Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: bobby p on January 02, 2011, 12:01:43 am
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Do you know any ?
i for one would be interested to hear of any scams/rogue stories of fleecing of us cleaners (so that i and others can avoid them !)
perhaps youve been ripped off ,whether small money,or BIG money ,i THINK this biz is low risk,but i could be wrong ?? and i want to be ready whether its a customer or passerby
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Some have paid a lot of money, thinking they are buying a good window cleaning round. And when they go and start to clean, they find out that they did not have or never wanted a window cleaner.
Always get introduced to every customer, or pick them at random.
Roy
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I had a phone call from a customer a few weeks ago asking if I had a son who was doing my collecting for me. Someone had turned up asking for the window cleaning money.
1. I don't have any children.
2. I don't collect.
3. That customer didn't owe me any money anyway.
Whoever called wasn't paid.
I asked him to report it to the police and to give the police my number if they wanted to ask me about anything.
He informed the person running neighbourhood watch and left it to them.
I've never heard anything since.
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Not window cleaning but carpet cleaning. A friend of mine got a phone call from a man to clean the carpets and do the upholstery in a flat. A nice girl let him in etc. It took him all day.
When he had finished he asked the girl for payment (as you do). The girl was a bit suprised as she was only the tennant and had just moved in. She gave him the name of the letting agent.
The letting agents knew nothing about it and said they would try to contact the owner. He was a "foreign business man" who was often out of the country. But the look that was exchanged between the two people in the letting agency when he told his story gave it away. The owner of the flat had pulled strokes like that before. My mate never got his money.
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Window cleaning custys who are " desperate" to get a reliable cleaner every 4 / 6 weeks then drop you after first clean, they just wanted them clean for a party or similar and wanted them done cheap.
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I had a customer in Ruislip a few years back phoned up and wanted her windows cleaned. Yes she wanted them done regular blah blah.
WHILE I WAS THERE a man turned up in a van and put up a for sale sign.
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same hapened to me twice ' man it hurts
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got offered to buy a round before. i didnt buy it cos it was a obvious scam.
he said it was to much hassle to introduce me to clients and wouldnt take instalments, nor would he accept me working the month with out paying him then pay him after i done the whole round seeing that it was legitamit
even if thoses clients did exist. how unprofessional is that.
i bought a round before £250 for £300 worth of fairly priced work, but compact work.
i was introduced to all customers the ones who were out were told by neighbors
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Window cleaning custys who are " desperate" to get a reliable cleaner every 4 / 6 weeks then drop you after first clean, they just wanted them clean for a party or similar and wanted them done cheap.
Charge an initial clean rate. I charge double.
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got one custy wanted windows cleaned on 2wkly clean also picked up next door, after a few cleans one custy came out and said can you leave them and come back in autum then the next door came and said the same after trying to explain my terms and cons to which they both had agreed one said we where using you as an experiment to see how long it would be before the windows would be before the would be dirty.cheeky cXXX good job his wife pulled up the drive >:(
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Terms and conditions mean nothing. They either want their windows cleaned or they don't. Once their windows are sparkly clean the idea of paying to have it done again dies a death
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Twenty or so years ago, before the days of the internet, the main way of selling a round in London was in Loot. A newspaper a bit like Exchange and Mart that covered London.
Dodgy characters would blitz canvass up about 150-220 names and addresses then sell it as a working round for big money.
The poor mugs who bought them never stood a chance.
About three years ago a well known window cleaner around our way dropped out of sight, I think due to health problems. I picked up quite a few of his customers and started cleaning them.
Then a young lad started knocking on their doors introducing himself as the new window cleaner. This was about a year later. Although i was more than a bit annoyed initially I soon mellowed.
Somebody had approached the old window cleaner and bought his book off him for about £200. Whoever it was he never took over the round but just sold it on to this lad for about £4,000.
To be honest I wasn't that bothered, I always have loads of work anyway and I wasn't going to make an issue of it. To be even more honest I felt sorry for the lad..
Many of the customers wanted to stay with me anyway. But its bad, what a nasty mean trick to pay on a young lad. His dad had given him the money to buy it thinking he was helping his son get established in life. In reality he was conned rotten. Other window cleaners had picked up other customers and were not as gracious as I was about giving them up. He was threatened and all sorts.
He's gone now, I haven't seen him about for ages. Poor kid. I still feel bad about it when I clean those customers I still have and always think about that young lad.
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Got ripped off by a canvassing company to the tune of nearly £600.
Paid money for work that never materialised and found that they were offering 'trial periods' to customers and selling them to me as regular customers.
Turns out after a little digging that he is not only registered in his home address as an over 65 year old to avoid council tax, but the company he was trading under wasn't registered with companies house so wasn't/isn't paying any tax on his earnings.
Well the council will soon be hearing about him, as will HMRC.
What goes round comes round eh.
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Andy,
Give me a call about this tomorrow mate,
I know we were going to have a chat about it but got distracted.
My number is 07515286183.
Cheers,
Dean.
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Got scammed by a third party mobile phone retailer. Not really wc specific, but costly all the same.
