Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: gewindows on February 25, 2010, 11:15:02 am
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To a price that is 38% of what I was charging :o :o
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Sorry to hear that -
i hate it when that happens weve had some contracts go national and its always hit and miss weather you can be bothered to do 2 0r more sites to get what you got in the first place .
What was it - high st or just a big site?
Cheers
Danny
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Big site mate.
Its less than it was when we first picked it up 12 years ago.
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Matt,
Do you know who you lost it to?
There seem to be more and more window cleaning vans around Basingstoke, Farnham, Fleet etc recemtly!
Andy
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Bad news mate :-\, i lost my biggest commercial job (at the time)about 7 years ago it was split over 2 sites and it was weekly cleans so lost £130 a week :'( it mentaly never leaves you but you must soldier on Matt it`s hard at first to replace lost work but the gap WILL fill ;)
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i lost over 10 K of work last year, with cutbacks on freq of cleans
its just a cost thing, i lost a commercial job just before christmas aswell ( not included in the above 10 K ), it was a few hundred a month ( depending on what was done ) they explained it wasnt because the standard of my work, it was because the residents want to do it themselves ( i was cleaning for a management company )
whilst commercial stuff if nice, i am coming around to the way of thinking its not that good, i like the idea of many many many eggs in 1 basket, thus domestic houses tick that box for me
i have been asked to price up a OAP home i used to do, the new warden knows my wife, its amazing what the budget it, i know what i used to do it for and it was allmost a 10th of the budget they have set aside, so once again, they have the money of the OAP's but they are not spending it , again the job will be won on the cheapest price
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Matt,
Do you know who you lost it to?
There seem to be more and more window cleaning vans around Basingstoke, Farnham, Fleet etc recemtly!
Andy
Andy I got a call from the manager, and she did tell me who, a crowd from out of town, Andover. So it includes a 20 mile round trip too for pennies. Literally pennies.
I was thinking about it just now, if I was asked to price it now, to gain the work and be happy with the price it would be approaching twice what this other crowd have quoted.
Thanks guys for the encouragement, it could be worse, tomorrow is the anniversary of my Mums death, it keeps this in perspective.
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Matt, a few years ago i spent ages, and i mean ages pricing a load of work for the council, there were sites all over the place.
I priced very keen as i wanted this work, imagine the shock when i discovered the winning tender was a tenth of my price.
The guy must have literally been working for pennies, if indeed he was even doing the jobs at all.
Take heart in the fact that these monkeys will be working like hell for very little reward...... that will make it a bit easier to live with.
I do know how you feel and it really spoils your day.
Onwards and upwards my friend, there's plenty more work out there.
Dennis
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Matt, a few years ago i spent ages, and i mean ages pricing a load of work for the council, there were sites all over the place.
I priced very keen as i wanted this work, imagine the shock when i discovered the winning tender was a tenth of my price.
The guy must have literally been working for pennies, if indeed he was even doing the jobs at all.
Take heart in the fact that these monkeys will be working like hell for very little reward...... that will make it a bit easier to live with.
I do know how you feel and it really spoils your day.
Onwards and upwards my friend, there's plenty more work out there.
Dennis
i have highlighted the bold bit, thats the issue you will find with the lower end of the price scale, they will arrive, give it a quick bish bash bosh and be away, they will most prob earn the same as the people who do a good job but take longer to do it
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Commercial stuff is like that though isn't it; very competetive and it hurts more when you lose a job 'cause it's usually more money. At least when you lose a house it's only a few quid and you can replace it with their neighbour.
Just pick yourself up, brush yourself off and start all over again .... as they say ;D
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Matt i work in Andover and i think i know who they are. If its the mob i think it is, they are very very cheap. I have to be careful as the owner posts on here. I have gone for some jobs that they have gone for(out of Andover) and can't get anywhere near them.
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Will be spring soon Matt so more work will roll in. Not a great consolation i know because losing work does have a psycological affect worse than days off because of bad weather.
As you said,putting it in perspective then its only one job.
