Window cleaner rescheduling

[Starvey]

Not so much an am I being unreasonable, more unrealistic.
Partner is a self-employed window cleaner who mostly does regular window cleans for his customers. He does occasional one off jobs but 90% are regular diarised jobs
Recently his van broke down and he's been using the family car/hiring a van depending on what's going on each day, to still be able to work. Whilst I respect his work ethic, juggling this and trying to get his van diagnosed/repaired is clearly stressing him out. I've not had any regular service before but in my opinion his customers wouldn't mind missing a clean for a week or so while he gets it all sorted. However he's firmly of the belief that he can't let any of them down and needs to continue as he is due to everyone being on a certain schedule.
Am I being unrealistic to think that the customers he's been going to reliably for 2 years wouldn't mind missing a clean or waiting an extra week or so? Would it make people look elsewhere for a window cleaner?

I've not had any regular service before but in my opinion his customers wouldn't mind missing a clean for a week or so while he gets it all sorted. H

He, the business owner, thinks differently.

He knows HIS customers. You don’t.

Would it make people look elsewhere for a window cleaner?

He does not want to take the risk and risk disrupting family finances.

He knows his customers as he is the business owner. Yabu

My window cleaner just messages me and sets a new date. I don't bat an eyelid. They can access all the windows without me needing to be in so I'm not at all fazed about dates changing. If I had to be in to let them in I'd probably want at least a few days notice.

Mine rearranges quite regularly for things like illness, bad weather, holidays etc. All fine. Its just windows.

I think any break in the regular schedule might remind the person who’s been meaning to cancel that they should do that. Or if they have their windows done weekly, if it gets missed for a week they might look at them and think “actually this is fine, let’s move to fortnightly cleans”.
I don’t think it’s about “I’m so cross that he’s missed a week that I’ll look elsewhere” it’s the risk that a change in the routine makes people reconsider.

My window cleaner coincidentally had some sort of emergency last month and asked it was ok to clean my windows a week later than scheduled. I’m normally at work when he cleans them and pay with bank transfer afterwards so didn’t mind at all. I have 4 weekly cleans and he did the next one after 3 weeks so he’s back “on schedule”

I think that he should do what my window cleaner did and ask if it’s ok to do them later than expected and only do the ones that say no this week. It means that he will have longer days next week but it sounds like he needs the breathing space.

Do people really get their windows cleaned every week?? We haven’t had ours done for a year or two and they seem fine to me! We live rurally so maybe that makes a difference but I still can’t believe anyone needs windows cleaned every week

My window cleaner stopped coming for 6 months before I noticed 🤣 . I don't thinknitnwoukd be a problem at all for most customers to say I can't make it this week, will be there Tuesday the following week. In fact, if my window cleaner pushed things back, id probably be pleased because it saves me a bit of cash.

However, that could well be the reason for him not to want to. If he doesn't do the work as regularly, he won't get paid. If I was on say, a four weekly schedule, I wouldn't mind if he came after 5 weeks as a one off, but I wouldn't expect to be paying again 3 weeks later.

When our window cleaner is on holiday they just cancel all bookings for those weeks.
Makes sense as otherwise they would have to reschedule EVERYBODY whereas by cancelling appointments only in the affected weeks, the rest of their customers remain blissfully unaware.
Most of us can manage a single missed appointment.

My parents do.

But weekly was just an example. If he cleans someone’s windows fortnightly the same thing might apply, they might miss a clean due to the reschedule and think that actually they can move to monthly cleans.

I’ve no idea when my window cleaner comes. He just shows up sometime during the week he is due (I get them done monthly). Horribly embarrassing if it’s early and I’m still in bed but didn’t close my curtains (in a bungalow so he can see!) 😂.

But I wouldn’t care one bit if he missed a week, and I wouldn’t cancel my standing order. It really doesn’t matter.

The best window cleaner in had was semi retired and just turned up now and again. I paid when he cacamehich was about 3 times a year, plenty IMO.

Now I have a lovely young lad who runs his business very efficiently, but comes like clockwork every 4 weeks, meaning I pay every 4 weeks. I don't think windows need doing that frequently, but I can't find anyone who wants to do it on an ad hoc basis.

Mine cleans them monthly but I couldn't even guess when in the month he comes. Going an extra week, or even an extra month, wouldn't bother me!

Mine comes monthly, he just texts the day before. I wouldn't care or notice if he came a week later.

Wow, so much aggression on a topic I was genuinely just wondering what people's thoughts were!

I expect he'd stressing about having to change and check payments or people being happy to miss one and just havrlr the next clean so then he doesn't get paid.

I wouldn’t mind at all. I inherited a window cleaner when I bought my home many years ago. I pay him for several cleans in advance and when he comes, he puts a note through the door telling me how many cleans in advance have left. I’m not sure what his schedule is but I trust him completely to come and clean. More in the summer than the winter, I think. Probably once a month but I really would only notice if he hadn’t been for ages. I’m not bothered

Welcome to MN 😂

Didn't expect it on a random post about window cleaning 😂

Honestly I have no idea when my WC comes he seems to come as and when he wants!

I've been on MN a few short weeks and have already discovered that no issue is too trivial to elicit super judgy and aggressive responses 😂

On your window cleaning question, my usual window cleaner just messages me the day before to tell me he is coming by, all external access anyway, so not an issue, and I just pay him after. It's roughly every 6-8 weeks. Really wouldn't bother me (I wouldn't even notice) if he was a week late or early!