We take pride in our work.
We provide a great service. 
Guaranteed.

What is the Milner’s Service Guarantee? 
What is an ‘Industry Standard’?
What is covered under Milner’s Service Guarantee?
How Do I use the Milner’s Service Guarantee? (contact us)
What Steps does Milner’s Window Cleaning Take?
   Step 1 - Contact
   Step 2 - Identify
   Step 3 - Corrections
What is not covered by the Service Guarantee?
Identifying Other Types of Glass Problems

 

What is the Milner’s Service Guarantee?

   We know quality counts. Milner’s Service Guarantee applies to all of our services. 

   Our Service Guarantee, stated simply, is this:
 
All work will be performed to industry standard in order to ensure customer satisfaction.  If a service isn’t performed correctly, we’ll come back and fix it, no additional charge.  Guaranteed.

What is covered?

   All work agreed to in the quote provided to the Strata Council, otherwise known as the ‘scope of work’, is covered by our Service Guarantee.

What is an industry standard?

   An acceptable level of quality for all work performed in any area of service, according to the level of service requested and approved by the parties involved. A good example from outside our industry most people can relate to would be: a car wash.

   If you want your car washed, a basic car wash would include having the entire exterior of the car washed to remove dirt. It may or may not include having the wheel rims cleaned depending on where you go, and whether this is done by machine or by hand.

   The next service level at a car wash might include drying the vehicle after it is cleaned and application of wax or other products to protect your vehicle.

   Getting your car detailed is a higher level of service, involving much more work and care and would include cleaning the exterior, vacuuming the interior, cleaning the dash and vinyl, polishing chrome, getting into every crack and crevice to remove dust, spraying a scent, etc.

   These are examples of levels of service performed in the industry of car washing. 

   Window Cleaning does involve different service levels as well.

Industry Standard for Basic Window Cleaning:

   This is a general maintenance window cleaning. It involves using soap and water to remove dirt and pollutants built up on the glass over time.  Window ledges are given a quick wipe to remove most of the dirty water pooled there. Razors will be used to remove bird droppings and spider residue. The use of a squeegee provides the best results, but a small bead of water will run down the sides of the pane of glass. Our standard is that this should remain less than 1/4 inch wide. 
  
   A maintenance window clean does not cover any additional use of chemicals or razors to remove paint, concrete spatter, scrubbing window ledges to remove algae, etc.

   Additional levels of service beyond a regular maintenance clean involve: razor cleaning to remove paint and other substances, mineral deposit remover, frame wiping and polishing, algae removal, etc.

How Do I Use the Milner’s Service Guarantee?

Step 1 - Contact our office within 7 business days of completion if you have a concern regarding the service.

Step 2 - We’ll investigate the concern. There are steps which need to be taken for this, usually involving meeting in person to ensure we understand your concern, and being shown the area from inside the suite.

Step 3 - We schedule and perform any necessary corrections as soon as possible, at no extra charge. We will attempt to fix during the visit where we investigate, if possible.

Step 1 - Contact

   We’ll need to know about your area of concern, so please explain as clearly as possible what has caused your concern, and how we can meet with you to correct it. We will need to meet with you or a representative during business hours: Monday to Friday 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM. Include your contact information so we can follow up with you and ensure we can investigate and perform any necessary next steps. 

   Send your concerns via e-mail to: info@milners.shawbiz.ca

   We’ll respond to your e-mail or phone you within 24 hours in regards to investigating your concern.  Our next steps are outlined below.

Step 2 - Investigation of Your Concern

   Our managers or supervisors will always attempt to investigate from outside the building if possible. On town homes and lower floors this is often feasible. However, in most cases we need to speak with you in person, and have you point out the area of concern from inside your suite.

  This is necessary to for many reasons; we want to make sure we’ve properly identified what it is you are concerned about, and make sure it is something we can address correctly.  If we return to try and fix something in the wrong spot our efforts will not lead to your satisfaction.

Identification of the Area of Concern:  What we need

   It is important to note, that a phone call or e-mail where we’re simply told: -
“I think there is a spot missed on my bedroom window. I’m in unit 1503” is not effective communication which will lead to addressing the concern.

The following explains why this form of communication doesn’t work.

   From outside a building our workers are unable to correctly find a problem area with a description involving a unit number and room identifier such as in the example above.  No one is more familiar with a building than its residents so it may seem natural to a person living within the building that such a description should lead to easy identification of areas of concern. However, since we are new to your building we don’t know what makes your bedroom window different from your kitchen window. 

  There is other information we will not have if your concern is relayed this way. Does your suite have a two bedrooms or more? If so, how will we know which bedroom you are referring to?  Also please consider, since suite numbers aren’t posted on the exterior of the building, there is no way for us to know from outside which suite number is where.  Counting up from the ground to find which is the 15th floor isn’t always successful either: in some buildings the lobby is two stories high and the #200 suites don’t actually start until the 3rd floor. Some buildings have no 4th or 13th floors. Counting up from the ground or down from the roof is very difficult while hanging from the ropes outside. Therefore, we need more information or identifiers to address your concern.

How do we fix this problem - and easily identify the area of concern?

   We ask that you put a yellow sticky note on the inside surface of the window, which helps us pick out the correct pane of glass from among the hundreds we can see from outside the building. If you have no sticky notes, taping a piece of paper with an ‘X’ on the inside of the window helps us ‘mark the spot’ to ensure our workers can set up and get to the right area.

   Without this type of identifier, we cannot guarantee we can find the area of concern and address it.

