Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: twt on July 24, 2007, 04:53:22 pm
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just taken over cleaning a car showroom today. last cleaners did't do sills on upstairs window or frames on downstairs windows and left muddy footprints inside. speaking to owner and he said last took half an hour (2 or 3 men) and it took me about 1hour 40 plus about 30 mins to clean a porch roof that they didn't. now my point is this was i being too picky should i have cleaned to the standard that the others did cos ive got a feeling hes gonna be shocked when he gets the bill (he told me to do windows then bill him he didn't seem bothered about a quote). what are your experiences with this type of work?
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I would of given him a price before I did any work. If he thinks your to expensive he could tell you hes not paying
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I would NEVER do that again,i did a job for a bloke that saw me cleaning the doctors surgery one afternoon a couple of years back.I pulled up at his house and i said i`ll give you a price but he insisted that i just do them and not give him a quote,he said they havn`t been done for years so just do them.During cleaning them he then went on to tell me that he had a cleaning company ie WC office cleaning ect,after doing the job and having to scrape every window to some extent i said to him ok all done that`ll be £60 please he said that can`t be right i only pay my blokes £7 an hour you`ll have to re think i`m not paying that,believe me he paid me in full but the thing is i think some people no matter how nice they may seem know there going to try it on from the off,if i`d have caved in and said ok i`ll take £30 then he would have got what he set out to acheive.Any quotes i do now i put in writing on big jobs and get someone to sign it,preferably the one who`s paying the bill.
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I know it was a stupid thing to do i only did it because i know him because we are both retained firefighters. thats a good idea about getting people to sign the quote.
are commercial customers less picky in general about the standard of work because it seems like the last lot were glass cleaners not window cleaners.
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I do a commercial job every month of offices and the finance dept are the ones that keep an eye on you,you can tell.
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I'd say the biggest problem with the old wcs is leaving muddy footprints in the show room. I've seen commercial cleaners get away with really bad work, smears every where, but leave muddy footprints behind and your for the chop. Quote wise you can't be too different to the other chaps surely. 3 men at 30mins isn't that much different to 1hr 40mins.
Simon.
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"that can`t be right i only pay my blokes £7 an hour" I don't know any cleaning companies that pay £7 to their sub contract lads.
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sherwood thanks for the reassurance just what i needed
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I will never do that again either, I cleaned a filthy house, really filthy with loads of pvc uder the windows, it was only a bungalow but it took me 2 hours with a pressure washer, the man wasn't interested in the price!! then after I told him it would be 70 quid and he told me he couldnt afford that, we agreed on 50 quid and he did say that I deserved the full amount but just couldnt afford it, ive given up pressure washing now, too dirty, too wet, too hard! I only did it to get money in while I was building my round, I now charge 120 pound for a caravan clean, guess what, nobody has called up!! I just don't want to do it for less than that because they take hours, Luke
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never do a job without a price first as they might not pay you and tell you they never asked you to do them nothink you can do if this happens exept re mucky them