Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Pittmonkey on May 25, 2007, 07:04:58 pm
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Week 3 and I’ve gone and broke the advice I received of keeping to a min price. I’ve been quoting minimum price of £10 no matter how small the property and so far so good, until I met dear old Edna today.
She rang for a quote explaining the previous cleaner kept messing her about, never new if he was coming or not and more often than not he didn’t.
“He hasn’t been for a least 6 weeks and I don’t like my windows to be dirty” she explained.
On my way there I new this was going to be one of those “He used to charge me £2” I was wrong it was £1.50. :o
Small bungalow with only 5 windows, how the hell am I going to be able to keep to my min price on this one I thought?
Sweet old Edna was sat there waiting for me, lovely lady very sweet. Quoted £5 for 4 weekly clean and felt really guilty.
Anyone else succumbed to the charms of Edna?
Wayne
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Anyone else succumbed to the charms of Edna?
No :o Give em your price n stick to it , if she doesnt like it let her keep her £1.50 clean , you got a business to run .... end of
Chris
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no wonder he messed her about mate
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Yep, I can see the reasons why he couldn't be bothered turning up and probably fell for Ednas charms, like I did. She isn't manipulative she's just the genuine sweet old dear who everyone wishes their granny to be. Not a posh pensioner just the type who gets by.
I could have quoted £10 and maybe she would have gone for it, I'll never know. I know business is business but I'm not that hardened, or maybe I should I be.
Shurley sombody else has done the same.
Wayne
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£5 ... 5 windows ... 5 minutes, good one ;)
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Some times the good feeling you get from doing jobs like this is worth more than money
Of course dear old Edna is right now busy telling her neighbours about the thieving bas88rd charging her 5 quid ;D
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I have a number of 'oldies' that I don't even bother charging for. I know I have a business to run but is there anyone here that can honestly say to me that they cannot afford to stop earning for 10 mins in the day?
The state pension doesn't allow them to live the high life, and considering many of these oldies have hard a much harder life than any of us can imagine I think its only fair that I help them out a little.
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Pat, just seen your post!
you're so right!!
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tut tut
you will never be earning 5 K a week with that attitude :P :P :P
notice the :P :P ..... ;D ;D
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I have a number of 'oldies' that I don't even bother charging for. I know I have a business to run but is there anyone here that can honestly say to me that they cannot afford to stop earning for 10 mins in the day?
The state pension doesn't allow them to live the high life, and considering many of these oldies have hard a much harder life than any of us can imagine I think its only fair that I help them out a little.
I've been a bit of a softie as well but I will be in danger of ending up as a poor old pensioner if I undercharge too often. Having said that, I've still got a few jobs like that.
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If it was only a couple of small places and i`d had a good week i`d do them for a cup of tea.
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Yep, I can see the reasons why he couldn't be bothered turning up and probably fell for Ednas charms, like I did. She isn't manipulative she's just the genuine sweet old dear who everyone wishes their granny to be. Not a posh pensioner just the type who gets by.
I could have quoted £10 and maybe she would have gone for it, I'll never know. I know business is business but I'm not that hardened, or maybe I should I be.
Shurley sombody else has done the same.
Wayne
too right show some love for edna, not like your going to lose money
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£5 ... 5 windows ... 5 minutes, good one ;)
Exactly ???
Are YOU happy ???
If so who gives a s**t ;) ;D
David
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I have loads of Edna's and I love them all. ;D ;D
You have to make a living and you are doing her a favour, if you feel guilty about charging her £5 for her windows, then include her frames in it, Edna will like it knowing she's having a better Job done for a little extra.
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iu got quite a few of them but get shed loads of recommends
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I think you did the right thing wayne ;)
tony
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huh poor old pensioners my a*"e!!!!
They live rent free ,get a minimum £205 per week from the state, cold weather allowance, free buses,cheap hair cuts and even all the jobs in B and Q etc etc all for standing around in the post office queue doing nothing but moaning about how hard life is !! Cmon sweet edna is laughing up her sleeve at you, she saw you coming and wait till all her pals from the bingo tea get you for a fiver you wont have any time left to make money for your own retirement.Do you really believe the stories about her old w/c? more like he tried to charge your MINIMUM CHARGE and she told him to get lost or maybe he stopped going back because she never paid her bills.
They didnt all "get bombed" during the war, who do you think the scallies the burglars the scroungers were 40 years ago yes sweet old edna and her pals thats who and they are still doing it today.They could always get a free drink at the bar by saying and doing the right things when they were young and now just cos their old well they dont lose their touch.
I bet you end up changing that light bulb she cant reach or clearing her path in the snow......if you want to do good go and be a charity volunteer and help the real unfortunates who live cold hungry and forgotten on the street.
