Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: weetot on August 12, 2010, 08:33:43 pm
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Anyone lost their Thomson Travel Agents and First Choice Travel Agents?
They are owned by World Of Tui', used to be Lunn Poly and Callers Pegasus, have done mine for 27 years and they went a couple of weeks ago to LPM maintenace.
The contract starts on 1.10.10.
As if you didnt have to worry about bigger W/C firms coming in, its now maintenance firms who paint this, then grease the shutters, clean afew windows, change a light bulb!
Allegedly.
Apparently competition is healthy................. :'(
Rant over
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Anyone lost their Thomson Travel Agents and First Choice Travel Agents?
They are owned by World Of Tui', used to be Lunn Poly and Callers Pegasus, have done mine for 27 years and they went a couple of weeks ago to LPM maintenace.
The contract starts on 1.10.10.
As if you didnt have to worry about bigger W/C firms coming in, its now maintenance firms who paint this, then grease the shutters, clean afew windows, change a light bulb!
where do you cover m8
Allegedly.
Apparently competition is healthy................. :'(
Rant over
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Northumberland area ;)
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i know when i was cards in with a firm fr the wirral
merseyside they did loadsa tescos an the like
really cheap i went on my own , the area manager
of carlisle cleaning company asked me to take
them on as old company used to get any one to sign
sheets etc leave windows and the like
i on my own zero overheads at the time couldnt even
get close to there price per store with diesel etc
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Its the usual case innit.
Get the right PL insurance, Method of work statement, Risk assessments and Health & safety policies.
But if you are not a massive company, your'e just a bloke with a soapy bucket who cleans widies for beer and fAgs. :)
God I think I will get some Prozac for the wekkend, or better still, change my career!!
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Its the usual case innit.
Get the right PL insurance, Method of work statement, Risk assessments and Health & safety policies.
But if you are not a massive company, your'e just a bloke with a soapy bucket who cleans widies for beer and f*gs. :)
God I think I will get some Prozac for the wekkend, or better still, change my career!!
take sum 4 me m8 lol im snowed under wiv
thomsons n first choices to do lol ;D ;D ;D
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lol......................................................not for long mate ;D
Get yourself some leaflets dropped on houses, so when the fly goes in the ointment, you'll be ready to do some domestic work.. :P ;D
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was only jesting lol aint got em yet ;)
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was only jesting lol aint got em yet ;)
;D
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i did my local branch until last week only to be told the window cleaning dept of rentokil initial were taking over.
they must be earning peanuts
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Hi to all
The main reason that the chains our going national is they need to move away from the shops paying contractors out of the till as money was going missing, manager says the window cleaning is £20 a week when the shiner only charges £10 a week. It's head office of the chains playing big brother, also they get budget costs across the company much better for budgets.
Just try and ask the store who has won the contract, contact them and ask to sub the work as there is not a national retail window cleaning company in the UK yet!!!!!!!
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Hi to all
The main reason that the chains our going national is they need to move away from the shops paying contractors out of the till as money was going missing, manager says the window cleaning is £20 a week when the shiner only charges £10 a week. It's head office of the chains playing big brother, also they get budget costs across the company much better for budgets.
Just try and ask the store who has won the contract, contact them and ask to sub the work as there is not a national retail window cleaning company in the UK yet!!!!!!!
aint you got these charlie ???? if you get any thing wrexham , chester ways
feel free to contact me dean tab will vouch 4 my standards m8 ;) ;)
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Will do fella, not me think I know who won them mustbe rubbish money as one of my clients went in cheap and didn't get to the last three companies in the tender
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Will do fella, not me think I know who won them mustbe rubbish money as one of my clients went in cheap and didn't get to the last three companies in the tender
aqua clean / full circle got the birthdays, clintons , matalans n
nationwide building societys cud do will u throwing me the dumelm in wrexham lol ;) ;)
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surely mitie, initial or someone similar are "nationwide"??
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Nope do work for all three on retail and commercial to be national on retail you would need a man in each town
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We have just lost out on two local contracts with Morrisons and Yorkshire Building Society to a company called Greig Avinou from Edinburgh.
They then contacted us asking that we subby for them on the same jobs at less than half the price that we were being paid!!! Also the paperwork that required signing before and after each job took longer than the actual job itself. Did them twice then walked away.
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anyone interested in setting up a national window cleaning company
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anyone interested in setting up a national window cleaning company
lets do it
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count me in 8)
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i think we should call it high level window cleaners..its got a certain ring to it ;D
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count me in :)
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anyone interested in setting up a national window cleaning company
lets do it
im here in north wales ;D
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i am in on that one
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Me too and I am suprised it has not been done yet
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It’s called progress even if it’s going backwards.
It’s just a cycle of which some are bigger than others. And there will be cycles within cycles. Over time these companies will see that the job they are paying for is not acceptable and their high street image is deteriorating. The branch managers will start to complain to their area managers who will take it up with head office. They will be fobbed off for a while. The manager responsible for the new concept to save money was a hero to start off with and was probably paid a bonus for his forward thinking. He will want to save face and not accept that his fantastic idea was a failure; he will push it along for as long as he can. So the ‘national’ cleaning company will be sent an ultimatum. The actually window cleaner will get his backside kicked again, firstly for spending too long at each job and then for not cleaning properly. He will then be fired and the ‘national’ will buy some time with the excuse that they have had to let the window cleaner responsible go, but that they have a new window cleaner and everything will be alright.
In the meantime another ‘national’ is also talking to the head office which will appear to solve all their cleaning problems, as they will clean all the windows and oil all the squeaky hinges as well. Then there’s the villa in Italy that is at his disposal that nobody else in head office knows about. But they still need to see their contract out with the first ‘national’ before the new contract begins with the second ‘national’. But it doesn’t take long before the whole cycle starts again, and that’s a nice villa in Italy, the whole family wants to go there again next year. By this time they have forgotten who their original window cleaner was because the staff you knew are no longer working there.
We do a branch of national supermarket even although head office wants it done by their contracted cleaners. The contracted cleaners would only clean the glass, no signage, window frames or light fittings. We do the job every 2 weeks, provide and invoice and statement and get paid a couple of weeks later as the shop manager claims the cost through his personal expenses account. The previous manager has now been transferred to another branch and we still have the job with the new manager using the same payment system.
Yes, head office has tried to put pressure on the store manager to start to use the approved VAT registered ‘national’ again but he stood his ground and refused.
My advice is to keep in regular contact with the shop’s manager – who knows, in some future time things can change again and most probably will. Maybe you can suggest the manager pay you via his personal expenses route. If you haven’t got pictures of the before and after clean for your portfolio, why not get some, even if it means doing the job for free (with the managers permission). The pendulum will swing back in our favour sooner or later, but the only way we will get the job back is to keep in touch – it’s called marketing.
Spruce
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I do agree with what your saying Spruce, but there are jobs that I, and other windies had that went to Nationals over 15 years ago.
You are extremely lucky if ever get them back, cos the top guys sitting behind oak tables, smoking cigars and thinking of ways to save money, eventually get so sick of employing nationals who are constantly messing up, they eventually send a memo or e-mail to all branches saying "Just get the local guy from now on to do the store and we'll pay him out of petty cash."
So unless you are constantly being a right royal pain by popping in the shop you did for decades and hassling the manager/ess explaining who you are. When they do decide to get new windies, they pop out the shop, look up and down the street and say " Oh theres a guy with a soapy bucket, I'll ask him."
OK its time to let it go, sorry for being so negative, but I have'nt just read about this going on, I've also experienced it first hand on a number of occasions, and it was about 1995 it all started going on. :( ;)