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Something to make you chuckle, or wince...

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Neilmnwc

Neilmnwc

Well-known member
Messages
214
Location
South Lincolnshire
I was cleaning the outside windows to a business premises (converted Methodist chapel) today and remembered back to an occasion I was asked to clean the internal windows, no problem.

price agreed and I cracked on tradding with a pole on the large windows, now the snag is that the business sells pottery to garden centres wholesale so there was a lot of shelving with pots on...

Taking a good deal of care just didn’t cut it, despite having cleared the nearby shelves.

i just caught one of the shelves which had the effect of falling cards, down came two shelves and the contents of each nearby shelf crashing to the floor!

the sound was amplified nicely for the owner who was on the phone at the time to hear & run out.?? 

You couldn’t make it up, was like a Laurel and Hardy sketch.

whats your worst catastrophe?

 
I remember breaking a pane of glass in a Georgian window at a school I was cleaning.  It was during the school holidays. No one was about. So I picked up a stone about the size of a golf ball and offered it up to the shattered pane. Then gave it a little throw so it landed inside. When I saw the caretaker a while later he was moaning about kids!!

 
Guy in the fire brigade had a window round, ice cream van and bin washer companies. He could right a book about the things that has happened with the boys doing his work. Posh house and ladder fell and landed on a new golf GTi. He was on holiday and the boys collected the money and the 2 grand mysteriously got stolen. The ice cream van ran out of ice cream powder before it arrived at the loch Lomond show on the hottest day of the year. 

 
A few weeks into working for my old boss (now on me own) doing wfp, we were doing a house that had a market viewing that afternoon, this morning at the time, my boss goes “just go very quickly on that front door, it’s a inny rather than an outy” (from then on I now know exactly what he means now) 

Anyway I just carried on cleaning it like how any new person on wfp would.... way over scrubbed & over rinsed on a pressure to high for me to handle...

10mins later when we finished my boss goes to post a ticket through the inner door and goes “woe mate come here”.... the porch carpet was absolutely soaked, actually squishy where you first step in....

Long story short we rang the customer and apologised, he wasn’t too bad actually. Then my boss luckily had some spare carpet in his loft, and even more luckily it sort of fitted, can’t remember what we did, then we took the old carpet away and i had to take it to the tip later.

I felt like such a idiot. 

 
Smacked a kid in the face with the end of the pole.... I was cleaning windows for a mate a few months back. Her friend was there with her kid. Basically she wasn't a very strict mother and just kept calling her back and saying she would get hurt. I went to go round the back of the house and she ran up behind me and got a pole to the face as I carried it through. She didn't hold me responsible, she just told the little girl she should have listened.

 
P4dstar said:
Smacked a kid in the face with the end of the pole.... I was cleaning windows for a mate a few months back. Her friend was there with her kid. Basically she wasn't a very strict mother and just kept calling her back and saying she would get hurt. I went to go round the back of the house and she ran up behind me and got a pole to the face as I carried it through. She didn't hold me responsible, she just told the little girl she should have listened.
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That’ll learn her?. 

 
Not window cleaning but previous maintenance Job where I was a planner... Called to replace a TRV, plumber some how manages to punch a hole in the wall while replacing said valve. Arrange to return to fix hole. In the mean time, get a call the TRV is leaking. Return to site and engineer (of non English origin) somehow knocks a vase off the mantle piece. No worries engineer goes to get hoover. Customer freaks out saying stop, engineer apologising saying I'll clean the dust... Women saying no no no... Turns out, not a vase but a urn [emoji23] So, attempt number three we fit new valve again, fill and decorate wall and cough up the money for a new urn. Week later we got an invoice for a new carpet as the customer complained and was authorised by the company we were working for. However carpet tan through the lounge, dining room, hall, stairs and landing so we basically ended up paying for new carpet throughout. Trying to explain to someone of poor spoken English that it's not dust, and in fact it is or was a human and they reply, Noooo its not a big vase [emoji23]

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Has anyone else made this mistake?

i was doing a builders clean on a brand new house but the muck had been on for ages. It had that minerally sort of concrete above the kitchen window and as the run off was terrible the massive kitchen window was all limescaled.

being a first clean I wanted to impress them and the fillet bang wasn’t doing the job so I went off to get some industrial strength HG limescale remover.

the windows were that black paint coated leaded type ( I guess you know what’s coming next)! I scrubbed on all the limescale remover and as I sponged and bladed it off the black painted lead just started flaking off leaving it looking horrific and the windows were still limescaled. I was horrified as it was a first clean so had no real rapport with the customer. Thought I was going to have to replace the 4 units but I managed to get some wire corton and rub off all the black paint so they were silver, I then put in this chemical that dulls lead and it turned it black and made it really close to how they were. Luckily the customer was fine with it and saved me £1000!

i was so disappointed to start off with cause the windows were beyond repair anyway so I was in effect going to replace their windows that already needed replacing!

The only other issue I’ve had is a ugly clay owl getting knocked off a table. Just ordered one off £10 so not the end of the wall.

 
Sam Hodgson said:
Has anyone else made this mistake?

i was doing a builders clean on a brand new house but the muck had been on for ages. It had that minerally sort of concrete above the kitchen window and as the run off was terrible the massive kitchen window was all limescaled.

being a first clean I wanted to impress them and the fillet bang wasn’t doing the job so I went off to get some industrial strength HG limescale remover.

the windows were that black paint coated leaded type ( I guess you know what’s coming next)! I scrubbed on all the limescale remover and as I sponged and bladed it off the black painted lead just started flaking off leaving it looking horrific and the windows were still limescaled. I was horrified as it was a first clean so had no real rapport with the customer. Thought I was going to have to replace the 4 units but I managed to get some wire corton and rub off all the black paint so they were silver, I then put in this chemical that dulls lead and it turned it black and made it really close to how they were. Luckily the customer was fine with it and saved me £1000!

i was so disappointed to start off with cause the windows were beyond repair anyway so I was in effect going to replace their windows that already needed replacing!

The only other issue I’ve had is a ugly clay owl getting knocked off a table. Just ordered one off £10 so not the end of the wall.
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I bet that made you twitch a bit when it went pear shaped?.

 
Another one... Up north this time... Called to poor water quality at a job... Was authorised to put a new supply in to the property just after the meter as the old pipe was metal and decaying... So dug the trench, water off, new pipe in, water on, trench filled lovely job. 2 hours later had a call that next door had no water!? Told them to speak to their supplier as we weren't working on or for them... Another hour another house with no water... Rinse and repeat until 7/8 houses have no water... Turns out all the property's fed from one meter! Everyone hadn't been giving meter readings but paying a flat rate. Had a call asking us to reinstate water to the other 7, so gave costs for return trip, new trench etc etc but was told no, this is a recall. Long story short, I assume someone sorted it or them houses will be dry than gandi's flip flops...

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