Why do you need to see the problem from inside my suite?

   In a surprising number of instances, after a window cleaning service is performed, other problems become apparent after the dirt is removed. Seeing an obstruction to the view remaining on freshly cleaned glass obviously causes a concern and question as to whether the service was performed correctly. As long as the identified concern lies within our scope of work, we will address it as soon as possible.

   There are some things however which may not be covered by the agreement with Strata council and our company, and therefore may not be covered under the Service Guarantee.

Step 3 - Addressing your concern.

   If we’ve investigated your concern and find we should take further action, we will either fix it on the spot if we are able, or schedule our workers to return and perform that actions needed to address it, as soon as possible.
   This may take a few days to co-ordinate if we need to retrieve keys for access or bring back specialized equipment. Our goal is to address the concern as soon as possible.

What is not covered by the Service Guarantee?

    If the problem is not reported within 7 business days, we may not cover it under our Service Guarantee.

WHY? 

   Windows start to become dirty again over time, so we need to ensure we’re not repeatedly returning to a site to re-clean windows because a building is in a high pollution zone, such as next to a construction site, etc.  We try to allow enough time so that if something was legitimately missed or not up to standard we will correct it, but not so much time that it becomes indeterminable if the window was cleaned during our visit.

   If the problem lies outside our scope of work, or is something not covered under the type of service requested, it will not be covered by the Service Guarantee. Often these types of problems are noticed once the windows are cleaned; the dirt is removed and something remains behind catching a person’s attention. This is another reason we need to see the the problem from close up in your suite. We may be able to fix some of the problems which lie outside our scope of work for a small additional charge.

Identifying Other Types of Glass Problems

Mineral deposit staining:

   This shadowy substance will not be removed from your glass with soap and water. These are minerals such as calcium leached from the concrete and mortar of your building which then run down the facade carried by rainwater. These minerals adhere to the glass by lodging in the micropores of the surface of the window, and build up a stain over time. This staining often becomes obvious after the glass is cleaned and this substance is left behind.

   Mineral deposits look like grayish water spots or dripping streaks.

How do we determine it isn’t just dirt? 

   Taking a clean cloth and wiping the exterior surface of the glass over these spots will remove them if they are dirt left by window cleaning not performed to standard. If scrubbing of these marks doesn’t remove them, it is a mineral deposit stain.

Can Milner’s Window Cleaning fix it?  

  Yes. We can revisit and clean with a special mineral deposit remover compound that will result in an 85-100% improvement depending on how bad the staining is. Left for long enough, this type of stain becomes permanently etched into the glass, and may need to be buffed out, or the window replaced to bring back to new looking glass.

Condensation

   We sometimes have frustrated customers contact us because their window still seems dirty. There is a foggy appearance or dirty fan of droplets still remaining after the window cleaning is performed. This is often condensation between two panes of glass.

   If the outer seal protecting the pocket of air between two panes of glass becomes broken, water vapor can get in and cause condensation.
 

   Condensation looks like a mist of fine water droplets, usually starting from an edge and working into the middle area of the window. Dust and dirt may also appear around it.

How do we determine this isn’t dirt on the outside?

   To investigate we rub the area with a clean cloth, on both the inside and outside surfaces of the glass.  If we are unable to affect what remains visible, and the marks are not a mineral deposit stain, it is because that dirt or condensation is trapped between the glass.

Can Miner’s Window Cleaning fix it?

   Unfortunately, this is not a service that Milner’s Window Cleaning provides at this time. We recommend you contact a glazier or glass company for more information.

Dirt on the Inside Surface

   We have received calls from upset customers because their window still looks dirty after we’ve finished completing our exterior window cleaning service. One reason we need to investigate, is that in several instances the inside surface of the glass needs to be cleaned as well.

How do we determine this isn’t dirt on the outside?

   Using a clean cloth, we will wipe at the inside surface of your window in the area which appears dirty. If a clean area appears where we are rubbing with the cloth, the dirt is on the inside surface. 

Can Milner’s Window Cleaning fix it?

   We are happy to provide cleaning surfaces for the inside of suites. Contact us to arrange for an appointment for a window cleaning professional to provide this service for you.

Paint, silicone, concrete

   On occasion we have received concerns from tenants regarding substances remaining on the glass after we have completed our service, such as paint droplets, silicone or caulking spills and concrete spatter. 

   Our workers will use a razor to remove the occasional small spots of these substances we may find while cleaning a building to ensure our customer satisfaction.  However, if a large portion of a building has this type of residue on the glass, we need to be able to take the time and use the equipment necessary to correctly remove these substances from the windows. Arrangements for this need to be made through the strata council and property management company to account for the extra time and expense beyond a regular maintenance window cleaning.

Spider webs and insect droppings

   Spiders rebuild their webs after they are destroyed, and continue to inhabit areas they are familiar with, leaving their residue on your glass. 

How do we determine we’ve cleaned the window the first time?

   If you are concerned a pane of glass wasn’t cleaned because you still see a spider web outside of it, we need to investigate the pane of glass itself. If it can be determined and shown that it was recently cleaned, the problem of a spider infestation may remain. If it appears that the window was missed during the cleaning, we will ensure that the glass is cleaned under our Service Guarantee.

Can Milner’s Window Cleaning fix it?

   Yes. We do include in our service the use of pesticide to help eliminate spider infestations. We ask that you notify us in advance of the cleaning, so that we can spray in areas of concern to help reduce or eliminate your spider infestation problems. This will help ensure that the webs and nests are not rebuilt after the window is cleaned.

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