Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  01/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Nov. 1, 2022, this company damaged our window sill while cleaning the windows. We had paid them $252.00 for the service. After they left and we noticed the damaged sill and got repair estimates, the owner refused to come out and look at the damage much less pay for it. The cost to repair the sill was $245.04. Please see details in the attached Word document. The attached two photos show the damaged window sill and an undamaged window sill right next to it so you can see how they both should look.

  Business response

  02/20/2023

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2023/01/25) */ Overview: ****** repeatedly appealed to me to claim this on my insurance. ****** reported the damage claim 4 minutes after she approved completion of our service, but she did not send the pictures of the claim until two days later. Our window cleaning tools do not use high pressure or large amounts of water and do not have the capacity to create the damage claimed. Details: On November 1st, ****** and I discussed her claim on the phone that we damaged her window sill by washing the outside of her windows. She said that we caused water damage. She began by claiming that we had power washed her windows and that her carpenter said that we had caused damage to her window sill. Intermittently in her explanation, she mentioned several times how easy this would be to claim on my insurance. After listening, I responded by telling her that we had not power washed her windows at all. We do not use high pressured water to clean windows. This would be a very odd practice as it is unneeded. She continued to reiterate that her carpenter said that we must have done this. By her own admission, the person she referred to as her carpenter was not present at the time of service. According to her, he arrived shortly after we left. She claimed that he surveyed the window sills after my team had left and concluded that we had damaged them. I responded by telling her that we use standard, industry-approved window cleaning tools and they do not have the capacity to create such damage. Our tools do not use high pressure and the amount of water is minimal. They are safe for all kinds of window cleaning. At that point, she seemed a bit confused and stepped away to talk with her carpenter. He got on the phone and made the same claim. I explained to him that we did not power wash anything and that our tools could not create such a penetration of water. She then came back and said that it must have been the guys cleaning the inside of the windows instead of the outside. She went on to say that the guy working inside had gotten her blinds wet and that our team member was carrying a bottle of water. I explained to her that this was less than 16 oz of water and once again, could not have caused the damage claimed. It is possible to get a bit of water accidentally sprayed on the blinds. However, we specifically carry a small bottle of water mixed with standard home dishwashing soap so that we avoid damage to carpets, curtains, or anything else that a soapy water mist may touch. I explained to her again that no method we use has the capacity to deliver enough water to cause water damage. Here, she mentioned once again how easy it was to claim this on my insurance. She began to tell me how it was going to cost 1,000's of dollars because mold was surely present. She continued to explain how important the window sills were to her and how hard she worked to keep her house clean. She explained how she had to clean her house all by herself and how she had lost her original window cleaner to a diagnosis of illness. While I can empathize with her situation, it is not a reason for me to file an insurance claim on her behalf. She demanded that I come out and look at it. At this point, she was very upset and forceful in her conversation. I explained to her that we were on a job an hour away from my office throughout the week and that it couldn't be this week. I asked her to start by sending me pictures and then we could discuss it again. I received the pictures on November 3rd, two days after the initial discussion. I thought this was odd because I expected the pictures to come immediately after our phone call. When I received the pictures, I reviewed them and did more research which continued to show that the tools we use could not create water damage. They are used industry wide, and one of the reasons they are approved by the industry is that they can't create water damage because they do not use high pressured water. I do also question the damage and it's timing. She approved the service at 5:17 p.m, my team left, and I received a call at 5:21 p.m. claiming water damage. I also talked to my team. We do a walk through at the end of each job to address any concerns that the client may have. Our crew leader did the full walk through with her. At that time, she did not mention anything of the window sills. She also approved the cleaning and said that windows were clean as she expected. Per the pictures she sent, I do see the dark area in the window sill but I also see that the seal and gloss of the stain is intact. Research shows that water damage also carries with it bulging, cracking, and swelling. The pictures show that none of these side effects are happening. I called ****** the next day and explained to her everything I've previously mentioned. She continued to explain to me of how easy it was to claim this on my insurance. She even detailed every step I would need to do to try to convince me how easy it was. She