Ned Stevens Gutter Cleaning

"The customer is correct. We do indicate that there may be debris on the house and grounds that we cannot clean up afterwards. This has much more to do with the nature of the debris than our efforts, however. When someone uses us the first time, we have no idea the nature of the debris that is in the gutter and, more specifically, how long the customer has gone without cleanings. If you clean your gutters every 6 months, the cleanup is immaculate, beautiful. The longer you go between cleanings, the more decayed the debris is, the finer the particles, the harder to cleanup. Our primary objective is getting the debris out of the gutters and getting the system flowing properly. Secondary is ground cleanup, of which we only have a limited amount of time, and if the customer has gone years without cleanings, the debris won't be so much as leaves as it will be just basically blowing soft, mushy dirt out. When you blow leaves out, they fall straight down, and they are easy to control with a blower. When you blow out decayed leaves, it splatters, uncontrollably, and there is only so much we can do to clean up something like this. We could spend hours cleaning up a house where the gutters have been neglected, but we don't have hours. For an $89 deal, of which we only get a portion of, we have a very limited amount of time. We send email to each customer when they book a gutter cleaning warning them that, if they haven't had the gutters cleaned in a long time, and this is there first cleaning, that it could be bad. To put in all caps, YOU CANNOT IGNORE YOUR GUTTERS FOR A YEAR OR MORE AND EXPECT THE SAME TYPE OF AFTER CLEAN AS SOMEONE WHO GETS THEIR GUTTERS CLEANED REGULARLY. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. The answer, moving forward, for anyone with this issues, is not to say, "I won't use them again because I was unhappy with the mess" but to say, "I recognize that, had the gutters been maintained on a regular schedule, this mess wouldn't happen, and if I stick with this company moving forward, the next cleaning will be 1,000 times better". In the end, skipping cleanings may save a customer money, but it never saves time. It's just like taking care of your teeth, if you don't brush on a regular basis, or go to get a dental cleaning regularly, what you save in time in money comes back in cavities and pain. I cannot stress this to anyone enough, and I'm going to put it in all caps: CLEAN YOUR GUTTERS EVERY 6 MONTHS, and if you haven't kept up with it, start now. The first cleaning will be rough, just like going to the dentist with some cavities, but it's never too late to start now. I'm sorry that this customer's visit was more of a pain than expected, but if they can see WHY the debris was the way it was, and they stick with us and call us in six months, I GUARANTEE them a much better cleaning, virtually immaculate. All we are is the tool to do the job. Only the customer has the power to use us properly and timely, or to not use us at all. The saddest thing that will result of us, most likely, is that the customer will probably call another company in 6 to 8 months, they'll come out and do a better cleanup BECAUSE we did the rough one this time, and the customer will simply think that the other company is just better because there isn't the same mess."