[Franky2020]

I went round one of my customers today who I charge normally £9.00 for their house and conservatory ,and the previous time I had been asked to clean the con roof which was really dirty and I charged the wife £15.00 for the lot. Returning today the husband said he thought I was out of line charging that much for doing this job. What do you think, I think I was fair as it took another 20 mins to do.   

[Morph]

How did you clean it?

[rosskesava]

When you think what other services cost, £6 is hardly earth shattering.

Take the cost of petrol?

I think sometimes customers still have a vision of a window cleaner having a cloth cap and being cheery with a 'thank you ma'm' and charging 50p for extra's or maybe  just a shilling.

Yesterday we were doing whole pile of 1st floor flats over some shops all owned by the same landlord. In between the shops was one ground floor flat. In that one place lived an elderly lady who asked me if I could clean her ground floor black as anything one bay window and front door.

As I had nothing else to do as the other two were busy wfp'ing the flats above, I said a fiver. She complained that her 'last' w/c charged £2.

I didn't clean her windows. Two quid is an insult.

I think some people live in the past and I also think £6 for an extra 20 minutes work is not unreasonable.

Cheers

[abacus]

Hi Kevin

I think you are waayyy out of line 

 you should charge more  :#

I charge ten pounds min
regards grant

[craig jwc]

I think £6 was ok, but it would depend on how big the roof was.

There's alot of people out there who want something for nothing.

[L plate]

I clean a two bedroom house for £6.00 (trad) it takes me 20-25 mins, I charge about £5.00 for a small con (trad)
I did a roof on a small con and charged £5.00 (wfp)

I try at the moment to work at £15.00 per hour  
So £6.00 for 20 mins = £18.00 take away travel to the job, rain and other Bad weather and the rate soon drops
Your a self employed  tradesman. so over a year what dose he want you to live on to keep you in line!!!
  
 

[Trevor Knight]

Kevin,

The price you charged has to be relevant to your hourly rate.

If the customer thinks that is expensive explain your rate to him. Explain if your investing your time with him when you could be cleaning another property then you have to charge for your time.

This is your business, don't think bad because someone has questioned it. If they want it they pay for it or do it themselves. At the end of the day when you get home you need to be able to have maintained your hourly rate for that day.

chin up!!

Trev

[mick hay]

£6 for a conservatory roof!!!!!

My minimum is £45, and i pick up loads!

Quoted one yesterday, including gutters on cons £125, and they snapped my hand off!!

[reah]

Hey
I agree you are offering a service that they do not want to do.
Any task like cleaning or clearing gutters should be adjusted to allow for the fact that its a dirty time consuming job.
There are those who realy like to moan about anything.
If i have a customer that starts moaning all the time i drop them they obviously do not appreciate what you are doing.
Reah

[Morph]

How did you clean it?

wfp?
Hose down from tap?
Pole with trad?
Framework?

It all makes a difference

[Easyclean Windows]

Well i must really be over charging as i charge £20.00 min for samll roof and £40 min for large roof.If they want the whole conserv cleaning then £100 upwards....but no one has ever complained about the price.

[RO-Sheen]

£6? I wouldnt get outta bed for that!!!

I use wfp, charge £1 a house window with a minimum of £10 per house. Conservatory sides are £10 min and the roof is £15 min. I pick up 80% of jobs that I quote for if not more but will put my prices up when my biz is stronger (Im only a newbie - born at end of feb and now have 84 customers.) Included in my charges I clean all frames, sills and external doors. Doors take about 15 seconds to run the brush over and customers love it.

If a customer moaned at £6 for a con roof they do not have any respect for you. They are missing the point that you are trying to make a honest living, you are VERY cheap and you are putting yourself in a dangherous position by leaning over the roof squeegeeing it off!

Don't even try to presuade him, he's not worth the hassle!

[RO-Sheen]

Hey Easyclean - You need to change your footnote! You are the 2nd best in oxfordshire!!! lol
How are things with you?

[Easyclean Windows]

LOL 1st and allways will be....

[ronaldo]

£6 for a conservatory roof!!!!!

My minimum is £45, and i pick up loads!

Quoted one yesterday, including gutters on cons £125, and they snapped my hand off!!

Couldnt agree more Mick your price is right and i also pick lots of these up and i wouldnt be doin one for less than £45 either. regardless of how small it is.

[007 or what]

£35 no quibbles. normally pays well

[windows_chepstow]

Returning today the husband said he thought I was out of line charging that much for doing this job. What do you think... 

I think the husband was out of line for saying what he thought.

It's quite simple really, if he thinks it's too much, he shouldn't have the service.

Did you explain the time and difficulty - the pain-in-the-ass factor?  Cleaning a conservatory roof to a good standard isn't usually easy.

Personally, I'm not as expensive as some of the lads on this thread, but I reckon for a simple conservatory roof clean, £15 to £20 should be your minimum price; especially if you leave the roof looking good.

If you use WFP, or not, explain the amount of HARD work and time involved.  I always tell the customer that a conservatory roof clean will usually cost more than the clean of their house; purely for the time and difficulty involved.

I have one customer with a large-awkward conservatory who wants his cleaned every month and I charge him £20 on top of his £30 house clean.  I still groan when I have to clean it! 

I have another who has theirs cleaned every-other-month; a complete doddle since the back garden is almost level with the conservatory roof, which is just three-slats of glass.  I charge them £15.00 and their house is a £10.00 clean. (I used to charge only a fiver for this roof clean, due to my inexperience and the poor-state I left the glass in.)

Kevin, I think the customer who winged in the opening post is a 'one-off'.  If you feel awkward about returning to clean their windows after their complaint, just drop them.

Hopefully their next window cleaner will be someone who charges £45 minimum for a conservatory roof and that'll make their gobs hit the floor.

I hate whingers.

[Franky2020]

Thanks for the feedback chaps. I just done it with a pole , not wpf and it came up alright, but I said to the customer that I was cheap in comparision in what a lot would charge. Theres nowt stranger than folk is there!! 

[macc]

Hi kevin. £25 min. i find when i do a job cheap they always moan. £6 is way under & like Tosh said he was well out of order.

Put your price up. At £6 a time thats a lot of roofs to clean just to pay for the pole.

Roofs are not something they can clean easerly so they are worth more. 

Macc

[JM123]

ask them what it would cost to get someone out to clean the roof.  £6??  20mins, I charge a £1 a min, its unfortunate that you even had to listen to someone complain about that - I don't mind doing the odd free job but when I price for something like that I wouldn't even entertain £6