Keep smiling mate :)
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yep, keep smiling. you had 12 good years from that job , time to move on and raise your game in some way
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Maybe they just work on a " low profit / high turnover " basis. It obviously suits them; even more so the customer. It just makes it hard to compete with them I guess. Personally I'm glad they're up with you and not down here in Plymouth ;D
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:( GUTTED 4YA MATT :( PEOPLE LIKE THAT NEED SHOOTING >:(
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hi matt
sorry to hear that ::)
i will think of you next week when i will be in the red sea, on all inc ;D ;D
i find that when one door closes , a better one opens
all the best
mike
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ps
was,nt this guy was it ;)
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h175/bob5373/IMG00013-20100225-1008.jpg
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No,thats Matt but his hair piece blew off ;D
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Matt i work in Andover and i think i know who they are. If its the mob i think it is, they are very very cheap. I have to be careful as the owner posts on here. I have gone for some jobs that they have gone for(out of Andover) and can't get anywhere near them.
Yes he does post on here. Therefore I think we know who tis.
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hi matt
sorry to hear that ::)
i will think of you next week when i will be in the red sea, on all inc ;D ;D
i find that when one door closes , a better one opens
all the best
mike
Oi ya sod, where you staying?
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sorry to hear that matt, i haven't got much commercial.
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Matt i work in Andover and i think i know who they are. If its the mob i think it is, they are very very cheap. I have to be careful as the owner posts on here. I have gone for some jobs that they have gone for(out of Andover) and can't get anywhere near them.
Yes he does post on here. Therefore I think we know who tis.
Spill, who is it? :o
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No.
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Matt i work in Andover and i think i know who they are. If its the mob i think it is, they are very very cheap. I have to be careful as the owner posts on here. I have gone for some jobs that they have gone for(out of Andover) and can't get anywhere near them.
Yes he does post on here. Therefore I think we know who tis.
I wonder if he/they are reading this thread and will be man enough to come on and explain why they are undercutting to that extent. ???
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Probably too embaressed knowing that they could have doubled their quote and still got the job
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hi matt
sorry to hear that ::)
i will think of you next week when i will be in the red sea, on all inc ;D ;D
i find that when one door closes , a better one opens
all the best
mike
Oi ya sod, where you staying?
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
http://www.amwajhotelsint.com/Default.aspx
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Looks nice, they have f*g**t conventions there so I believe ;D
Hurghada is WINDY!!! Blowing all the time there.
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i think you find its in sharm matt ::) ;D ;D
f*g**ts my favourite with gravy ;D
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Your experience matches mine last year, one of my big commercial jobs cut the budget by nearly £700 a month, all you can do is carry on, you will pick up more work.
Had a block of flats I did for £112 monthly. New guy £65 every 6 weeks.
I too have decided to pick up some more residential, as a friend of mine said it spreads the risk a bit.
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One of the down sides of open forums like these is that too many people can pick up on too much inside information, whether it be newbies or others who go fishing and pinching off others in the same area.
I'm surprised with this particular job that someone would go so far outside their own area for work. I'm even more surprised that this lot can run so cheap with all the overheads.
Thing to remember and I've warned about this for years and years on here, is that there is no loyalty with commercials. Like I said to Matt on the phone I lost a £8 and a £6 commercial to someone when one of the businesses concerned must be turning over millions because they have large offices in Denmark, Germany and Australia. £6 I was gobsmacked over that.
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i think you find its in sharm matt ::) ;D ;D
f*g**ts my favourite with gravy ;D
Sharms even windier ;D
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We know who it is.......Its business leave it at that. It's up to them what they charge we have all lost work whether its commercial or Domestic. Commercial is cut throat i never bank on keeping it for long.
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i think you find its in sharm matt ::) ;D ;D
f*g**ts my favourite with gravy ;D
Sharms even windier ;D
its going to get a lot windier when ive had my all inc ;) ;D
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One of the down sides of open forums like these is that too many people can pick up on too much inside information, whether it be newbies or others who go fishing and pinching off others in the same area.
I'm surprised with this particular job that someone would go so far outside their own area for work. I'm even more surprised that this lot can run so cheap with all the overheads.
Thing to remember and I've warned about this for years and years on here, is that there is no loyalty with commercials. Like I said to Matt on the phone I lost a £8 and a £6 commercial to someone when one of the businesses concerned must be turning over millions because they have large offices in Denmark, Germany and Australia. £6 I was gobsmacked over that.
Is this one of the reasons you sold up?
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He will be spiting spiders once they finds out there quote was so low ,then the neglect will set in and a quality will go out the window and he will want more for half job.Time for a comeback Matt be ready mate.Good luck.
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;D ;D ;D
How d'you go with that place in town?
