[stevegunn]

Just arrived in and looked in local paper new carpet cleaning company advertising one carpet £10,suite £20 and carpet & suite £25.Just had potential customer on the phone wanting qoute but guess what she said cowboy said he will do it for a tenner >:(After explaining cost of fuel,diesel,insurance,setting up time she still thinks this fella will do a good job.Do these people realise how many jobs this fella has to do to make a living  

[The Great One]

Hi Steve

I don't think these kind of people really care, they just think they are getting a bargain.

If he messes it up she will only have herself to blame and it will cost more to correct his mistake.

Guess who they'll call to correct it...

You probably

Regards

Martin

[Tony_Browning]

Don't worry about it,
they will do a crap job with crap equipment and be out of business within months.

Most people won't book them to clean anyway, only the tight fisted type....and who want's their business anyway? :
Understand the fumming though...
Kind Rgds
Tony

[Derek]

Calm down Steve and  Tony .... just imagine the frustration when something goes wrong as it surely will...very soon.

The potential customer 'won't' come back to you...she will be far too embarrassed.

She will vent her feelings at the cheapy guy instead...if she can get hold of him that is... even if she does he is more than likely to be uninsured.

On that thought you should have a very good nights sleep.... your potential customer won't!

As 'our Ken' would say...Happy cleaning

Derek

[Len Gribble]

Don’t worry I’ve been there! One gets what you pay for; you want cheap you get cheap. She’s probably spends most of her day running round looking for the barging and for gets the time and effort she put into it as she has all day. She has probably had it for 20 years and paid a fiver for it and it’s never been cleaned.  Walk a way from the type of customer.

Mind you I have phoned this type of company too wind them up, what machine, chemicals and stain removal etc the only response I get we are in you area for the next two weeks, book fast.  One day I will take them up on the offer but only when I have the time.

Len

[Cloverleaf]

A lady rung me up and said how much for my living room carpet, I says £35, she says it only cost me £25 last time, I says why dont you get him back, she says, because I wasnt pleased and the stains came back. I explained about low performance equipment etc and said if you pay £35 you will be pleased or you wont pay.
She was pleased and I got 185 quid from referals.
What more can I say

[Derek]

All too common I am afraid...

SCENARIO.

Guy rings me up in a panic, red wines spilt on carpet could I come out ASAP. I said yes, as I was passing the following day after my last job....no prices were discussed.

Arrived on site following day as arranged, looked at stain in middle if grubby carpet. I was very confident of removing the stain and suggested that I should clean the whole room 12 x 12 so that he wouldn't have a clean patch.
"How much will it cost"? says he....
"Fortyfive pounds." said I..
"My regular guy does the room for twenty pounds" says he...
"So why didn't you get him to come and remove the stain" says I...
"He couldn't get here until next week" says he...
"So, do you want me to do the job" says I...
"I will pay you twenty quid" says he...
"May I respectfully suggest you get your regular guy" says I....
"But aren't you going to do the job" says he....
"Not for twenty pounds" says I...

I reckon he thought that as I was already there I would do the job at the lower price

At this point I packed up my test kit and left

My fault... I should have talked money at the outset, I usually do, but I thought I was helping him out.... silly me

Derek  

[Scots_cleaner]

Seems we all have the same problem up here in fife i have 2 guys.
1st guy Suite carpet £ 40
            suite 2 carpets £50
            leater suite       £45
            L\rm carpet      £18
2nd guy
           suite   £30
     2 carpets  £30
           rugs    £10
      leather     £40
And thats just in my town

We as good cleaners need a nationwide (more public than ncca) way of showing that quality counts at reasonable prices. NOT CHEAP AND QUICK :

[woodman]

Steve,

next time a punter rings with same patter, just tell her to keep your number by the phone  because she's going to need it once Mr Bex Bissell has finished with her carpet. and when she does ring in a panic double your price because now you are going to have to put right what they have done.

Seriously, you neither want nor need this customer let the 'in your area brigade' work for her for nothing.In her mind she thinks she's struck a bargain and will feel good about that until, they arrive

Let it go and move on.

