Winning a lawsuit begins before you touch the first window. It begins with educating your customer. Enter the Trivalent Waiver. Have one written up and then have each part (3 in total) signed and dated by the customer as you move through the job. I wrote a post about this animal in this blog. You will find it by scrolling down. Customers need to understand that anything can happen when techniques or different chemicals must be used to remove substances that conventional cleaning methods cannot. It is also very real that scratches left by previous cleanings can easily be revealed by removing dirt and stains.
Next if you can possibly avoid a razor this is always the best practice. If however you must use one you should use a penny and a cheap doctors stethascope to listen for factory debris fused to the glass surface. Not going to get into the science of what this is. We all know it. And have to deal with it. Just need to know every time when it is there. The sound will tell you. Clean the window first with the conventional method. Soap and squeegee. Then light drag a penny across the dry surface and listen. I have heard many different sounds over the years. Including complete silence. VERY educational. It sure beats a microscope!
Next. If you have to resoap and scrape do this according to a unique pattern. Your own way that you move the razor. So that if scratches appear later if you caused them you will see the pattern will match your pattern. If not then you did NOT cause the scratches.
I have also when called into a consulting job actually tried to create the same scratches with the same tool that the window cleaner used. But in a different direction to the pattern of the scratches that were in question. I actually saved one companies business this way. We lost a couple too.
Another tool is a handheld lighted microscope that links by bluetooth to a smart phone. I am collecting a series of different micrographs of scratches caused by different things on my own test plate. Also from the field. Also have written a couple posts in this blog and included the micrographs further down. If we can show that the scratches were caused by an aluminum ladder for example and NOT a razor blade, then we have won the lawsuit. The microscope can be a very powerful analytical and legal tool.
More about this later. But if you need some help to guide you through a very emotional and difficult problem please give me a call and send me an email.
Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com
6034989474