[Londoner]

I picked up a couple ofnew customers this week. The advert in the Parish Mag is finally coming good.
Elderly couple in a big detatched house, private road etc. They asked me to go and see their neighbour as well and I got her as too.

The point of this post however is the story they told me about their previous window cleaner. Its quite a common story and you will have heard it many times before but its still worth telling again.

It seems that from the time this old couple moved into the house until about five years ago they had a window cleaner called Jim. He did most of the houses in the road and was well known and liked. For over twenty years he was part of the community.

Then one day he just stopped coming, nobody knows why, nothing was said. Maybe he died they just don't know.
Then they realised they didn't know anything about Jim. They didn't know where he lived or even his surname. Nobody had ever bumped into him at the shops so he probably wasn't local. They still wonder about it, as they told me in great detail.

There are many stories like this, we have all heard similar. Why do so many long established window cleaners just vanish?

So just on the off chance if anybody knows anything about a window cleaner called Jim who used to work around Northwood until about 5 years I have an old couple who would love to hear. You never know he might have been someones uncle or something. Window cleaning is often one of those family things.

Oh and bye the way I'm off to canvass the rest of the road today. Thats why I didn't say where it was. The old couple also said they haven't had a regular WC for ages and hadn't seen one around either. Wish me luck.

[Jeff Brimble]

Opportunity Knocks- even 5 years on 

[xxmattyxx]

Yes, there ought to be a section on friends reunited for people like Jim and their old custys.

[Nathanael Jones]

I think up until very recently, most window cleaners operated cash only, collected in the evenings,.. never had a business card, never gave out tickets, SAE's, invoices or receipts, and were rarely in the yellow pages. My father in law STILL works this way,.. and refuses point blank to use SAE's etc.
If a custie isn't home when we clean, he drops through a small handwritten note "Windows cleaned, Mike" and that's it!
Jim could have fallen off a ladder, had a stroke, or simply retired,... pity we'll prob never find out!

[Londoner]

Yes you are right, the point I was making is that over the years I have heard of countless Jims. No doubt some of them were all too happy to just disappear but in this case it does sound like a genuine story.

[groundhog]

Maybe he now has better paying work elsewhere. I have come accross this many times now, a couple of them I found out what happened to the previous window cleaner, one I found out had got himself a job as an estate agent and hadn't bothered to let any of his customers know! he had a huge round but for some reason never thought to try to sell the business Still it worked out well for me as I now have many of his former customers The other chap was locked up for drink driving, by the time he got out I had most of his customers  

[TennetClean]

I started working in an area where their old window cleaner had disappeared.  No-one knew what happened to him until I found out on the grapevine that he had died (of old age)

Customers said he wasnt a very good window cleaner but he was a nice old chap who was very friendly and they liked to help him out.

Poor old sod!

[AuRavelling79]

I started working in an area where their old window cleaner had disappeared.  No-one knew what happened to him until I found out on the grapevine that he had died (of old age)

Customers said he wasnt a very good window cleaner but he was a nice old chap who was very friendly and they liked to help him out.

Poor old sod!

That wasn't on a council estate was it?





































 
Ducks and runs for cover!

[xxmattyxx]

Yea, was actually, apparently the heavies sorted him out for saying there was too many dog-yoghurts on their lawns     

[TennetClean]

LOL no it wasnt! he was a smart cookie like me