mentioned that I would probably not have to even pay anything except maybe my deductible. I listened and explained to her that we were not going to take responsibility for something that we did not do. At this point, her mood changed drastically. She began to threaten small claims court and lawsuits. It was at this point, I decided not to continue conversations which also meant not visiting her home. ****** was far too focused on my insurance company paying for something. Honestly, that concerned me. I am not savvy in insurance law, and I did not want to get tricked into saying something that would trap me into a potential fraud scheme. Simply put, we are not responsible for the damage claimed and should not be held liable. I have included screenshots of - the timestamp of the end of the approved service - the phone call time stamp 4 minutes after - the text with pictures that was sent two days later Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2023/01/28) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) It is hard to know where to begin since there are so many inaccuracies in **** *********’s response to our claim. As mentioned in our initial complaint, **** moved the time of his appointment up for his convenience but his team showed up very late in the day. **** and his fourth helper were not there as promised. **** has probably not thought about this job for months now until he received the note from the BBB about the complaint. His delay in responding was surprising and I think he forgot a lot about what had transpired between Nov. 1, 2022 and Jan. 25, 2023. ****** did not repeatedly appeal to him to claim this on his insurance. His accounting of this is slander and defamation of character towards ******. This accusation is the most annoying and inaccurate assessment of this problem. He obviously does not know her at all. ****** is a very conscientious person and very conservative. She would have never pushed an insurance claim for such a small amount of money unless the owner of the business wanted to pursue that avenue. The only mention of insurance was the fact that when he was being interviewed originally for the job, he showed ****** his notebook of logos as references and mentioned his liability insurance. ****** always wants liability insurance and likes references before she hires new, small contractors to do work around the house. When she and **** talked on the phone on Nov. 3, she mentioned to him that one of the reasons she hired him was because he complied with her requirements of liability insurance and references. He could have paid for these damages himself and it would have been much better for him especially since the costs came in so much lower than expected. There was never any pushing or coaching of him to file for insurance, these are totally fabricated statements to support his lack of acceptance of responsibility for the damage to the home. ****** would not expect anyone to file an insurance claim unless absolutely necessary. It can cause your rates to go up if you file a small insurance claim. Obviously, for larger claims you must go ahead and file because that is what you have insurance for. However, a claim of less than $2,000 should usually be taken care of by the company so that their claims history remains low. All of ****’s bitter diatribes about ****** and her appeals for an insurance claim are fabricated. **** appears to be using this as an avenue to divert attention from his lack of memory regarding the incident; and, refusal of acceptance of the damage to the home, in efforts to get out of paying what he owes for it to be repaired. He clearly threw this response together just before his BBB deadline without a lot of honest or accurate information to substantiate his response. As soon as the guys completed their work, one of them quickly ran through the house with ****** who was primarily interested in the light fixtures and ceiling fans that were cleaned. She had already checked with them throughout the afternoon about the windows that they had cleaned since there were quite a few of them, especially in the living room. ****** and the crew leader were trying to make sure they got everything on the list that had been discussed when the job was booked. The phone call referenced at 4 minutes after she approved completion of service with his crew is when ****** called **** to pay the bill with a credit card, not to complain about the damaged sill which had not been discovered yet. The payment was given immediately to **** before ****** knew about the window sill in question. ****** may have mentioned the wet blinds and water sitting in the kitchen bay window over the sink. This had already been found earlier in the afternoon. However, that sill was made of Formica and was not damaged. It took over an hour to clean up because of all of the water on the dusty blinds that was difficult to get clean. The water sitting on the damaged dining room bay window sill was not found until later in the afternoon after his crew was gone. The damaged dining room sill was discussed with ******* after it was discovered that afternoon. ****** and ******* got an estimate of repairs as soon as possible. There were also drops of water on the window frame in the master bedroom but there was not damage; therefore, that issue was never discussed. Our carpenter/painter was there working outside that day while the crew was cleaning. He left about the same time they left and never saw the inside house damage because he was working outside and ****** had not found the damage yet. The carpenter/painter was there while the crew was cleaning during the day