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Whats the thing that annoys you most about being a Window Cleaner?

Bongofish

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Pontefract
So I'm coming into 7 months of starting this up and wow. 180 monthly customers always 2 or more conservatory roofs a month, just ordered a sky vac for gutter cleaning, I genuinly can not believe how much it has took off!

But the more my days become busier the more something really gets on my T**TS!.....SNAGGING! No matter how carefully I drag my hose round a property it always gets caught on a rock, a brick, a step, a wheelie bin, a kids toy, a garden gate, a car wheel, my own foot.....

It's doing my head in, so any advice or tricks would be handy ?.

It got me wondering if there is anything else people get frustrated with on a daily basis? ?

 
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So I'm coming into 7 months of starting this up and wow. 180 monthly customers always 2 or more conservatory roofs a month, just ordered a sky vac for gutter cleaning, I genuinly can not believe how much it has took off!

But the more my days become busier the more something really gets on my T**TS!.....SNAGGING! No matter how carefully I drag my hose round a property it always gets caught on a rock, a brick, a step, a wheelie bin, a kids toy, a garden gate, a car wheel, my own foot.....

It's doing my head in, so any advice or tricks would be handy ?.

It got me wondering if there is anything else people get frustrated with on a daily basis? ?
Being looked down on and assumptions that I failed in life. Or he's just a window cleaner without the knowledge of my background skills, qualifications and attributes 

 
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Being looked down on and assumptions that I failed in life. Or he's just a window cleaner without the knowledge of my background skills, qualifications and attributes 
Aye, I can comprehend with this. A few weeks ago my mate was saying what are you cleaning windows for when you have a trade, you can't be making much money from it. I said it would surprise you and left it like that. I'm pretty thick skinned so nothing really bothers me bar some customers driving lovely German cars and then telling me if I can leave their windows this month so they can save ÂŁ8 yet old age pensioners want and pay me each month regardless.

 
Being looked down on and assumptions that I failed in life. Or he's just a window cleaner without the knowledge of my background skills, qualifications and attributes 
Honestly tottally agree. When I do lads houses that are my age (early 30s) with there nice house and big cars on the driveway and I quote them ÂŁ16 for a monthly clean and they look at me gone out, yet I always get them coming back to me 3 days later accepting it. They take me about 20 mins to clean and I can see that little sparkle in his eye slow dimmer when he realises I'm probably on atleast double his hourly wage........I bet he must sit across the dinner table to his wife and say 'i should have been a window cleaner' ?

But in another way I'm glad we are seen to not make much etc etc otherwise every man and his dog would be doing it.

 
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Lol yes the hose will  get caught in the slightest thing , if you wanted it to it wouldn’t !!! ??? always try and walk around obstructions giving them a wide birth to try and prevent contact with the hose especially car tyres , bird baths or solar light s there is no simple answer although sometimes it pays  to try a different route around a property , there is no magic formula we still get caught up on things after 18 years wfp ????

 
Yep, snags! Sometimes it's like the hose has hands and a habit of grabbing and trying to steal everything it can as it passes by. ?I don't get too excited or frustrated by it now...mostly. I just accept it's part of the process. ?

Apart from that, rude customers used to be a frustration, especially in my early days. Not often an issue now as I'm more established. I toughened up with them and learned to take very little s..t. Most of our customers though, are sound.

 
Once you get used to properties sometimes you can guestimate how much hose trails round the house and you can reel off that much before you leave the van and hold it in your hand. So when you go through the gate you start dropping the hose in your hand. That way you are not trying to drag hose off the reel round the house. 

Not sure that makes sense but it's best explanation I can give.

 
Ya know what really grinds my knackers...when you're cleaning the customers windows and you see them sitting in the sitting room. They know you're there cleaning their windows. You finish and knock on the door for payment. They come to the door and say, 'hang on, I'll just go get ya money', and leave ya standing there for ages. Yeah mate...you know I've just been cleaning ya windows for the last 10 mins and you've sat on ya fat one instead of going getting my money READY for when I knock! ??? 

 
Me too, but only a couple of times for any one customer. If there's no valid reason, like medical or building work. They become an ex customer.
We never get that now as they have all been dumped and all new customers are “educated” as to we clean all year round in all weathers any hesitation and they arnt taken on , if they do say that it’s explained the terms we agreed if they still want to leave it they are an ex customer , we don’t take messers anymore .

 
That’s standard mate. There will be members who might reply to your question with ‘oh we do this blah blah’, but if they say they don’t get snags, they are talking ?
Posting on a Monday night, things must be quiet in the Garwood household 

 
When the weather isn’t great and a customer says “you’ve picked a bad day for it” or “why are you working in this” like they think they are my only customer and I don’t work any other days of the month ?

 
Not many things annoy me anymore as a modern WFP window  cleaner......most of the major downsides have been eliminated...if it was in my trad days it would be climbing onto flat or sloping roofs to clean awkward windows,wet decking and moss covered patios,collecting and the general drudgery of the job in the winter months....

These days it's the odd snagging hose or if someone parks on my hose!that's it!

No collecting(yippeee!)

No risking your neck up a ladder 

Some of you newer guys who ve never been trad dont know how easy this job is these days!??

 
When the weather isn’t great and a customer says “you’ve picked a bad day for it” or “why are you working in this” like they think they are my only customer and I don’t work any other days of the month ?
I used to hear that a lot when I was working on water mains in roadworks. Like we had a choice? Other one was, "Still! I suppose you're used to it." As you're soaked to your underwear and perished cold with it. Laugh! ?

Not many things annoy me anymore as a modern WFP window  cleaner......most of the major downsides have been eliminated...if it was in my trad days it would be climbing onto flat or sloping roofs to clean awkward windows,wet decking and moss covered patios,collecting and the general drudgery of the job in the winter months....

These days it's the odd snagging hose or if someone parks on my hose!that's it!

No collecting(yippeee!)

No risking your neck up a ladder 

Some of you newer guys who ve never been trad dont know how easy this job is these days!??
?Yup! That's me.

 

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