Thought this company was sorting out everything for me ensuring that the tarriff I was placed on was suitable and previous contract closed.
First bill hits the mat £2500, and the old contract not even closed.
My fault really but the salesman was good and had earned my trust.
Won't let that happen again.
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Will do Dean.
However, already got the county court judgement done and it will be implemented by the baliffs in the next couple of weeks.
Cheers
Andy
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Got scammed by a third party mobile phone retailer. Not really wc specific, but costly all the same.
Thought this company was sorting out everything for me ensuring that the tarriff I was placed on was suitable and previous contract closed.
First bill hits the mat £2500, and the old contract not even closed.
My fault really but the salesman was good and had earned my trust.
Won't let that happen again.
Something similar happened to me with Geko direct,
I didnt drop it and took it all the way and they ended up paying.
What was the company called?
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@ andy foster.
If you dont mind me asking, where abouts in the midlands are you? im also in the midlands you see! its just that you dont see many on here from my way ;D
Thanks, g.b
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Got scammed by a third party mobile phone retailer. Not really wc specific, but costly all the same.
Thought this company was sorting out everything for me ensuring that the tarriff I was placed on was suitable and previous contract closed.
First bill hits the mat £2500, and the old contract not even closed.
My fault really but the salesman was good and had earned my trust.
Won't let that happen again.
Something similar happened to me with Geko direct,
I didnt drop it and took it all the way and they ended up paying.
What was the company called?
Waiting from reply from CICAS.
Not naming and shaming till this is done and dusted.
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Turns out after a little digging that he is not only registered in his home address as an over 65 year old to avoid council tax, but the company he was trading under wasn't registered with companies house so wasn't/isn't paying any tax on his earnings.
Sorry to disappoint you mate, but you don't have to be registered at companies house unless you are a Ltd company. It has nothing to do with HMRC.
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Turns out after a little digging that he is not only registered in his home address as an over 65 year old to avoid council tax, but the company he was trading under wasn't registered with companies house so wasn't/isn't paying any tax on his earnings.
Sorry to disappoint you mate, but you don't have to be registered at companies house unless you are a Ltd company. It has nothing to do with HMRC.
It will if he is not paying his taxes surely?
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Turns out after a little digging that he is not only registered in his home address as an over 65 year old to avoid council tax, but the company he was trading under wasn't registered with companies house so wasn't/isn't paying any tax on his earnings.
Sorry to disappoint you mate, but you don't have to be registered at companies house unless you are a Ltd company. It has nothing to do with HMRC.
I'll let HMRC be the judge of that one.
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Here you are.
http://www.startups.co.uk/companies-house_1.html
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Here you are.
http://www.startups.co.uk/companies-house_1.html
From the link you sent...
"If you haven't done so already, you can register as a sole trader here. You need to register with HM Revenue & Customs within 3 months of starting your trade."
So you do have to register with HMRC even if not with companies house. So let's see if he has eh.
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Yea you got to register with HMRC, I didn't say he shouldn't. Didn't you not say he should be registered with companies house?
I think if you don't register with HMRC within 3 months of starting up you're poking at a £100 fine.
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I didn't say he should, I said he wasn't.
Anyhow, HMRC are the interested party and at least they will be able to investigate.
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I didn't say he should, I said he wasn't.
Anyhow, HMRC are the interested party and at least they will be able to investigate.
I'm confused. How do you know he isn't registered with hmrc?
Was it because he couldn't be found on companies house??
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I didn't say he should, I said he wasn't.
Anyhow, HMRC are the interested party and at least they will be able to investigate.
Glad you pot the CCJ on him Andy.... deserves every
I'm confused. How do you know he isn't registered with hmrc?
Was it because he couldn't be found on companies house??
If you were registered at home as an over 65 when you were actually around 45, would you be registered with HMRC ?
Glad you got that CCJ on him Andy.... deserves everything he gets !!
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i got caught out by another cleaning companywho said they dont do windows........they used me as a their quotations person (said they will pass on all their window cleaning jobs to me, just go and quote these 5 jobs to see how it goes).....1 month later i see them cleaning the windows of one of the jobs i quoted (lot of leg work and paper work).......it happens a lot....but i wont get caught out again. 8)
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I got a phone call from one of those dodgy merseyside companies that pretend that they're publishing a book for charity and that you've sponsored it.
As luck would have it, just the previous week I had heard about it as a scam, and so hung up immediately.
As a warning to others, dont even engage them in conversation, because the next thing you'll know is a bill will arrive on your doormat for £3000, and it is one heck of a job to get them to go away.
The phoncall goes "Hello mr. xxxxx. I'm calling about the book you agreed to sponsor for charity X months ago, I'm so sorry it has taken such a long time to get back to you..."
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2006/07/taylor-tanner-sponsorship-char.html
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What a coincidence, I had one of those exact calls this morning calling from a mobile phone (which I thought was strange at the time) for a local charity event raising money for kids with cancer, as soon as he said his piece I told him I was not interested - I hope he doesn't bill me for 3 grand! ???