Student Works Window Cleaning

This is a negative review of a StudentWorks Window Cleaning operator in the Newmarket/Richmond Hill/Thornhill area, and a warning to potential customers that the contract is misleading. I've waited 2 weeks considering this. Now I'm going public.

We have been supporters of StudentWorks Painting for the last few yrs. They do a good job and we try to find ways of supporting students. Given that so many students lost their jobs this Summer of '20, we decided to expand our support to StudentWorks Window Cleaning. Wrong. The agreement was for them to wash the outside of our windows. We removed and cleaned the screens. The contract says "Exterior window washing includes only surfaces accessible from exterior when windows are closed." I confirmed in an email to the operator that this specifically included the "grooves" in which the screen sits when it is in place. The operator did not respond to my specific question. I assumed (wrong again!) that, yes, of course those grooves would be wiped out. This is not a huge task.

We never saw the operator. He completely missed an appointment, to the point that I sent an email, a text and left a voicemail thinking something had happened to him. Nothing for 24 hours. Well, I thought - he's new and we'll give him a chance. (wrong - 3 strikes and I was out).

When the students finished the windows and asked for payment I pointed out to them the dirt on the base of the windows at the front of the house. What did they say? "That cleaning isn't included." I was shocked. I asked that they check with the operator since I'd confirmed this in an email. And, that little ledge is a PART of the exterior window - it is part of the window frame and it is a "surface accessible from the exterior when the window is closed." The operator was firm that these grooves were not included, and when I reminded him of my confirming email his response was "I received a lot of emails from you." Oh......ok. So that's how you are going to build a business based on referrals? I said, this will take about 1 minute per window. Oh no, he said; it will take at least 30-60 minutes and I'll need to charge you for that. I told him I'd done 5 windows while I was on the phone with him, as I walked room to room. His attitude was rude and patronizing. Not good for a startup operation.

I contacted StudentWorks to speak with the operator's coach. I told the coach and the operator that this was such a simple fix for them. Had the operator agreed the contract says "exterior", that the 'groove' is part of the window, and had the students taken the 15-20 minutes it would have taken to wipe out the window frames, I would have sung the praises of this little company to all. But no. Nothing. No 'let's make this right' for the customer. No acknowledgement that the contract is misleading. The coach thanked me for my feedback, business and offered nothing else.

By the way, we did see the operator for the Painting business. We all kept our distance, and she checked and double-checked on the details. We were pleased with their work. Window cleaning? Nah - we clean our own windows, and should have this year. To the coaches of the operators: make it clear to these operators that this is a tight economy, and they are in a customer-facing, word-of-mouth business.

I had all my windows and around the eavestroughs cleaned. It was two young guys who were very nice. A few things I noticed, I asked them to fix and they did and were very pleasant about it. I really appreciated that.
They are young as some have mentioned but like I said, no issue if you have a specific question, they are happy to help.
One thing I'd love to recommend to this company is to do a quick dry wipe of the dust of the window ledge (inside the house) so that it completes the look. Your guys just spent time making my windows look amazing, add that one extra step to make it look like it was top notch service :)

Crew did a good job but left well over 50% of eaves untouched.
Now I have to hire another company who I can trust to do the complete job. Manager will not refund deposit

Wonderful job in sweltering weather conditions! The crew was pleasant and hard working. We would definitely recommend them or use them again for our windows and gutters. Students do a great job when given a chance.

We used this company for window cleaning; they did a great job & cleaned everything once they were done. Strongly recommend them. We toured the house together once the job was done to make we were satisfied with their job. Very professional !!

The team leader was very impressive. Attentive and in regular communication. On the day of the work, the leader was there to kick things off. Her team were professional and courteous and took great efforts for safety given the pandemic. The service was excellent. Our windows are spotless. I'd have them back next year.

We originally contacted for both windows and eaves but when my husband's health improved he chose to wash the windows himself. Miranda was understanding and adjusted the contract accordingly, which we really appreciated. Now our eaves are clear look new.

Work was excellent and efficiently done. All students were very courteous and friendly. The were 1hr late from initial contact time but within the 2 hr window. However, it would have been nice to receive a call saying that they would be coming in approx. 40 min. Customers would be looking for people to arrive around the initial start of the contact time.

Note to Managers:
1) not all municipalities have weekly garbage removal and some won't take anything in green or black plastic bags. So garbage removal needs to be taken into account.
2) during this pandemic, some people are picky about the use of their washrooms especially homes that have older seniors in their care. That means not all homes will allow workers to use their bathrooms. That is a real concern since Coffeehouses have just opened and some do not allow washroom use. You might have your team managers think of that situation for their workers. Also some people are just very anxious and very scared about this virus. Your workers need to know where washrooms are available if that situation arises.

These young people who did our window cleaning were very thorough and even although they were 45 minutes late, with no phone call to make us aware they were running late, BUT they had an excuse, (problem with ladder) but I reminded them that a phone call would have been appreciated as we had company arriving in the afternoon. Young Millenials are not on the same page as some of us......that being said, they were at my house for much longer than I anticipated, however, I would hire these young guys again because they were so thorough. Would just make sure the appointment was not made less than 24 hours earlier and I had no other family commitments that day.

We just had a fantastic experience with our home summer refresh! It was wonderful working with Jessica to plan the work, and Gary and Ish did an excellent job on the day. Our windows are spotless, inside and out. Our fascia and races are clean and the power washing brought our front steps back to looking new again! Huge thanks to this great group of students!