Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: stevegunn on October 15, 2003, 08:44:56 pm
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Just arrived in and looked in local paper new carpet cleaning company advertising one carpet £10,suite £20 and carpet & suite £25.Just had potential customer on the phone wanting qoute but guess what she said cowboy said he will do it for a tenner >:(After explaining cost of fuel,diesel,insurance,setting up time she still thinks this fella will do a good job.Do these people realise how many jobs this fella has to do to make a living >:( >:( >:(
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Hi Steve
I don't think these kind of people really care, they just think they are getting a bargain.
If he messes it up she will only have herself to blame and it will cost more to correct his mistake.
Guess who they'll call to correct it...
You probably
Regards
Martin 8)
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Don't worry about it,
they will do a crap job with crap equipment and be out of business within months.
Most people won't book them to clean anyway, only the tight fisted type....and who want's their business anyway? ::)
Understand the fumming though... >:(
Kind Rgds
Tony
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Calm down Steve and Tony ;).... just imagine the frustration when something goes wrong as it surely will...very soon.
The potential customer 'won't' come back to you...she will be far too embarrassed.
She will vent her feelings at the cheapy guy instead...if she can get hold of him that is... even if she does he is more than likely to be uninsured.
On that thought you should have a very good nights sleep.... your potential customer won't!
As 'our Ken' would say...Happy cleaning
Derek
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Don’t worry I’ve been there! One gets what you pay for; you want cheap you get cheap. She’s probably spends most of her day running round looking for the barging and for gets the time and effort she put into it as she has all day. She has probably had it for 20 years and paid a fiver for it and it’s never been cleaned. Walk a way from the type of customer.
Mind you I have phoned this type of company too wind them up, what machine, chemicals and stain removal etc the only response I get we are in you area for the next two weeks, book fast. One day I will take them up on the offer but only when I have the time.
Len
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A lady rung me up and said how much for my living room carpet, I says £35, she says it only cost me £25 last time, I says why dont you get him back, she says, because I wasnt pleased and the stains came back. I explained about low performance equipment etc and said if you pay £35 you will be pleased or you wont pay.
She was pleased and I got 185 quid from referals.
What more can I say ;D
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All too common I am afraid...
SCENARIO.
Guy rings me up in a panic, red wines spilt on carpet could I come out ASAP. I said yes, as I was passing the following day after my last job....no prices were discussed.
Arrived on site following day as arranged, looked at stain in middle if grubby carpet. I was very confident of removing the stain and suggested that I should clean the whole room 12 x 12 so that he wouldn't have a clean patch.
"How much will it cost"? says he....
"Fortyfive pounds." said I..
"My regular guy does the room for twenty pounds" says he...
"So why didn't you get him to come and remove the stain" says I...
"He couldn't get here until next week" says he...
"So, do you want me to do the job" says I...
"I will pay you twenty quid" says he...
"May I respectfully suggest you get your regular guy" says I....
"But aren't you going to do the job" says he....
"Not for twenty pounds" says I...
I reckon he thought that as I was already there I would do the job at the lower price
At this point I packed up my test kit and left
My fault... I should have talked money at the outset, I usually do, but I thought I was helping him out.... silly me
Derek
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;)
Seems we all have the same problem up here in fife i have 2 guys.
1st guy Suite carpet £ 40
suite 2 carpets £50
leater suite £45
L\rm carpet £18
2nd guy
suite £30
2 carpets £30
rugs £10
leather £40
And thats just in my town
We as good cleaners need a nationwide (more public than ncca) way of showing that quality counts at reasonable prices. NOT CHEAP AND QUICK ::)
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Steve,
next time a punter rings with same patter, just tell her to keep your number by the phone because she's going to need it once Mr Bex Bissell has finished with her carpet. ;D and when she does ring in a panic double your price because now you are going to have to put right what they have done.
Seriously, you neither want nor need this customer let the 'in your area brigade' work for her for nothing.In her mind she thinks she's struck a bargain and will feel good about that until, they arrive :'(
Let it go and move on.
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Hi Mr Cleaner from Scotland
Why so formal....we don't bite....honest. ;)
The NCCA are working on it.... There will be an annoucement in the November issue of their Magazine Newslink (Due out in the middle of the month) as one of their projects has now been finalised.
Other projects in the pipeline..... :-X
Regards
Derek ;D
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Just found this thread from 2003 .The same guy is still charging these ludicrous prices and everyone in paper seems to be following suit there is even one offering special June offer suite £15,carpet £10 and pvc cleaning 3 bedroom house £10.When will these people learn ???
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A lady rung me up and said how much for my living room carpet, I says £35,
£35 for a lounge your too cheap yourself
You must remember that SOME of these cheap priced cleaners ARE using good equipment and do do a good job. I know a chap who is very good at cleaning, he is always busy, flat out booked up always for 2.5 weeks in advance constantly - but his charges are cheap. Its only him and he's happy with what he earns. Nobody is going to stop this, not even the NCCA and all their merry men. You just gotta get on and live with it. Look after your own business and it will look after you.
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Mr Scot cleaner , it sounds like you live near Leven . The Gleamteam wouldn't be one of those companies would it.? No disrespect implied to anyone by the way.
Mike
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Hi ,
Had a woman ring today for a small two seater plus 4 small dining chairs.
I said about £75 , she said Axxxx do a whole suite for £50.
I said why was she wasting my time , this threw her and she couldn't really answer.
After about 15 secs I said , givw axxxx a call , she said O.K
If shes got someone to clean her suite to a level she is happy with for £50 , how much was she hoping to get it done for :o
Cheers
Doug
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I had one yesterday ring around for prices trying to beat £25 for a thru room in cream. I said "how much did the carpet cost?" oooo it was alot about £300 I said "book him" not really worth bothering with.
