Toronto Clear View Window Cleaning, Inc.

Our apparent, "poorly designed" Estimate Calculator has been praised over the years by many, including our competition, so while it can't please everyone, based on the vast majority, we have no intention on making changes to it.

The problem in this particular case simply centres on the fact that the Estimate Calculator very clearly asks for the TOTAL square footage of living space for the house, excluding the basement, but for whatever reason, this client, Rick, only provided the calculation for one floor. I tried very hard to explain why the TOTAL is required, but Rick consistently feels that it should not make a difference what the ENTIRE house measures. We obviously ask for the TOTAL for a reason, namely because the calculator takes into account many factors and will then determine the actual size of the house PER FLOOR. In other words, a 3 story, 3,000 square foot house would be approximately 1,000 square feet for one floor. While it is true that the eaves could be on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd floor and vary on location, the height and roof pitch also play a vital role in calculating the cost due to the increased risks of cleaning higher positioned eaves and for steeper pitched roofs. We've been in business for over 25 years and know very well what information we need in order to determine the cost, but Rick expressed himself over the phone as knowing best due to his background credentials.

Something else that should be mentioned is that had the client, Rick, indicated the ACURATE measurements, in other words, simply answering the question asked instead of providing the information he feels we needed, the quote would have been much more than what was originally presented. We can only quote based on the information we are provided and have no reason question what details are entered.

For the record, had the client indicated the correct information, the total cost would have been $228, but instead, we adjusted the amount to only $175, generously providing a $53 discount . However, because Rick was so adamant about this not being enough of a discount, we provided a further $12 discount, for a total of $65. It seems strange that Rick only mentions the $12 figure and not the full story.

We encourage everyone to browse through ALL our reviews which should make one wonder why Rick indicates the lowest review we have ever had.

The question should then be, is the problem with Toronto Clear View, or with the client, Rick?

Thank YOU!

For the record, the cleaning was actually $165. It seems apparent that the client's frustration is causing an exaggeration on matters which seems to be influenced on the apparent lack on our part of not providing a quote for a product installation. What actually happened is that we received an enquiry about a cleaning request via email. We read over the email and the client's wording was, "I am considering adding the gutter filter as well to all the Eavestroughs on my roof. I only need the eavestroughs cleaned" at this time. Obviously there is no mention about a request for a quote here and thus why we did not include one in addition to our cleaning the eavestroughs.

Apparently the client says that there was also a phone conversation earlier enquiring about a quote, but no appointment was ever made for arranging one. It was simply a discussion explaining the details about how to proceed with whichever way they wished to pursue. The client thereafter simply sent an online request for only the eavestroughs to be cleaned, as per the email wording above. Consequently, we only did what was requested.

Unfortunately, the client obviously assumes that we should have somehow linked his separate phone enquiry with the separate online request, however, realistically, it would be impossible for us to do so since the phone enquiry was just an enquiry and not a request to provide a quote. The client should have also included a quote request with his online submission if that is what he also wanted. Instead, he simply asked for us to proceed with a cleaning, which we did. Had he ask for a quote, everything would have been handled properly.

As for the mess left behind, we always clean up after the work is completed. If the eavestroughs at a property have been neglected for a while, it certainly is impossible to leave no visible signs of our presence. Considering that human error is possible, had we received a call to resolve the mater, we certainly would have done so, but nothing was mentioned until over 1 month after the fact.

Therefore, based on all the particulars, namely, the exaggerated price we charged, the apparent request for a quote AND the mess we left behind, we can only relay the details as we have them and leave the rest to whomever reads this post.

Lastly, if the neighbors eavestrough cleaning service was so outstanding and reasonably priced, we wonder why they were not called as opposed to us.

Thanks Sandra

Thanks a lot

We do appreciate the mention about the quality of our work as this is something we pride ourselves on and believe this has gotten us to where we are today having literally thousands of happy repeat clients. As for the 6 star rating, there are some very important details omitted in the reviewer comments that, we believe, would provide a very different picture. Firstly, the cost confusion Andrew mentions is about a simple error made on the invoice left at the property when the workers misread the work order details. Another important factor not mentioned by Andrew is that the total was actually $141.25, or more specifically, $125.00 before tax and that we only charged $122.00 before tax almost 1/2 decade ago. In other words, a total increase of only just over 2%...much, much less than the inflation costs of just about anything else, including gas costs, etc. during the same period of time. Additionally, Andrew was told via his neighbor that he will be getting a $10 discount off the next cleaning due to the error we made on the invoice left at the property, which means the subsequent cleaning cost will actually be quite a bit less than what it was 1/2 a decade ago. When all these additional factors are considered, hopefully a clearer picture can be seen that a 6 star rating is a little misleading, but we do understand that the rating obviously reflects Andrew's feelings. Unfortunately a human mistake occured on the invoice. We acknowledged this, explained everything as clearly as we could, and even provided what we felt was a substantial future discount as our means of saying, "sorry".

As for the "Online Booking Tool", it's purpose is to schedule jobs whereby we need access inside the house, such as for inside window cleaning. Outside work, such as Gutter Cleaning, does not require anyone to be present. This method of scheduling greatly improves the efficiency of how jobs are completed and gives homeowners the freedom of not having to schedule time off for something that does not require them to do so. We have found that clients overwhelmingly prefer this method because they have their own lives to live. In view of all the above, hopefully anyone who takes the time to read our reply can determine for themself whether they too would have rated our service as 6 stars due to a simple invoicing error that was caught on the very same day the service was rendered.

It seems a digit from a 10 star rating was deducted because of not having a confirmation of our coming to do the work. Note that our system does indeed provide an immediate "confirmation" of the job request into our schedule. The only thing it does not do is identify the "exact day" of our arrival since it is usually not necessary, especially for outside only type work, however, if someone needs to know exactly what day we are coming, that's not a problem....just ask and we will let you know.

Thank you for the review! While I can't speak for other companies, I can only say that Toronto Clear View Window Cleaning Inc. is guided by principles that dictate we should always do business honestly. Sometimes it means losing business to some who may wish to cut corners and thus charge less, but we believe that for the most part, we benefit in the long run with happier clients and confident referrals.

Thanks for your expression!