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Matt i work in Andover and i think i know who they are. If its the mob i think it is, they are very very cheap. I have to be careful as the owner posts on here. I have gone for some jobs that they have gone for(out of Andover) and can't get anywhere near them.
who is it come on let us know. ;)
Yes he does post on here. Therefore I think we know who tis.
I wonder if he/they are reading this thread and will be man enough to come on and explain why they are undercutting to that extent. ???
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Is this one of the reasons you sold up?
A few reasons really.
(1) We are trying to move so servicing window cleaning 80 miles away was a non starter. (2) I was starting to ache too much after a day of doing it (3) Bored with doing the same exact thing day in day out (3) Wanted to go back to what I enjoy most - carpet/upholstery cleaning (4) Fed up with lack of loyalty from customers who are great to your face but happy to get some cheap and dangerous monkey to do a trash job for half the price.
With hindsight and for those of you who enjoy the job keep doing it because you have regular work and income coming in, month after month. You're lucky to see the same carpet cleaning customer twice in 18 months.
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matt you will bounce back like you always do mate had a spate of that xmas so i ido domestics only now mate just easier in the long run
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theres loyalty for ya mate 8)
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No loyalty in this game is there :o
Thanks for your encouragement.
I do love you guys ;D
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had been doin bupa carehomes for 20 yrs they got a national cleaning company doin cheaper got kicked out loyalty out of the window mate i was livid but life still goes on mate
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If you do it on your own your looking to make a good earner out of it,if you employ 2-3 blokes all your looking for is turnover or break even.As long as there making the guys wages and a small profit for overheads they will be happy,this is the way commercial is getting,i have had national firms trying to muscle in on me over the last couple of years but the managers keep them away,that`s the key to keep in with those concerned ie the odd bottle of wine at xmas.
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you are wrong in thinking that been doin that for years bottle of wine or gratuaties mean nowt to them its the cheap quote that does the business to them mate
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here here workd for a company in the wirral
who cleaned the majority ov tescos for carlisle cleaning
if it werent tescos squeezing every penny outa the jobs
it was the contract cleaning company
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To a price that is 38% of what I was charging :o :o
stop whinging Matt for gods sake.... ;D ;D ;D
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;D ;D ;D ;D
I started the thread actually thinking it might go down the 'recession has reached the south' angle. In hindsight, from 2 conversations Ive had, one on the phone and one via e-mail Ive come to a slightly different conclusion.
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what conclusion have you come to the matt
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Maybe you should not make jokes about God :-X
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beware if you have pictures on your web site showing building you clean,cause there bar stewards out there that will target your work,
dont tell other cleaner what your jobs are,cause you never know.
matt do you think that they knew it was one of your jobs.and set out to target it
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beware if you have pictures on your web site showing building you clean,cause there bar stewards out there that will target your work,
dont tell other cleaner what your jobs are,cause you never know.
matt do you think that they knew it was one of your jobs.and set out to target it
FFS :o
I sympathise with Matt that he lost this job, but life goes on and i doubt that the loss will put Matt out of business. Why should it be a "personal" attack against Matt? Maybe ,just maybe the customer had to cut costs and asked someone else to quote
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FFS :o
I sympathise with Matt that he lost this job, but life goes on and i doubt that the loss will put Matt out of business. Why should it be a "personal" attack against Matt? Maybe ,just maybe the customer had to cut costs and asked someone else to quote
never met matt ave u helen :o ;D LOL
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Maybe you should not make jokes about God :-X
Jesus ::)
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Maybe you should not make jokes about God :-X
Jesus ::)
Oh for god sake!
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Maybe you should not make jokes about God :-X
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
You plonker. What a fruit-bat.
The God of fear huh? He's done a lot of damage in his time.
You know what, as Elite Mike said and I knew this as I was on the phone to the Manager, one door closes another one opens ;)
Maybe MY God has bigger and better plans for me. I do know one thing about him though, he has a better sense of humour than you!
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what conclusion have you come to the matt
Some people are more desperate to gain work or be busy fools running an empire of under-priced work.
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I've been pricing a large commercial job this week, I don't think I'll get it. I've worked out a price that I'll be happy to clean at (more than my domestic rate but less than some of the braggers) and if I don't get it I'll walk away happy knowing I'll never have to clean it for long hours wishing I had never quoted so low.
Before I quoted they wanted a monthly clean. Within two days this has changed to a quarterly clean. I think we will be parting company by the next email. ;)