Otherwise stop driving down the prices for all the other window cleaners and stick to YOUR policy and let us all make a decent profit
regards
gordon
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:o ;D
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We have an estate of 81 "Ednas" all one bedroom bungalows, 4 windows and a door, we charge £4 a time and can have the whole lot done with 2 people in about 3-4 hours.
They all pay at the door, or their neighbour pays for them.
I did think in the past about having a minimum price, but to be honest it wasn't fair on the customer, we price the work for what needs done and how far out of the way it is.
If someone next door to where I'm already cleaning asks me to clean 2 ground floor windows, then we will do it and charge them accordingly.
However, I do agree if you have a single house and need to get either your WFP or ladders off for the one job then a premium price must be charged.
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What you don't say is how long her previous cleaner had been doing her windows for £1.50. The problem with the Ednas of this world is that you never put the prices up and as time goes on they get stuck in a time warp.
I did my "Edna" this week. A four bedroom detatched house with a big conservatory which I do for £10. Window for window thats worse than your bungalow for a fiver. Every time I go I think I must be mad. It takes me an hour.
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We have an estate of 81 "Ednas" all one bedroom bungalows, 4 windows and a door, we charge £4 a time and can have the whole lot done with 2 people in about 3-4 hours.
They all pay at the door, or their neighbour pays for them.
I did think in the past about having a minimum price, but to be honest it wasn't fair on the customer, we price the work for what needs done and how far out of the way it is.
If someone next door to where I'm already cleaning asks me to clean 2 ground floor windows, then we will do it and charge them accordingly.
However, I do agree if you have a single house and need to get either your WFP or ladders off for the one job then a premium price must be charged.
Bang on agree with the lot. A minimum price does work out sometimes but when you are only dealing with a few windows to a property next door then price accordingly. 5 pound for 5 windows is a good rate, if you had a row of Edna's you could be making £40 hr easy, that's if you don't stop and chat about the war.
Simon.
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Thats absolutely right. When you do a group of flats / bungalows or whatever the pricing structure changes completely.
I do some OAP flats for £5 each and I can just bash through them. It takes them longer to open the door and pay me. Each one takes ages to come to the door then has to go back and get her purse, which takes forever. Try doing that eight times in a row.
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Thers more to life than money.
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@ Gordon
“Calm down dear, it’s only a window clean”
Gordon, Hope your Granny don’t read this forum ;D
As for driving down the prices, £5.00 for probably 5mins work isn’t exactly depreciating the window cleaning business.
I’m less than 1 min drive from two other, £10 & £12 custy’s so I’m not going out of my way.
Overall I did intend keeping to my pricing policy but at the end of the day like people have said if I’m happy to do this then that’s all that matters.
I don’t smell a rat with Edna and I’m normally quite good with character evaluations.
(Gordon :o)
Wayne
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We have an estate of 81 "Ednas" all one bedroom bungalows, 4 windows and a door, we charge £4 a time and can have the whole lot done with 2 people in about 3-4 hours.
They all pay at the door, or their neighbour pays for them.
I did think in the past about having a minimum price, but to be honest it wasn't fair on the customer, we price the work for what needs done and how far out of the way it is.
If someone next door to where I'm already cleaning asks me to clean 2 ground floor windows, then we will do it and charge them accordingly.
However, I do agree if you have a single house and need to get either your WFP or ladders off for the one job then a premium price must be charged.
Assuming it takes 3 hours that is 6 man hours for £81. £13.50 an hour does sound like it's taking the price down a bit far. If it is 8 man hours, the rate drops to about a tenner an hour. It sounds like the sort of work where it takes as long to collect the money as it does to clean the windows.
One of my "Edna's" is an elderly man with severe arthritis. I charge £7 for his 3 bed semi. Doesn't take long with WFP but it does take him ages to get to the door. I thought about putting it up a few times but I've decided not to bother. I doubt he will be able to live there too much longer. In fact I sometimes wonder if he will be living anywhere very much longer.
I have another Edna as well. Charge her a fiver for her ground floor flat. She left a message on my voicemail a while back that a company was going to be doing all the cleaning at the flats soon so she wouldn't need me any more. I wrote back to her reminding me of the fiver she owes me and heard nothing. This is one of the reasons I am wary of Ednas. They know you will do nothing about it so some of them rip you off as well - even though you've been working underpriced for them for ages.
Anyway, I've decided to put up with the Ednas that are left on my round but there won't be any new ones.
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shiner if it takes 3 hours with two people to clean 81 bungalows for £4 each thats £324. Thats £54 per hour for six man hours....not bad. I dont think thats driving prices down!!! :D:D
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shiner if it takes 3 hours with two people to clean 81 bungalows for £4 each thats £324. Thats £54 per hour for six man hours....not bad. I dont think thats driving prices down!!! :D:D
Sorry. I really wasn't concentrating when I read that post. Don't know how I managed it but I read £81 somewhere rather than 81 dwellings.
