[Neil Williams]

After a long journey to Dorset and back (and probably picking up 6 points on my license due to not seeing the camera van soon enough) I came back to one of those leaflets in my postbox.
Ultra Fresh Cleaning Services will be in my area for the next two weeks and will due the following:
Lounge 12x12 £9
Complete House (3 beds) £37.50
3 Piece Suites £25

I'll give these rouges guys a call next week and book them in to do my 12x9 dining room, and if they'll travel 15 miles and do a decent job for £9 then I'm going to give up all the hard work and sub out everything to them.

[Fintan_Coll]

Looks like a bait and switch operation to me. Working cheaply is one thing but those prices are simply ridiculous.
12x12 lounge £9 for example, even after cleaning ten of them you still have'nt turned over £100.

[elliott cleaning]

Neil

You know as well as anyone else that when it comes to the crunch they won't do it for that price.

Why waste your time even concerning yourself with these people

[Neil Williams]

Why waste your time even concerning yourself with these people

Am I worried for myself...No
Am I worried for Joe Public...Umm yes because of the damage they can do for our profession.

I was serious when I said about getting them to do my dining room though.
Play stupid and lets see how long they take, what they do and how wet it's left. Worth the experiment just for a laugh at £9.

[cannon]

It would certainly be interesting! And i thought the latest one in my area was ludicrous... 25 pound hall, stairs, landing AND lounge!!!

[Joe H]

As you say Neil, might be worth £9 just to see how they go about it.
I doubt if £9 is the full story though, be interesting to hear how they go from £9 to their final price - will they lay their cards on the table before they start, or do they hit you when they finished.

Just my recent experience on pricing....
A job I did Friday morning, I quoted £125, he said couple others had quoted £85 followed by "I dont expect you to go down to £85 because I think you better then them". He wanted me to go down to a £100, we compromised at £115.

Later last Friday, I quote £75, I get told another quoted at £45, then he said "I guess you have something more to offer then them"..... so I explained what and I did the job at £75.

[from edge2edge]

Morning Joe hope all is well mate i am off to a job soon so will post quick.This is a crazy game we seem to be in at times and these chancers do our profession no favours and leave a bad taste in alot of customers mouths.Just keep plugging away with what you provide as a genuine honest service that gives value for money.I wouldnt be suprised if some of their customers call a real pro after getting ripped off by them.Regards Alan(swindon)

[Mr Dvae]

Don't dis them, these guys create the market for good carpet cleaners. At least they're out there promoting carpet cleaning. Every time these guys blanket our area our phones ring more.

Dave

[Steve Weatherley]

Sorry Dave I don't agree with you. When these guys advertised in a local advertiser which I also advertised in my calls stopped completely. My existing customers see through these adverts but those potential customers who have never had a carpet cleaned in recent years will call up the bait and switch guys because they are not aware of the difference in quality.
No doubt I will get a few jobs where the cheap guy has messed up but I certainly won't be getting the same level of calls from this particular ad anymore

[clinton]

Trouble is for someone that has never had there carpets cleaned they will get this figure in  there had that it should be 9 pound in some cases..

[Colin Day]

Trouble is for someone that has never had there carpets cleaned they will get this figure in  there had that it should be 9 pound in some cases..

Unless the £200 brigade get there first

[robert meldrum]

Those prices are actually a lot lower than the people who dominated newspaper advertising 25 years ago............many are still around so don't dismiss them off hand.

I deliberately set up two c/c businesses which allowed me to get higher priced work at the same time as maintaining volume.

It wasn't conning anyone as we used two different methods ...........one ( the more expensive ) marketed as a quick drying system the other.......same as everyone else but promised a better result.

I still get repeat business from both and suggest ( as I've mentioned before ) that you really WORK YOUR LIST not just for repeats but ASK for referrals.

[Richard Meads]

£9 for a 12x12 lounge! Think of it this way though, if you want to buy something  decent do you go to Primark or M&S?

If a custy wants to pay £9 they expect a 'Primark' job, but if they want a 'Marks & Spencer' job they will pay extra.

Charge a fair price for a business offering specialist cleaning and problem solving and you will get good customers, looking for a good job, and they will pass on your details to their friends who will also be looking for a good job from a trustworthy company.

Don't worry about targeting the market for cheap cheap cleaning, they are not your customers, your customers know that you get what you pay for, and they have decent carpets that they want them cleaned by a company who they trust to do a top job.

I'd love to know what happens if you do get them in to do your lounge!

[robert meldrum]

Interesting point about Primark...............I have 4 kids and the first two were all for the latest label ....the third was similarly inclined but along with her younger sister became a Primark convert.

What's particularly interesting is the number of their friends some from VERY wealthy families who also use Primark for most of their purchases.

[clinton]

True robert

Just go and have a look and its like a free for all with hundreds of women in the line up at the tills,they have baskets and baskets full of stuff and they can fill ther wardrobe on the cheap but also they get many dif outfits 

There again i wouldnt say it in front of em as id get lynched yaay

[Adam P]

Sorry Dave I don't agree with you. When these guys advertised in a local advertiser which I also advertised in my calls stopped completely. My existing customers see through these adverts but those potential customers who have never had a carpet cleaned in recent years will call up the bait and switch guys because they are not aware of the difference in quality.
No doubt I will get a few jobs where the cheap guy has messed up but I certainly won't be getting the same level of calls from this particular ad anymore

would you prefer them do a good job so steal any potential for you to get any customers? don't complain as they'll be carpet cleaning either way, at least you are better then them.

£9 cost is low risk, but if they ruin your carpet then what's the cost of that? more risk then. at £9 for a lounge do you think they'll have insurance?

[michael wadsworth]

"After a long journey to Dorset and back (and probably picking up 6 points on my license due to not seeing the camera van soon enough)"

Neil, if you receive your fine, which will come to you by first class post, do what I and other members of my family and friends have done to avoid either having to pay the fine or receiving points. Ring me on 01942 865212 and I'll tell you how. Mike

[Mike Halliday]

how about just telling us all

[Neil Williams]

£9 cost is low risk, but if they ruin your carpet then what's the cost of that? more risk then. at £9 for a lounge do you think they'll have insurance?

Well, we'll soon find out because i will call them tomorrow.
To be honest my dining room carpet is well past it's best so I want to see the results for £9

[colin thomas]

neil is right, what annoys me is that these guys give us all a bad name, they do a crap job and so the customer