[NWH]

I get the feeling that some of us WC`s are getting just as frightened as the general public who watch the news constantly at the moment,don`t pannick if you agree with this what does that say about you and what you`ve been doing in the past it says you`ve been ripping them off,it`ll take you forever to get it back up to what it was.I took a job on last week for £25 every 8 weeks,the last idiot was doing it for £12 but never came back i wonder why.

[Russell Macdonald]

I would say to this lady that the price is £11, and will not go up this year due to her collecting payments on your behalf and if she wants to collect and deliver payment each time you clean then she can have it for £10 (saves you time that has to be worth a pound I would say that to her aswell, if not then £11 it will be, I would no let a customer dictate my prices unless it was in my interest to let them, stay in control and tread careful. show weakness in pricing  and they will exploit it more and more. I know before anyone says it's only a pound, it is more the point they think they can tell you what they are paying. "seems like she maybe one of these people that look down on window cleaners"

if you just accept it, next year will she say as money is tight I will now pay £9 and come to think of it my friends now only want to pay £10 aswell.....................where would it stop ?. someone said about another cleaner coming and getting his foot in, I would not want to keep customers that do this type of thing as to me they would fall into the messers catagory and others are welcome to have the hassle.

Same here. I would not have a custy of mine telling me the price. If they don't want to pay my price
they can find some one else.

I also don't get held to ransom cause they are friends. Who runs ur buisness, you or them.

Give her the chance to pay £11 or dump her or they will all start the same game.

Macc

[Oakley Windows]

Im leaning towards.....shes taking liberties, if she thinks she should pay just £10.00 and adjusts it without saying anything then thats out of order, she should have approached you.

Id now feel obliged to say something possibly implying Id have been prepared to compromise, if this is possible, but as shes behaving unfairly you'll have to insist on the original price.

[Window Cleaning Services]

Thanks for the advice chaps - actually this is the only time she has brought the money and known what the others are paying.

This is actually only average-paying work for me as it is and if the trad-man wants her at £10 he's welcome.  It's only just worth my while at £11 a shot as there are four together.

It's the arbitrary reduction that rankles with me and I don't feel I can allow it as it would irritate me out of all proportion to it's financial significance.

If the others know she's done this will they all want a further reduction?

I'll think on it overnight but am leaning towards a letter explaining and holding my price.

More thoughts welcome please...

[AuRavelling79]

Decision made, letter posted. Thanks all - very helpful.

I've sent a letter explaining her error (one of the houses is higher priced and in another the custy cleans his own conservatory) and access issues.

I've not mentioned the £1 this time but have reasserted that I will see her in Jan (2-monthly see?) at the original price unless she otherwise advises.

Finished with I hope this explanation is satisfactory and mentioned my reliability, insurance, H&S and frame and sill cleaning is all included.

We shall see what happens.

I am not prepared to be dictated to on price so that's it!

[Oakley Windows]

Well done. Good for you. 

[barry80]

do it for a tenner

[NWH]

When word gets round that your reducing your prices your be in trouble,can you imagine if that happened to every customer and how much worse off you`d be over the course of a year.

[Mark Sadler]

Decision made, letter posted. Thanks all - very helpful.

I've sent a letter explaining her error (one of the houses is higher priced and in another the custy cleans his own conservatory) and access issues.

I've not mentioned the £1 this time but have reasserted that I will see her in Jan (2-monthly see?) at the original price unless she otherwise advises.

Finished with I hope this explanation is satisfactory and mentioned my reliability, insurance, H&S and frame and sill cleaning is all included.

We shall see what happens.

I am not prepared to be dictated to on price so that's it!

Well done mate stick to your guns and never let a custy dictate pricing, personally i would use her as an example and get rid as a warning to others. The old ones are the worst IMO, ive had old foggies ask me to clean there windows on a regular basis and the next time i went to clean they said once is enough for this year,    very annoying.

[geefree]

Thats one of the reasons i asked for advice on another topic, customer trying to reduce...

The thing is , we are looking at posts on this site, that we have not seen before.

