[drive surgeon]

all you pressure washing guys beware as all the window cleaners and gardners are advertising the service and using cheapo machines off ebay and not doing half as good job as us professionals.  they seem to be handymaen advertising all services, probably gypsies too!  there all knocking around everywhere on the sniff for work.  one of my old custies said they knock on your door, then before you get chance to say anything they spray your flag to show you how clean it should be, then they say a price.  she had to beat them off with a stick and she was fuming cos her flag was a difeerefnt colour to the rest so i fixed it for her.   cheeky buggers!!

[Bill1903]

Play them at their own game and do your customers windows and gardens

[Mike Halliday]

I did a job 3 weeks ago, 4 doors away was a group of men doing another drive, one was  P/W and directly behind a guy was sweeping in sand!  my customer said they had knocked down the full street offering a demo and a big discount if they had it done the next day because "they had finished a big job for Tescos early so had a day spare"

I see this drive every day its a right mess I keep meaning to knock on the door and ask if they want it doing right ( I'd even do it cheap to help them out)

[trevor perry]

all you pressure washing guys beware as all the window cleaners and gardners are advertising the service and using cheapo machines off ebay and not doing half as good job as us professionals.  they seem to be handymaen advertising all services, probably gypsies too!  there all knocking around everywhere on the sniff for work.  one of my old custies said they knock on your door, then before you get chance to say anything they spray your flag to show you how clean it should be, then they say a price.  she had to beat them off with a stick and she was fuming cos her flag was a difeerefnt colour to the rest so i fixed it for her.   cheeky buggers!!
[/quote

 im a window cleaner but do powerwashing and i can tell you for sure mine isnt a cheap machine and i am very proffesional

[Milltown Cleaning]

some people can multitask successfully!!

but htose people do sound like gypos!!

[drive surgeon]

they were gypsies!! but all these handymen seem to blitzing everywhere trying to do anything for as cheap as poss taking all our work!!

[Milltown Cleaning]

if they are purposly undercutting then that is not on.

[drive surgeon]

there are so many vans going around now with windows, conservatories, jet washing, gardening, any work considered on, 

[Milltown Cleaning]

what is wrong with mulitasking?

if you do a good job, with the right tools at the right price for both parties then where is the problem?

[drive surgeon]

cos they are taking all of us locals work and they dont even live here.  they are not from our area and us locals have worked solid to build up our business's over many years.  these are undercutting us and cold calling on every door.

[drive surgeon]

i even saw two diferrent vans pulled over the other day having a scrap over who was on each others patch, its becoming nasty.  some were quoting £20 for a driveway whch which would normally take me well over an hour. they are buying these cheap and nasty chinese jet washers with crappy rotary heads on. they look pathetic.  people think us professionals are dear when these are quoting silly prices.  they must be just keeping the cash with no overheads/  the government need to start clamping down there are so many vans knocking around illegally and bet they are not paying tax.

[Milltown Cleaning]

£20 per hour for powerwashing is a very decent price. If you do a good job at the right price then you will have nothing to worry about with these flash in the pan people

[colley614]

I understand his opinion to be fair. The amount of window cleaners that have come out the wood work this year is daft. I thought that the Government said that 2.6 million were unemployed. They want to get them fraud investigaters round my area. Infact they want to get the fraud investigaters going round them mp's before anything else!

(on no I'm getting political)

[drive surgeon]

the drive was around 80 or 90 sq metres and they charged 20 quid!!  thats ridiculous cos they werre there for around 3 hours.  i dont over charge i factor in all my overheads to run my business and a lot of my custies have told me i am cheap for the quality of my work!  i know a lot of guys who charge £80 an hour or £2 to £3 a sq metre so a 90 sq metre drive would be £180 for some guys.  or £20 to the gypsies who have no liability insurance etc.

[drive surgeon]

well in colley614 i understand what you mean, there are more window cleaners than ever and they are all doing anything else they can, i feel sorry for the guys who have been doing it a long time as these newbies are undercutting them all its just crazy.  bet they are not even insured.  i saw this guy following a gutter cleaning van and was telling custies that he would clean gutters out for £5 a length when the gutter guy was charging £10 a length in his nice gutter cleaning van.  they will do him out of business.  you all need to keep your eyes open as people will steal your business.

[vacman]

Drive Surgeon, you talk of 'probably' and 'bet' what people are and aren't doing. Well why don't you find out what the 'facts' are, before your own imagination drives you to any early heart attack? You could well be right, but the point is, you don't actually know. Look back at what you've written; if you take out all the stuff you don't actually 'know' about, then you're left with very little. You are making it worse for yourself. It makes me sad (fact) to see people winding themselves up.

But please, also consider this; whatever you think about the people you are refering to, they are ultimatly supplying a demand if it is that they are getting the work. So, instead of laying the blame for the (percieved) poor workmanship soley at the feet of the people doing it, why not attribute some blame to the people who are paying for it? They are the ones who are fueling the situation.

[trevor perry]

drive surgeon i am sure you are right some people do go in ridiculousy low but if they are too low and  do a bad job then they will soon go out of business,just focus on your own work try to price reasonable and always do a brilliant job word of mouth soon gets round and you will get work on recomendations this is the best way to build your business.
 at the end of the day some of these people are just trying to provide for their famillies in difficult times others are as you say just scam artists, as said earlier its the customer who decides so make your results superier as customer satisfaction is the best business builder.

[karygate]

i have a foreign machine that is 4500 psi max pressure,15 litres  i bought for around 500 quid . took it to sweepfast to get the odd connection changed and set up with a fsc and a turbo nozzle. i tend to do the smaller jobs and charge a minimum of 40 pound but most small block paved drives come in at around 60 quid and take me about an hour and half. this does not include sanding as most of the customers do it themselves afterwards. i do not advertise and get plenty of recommendations and do perhaps 1 to 5 jobs a month . this is a nice add on but i would under no way see me as a threat to anyone that does it full time , but i do not see myself or give any less of a proffesional service than anyone else. what catagory am i classed into . and i am covered by public liability. 

[drive surgeon]

i have a regular customer base who use me each year but im finding they are starting to ask me to give them a good price or lower my prices due to these other guys.  should i lower my prices in this recession or stick to what they usually pay me each year?

[John Kelly]

Have your bills gone down, don't think so. This ever decreasing price lark is just a recipe for disaster.