[benny d]

I had a similar one last week.
I mainly do quotes over the phone and the footage worked out at 1700 feet.
I quoted £ 410-00, and explained my whole cleaning system as I always do.

Now, because I had the post code and the name of the house I had put it into Google, and found it had just sold for £875,000-00. Grade 2 listed, stables, yada yada.

I spoke to the man who said it was too much and they had decided to use a Rug Doctor. I told him GOOD LUCK sunshine, and good luck to your back, and good luck to your underlay!

He said he might call back in future, but I said dont bother as you would probably have ruined the carpets anyway.
Twazzer! 

[brianbarber]

Quoted Monday, lounge diner,hallway,stairs small landing. Stain guard lounge diner only.
£155.00

Lady said ....oh, last year the guy charged me £80. and he stain guarded the HSL as well....

I said sorry, can't compete with that.

Really wanted to say Where the Feck is the guy now then?

Oh well, move along the bus!

Mr B

[james roffey]

how long would it of taken you jim?

I would not have booked anything else for that day, one of the things i love about running my own business is you have choices. if i dont want the job i dont do it, or if i do it it has to be worth the hassle.

I am busy at the moment, well up on my first year so i was not that worried. the way he was though i would probably turned it down at the price he wanted last year too, a few times last year i held my nerve on a few quotes and got the work, but as has been said if a job looks easy ie clear of furniture i do discount, but not in that case with this chancer !

[JandS]

180sq m so a good days work and you
want over £600.
Why didn't you quote a reasonable price
and get the job.
Even rich people want value for money.

John

[M.Acorn]

Was waiting for the cut price mob to comment,I am glad I am not the only person who charges a decent rate !!

[Darren O]

To true Mark i wish i could get £700 a day

[garybristow]

I charge the same price wether i use my truckmount or my portable
the cleaner did not charge less because he has a tm.
The aggro factor is the same,chemical use the same and time spent spotting is the same
the punters lying to get your price down
stick to your level and dont change ,cream comes to the top
GaryBristowclean

[JandS]

Cut price mob lol.
I'd have done it for half that and been happy with £300
for a days work and I suspect the majority on here would
although most won't admit it.
Don't get me wrong if you can get it go for it but I won't
turn down work through greed.
Skilled tradesmen don't earn that.

John

[Phillip Mold]

I'd have charged around £600-£650, and be prepared to spend two days doing it! 

[M.Acorn]

If I can do it anyone can really.
There are people out there that buy Saisho there are also people out there that buy Nakamichi ,same with supermarkets,some go to Aldi,others go to Fortnum and Mason Just have to find your niche

[derek west]

the price debates on CIU really do make me chuckle

maybe the guy that quoted £140 is on another forum we don't know about and has just started a thread called "crazy prices"

ya never know

[james roffey]

I did explain to that customer that it may take more than a day, and for the reasons already stated i was not prepared to drop it to a price he would have accepted, i realised that when he reacted the way he did, i did offer to do it at £500 but no lower and i was not at all upset i did not get it, did one today £150 for  lounge,bedroom hall stairs absolute doddle lower hourly rate but thats fine.
Everything about that quote was a pain in the .rse and when he started questioning me about my overheads and the price he felt he should pay any goodwill had evaporated, i rarely cherry pick work but the days that i do something i dont want to ended with my last job.

[Carpet Dawg]

Cut price mob lol.
I'd have done it for half that and been happy with £300
for a days work and I suspect the majority on here would
although most won't admit it.
Don't get me wrong if you can get it go for it but I won't
turn down work through greed.
Skilled tradesmen don't earn that.

John

No offence John but LOL

Are you in business to make money, build a business and grow or just get by? Might aswell just get a job at ASDA in that case, alot less stressful and less things to go wrong when staking shevles.

p.s. if a customer started questioning my profit margins in that way i'd walk.

Tony

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

p.s. if a customer started questioning my profit margins in that way i'd walk.

THere are quite a few customers I can joke about this with. For example I have a solicitor client and I regularly suggest he should give it all up and become a cc as it is far more profitable.

Other clients I can use it to be quite cruel and rub their noses in it should I want to.

But of course the profit margin is only one half of the story. If you only do one job a week then it's pretty meaningless. But if you can achieve that margin on 4 jobs a day, day in day out-then yes you are going to be making serious money.

As has often been said before though-it's not the cleaning that makes the money-its getting the phone to ring AND successfully booking the work in.

Rog

[Simon Gerrard]

The trick with pricing is to pitch them so you get more people that say Yes' than say' No.'  If you can achieve that you will always have money in your pocket.
As far as this job is concerned we'd be looking to get it done in around 4 hours with a 2 man team and powerful TM and the price would be a lot less than the figures mentioned, some of which I think is just trumpet blowing, because in the real world we are all under price pressure with customers in all sectors looking for deals and watching the pennys. The reality is this is a good job that anyone would want in their diary provided the price is right.

Simon

[cozy]

The trick with pricing is to pitch them so you get more people that say Yes' than say' No.'  If you can achieve that you will always have money in your pocket.
As far as this job is concerned we'd be looking to get it done in around 4 hours with a 2 man team and powerful TM and the price would be a lot less than the figures mentioned, some of which I think is just trumpet blowing, because in the real world we are all under price pressure with customers in all sectors looking for deals and watching the pennys. The reality is this is a good job that anyone would want in their diary provided the price is right.

Simon

So if you have a powerful TM, you can work cheaper? Or have I misunderstood that?

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

It's worth bearing in mind regional variations, I have found Essex prices are among the higher end, obviously Central London is going to be the highest

Cheers

Doug

[Simon Gerrard]

Cozy,
No, you haven't misunderstood it. One of the great advantages of the TM is that it can complete bigger jobs very much faster than with conventional equipment and still produce fantastic results. This gives you a lot of latitude as far as prices are concerned as most TM's are earning well over £100 ph and as they don't have to stop to refill or empty can complete a job like this and go on to do another  like it all in the same day.
Simon

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

TM's really come into their own on larger properties/commercial, less so on one room and upholstery.

It's much easier too but sometimes I do feel like being on a runaway train, it's much harder to stop and have a chat.

Cheers

Doug

[cozy]

OK, never really looked at the TM set ups. Surely though, if a punter is prepared to pay for example 200 quid to have a couple of rooms cleaned, what difference does it make to them if you do it with a TM or a porty? They still get the job done and the punter pays 200 quid. Why should the punter get any advantage for the TM operator investing more in their business?

What I'm really asking is, why a difference in price because of equipment used? The job's worth 200 quid.

Doug, we aren't there to chat, just grab the cash. If they want to chat, they need to pay more