[Derek]

Hi Mr Cleaner from Scotland

Why so formal....we don't bite....honest.

The NCCA are working on it.... There will be an annoucement in the November issue of their Magazine Newslink (Due out in the middle of the month) as one of their projects has now been finalised.
Other projects in the pipeline.....  

Regards
Derek  

[stevegunn]

Just found this thread from 2003 .The same guy is still charging these ludicrous prices and everyone in paper seems to be following suit there is even one offering special June offer suite £15,carpet £10 and pvc cleaning 3 bedroom house £10.When will these people learn

[CONTRACT CLEANING SERVICES (1994) LTD.]

A lady rung me up and said how much for my living room carpet, I says £35,

£35 for a lounge your too cheap yourself

You must remember that SOME of these cheap priced cleaners ARE using good equipment and do do a good job. I know a chap who is very good at cleaning, he is always busy, flat out booked up always for 2.5 weeks in advance constantly - but his charges are cheap. Its only him and he's happy with what he earns. Nobody is going to stop this, not even the NCCA and all their merry men. You just gotta get on and live with it. Look after your own business and it will look after you.

[Mike Roper]

Mr Scot cleaner , it sounds like you live near Leven . The Gleamteam wouldn't be one of those companies would it.? No disrespect implied to anyone by the way.
Mike

[Doug Holloway]

Hi ,

Had a woman ring today for a small two seater plus 4 small dining chairs.

I said about £75 , she said Axxxx do a whole suite for £50.

I said why was she wasting my time , this threw her and she couldn't really answer.

After about 15 secs I said , givw axxxx a call , she said O.K

If shes got someone to clean her suite to a level she is happy with for £50 , how much was she hoping to get it done for

Cheers

Doug

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I had one yesterday ring around for prices trying to beat £25 for a thru room in cream. I said "how much did the carpet cost?" oooo it was alot about £300 I said "book him" not really worth bothering with.

Shaun

[The Great One]

Hi

Had an X-tenent question my prices to the LA.

Cheeky git called me as a price shopper and asked how much I would charge for a 65m2 carpet...£xxx said I

Ok. thank you says she..

Next thing I know an email has gone off to the LA saying he said he would do it for £xxx price why was I charged £xxx.

Had to then explain to the LA that in fact his carpet was a lot bigger, was stained to high Heaven and that was a over the phone quote without seeing the carpet...

Grrr :

Regards

Martin

[Neil Grainger]

Had a guy today ring asking how much to clean a first floor 2 bedroom apartment. I dont normally give over the phone quotes but he wanted a rough idea so I said between £90 and £120.

He then said I had a couple of quotes that came in at £65. So I said why have you rung me because this is incredibley cheap and you are obviously looking for the cheapest job. He was waiting for me to drop my price and was very shocked that I wouldn't.

I then said if you want skoda use them if you want BMW use me.  Started to get fed up as the call had gone on for 10 minutes and said keep my number by the phone because you will need it sooner than you would if you used me.

Why keep asking questions if you just want the cheapest. Internet customer again, always looking for the cheapest prices.

[judas]

To many people are buying machines with no training no experience and putting adds in local paper, our local rag is full off Alltec slogans.And clean out of the back of estate cars.

[Matt Townend]

Did a survey and quote yesterday for a very filthy cheap cream synthetic living room carpet that a dog had been sick on.  Customer was shocked at my reasonable quote.  Stating she had booked a cc in Huddersfield (15 miles away) last week.  I said the one that quotes £20 a room..she said yes..she couldnt understand why they never turned up!!..mmmm let me think...1.5 to 2 hour round trip...diesel...time for job...knocking on 3 hours in total for a massive £20!!

She said she had spent an hour and a half clearing room..

Serves her right!

[vangaurd]

the £10 guys are a joke how come they take 1/2hour to clean a 3 piece when it takes mean around 2 hours i have ads in every paper in south tyne side but the work is not comming in costs me over £70 in newcastle paper but customers want the jobs done for pennies