"lost another today"

"undercutting"

"non payment of commercial work"

The recession is starting here, now... with us.

But lets stay positive, keep building new work...

I dont know wether keeping that customer on , or agreeing to her price...

maybe.... in these times, it may be better to keep them for now....

see how it goes regarding new work coming in... and re-asses.

or at a push keep for now... dump when the economy  is stronger.

Hard to call.

[NWH]

It can only be up to the individual if it`s worth keeping it on or not,i don`t know every WC`s situation but if you have enough work you should never be told how much your getting for doing a job your self employed you tell them and if they don`t like it they can lump it.

[Paul Coleman]

Decision made, letter posted. Thanks all - very helpful.

I've sent a letter explaining her error (one of the houses is higher priced and in another the custy cleans his own conservatory) and access issues.

I've not mentioned the £1 this time but have reasserted that I will see her in Jan (2-monthly see?) at the original price unless she otherwise advises.

Finished with I hope this explanation is satisfactory and mentioned my reliability, insurance, H&S and frame and sill cleaning is all included.

We shall see what happens.

I am not prepared to be dictated to on price so that's it!

Maybe you should sign her up to a couple of hundred mailing lists while you're at it Malc    .
Seriously though, I think you've made the right choice.  I can see why you were needing to give it some thought and know how tricky it can be.  I had to let go of a couple of customers last month because, between them, they were trying to control how I ran a little bit of my business (not a pricing issue though).  I will try to give a customer what they want within reason but I try to picture what my life would be like if every customer tried to get their own way on certain issues.  The answer is that if I had given every customer everything that they wanted down the years, I wouldn't be cleaning windows any more.

[geefree]

 The answer is that if I had given every customer everything that they wanted down the years, I wouldn't be cleaning windows any more.

ohoooo.. Now now shiner.... is there something you aint telling us here.

[AJ]

write to her, letting her off the £1, but make it clear that it is for her delivery service and that she is getting VFM with the window cleaning. If it seems to easy for her to get a discount, wait till she tells X Y &Z. It will snowball and they will all want what she got.

[Wayne Thomas]

All I can say is roll on when recession is over, 'cause I'll be dumping quite a few annoying customers, but for now I'll grit my teeth and put up with them until they start messing me about. Only give them two chances and on the third...they're dumped, recession or no recession.

[ccmids]

sh**  through the letter box that seems to  work for most of em

[Paul Coleman]

The answer is that if I had given every customer everything that they wanted down the years, I wouldn't be cleaning windows any more.

ohoooo.. Now now shiner.... is there something you aint telling us here.

Haha.  Trust you to pick up on that one Gazza 

[mr D]

1stly how come you have 70year old friends??? do you play bridge or bowls??

i wouldnt worry to much its only a £. after all there are funny folk every where what i would do is mention to x,y and z what she did and why you charge her the same as them. you can bet your bottom $ they will have a word.

bloody scotts there all the same! lol just kidding just kidding.

[AuRavelling79]

1stly how come you have 70year old friends??? do you play bridge or bowls??

i wouldnt worry to much its only a £. after all there are funny folk every where what i would do is mention to x,y and z what she did and why you charge her the same as them. you can bet your bottom $ they will have a word.

bloody scotts there all the same! lol just kidding just kidding.

Re-read the first post - my wife's friend lives in the road and is a customer in addition to the three older custy's I'm talking about here. Anyway I'm not age-ist!

[windowwashers]

What a lot of fuss over £1

Haven't you got something you'd rather be doing?

You get £49 for the street, just think of it as a single job (which in effect it is as you get paid for the lot in one go) accept the reduction gracefully and carry on as usual.  Next time skimp a bit on her house to make up for it

i agree,just miss the bathroom when it has no bird muck or loos dirty

I use that as a sales pitch if I am against trad cleaners lol and it works 90% of the time (I just sow a seed in there mind), I did this myself years back so I know full well where you are coming from on that one it saves a load of time, but now we clean everything.

Malc Gold, good on you I would have done near on the same.


Ian