[Danny Guest]

Im currently talking to trading standards about what can be enforced in the Uk regarding window cleaning licences.

The reason im arguing for them is that ive had a wc on one of my monthly rounds telling 3-4 of my customers i have taken off him that hes had a word with me and that im not cleaning their houses anymore. The truth is i havent heard from him and theres no way i would agree to give him back customers he had neglected. They dont want him back becuase now they know hes untrustworthy and a liar. He cleaned there houses 2 days before i came round to do the round so they have paid him and me this week.

Through talking to customers i have got a description and have informed the police, trading standards and HMRC just incase he isnt registered as self employed. A few people have told me he looks rough and he looks like an undesirable. I really cant wait to meet him.

With UK licencing like scotlands but on a more regional basis or even a premium for a full UK licence is the answer to clear the industry of illegal trading. I pay my tax, NI and business insurance and i am responsible for employees but anyone can get a ladder and give stupid prices to top up their wages or benifits and try to illegally take my business and nothing is ever done. They are unlikely to be insured bring down the prices in the area. There are a few window cleaners i know to be on the dole and i will be informing HMRC about them over the next few days.

This is something the window cleaning federations should be fighting for on our behalf but that is why i will never join one of them organisations because they never do anything for the good off the industry.

If a licence was enforced that would reduce the amount of illegal cleaners and leave more work for honest hard working tax paying businesses it has to be worth a fight. After all general street traders need a licence but why not window cleaners?

If there was a licence enforced on window cleaning in the UK would you pay it?

Best Regards
Daniel Guest

[mci services]

are you nuts a license doesn't stop that type of behaviour, just because someone has a license or indeed bothers to get one will not stop this behaviour

[JSMC]

i have 2 licences for different areas and to be hinest mate they ar enot worth the paper they are printed on. Police and others have no time to enforce people who dont have them. In 3 years i have been pulled up twice by police and each time my licence has been in my van. I told them it's in van and they took my word for it. Load sof guys up here without them. Doug from DA services has been working really har din licensing front and fair play to him but i reckon some days he must be banging his head against a brick wall. The licence doesn't make pricing better, t doesn't stop people from working who dont have them.

the idea is good but it aint working in my eyes.

Doug does some good work with councils all over and should be thanked for it.

[Danny Guest]

If the licence can be enforced and the police have the powers to check cleaners it could work.

One idea is to carry id cards around your neck with a picture, licence number and business information like registered address etc then if you do find a wc with no id report them.

The lad on my round is going to get a smack and im sending my canvasser around at the weekend to get as many new customers as we can. If the criteria was stricter that could work like taking into consideration criminal records etc before issuing a licence.

Danny

[JSMC]

If the licence can be enforced and the police have the powers to check cleaners it could work.

One idea is to carry id cards around your neck with a picture, licence number and business information like registered address etc then if you do find a wc with no id report them.

The lad on my round is going to get a smack and im sending my canvasser around at the weekend to get as many new customers as we can. If the criteria was stricter that could work like taking into consideration criminal records etc before issuing a licence.

Danny

the licence is just another tax in my eyes. you get card with number and picture on it and it dont make one bit of difference mate. One of the largest national companies who cleaned the scottish parliament a tone point were not licensed i wa sinformed so to be chasing a guy in the stree tis pointless.

as i said the idea is right but it aint working.

[andyM]

Sorry Danny I can't understand why you say you have informed the police?
Im sure they won't want to get involved from what you have said.
And on the other hand you have just said you are going to give the lad a smack!

[erithwc]

hi

it would never solve the problem of people working for cash in hand, plus please look at the news they are making lots of cuts in the police force, do you honestly think they will care about a window cleaner with no licence i think not, if there was a licence scheme for the whole uk it would just be another way for the goverment to screw us for more cash  

[Llaaww]

To be honest I am totally 100% against licencing.

For me window cleaning has been an easy way to make a living. It has been a way for semi literate blokes to turn an honest buck for as long as I can remember. The fact that it is loosly regulated has meant that good hard working dullards like me can get going, get earning and make a living with the least ammount of bureaucracy.

What we really don't need in this country is smart alec whingers and whiners who bleat about having a licence. All it will achieve is another hurdle that we all need to jump through every year if we want to stay in business.

All to often on here I have seen people bleating about having a licence in England. When it is boiled down all it really becomes is another handbag spat between two local windies, that eventually ends up with one of them whinging to trading standards. Every time this happens it is another nail in the coffin of a free trade market.

Do us all a favour and shut up about licencing in England.

[Johnny B]

I reckon the answer is to really take time to build up a really good relationship with your customers. This is one reason I won't abandon the practice of collecting door to door, and that I spend time talking with them. It keeps me in touch with my customers, and safeguards my business.

I have had similar experiences in the past, but because my customers knew me well enough, they saw through the other guy and sent him away with a flea in his ear.

John

[Danny Guest]

Sorry Danny I can't understand why you say you have informed the police?
Im sure they won't want to get involved from what you have said.
And on the other hand you have just said you are going to give the lad a smack!

