Scratched Glass

Morning

Has anyone heard of glass being scratched by wfp because im being accused of it , if anyone can help please

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Pictures would help, but I would be very surprised if it was you. I've gently cleaned really stubborn bird muck off with the side of the brush and not damaged it. 

If you rest your brush on the ground it can pick up small stones that potentially can scratch a window. That's pretty much the only way it could happen.

Sorry to hear that @pieman

I always run my hand through the brush thoroughly for a few seconds at the start of the job, and when I’m taking down the pole down from finishing the upstairs windows and before starting the downstairs. 

That way I feel like I’m completely blameless. If I didn’t do that, I would feel like I wouldn’t be telling the 100% truth if I denied it. 

And as said many times before, never let your brush touch any concrete/brickwork surfaces. 

How many windows on the house are you being accused of? And how old/what condition are the windows? 

Pretty much anything rubbed over glass could potentially scratch it if it gets grit trapped under it.

As has been said you would have to have let your brush get contaminated with grit. Even then you would likely have had to really been pressing hard to scratch glass unless you were doing it without water running. However, in all likelihood I’m sure if you’d done it you would more than likely have noticed it.

I had a customer accuse my of having done it to her windows after a first clean about a year ago. There were fine scratches all over her windows. I was shocked at the state of them when she took me inside to show me. However, I had also cleaned her neighbours windows immediately after hers with the same brush. When I asked her to check her windows there was not a mark on them. There was no way in my view, that I could have gone from scratching all the windows on one house to not damaging any on the next house. I don’t know how they could have got that badly scratched.

I have absolutely no problem with paying for damage I know I’m definitely responsible for but I do with something I knew I couldn’t possibly have done. 

Fortunately when I explained my point of view she backed down. I do wonder whether she really knew how her windows were damaged which is why she didn’t pursue it with me.

I have just taken on a customer who cancelled her last WFP'er aftter he, apparently, scratched her glass. The guy denied doing it but she is adamant it was him as it was down the fence side of her summer house and nobody else went down there ?

I find on a lot of new build houses the glass is riddled with scratches if you look closely on a sunny day. I used to be a bit paranoid that I had caused them, but inspection on new houses that I gained to clean, made me realise these scratches can be present before I've done the first clean. As mentioned, don't rest the brush on the floor or wall; I have seen a few other window cleaners doing this. It is akin to dropping a sponge on the floor then washing your car. I also run my hand through the brush before jobs just to make sure there is no grit on the brush.

Suhrly said:

I have just taken on a customer who cancelled her last WFP'er aftter he, apparently, scratched her glass. The guy denied doing it but she is adamant it was him as it was down the fence side of her summer house and nobody else went down there ?

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Good luck with her ?

Suhrly said:

I have just taken on a customer who cancelled her last WFP'er aftter he, apparently, scratched her glass. The guy denied doing it but she is adamant it was him as it was down the fence side of her summer house and nobody else went down there ?

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In the 40 years I have been a shiner I have also taken on customers who have accused their previous window cleaners of all manner of things from collecting money when they haven't cleaned them to doing damage to their property etc.

In that time I have also lost customers who have falsely accused me of doing the same, including scratching glass, breaking windows and frames, and I know they will tell tales about me to their next window cleaner. It's just one of those things you have deal with in a job like ours. Some of what our customers tell us will be the truth but I suspect a lot of it, if not most of it is not true even if they believe it to be.

I can’t believe people take them on. I wont even take on the ones with “the last window cleaner this” and “the last window cleaner that” stories. Alarm bells. What’s to say i won’t be next?
I came in to this job because i assumed it was a “stress free, hassle free” occupation, outdoors in the fresh air. But as we all know working for the public can often be far from the simplicity we would like to envisage.
I’m a lone earner trying to survive in the world, in the hope of one day getting on the property ladder, slim chance of that without a decent win on the lotto...so last thing i need is claim culture customers.




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As above, I wouldn’t take on anyone whose been blaming a previous windie for scratches etc

Part Timer said:

Good luck with her ?

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I know, I thought exactly the same thing believe me. But I'm generally good at reading customers at this point and so far, she seems OK. Any whiff of funny stuff and she's gone.