and ****’s statement about him “not arriving until after the crew had left” is incorrect. **** also stated that “he talked to the carpenter on the phone” but the carpenter was not present at our house during any of the phone conversations with ****. We believe that the person he was actually talking to was when he was talking with ******* regarding the damaged window sill and the fact that he should come out and look at it, but he refused. ****** later discovered the standing water on the damaged window sill and started cleaning up the mess. She showed it to ******* that evening and called her carpenter. He came by a couple of days later and said the damage could run from $400 to $600. He did not know if there was any mold or other damage underneath the sill and we were not sure what the window company’s charge would be to make a trip out to re-seal the sill once it was built. We estimated the high end might be about $1,000, but was unsure at that time. It was never what **** claimed as “thousands” of dollars. Again, he is forgetting a lot and fabricating what he can to support his response. As it was, the carpenter re-built the window sill with new, good quality wood. He cut, routed, sanded, stained and installed it within a few weeks. It took quite awhile to get the window company out because they were so behind on installations of new windows. They were scheduled for December 23, but they got delayed due to weather issues and pushed their appointment to January 9, 2023. As we mentioned before in our claim, because we were such good customers of theirs and had purchased new insulated storm windows from them in March of 2022, they did not charge us for this trip to re-seal the new window sill. Therefore, the costs of the removing the old sill and re-making, staining and sealing the new sill was $245.04. We also asked that for all of our exhausting time, conversations, compiling and filing the complaint and other discussions with several people involved in the resolution of this problem, we have requested that our service cost of $252.00 be refunded. This is what makes up the total claim of $497.04. **** ********* refused to come out and look at the damage, even after he had seen it in the pictures sent to him at this request on Nov. 3, 2022. Therefore, ****** was very disappointed in ****’s lack of integrity and told him on her home phone that she would have to file a claim in Small Claims Court and he said fine, “it’s just your word against mine”. ****** still has the text string located on her cell phone of the pictures that is time stamped Nov. 3, 2022. After we finally got everything fixed in January and the holidays were over, we decided to turn this over to the BBB instead of going to Small Claims Court at this time because we thought it would be faster and better for everyone to try and get it resolved. Most of ****’s responses were taken from our original complaint to the BBB and twisted into something that was favorable for him, but not at all factual. **** never offered to come over or to discuss this situation again after our conversation on Nov. 3. At that time, the window sill did not have time to have any sort of bulging, cracking or swelling. The damage was caught too soon for that to occur. Again, **** has thrown together a multitude of inaccuracies due to his lack of enthusiasm to resolve this claim. Business Response /* (4000, 12, 2023/02/07) */ No doubt, this situation is disappointing for both of us. The dispute was between our company and the client so I think it is inappropriate for an unnamed author to add insults and false accusations. Nonetheless, these erroneous claims and insults seem to be aimed at coercing Better View into an exasperated reaction. Since 2011, my team and I have worked hard to satisfy each client individually and our record shows this. It is unfortunate that we are not able to resolve this problem amicably. Consumer Response /* (4200, 16, 2023/02/16) */ There is one last thing we would like to clarify, there has never been an "unknown" author during these complaints or rebuttals. The authors have always been ******* and ******. **** has never talked with our carpenter either, it was ******* who he spoke with. With all due respect for the BBB, their kindness and professionalism regarding this case, we feel these rebuttals are not resulting in any type of resolution. This process is taking up a tremendous number of hours of our time trying to carefully and accurately draft our thoughts, document timelines of events, draft responses to rebuttals, or read and discuss dishonest responses from the other party. This is in addition to all the time for the actions we have had to take ourselves, to resolve and pay for the damage. We feel that we need to invest our energy and time into investigating more productive and fruitful actions regarding a resolution. **** has never even had the decency, nor the respect, to apologize for all the damage and trouble his crew caused at our home; not even for the items that were just messy and time consuming to clean-up which did not result in actual monetary damage, just a lot of extra time and disappointment with the quality and integrity of their work. Even though we both invited him to please come out and look at the damage, he refused. Therefore, although this claim is definitely not resolved, we wish to spend our time exploring quicker and more productive solutions to the problems that Better View Window Cleaning has caused us and our home. We would like to thank the BBB for all of their kindness, support and professionalism during this process.

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