I have been at this hard and heavy, getting accounts and having fun! The clients I have serviced so far have been very pleased. In fact, one business brought me in on two additional locations!..but…today…I did a job that made me feel like I should never pickup a squeegee again.
There were 28 complete windows…each containing a 3’x3’ pane at the bottom and 6 french panes at the top. I did the inside and outside. I had to be done with at least the inside by 11am (I got there at 8:30am) because it’s a restaurant. It took honestly a couple hours to do just the inside. I had to move tables and deal with the usual window blinds. As I was doing the work.I noticed that there were a lot of finger print smudges that would not come off with the regular scrubbing with my sleeve.I spent a lot of time rubbing out the smudges. (actually I used 0000 steel wool) to top it off, last year they painted the exterior and there are tons of tiny specs of paint on the emergency exit door windows…of course made of 18 french panes! The manager of the place walked around and inspected my work after I was done and you could say she was very nit picky on some things…but I am a perfectionist myself, so I don’t blame her…as we walked around, we noticed many more things I missed. I explained the paint on the doors and acknowledged the things I missed…which were more finger print smudges and what looked to me like clear silicone sealant up in the corners of some windows…I am not sure how I missed that! Anyway…I told her I would come back in the morning and attack the areas I missed…the part that hurt is she would not pay me until I come back tomorrow…which is fine…I’ll survive. But good grief, what if I can’t get the paint specs off those doors!..I feel like she is going to point out every single missed item and refuse to pay me until I continue to come back…My goal is to give a satisfactory cleaning and be asked to come back!..I honestly felt like just cutting my loss and moving on…because this punched me in the gut!
Let me be clear, I’m not looking for sympathy here…I guess my point to rambling is…when you guys…and gals were new in your business…have you ever faced this? Have you ever felt like either just saying screw this and go back to punching a time clock?..I know what I am capable of…I have already shown it…I am motivated and have a lot of respect for this industry…I want to represent it well and succeed! I truly enjoy this and know I belong…but wow…I feel defeated today…Have any of you ever felt like just cutting your losses for a particular job? (like walking away and considering it to be a loss of $160.00 and a training day?) …learn a lesson…reload and push on?
What kept you going when you felt you failed on a job?
Amazing how venting actually made me feel better LOL…I would expect some “tough it up buttercup” statements…which is cool…we need that sometimes LOL…I’m just gonna go in there tomorrow and make it right!
What would you suggest on those tiny little paint specs…It’s tempered glass, soI really don’t want to use a scraper
[quote=“whitehorse67, post:1, topic:42663”]I guess my point to rambling is…when you guys…and gals were new in your business…have you ever faced this? Have you ever felt like either just saying screw this and go back to punching a time clock?..
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…18 years in the biz and I had a day like that yesterday. TOTALLY overlooked overspray and years of neglect. Under bid by 180. Plus I was training a guy, who may not make the cut (oof). Go back to punching a clock? Never crossed my mind since I started my biz.
I refuse to do that too…I have specific goals and feel like I am on a great path. I Just have to realize It’s just a bad day at work…tomorrow is a new day…I may never get a call back there, but the job I have after that tomorrow is a lawyers office…and when I do that job and make them smile…I can only imagine the referrals!..
We’ve all had days like this. Chalk it up to experience. Your subsequent cleanings will go much faster. Some people pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for training seminars, but you learned a good lesson and still made a bit of money in the process.
yeah it’s not just cause your new it happens occasionally and it can get you down. i did walk out on one i was 80% finished last year. she even offered to pay me and i no thanks i just want outta here.
Some days you are the pigeon, some days you are the statue.
When you go back have some magic eraser. It will make mince-meat of finger prints and silicone. Just wipe it off with a clean detail towel after.
Paint sucks. Too bad you didn’t catch that on the walk through, but you can still point it out to her and let her know that it is above and beyond window cleaning. You can offer to take care of it because you missed it and sounds like you’re behind the 8-ball with her anyway. Be professional and deliver as you are GIVING her extra value.
Next month you’ll feel better. But yea, the desire to just walk is real sometimes.
It isn’t the end of the world, so focus on each tomorrow. Some customers are total bat s— crazy.
Had a rough two days myself this past winter. Somehow i knew going into the job it just wasnt gonna go well and it turned into one of those rare scenarios where everything you think might go wrong actually does. The wcr community was really supportive and that helped a lot. But it was honestly almost a breaking point experience for me. I was so discouraged (Winters are rough for me as it is) that i strongly considered reconsidering my employment decisions.
Here’s the culmination of it:
Read on for the surprise happy ending. If you’ve got time, you can see the story slowly unfold to full horror from the beginning starting with the first post.
I still get nervous every job. So worried about disappointing my customers. I have finally accepted, though, that eventually there’ll be someone i can’t please no matter what and so be it. They won’t call me back, but others will.
Oh, and as far as the paint overspray, I tell customers right away that’s not part of regular cleaning, but if they want it removed that can be arranged (oilflo is great for that if you can’t use a razor).
only last week i had something similar. but it had a funny ending. the son of the house let me in the back gate .as i walked down the garden path with my pole fully extended i wasnt watching what i was doing and the pole tip whacked him hard on the head and then twanged off . what was funny was he knew his head hurt but didnt know why!
Tempered glass should never be touched with any sort of blade, explain that to her and that she needs to sign a waiver that she wants you to use a blade on the glass and that she accepts all responsibility for the damages.
Or you can explain why the paint was not removed 1)the glass is tempered and you cannot use a blade on them 2)excessive paint removal is an extra charge and not included in your standard cleaning
partially disabled lady. told me on the phone she had new crank out windows and that she always cleaned them herself but now couldn’t.
i get there and she seems nice but most of the windows are actually old aluminum sliders which must be taken apart and they’re FILTHY as are the tracks.
but i decide to forge on even though the price should have been much higher. when i finish the inside of the kitchen (the last inside) she rubs her finger on the moulding and says aren’t you going to do this and starts moaning about how clean she has always kept them and what a bad job i am doing.
after some discussion i packed up and left. everything was covered with a sticky film like nicotine but it wasn’t nicotine.
she hadn’t cleaned those windows or frames ever i’m sure.
Since I started out on my own I have never touched a blade to tempered glass and never would take that chance. I learned the hard way when I started out with another company, I damaged a lot of windows using a blade to remove paint from the sloppily painters on the post construction clean up of a few homes.
Considering how things have gone so far, there will be zero scraping by me on any window, tempered or not, without a signed waiver. That little voice in the back of my head is telling me to just deal with the fingerprint smudges and move on. Chalk this up as a learning experience and use it to become better. Quality is my highest priority, but I think it’s better for me to avoid any potential issue that can come up. These windows did not appear to have been maintained at all,so maybe there’s a reason no one else has serviced this place…
