Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Big Dave @ CWC on October 18, 2008, 12:14:15 am
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i have a well established round, im able to go out an earn £200 a day 5 days a week,
i have had a couple of jobs from alastair stewart ltd letting agent near where im based the last 6 months or so, now i dont need the work but even though they are one offs just b4 tyhey are letted out i do them. a few days ago i had a call from them to ask if i would do a clean for them, it was a builders clean, new builds, 2 houses. would very appreciate if i could do thenm
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i have a well established round, im able to go out an earn £200 a day 5 days a week,
Impossible ;D :o :o :o
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post not complete............
i said yes, turned up started, it then realised it was going to take all day to do just one house, so tried ring their head office but no-one answered, 3pm finally got through, told them as i have postponed a days work to do this i would be charging £200 just to do one house as it was so bad, they refused to pay,
what can i do to make them pay. i feel badly ripped off.......
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this place was georgian windows with cement, stickers, dust the lot, it was seriously bad
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What was the original agreed price?
Dean.
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there was none, thats the thing its the way it was with us, i do it then invoice them and theyd pay up no questions asked.
only this one was a much bigger job then usual, i can see where they are coming from, i mean, people are still funny about the fact window cleaners can earn so much a day, more than most plumbers for example. but the fact is, i could have earned £200 by just doing my regulars, so y shouldnt i charge the same for a days work. even if it was only one detached house, i was flat out without a break from 8.30am - 4pm......
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there was none, thats the thing its the way it was with us, i do it then invoice them and theyd pay up no questions asked.
only this one was a much bigger job then usual, i can see where they are coming from, i mean, people are still funny about the fact window cleaners can earn so much a day, more than most plumbers for example. but the fact is, i could have earned £200 by just doing my regulars, so y shouldnt i charge the same for a days work. even if it was only one detached house, i was flat out without a break from 8.30am - 4pm......
just whack in your invoive mate saying £30 x 7/8 hours whatever, and give them 28 days, then start sending collection letters, they have to pay you its their fault they didnt agree a price, what do you normally charge them an hour??
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7 1/2 hrs @ £25.00/hr is £190.00
Perhaps PJ can help you out with a suggestion www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=63435.0
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Paint,tar and eggs come to mind!
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It was a builders clean for 2 properties, in hindsight, sounds cheap to me.
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The price sounds about right to me, if £200 was too much, did they give you any indication of what they expected to pay?
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Take it as a lesson learnt and next time ???? give them a price first and then do the cleaning.
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Ok - put in a bill for £160 with a note explaining how it was so bad etc and why but that due to not having an agreed price you will meet them half way. See what happens and learn for next time.
You've shown reasonableness in an awkward situation and that may elicit a fair response.
If nothing is forthcoming then ask them what they feel is fair for a self employed tradesman doing a full days work (11 hours wasn't it with all the cr*p? ;D) - Take what they offer and don't deal with them again unless the price is agreed beforehand.
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they still need the other house doing, so i would tell other wc in the area to be wary of this firm as they owe you money, that will make it difficult for them to find a good wc....
i would still send them an invoice, and maybe put a discount of 20% if they pay within days
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thanks guys for your response it dont feel so bad now you guys pretty much back me up. but if they dont pay there aint much i can do about it., to take court action would cost me at least £200 so cant go that route, magistrate would proberbly throw it out anyway. a good lesson learned there, did realised the cost after 20mins there, text me mum to ring them and check they are happy with price, but she was at workand didnty get message,so icouldntdo it myself, thats y me mum is playing secretary for me. just one of those things. if they dont pay, ill simply never work for them again. shame,they were nice people, but fair play to them, i couldnt see myself paying one window cleaner £200 for one house if i wasnt aware of what they could earn in a day. its easy to feel ripped off isnt it, plumbers only earn maximum £150 per day n they are qaulified......
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as of last week i will no longer do a builders clean done one thurs took 2 hours as soon as i got there all of
south africa wanted to be where i was finne and what happens someone starts a stihll saw
gets home messages saying windows dirty do again not going back point is they moan they cannot get a cleaner then treat us with contempt :'(l
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always agree a price first, you shouldve rang them when you got there to discuss the price
i did this once predicted a price for them, when i got there it was way over what i had estimated so rang them, they were shocked at the price but agreed otherwise i wouldve left it
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I got caught like this. Turned up at short notice, took three hours inside and out plus plaster and paint flecked frames and windows working room by room one step ahead of decorator. £80 charged was promised there and then payment but the woman cleared off and said the builder would pay me that night.
I thought i'd done a brilliant job and was able to check from the inside. My hot system really paid off that day(I thought).
When no payment arrived I queried it to be told I hadn't done it right, it wasn't clean, and I missed half of it. When she cleared off it had set alarm bells ringing and I took some before and after pics which at least gave me the confidence that i wasn't imagining that it was mingeing when i started and clean when I finished.
I had to go back and have a furious row, and then do a bit of redoing . I was really angry because I had done this as a favour after I was begged, but it ended costing me money.
She got what she wanted, which was decorating before carpets went down the following day, but this was the point i was no longer needed and could be treated like scum.
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the problem is that if we have a good established round,we can earn a lot of money in a short amount of time, all be it from xx amount of customers , and so to caarge someone ie (builders clean) the same amount for a days work seems to them a lot of money for so little hours.....
developers dont like spending money ....and so i never take this type of work on, i just dont see the need to as i have a full round.
however if i had a few boys working for me i would send them to do this type of work as it would cover their wages and a little more.
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thanks guys for your response it dont feel so bad now you guys pretty much back me up. but if they dont pay there aint much i can do about it., to take court action would cost me at least £200 so cant go that route, magistrate would proberbly throw it out anyway. a good lesson learned there, did realised the cost after 20mins there, text me mum to ring them and check they are happy with price, but she was at workand didnty get message,so icouldntdo it myself, thats y me mum is playing secretary for me. just one of those things. if they dont pay, ill simply never work for them again. shame,they were nice people, but fair play to them, i couldnt see myself paying one window cleaner £200 for one house if i wasnt aware of what they could earn in a day. its easy to feel ripped off isnt it, plumbers only earn maximum £150 per day n they are qaulified......
Dont know where you are, but plumbers earn that in about 4 hours where i am , unles they told you that because they thought you were taxman :)
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Golden rule:
ALWAYS agree terms before starting, and you can only do that if you go to see the job first.
Silver rule:
Why bother with these jobs, which as we all know are unpredictable and usually twice as hard as our regular work? Concentrate on building a full round of good work, and leave these 'hassle' jobs to someone else.