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Whats the thing that annoys you most about being a Window Cleaner?
- Thread starter Bongofish
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Chris34
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- Stockport, Cheshire
Chris34
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- 1,726
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- Stockport, Cheshire
And I bet the most common word uttered each window cleaners breath while working is 'ffs' ?
Oli
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- 146
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- South Yorkshire
When you go to quote a job and afterwards they say “oh right well the last cleaner only charged £insert a ridiculously low price”
I’ve literally just been and quoted a lady £30 for a regular monthly “oh the last guy charged £7.50!” Wtf
Complete waste of time
I’ve literally just been and quoted a lady £30 for a regular monthly “oh the last guy charged £7.50!” Wtf
Complete waste of time
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- Cornwall
When they say the last cleaner charged £5 I ask why he stoped coming ?. Generally they have no answer ,one said to me that the guy retired , I said if he charged you £5 Ime surprised he could afford to retire ???? I priced the job up at £20 funny thing was they phoned me the following week asking me to do there windows been doing them now for around 7 years .
It does get worse in winter with stiffer hoses due to the water being colder.
Every wheelie bin I drag my hoses past will somehow hook up against them. My hose gets caught on at least one car tyre. The other day it was first the front then the back tyre.
Someone once said on here that if this is all we have to worry about, then we have nothing to worry about.
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- Cornwall
We use hot water so that doesn’t affect us , but it still manages tk catch on the slightest thing !!!!! ????
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- 11,254
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- Durham
Nowt to be too bothered about as where I work it looks like this.
dazmond
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- salford, manchester
i have thought of one downside of being a window cleaner.....other window cleaners!some of them insist on coming over for a chat every time i see them just because im doing the same job as them........others stare and are not too friendly.....
a smile and a nod is sufficient most of the time lads!
a smile and a nod is sufficient most of the time lads!
Bongofish
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- Pontefract
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- Durham
I've no idea what you are talking about buy my wife made a lovely mushroom risotto for tea ?
When this comes up I used to ask the customer who the window cleaner was. Mostly they didn't know his name, but either way it made no difference.
If they said it was John I would look sad, pause and then suck air in through my pursed lips and tell them he died. "What happened?" "He died of starvation because of the prices he charged."
If they didn't know their cleaner's name I would just say that there was a window cleaner working this area who died. Then carry on as above.
I would then just smile and bid them a good day.
Nowadays, I just can't be bothered with them. I just haven't the energy.
In the early days of wfp we had a lot of suspicious customers and many still complained about leaving the windows wet. Ultrasonic cleaning was a buzz word at the time. Everyone had heard of it but very few knew anything about how it worked.
So I often said we had the option of pure window cleaning or ultrasonic window cleaning. We chose this because the early ultrasonic generator was so heavy it required 2 of us to carry it. I would also have to remortgage the house to pay for it. Recently they have bought out a more compact model that I could carry on my shoulders and point it at your windows. It would take me just a few seconds to clean each window but I would need to factor in the cost of the ultrasonic cleaner to clean your windows. At today's interest rate this would mean we would have to charge you £100 at least to clean your windows.
We decided that using pure water and a brush was a more acceptable solution for our customers even although we have to leave them wet.
I only ever had one customer ask me the following clean to explain how the ultrasonic cleaner worked. ?
A couple of weeks ago my lad reminded me that I hadn't used the ultrasonic cleaner for years and he used to enjoy watching the customer's face every time I told the story.
Was funny today, really made me laugh instead of being angry. I do these 3 terraced cottages in a row, Id done the fronts and then round the back. First one done, and onto the second, I heard the owner on her mobile moaning away about how ' I dont pay him money to leave water all over the windows!' Haha, she thought id been and gone but was still next door, I let her see me and just asked if was a problem and just explained the process. I'd done hers before but i guess was always dry when she got home. She was nice and fine about it, and felt a bit bad etc. Would've thought everyone knew about wfp by now. ?
YNWA1988
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- 75
- Location
- East Midlands
Back/side gates being locked after I text them night before telling them I was coming!!
It reminds me about the house I cleaned for 4 years. We collected on the Friday evening and they always sung our praises on how clean we did the windows.
Then we happened to clean when it was her day off. She came out asking why we weren't going to dry the windows off. This is exactly how we clean the windows and we always leave them to dry off by themselves. She was not happy. She paid us and her partner later cancelled the clean. He was going to get someone who would clean them properly.
As it so happened he got another cleaner who had to walk over his tiled roof to reach the bathroom and toilet windows. I smiled thinking about how their trad cleaner would clean those windows in the coming winter and those broken roof tiles.
Back/side gates being locked when I've texted them the night before then the inevitable phone call asking me if I can do an 8 mile round trip to go back and do the backs.
Funny one couple of weeks ago....texted her for gates....get there and locked which is unusual for her she always remembers so rings her......turns out she was halfway to work in Bradford when she remembered and turned back and drove all the way home to unlock them....dinner time and Mum and Dad come to take dog out and see the gate is unlocked so lock it.
Funny one couple of weeks ago....texted her for gates....get there and locked which is unusual for her she always remembers so rings her......turns out she was halfway to work in Bradford when she remembered and turned back and drove all the way home to unlock them....dinner time and Mum and Dad come to take dog out and see the gate is unlocked so lock it.
We have a similar step ladder to this. Its tall enough to straddle all but 3 of our customer's locked gates.
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BigFoot
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- South wales
I’ve developed an annoyed disapproving look
live even had an apology the following month. Sometime words get in the way...
Chris34
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- Stockport, Cheshire
Ha, that's just happened to me today. Exactly the same price, last window cleaner charged a lot lower, it's a £600+k house. Feel like saying 'ok how about 50p' just to see what the reaction would be.
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