Shaun
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Hi
Had an X-tenent question my prices to the LA.
Cheeky git called me as a price shopper and asked how much I would charge for a 65m2 carpet...£xxx said I
Ok. thank you says she..
Next thing I know an email has gone off to the LA saying he said he would do it for £xxx price why was I charged £xxx.
Had to then explain to the LA that in fact his carpet was a lot bigger, was stained to high Heaven and that was a over the phone quote without seeing the carpet...
Grrr ::)
Regards
Martin 8)
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Had a guy today ring asking how much to clean a first floor 2 bedroom apartment. I dont normally give over the phone quotes but he wanted a rough idea so I said between £90 and £120.
He then said I had a couple of quotes that came in at £65. So I said why have you rung me because this is incredibley cheap and you are obviously looking for the cheapest job. He was waiting for me to drop my price and was very shocked that I wouldn't.
I then said if you want skoda use them if you want BMW use me. Started to get fed up as the call had gone on for 10 minutes and said keep my number by the phone because you will need it sooner than you would if you used me.
Why keep asking questions if you just want the cheapest. Internet customer again, always looking for the cheapest prices.
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To many people are buying machines with no training no experience and putting adds in local paper, our local rag is full off Alltec slogans.And clean out of the back of estate cars.
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Did a survey and quote yesterday for a very filthy cheap cream synthetic living room carpet that a dog had been sick on. Customer was shocked at my reasonable quote. Stating she had booked a cc in Huddersfield (15 miles away) last week. I said the one that quotes £20 a room..she said yes..she couldnt understand why they never turned up!!..mmmm let me think...1.5 to 2 hour round trip...diesel...time for job...knocking on 3 hours in total for a massive £20!!
She said she had spent an hour and a half clearing room..
Serves her right!
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the £10 guys are a joke how come they take 1/2hour to clean a 3 piece when it takes mean around 2 hours i have ads in every paper in south tyne side but the work is not comming in costs me over £70 in newcastle paper but customers want the jobs done for pennies
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Vanguard your not AKS are you??
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I've found much to my expense that advertising in the local paper doesnt work ! if you advert costs £75 you need to take at least £300 + to make it pay,
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There aways have been and always will be price shoppers, just rember that they are price sensitive and loyal only to that, so you will not get repeat business anytime from them.
They are the waste of time so get them off the line there might be someone who can apricate what you do waiting
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Do you think advertising:
Rooms from £15
Suites from £45
Takes the pxxs?
In working class areas this is by far the best way to get calls.
There are often small rooms we can put on the end of a job for £15 and I have done a 2 piece suite with wooden frame for £45 so im not telling tales either, however, usually my suite price is atleast £75 and rooms are lounge from £35 and bedroom typically £25. I just have to explain the reasoning when I get there.
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intresting & how do they take it out ! thats almost double what you advertised ! do people think you have wasted there time & your's ? i am not knocking what you do just intrested
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My opinion, this sort of advertising attracts the wrong sort of customers.
you will get more calls yes.
but you will also end up cleaning dirtier carpets, have more cancellations, have picky customers who expect the earth and are never happy and not get repeat business because there will allways be someone cheaper.
Also you end up with all those really awkward jobs were you get really trashed carpets, and there wafer thin foam backs that you know are gonna shrink or ripple if you go heavy handed on them and you also know if you dont there not gonna look any better ::)
wouldnt you rather clean nice quality carpets with low soiling in nice quality homes for people who apreciate what you do and are willing to pay you a reasonable price for your hard work, and are happy to come back to you time and time again?
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steve behave yourself " but i can clear your loft aks will do a full house for 60.00 joke of the week have seen his ads
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thats why i like it ! keep's the phone clear for my sort of custy ;)
i have found price resonable you work for resonable people & well able to get on with, price cheap & there out to have 1 over on you ! there well able to kick up a huge fuss over nothing just agro for peanuts is my veiw quite agree with you red !
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At the end of the day like all things you get what you pay for, it doesn't bother me if a customer thinks my prices are too much, I would say we are pretty middle of the road price wise. Our pricing breakdown means people with bigger houses pay more. This helps us I think, a person with a small one or two beds home most probably has cheap carpets that you can whip out quite quickly and still get great results. Someone with a five bedroom house will more likely have more costly carpets, these customers will have more cash and more appreciation of the time, skill and cost of cleaning thier carpet professionally. Nearly all our quotes are done over the phone and I explain that the price may rise or reduce slightly upon full inspection. That way I am covered either way. I have no outlay spending time on an initial visit just to get a price, so I am quids in straight away. To be honest I have never revised a price once I got to the job. I have only had one complaint from a rust mark from forgetting to put down a cover under a table with metal studs, twenty minutes after we received the call the mark was removed from the carpet and the customer has been back many times since. I dont do a square metre price and his method works for me, I work out the time it will take. I average 50p to £1.50 per minute per job from which I can work out I am definately making profit. If a customer questions my price rather than get shirty I explain to them what I have just told you, educate your customer rather than be offended that they have looked else where. Also, I would not use local papers, customer satisfaction is key for us and recommendation is free. We offer customers who recommend us to friends discounts on thier next clean, but we dont tell them that so we know they do because they want to and not so they save a tenner. Any numpty head with a green Numatic can put an ad in the paper or yellow pages, I find people dont trust the sources so much these days. So keep smiling carpet cleaner cos that will get you more work too, one of our customers uses us because her old carpet cleaner was a miserable sod. ;D