[pristineclean]

Astonished at this one - I just quoted a daily cleaning job in an office where we clean the communal areas and told the potential client that we would be able to at least match and probably beat the existing company who spend an hour there a day. I sent her quote and, backed by invoices, received by return the amount that they are currently paying. It works out, and I'm not deviating by a single penny, at £4.34 per visit.

The company who were cleaning the communal areas previously had this contract so the fact that there was an hour being taken from time which should have been committed to other duties is fairly obvious - what perplexes me is that the client thought that to be the going rate and that the previous company applied such a ridiculously low charge for their service.

[absolutecleaning]

....and you wonder why some companies look at you funny when you quote a reasonable price when there are idiots out there like this

[martin19842]

hi there

it does amaze me that companies even go for that, you start to think about the morals of the comapny that have agreed to pay that amount for their cleaning, let alone the cleaning company supplying the service.

luckily for us, there are a lot of potential clients out there that will ask questions about the quote that they have received.

its when you point out to the client that infact their current supplier is either not providing a service or indeed are breaking the law bynot paying the minium wage, at that point they may start to ask a few questions of that cleaning company.

i have always said, and continue to, is that when you visit any potential client, it is not only about how you can provide a quality cleaning service to the client, but also abot how your company operates, both ethically, operationally and legally, ie insurance, paye employees, H and S etc etc.

regards

martin

[Griffus]

In a previous career I found out that the team of office cleaners supplied by a cleaning firm were being badly treated (financially) by their employers.

It wasn't within my remit to get directly involved and to a large extent I was bound by internal politics. I did however formally raise the issue and was assured action would be taken. I can't say either way as to whether the issue was resloved as I transferred to another depot at the same time.

The cleaners were on minimum wage but rarely paid more than £3.50 per hour.
They were often not paid at all for hours worked.
They were all foreign (Brazil, Africa, Jamaica) and most were here under the radar.
They were fearful of just about everything.

The company I worked for was and is one of the largest companies globally.
The cleaning firm must have fulfilled certain criteria to have been approved by central procurement (obviously no follow up).

This was as recent as 2006 and I couldn't believe that my company allowed such treatment of anyone working on our behalf. Still not sure whether they were blind or ignorant but either way the bottom line really was the bottom line!

Now that I am involved in the cleaning industry I often think back to this. This is why I will never get drawn into a cost war when invited to drop our quoted prices I decline by the action of not resubmitting.

How can a company that treats all employees equally and fairly, that employs everyone legally, that pays well above the NMW, compete with companies like that above on cost.

Simple, they can't!!!

The craziest thing of all is that there are so many corporate types out there who have a little bit of power, but unfortunately even less understanding. These may be the same people having authority to award contracts to us 'subbies' or not.

I had one senior individual at a very large company tell me that business wasn't about profit but revenue. Therefore charging £6 per hour was acceptable if it covered costs!  Now I know what he was getting at but I did wonder just how much he actually believed his own words.

Either way, this says it all about the mindset of some.

[pristineclean]

As a footnote to this post, I should state that I was awarded the contract anyway - as a gesture of goodwill, I've comped the initial deep clean.

[Big Al]

I hope it not less than the £4.34? 

[Julia Nowak]

OMG!