Came across Window Panda on a LivingSocial deal for Window Cleaning for 25 windows. However, before purchasing (having purchased one of these before from a different company) I read the fine print because I know there can be things in the fine print regarding not servicing houses with 3 stories or certain types of windows or what not. So, read through all of it, nothing of the sort was stated, so I purchased the deal.
I emailed them, to which I got a prompt response asking for my address and what time works best. Supplied my address and got an appointment. Excellent. So far, so good.
My appointment was mid-day so I took off work to be home for it. Good thing I was checking email throughout the day as less than 2 hours prior to my appointment I got a short email simply stating, "The windows on your home are too tall. Unfortunately we cannot do this job."
...What? This raises several questions in my mind:
1) What does that even mean? I have rather regular sized windows on my home, and they are certainly less tall than the ones in the pictures here on their Yelp page.
2) Why did they wait until two hours before my appointment to let me know?
I replied back and asked what that meant and what I was supposed to do now, to which I got a different answer to why it couldn't be done, simply stating there are now safety issues and impossible ladder placement on most angles.
I was completely confused at this point. Are the pictures on this Yelp profile not of houses this company can/does service? I wish I could convey what my house looks like but for reference my window placement and height are nearly exactly like those shown in the picture on this profile of a series of townhomes painted (from left to right) orange and blue.
Saving you from the OSHA standards for ladder placement for safety standards, my house and area provide plenty of space to put the ladder at the appropriate safety angle on solid ground with at least 20 feet to spare.
That aside, in an attempt to provide an alternate option that might be amenable, I conveyed that a previous company was able to clean them from the inside without using a ladder in case that was doable, to which I was told to use them, then. Really? Wow.
Despite the obvious lack of care or incentive to figure out something that would work, in an attempt to gain something useful from this interaction, I asked if they could please help me understand the specific safety and ladder placement issues were so that I could convey that to the other companies I contacted in case it was somehow an issue for them as well. To this I received a reply that the reasons were now that the windows were too high (might I remind you they were no higher than any windows in the pictures on this profile) and now there was not enough clearance for traffic. Well, I have no idea where that came from as there is no traffic issues at all anywhere close to where the ladders would be.
At this point I just gave up. Not certain how a business can operate like, but I guess I will take the only useful advice offered and go back to the previous well-known company who had no issues cleaning my windows (they even have a much higher Yelp rating, for which I'm no longer surprised). read more