Its fair justice!

The lad hasnt taken money from me as ive been paid but its my customers who are out of pocket and they are all elderly and one has a bad heart. I told them i would inform the police on their behalf but they only can say its a civil matter. There isnt really any proof to back up what im saying in even though he used deception i dont have a contract with any customer and they paid for work he had done so it down to me really to sort it out.

Danny

[Danny Guest]

From what ive been told off my customers is that they had the old window cleaner who retired and this lad has come round.

He cleaned the windows 2-3 times then didnt show up for 6 months in which time the customers have seen me and asked me to clean the windows. I do a much better job and clean all the frames once a month then hes turned up this week saying hes had a word with me and im sorry for cleaning his work and im not coming back. They are as angry as i am at being scammed.

Hes told one im homeless and sleeping on my mates sofa and another one that im sorry for cleaning his work.

Danny

[mci services]

Sorry Danny I can't understand why you say you have informed the police?
Im sure they won't want to get involved from what you have said.
And on the other hand you have just said you are going to give the lad a smack!

Its fair justice!

The lad hasnt taken money from me as ive been paid but its my customers who are out of pocket and they are all elderly and one has a bad heart. I told them i would inform the police on their behalf but they only can say its a civil matter. There isnt really any proof to back up what im saying in even though he used deception i dont have a contract with any customer and they paid for work he had done so it down to me really to sort it out.

Danny

so lets say you and this lad had a license and you smacked him, he reports you you lose your license and he gets all the customers, dead good aint it, even though he is cheating lying little runt

[Danny Guest]

Sorry Danny I can't understand why you say you have informed the police?
Im sure they won't want to get involved from what you have said.
And on the other hand you have just said you are going to give the lad a smack!

Its fair justice!

The lad hasnt taken money from me as ive been paid but its my customers who are out of pocket and they are all elderly and one has a bad heart. I told them i would inform the police on their behalf but they only can say its a civil matter. There isnt really any proof to back up what im saying in even though he used deception i dont have a contract with any customer and they paid for work he had done so it down to me really to sort it out.

Danny

so lets say you and this lad had a license and you smacked him, he reports you you lose your license and gets all the customers, dead good aint it, even though he is cheating lying little runt

I would get someone else to smack him plus hes a scouser so i could probably get it done for free  

[cozy]

Licence, ID cards, police checks? You are having a laugh right? UK with all that? Half the cars on the road aren't insured, more than 2 drivers in every hundred have only a provisional licence and now the police will go around with 28000 less cops and check the local window polisher.

You couldn't make it up! 

[Danny Guest]

To be honest I am totally 100% against licencing.

For me window cleaning has been an easy way to make a living. It has been a way for semi literate blokes to turn an honest buck for as long as I can remember. The fact that it is loosly regulated has meant that good hard working dullards like me can get going, get earning and make a living with the least ammount of bureaucracy.

What we really don't need in this country is smart alec whingers and whiners who bleat about having a licence. All it will achieve is another hurdle that we all need to jump through every year if we want to stay in business.

All to often on here I have seen people bleating about having a licence in England. When it is boiled down all it really becomes is another handbag spat between two local windies, that eventually ends up with one of them whinging to trading standards. Every time this happens it is another nail in the coffin of a free trade market.

Do us all a favour and shut up about licencing in England.

So what your saying is that you prefare to pay out tax and NI for someone to come along and undercut you and not pay tax and NI and thats fine.

As for bureaucracy why do you bother paying tax if its that bad? Why dont you just claim benifits and do wc on the side? Some people work illegally but some prefare to earn an honest wage. Its your opinion but many like you will just ignore all the crap around them for a quiet life because they are too weak to stand up for things.

Danny

[mci services]

danny it does not stop undercutting whatsoever trust me. from a Scottish licensed window cleaner

[steve rix]

If a custy says to me some one has offered to do their windows for less money I just say fine, but when they rip you off or stop coming call me back. No one can say we have gone out of business because our sign written vans are all over the areas we cover

[George P]

hi

it would never solve the problem of people working for cash in hand, plus please look at the news they are making lots of cuts in the police force, do you honestly think they will care about a window cleaner with no licence i think not, if there was a licence scheme for the whole uk it would just be another way for the goverment to screw us for more cash

i agree with this post, and lots of others, it just wont make any differance eccept to our pockets and time in sorting the licence year in year out

[jim2011]

prat, dont need a licence wont work.police do jack crap aswell so its a waste of time telling them. :

[AC Window Cleaning]

The only way to solve this is speak to him without violence and ask what the crack is with taking your customers.
And the customers will end up cancelling you both in the end,believe me ive seen this type of stuff happen before.
Police wont give a shyte as its a civil matter,no criminal act has been commited so your ping in the wind in regards to that im afraid,and if you launch him it would be sods law he'd report you for assault an/or a customer would see it and think im not having that roughneck do mine.....