I'll crawl back under my stone now ;D
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huh poor old pensioners my a*"e!!!!
They live rent free ,get a minimum £205 per week from the state, cold weather allowance, free buses,cheap hair cuts and even all the jobs in B and Q etc etc all for standing around in the post office queue doing nothing but moaning about how hard life is !! Cmon sweet edna is laughing up her sleeve at you, she saw you coming and wait till all her pals from the bingo tea get you for a fiver you wont have any time left to make money for your own retirement.Do you really believe the stories about her old w/c? more like he tried to charge your MINIMUM CHARGE and she told him to get lost or maybe he stopped going back because she never paid her bills.
They didnt all "get bombed" during the war, who do you think the scallies the burglars the scroungers were 40 years ago yes sweet old edna and her pals thats who and they are still doing it today.They could always get a free drink at the bar by saying and doing the right things when they were young and now just cos their old well they dont lose their touch.
I bet you end up changing that light bulb she cant reach or clearing her path in the snow......if you want to do good go and be a charity volunteer and help the real unfortunates who live cold hungry and forgotten on the street.
Otherwise stop driving down the prices for all the other window cleaners and stick to YOUR policy and let us all make a decent profit
regards
gordon
oh dear ::)
are you Gordons aswell on here, he has the same attitude to you
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The wrinklies retiring now are all from the baby boomer eran and tend to be more affluent than the previous generation, stick to your price structure, if they don't like your price they have the right to go elsewhere. My priorities are not my customers finances, i 'm responsible for the welfare of my wife & kids as such i see my need to earn a reasonable income greater than the wrinklies desire to get a top notch job at dirt bottom price
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Weve got an "Edna".we only clean her windows as and when she rings us.I (Mrs)went round to do the inside and out of her conservatory.She broke her hip a little while ago and was hobbling around.It took me 2 1/2 hours cause i ended up doing all sorts of odd jobs for her all for £20!!
Bless the Ednas of this world!
You would miss them if they werent here!!
Mrs Scrim Shady
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most of us have mothers, how would you like it if some1 came on charged your mother 10 quid for 5 mins work ::) ::)
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The odd old dear that we do we do for free,normally only do it once every 3mths.
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most of us have mothers, how would you like it if some1 came on charged your mother 10 quid for 5 mins work ::) ::)
are all your jobs under a tenner then ?
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For gods sake dont say that NWH or Gordons wil have you strung up in the gallows.
Wayne
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what is it with people called gordon
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I blame Jilted John ;D
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most of us have mothers, how would you like it if some1 came on charged your mother 10 quid for 5 mins work ::) ::)
are all your jobs under a tenner then ?
NO, i have plenty of jobs over a tenner, but they also take more than 5 mins
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ha ha pitskunkey...... jilted john you are showing your age.
sorry if you think i charge too much and your right you should be able to charge cheap prices after all its only fair to charge for the level of service offered and after having spent a very boring weekend in Bolton and Bradford recently i understand why !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
its not the name gordon its the fact of being one of the chosen ones
cheers
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Hey Matt your right, some of us do have mothers and guess what?
You are supposed to do her windows yourself and for free !!!!!!!!!!
And you call me tight
As for the name Gordon at least it doesnt rhyme with Fatt
sorry that was uncalled for i meant it tongue in cheek
i actually meant PRATT
HA HA HA thats the sound of me laughing all the way to the bank
cheers
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hang on, ive just checked
we are not in the school yard
phew, i thought i had stepped back 20 years then
lets leave the name calling to the kids in school eh
i only asked are the same gordons that posted un the the name "gordens" on here a week ago, no need to get touchy about your name
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Glad you found it funny Gordon.
As for showing my age it’s in my profile where you found my location and other details I don’t have anything to hide.
Can’t remember saying that I think you charge too much, perhaps you could remind me.
My prices are my business and like I mentioned on my first post my min is £10 (with the exception of Edna)
This topic was purely about letting people share their stories about how they deal with different types of customers. You’ve voiced your opinion and although I can’t understand your feelings I respect your right to express them.
Judging by your response to Matt and the light hearted banter, perhaps the only description in your current profile that does represent you is that you are a Junior member.
As for spending a long boring weekend in Bolton next time you visit I’d suggest you go somewhere more interesting than Shiffnall St
Regards
pitskunkey
Sorry thats Pittmonkey
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ha ha pitskunkey...... jilted john you are showing your age.
sorry if you think i charge too much and your right you should be able to charge cheap prices after all its only fair to charge for the level of service offered and after having spent a very boring weekend in Bolton and Bradford recently i understand why !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
its not the name gordon its the fact of being one of the chosen ones
cheers
Well I suppose it depends who chose you and why.
:)