ago thought about it but held the knowledge that when I had problems and needed help I would get it here.
You can see the motivation of sellers of wfp equipment, they want to sell the stuff just like the firms that sell trad equipment. Surely there is an onus on the person getting the equipment to ask questions and develop some understanding about the product. Before I even tried to clean me own windows trad I checked out what I needed and how to do it. Anyone getting a wfp set up has to realise he has to find out about it and have a practise first to see how it goes and check out the results.

[TennetClean]

I kind of taught myself how to WFP, but it was not easy at first.  It took a lot of trial and error and practice on my own house, but I got there in the end.

Last month I finally did some WFP training with the BWCA, and it was very good.  Wish I'd been able to do it when I started, would have saved me a lot of bother.  Also has helped me decide what to look for when getting my new system in a few weeks time (cash permitting)

WFP is easier than trad, but with trad you can see your mistakes straight away, unlike WFP.  It annoys me to hear there are window cleaners around giving WFP a bad name, especially when I worked so hard to convert my customers.

Anyway, thats my tuppenceworth.

Mike