[Mike Halliday]

Do you agree with me that bedrooms should cost more?

Did a make up stain yesturday, massive manor house it took all the hoses we had to reach the bedroom 160ft(ish) it was carpeted all he way so we dust sheeted as much as we could but still had the hoses running across clean carpets.

We worked at this house in sept when the alarm engineer made a mess in the lobby. Then it was on the ground floor next to the front door took us about 40 minutes from pulling up to driving away... We charged her £60

Yesturday the cleaner let us in and said 'mrs monrybucket  is out, she has left the money on the mantle'  she had left £60

To be honest I don't know if to just accept it or ring her and explain it should be twice as much as it took more than twice as long

[*Hector*]

Mike... when cleaners come on here and say how can they justify charging £X for 30 mins work... the answer is always you charge for your knowledge and not how long it takes....

Same works in reverse I think.. If you did not agree a price before hand, and you want to keep this customer on your client base... I would just accept the money. Once you were set up, how long did the clean take?

[dek]

Hi Mike  Take it on the chin. Why rock the boat you might get the whole house next time. ( hopefully more than 60 quid )

[sherco]

Buy a Portable..

[Paul Moss]

You take the hard jobs with the easy jobs 60 quid is fine. And its cash 

[Fran84]

Gotta agree with the others. Take it on the chin.

Good example of why we should always agree a price beforehand though. EVEN WITH EXISTING CLIENTS!!

[Carpet Dawg]

Swings and rounds abouts..

For the sake of an extra tenner.

[Ian Gourlay]

I agree with Mike have had similiar myself on Coast . stockbroker from London mess up with Radiators etc etc.

Also I think smaller bedrooms are harder as there is not a lot of room to move bed  draws wardrobes etc etc

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

I think we need to start thinking how lucky we are in this business, you made the equivalent of £50.00 per hour on this job and your not totally happy. The amount of customers i've met who have applied for hundreds of jobs over a long period of time that are intelligent and well qualified that can't even get a packing or shelf stacking job is unreal. Yet i see constant belittlement of other operators on here that only make £30/£40 per hour instead of their £70/£80 per hour!!!

[Mike Halliday]

I made £20 an hour this was the only job we did in the afternoon  this is for a 2 man team,  so £10/hr each before we start deducting all biz expenses.

 i did explain to the cleaner, the discrepancy and she said that the lady would be 'horrified' that she has not paid the correct amount, so I will leave it and see if she calls.

the problem is if i don't get the balance from her she might  not call again as she will be embarrassed about the incident

   

[COLIN BRIGHT]

I always look at every job so if the bedroom is a long way from the van then I charge more, having said that if you had a min charge £99 in my case then I either charge that or encourage them to have more cleaned at the same time

[B Bailey]

I would take on the chin, you say this was your only job that afternoon. It's better than no job that afternoon.
Call customer and ask if she was happy with the service and remember to call again if she needs carpets done or try to sell her a maintenance plan.

[JandS]

£99 minimum charge...........
Small jobs are out then.

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

I see .... not suprised your not happy.

It's happend to me loads of times where they have left cash for the wrong amount. Maybe you could give her a bell and tell her it took twice as long as last time and you did not make anything on it this time, so you will have to charge more next time for similar work. If she has any decency, she will offer to pay you more, or you could just ring her to say it's not enough and risk losing her future business.

If you knew she left the money in the first place you could of assessed the job and rang her mobile to let her know it was more than she left.

[COLIN BRIGHT]

Don't want the small jobs, by the time I've paid for ad, quote, products, running the truck , anything less for me is not worth it, in the last 12 years very rarely does any job ever come below my min spend so is Not an issue

[des]

Im sorry mike but i think your wrong .You should have gone in there with a small spotting machine and it was a one man job and of course blue shoe,s and then you would have being on £60 per hour  .But thats just my opinion  Des

[Fran84]

6 hours to clean a bedroom

I know you're very experienced Mike so this for me just doesn't add up!!

[AshWhite]

I think he means it took 3 hours, for a team of 2. Still sounds a bit extreme though?

[jasonl]

6 hours to clean a bedroom

I know you're very experienced Mike so this for me just doesn't add up!!

Mike said it was £20 an hour , cant believe that it would take 3 hours , or that he would think that this one customer was liable for his full afternoons revenue.

Its swings and roundabouts , we do not complain at the £100/hour plus jobs.

I think too many cc forget that we are in a SERVICE industry , where sometimes our time /price ratio alters, so long as when annualised we are happy with the figure earned , we get lots of repeat and referral business , then all is good in the world.

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

First job for the customer took - 40 minutes, you say this job too twice as long so 80 minutes,
that's 1hr 20 mins.

The £60 you received shared by 1hr 20 mins is £50ph minus what you pay your helper, so you still received at least £40ph on this job!!!