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johnny_h

  • Posts: 689
too expensive?
« on: October 04, 2007, 05:46:36 pm »
quoted £25.00 an hour to clean gutter and facias which are black and green with muck tested a bit and it does come off all done with pure water shes happy he thinks im taking the urine , am i charging too much? west london area ...
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Captain Scarlet

  • Posts: 3087
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2007, 05:48:35 pm »
no, thats a normal rate, Luke
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Ffenest ( est 2007 ) is a fully insured premium quality window cleaning service based at Llandderfel near Bala. All our work is guaranteed, rain or shine, year round.

Scrimble

  • Posts: 2052
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2007, 05:51:11 pm »
dont charge per hour charge per job
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steve m

  • Posts: 796
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2007, 05:51:58 pm »
woman whos house I now do got a firm in and they charged her £300.00 for both sides, apparently they took them down and cleaned by hand in the cu-de sac
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supernova77

  • Posts: 3547
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2007, 05:52:03 pm »
Don't quote an hourly rate!

Just work out how long it will take you and then charge a price for the job!

Andy
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simon knight

Re: too expensive?
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2007, 05:52:22 pm »
I'm SW London.

I charge £25ish ph and many on this site think I'm too cheap!
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supernova77

  • Posts: 3547
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2007, 05:54:27 pm »
Quote
I'm SW London.

I charge £25ish ph and many on this site think I'm too cheap!

Simon,

You are too cheap for London!

Take a look: http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=43823.0

Andy
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windowwashers

Re: too expensive?
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2007, 05:59:22 pm »
Quote from: johnny_h on October 04, 2007, 05:46:36 pm
quoted £25.00 an hour to clean gutter and facias which are black and green with muck tested a bit and it does come off all done with pure water shes happy he thinks im taking the urine , am i charging too much? west london area ...
I would say she is m8 £25 an hour is cheap if you didnt take 14 hours to do it, if you did its expensive.
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Londoner

Re: too expensive?
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2007, 06:01:11 pm »
No matter what you charge some customers will always think you are too dear. The problem is with the customer not with your prices.
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johnny_h

  • Posts: 689
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2007, 06:02:26 pm »
cheers lads
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Ian Lancaster

  • Posts: 2811
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2007, 06:08:44 pm »
You tell your customers what your hourly rate is?  BIG MISTAKE.  It's none of their business.  They want a job done, you agree a price for it.

You do it properly, and to a good standard, as agreed.  It only takes you 10 minutes? So what?

You've done what was asked and agreed, they owe you.

If they don't like your price, they're perfectly entitled to get other quotes, but if they accept yours and the job's done to their satisfaction, they've got nothing to complain about.

Don't let the customer dictate to you or you'll finish up working for nothing.

Cheers,

Ian
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simon knight

Re: too expensive?
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2007, 06:27:59 pm »
Quote from: Andy @ SCS on October 04, 2007, 05:54:27 pm
Quote
I'm SW London.

I charge £25ish ph and many on this site think I'm too cheap!

Simon,

You are too cheap for London!

Take a look: http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=43823.0

Andy

You're probably right Andy. As new customers come along I'm slowly tweaking the price northwards. But there's a fair amount of competition around here so I have to tread carefully.
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jampot

  • Posts: 537
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2007, 06:41:51 pm »
Quote from: windowwashers on October 04, 2007, 05:59:22 pm
Quote from: johnny_h on October 04, 2007, 05:46:36 pm

I would say she is m8 £25 an hour is cheap if you didnt take 14 hours to do it, if you did its expensive.

i argee with windowwashers if you think thats its going to take 2 hrs
charge £50
3 hrs £75
dont do it by the hr (price wise)

 ;)
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neil100

  • Posts: 1137
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2007, 07:26:13 am »
If I quote for gutters and facias. I tell the customer that they are paying me for the effort I have to put in. Facia boards take far more effort and energy then normall w/cleaning.

If a job will take me two hours I will charge them for 4 hours at my w/cleaning rate.

I class the job as an extra. So I want to be paid very well. I had a lot of trouble with trapped nerves in my arms when I first went wfp. So any job that puts a lot of extra pressure on them will be reflected in how much I charge. More pressure = more money.

Nel
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LWC

  • Posts: 6824
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2007, 07:41:02 am »
on the other side of things, i said to someone an hourly rate last month and this site ripped me for doing it. so i rang her and gave her a one off charge...i thought it would take around 4 hours so charged her accordingly. it took me ALL day so i lost out money cause i listened to people on here. most of the advice is superb on here and has helped me lots. but that one was not good advice. from that job i just learned that i wont b charging by the hour, but charging a dammed lot more!

i dont care its gone now and im not having a dig at anyone. charging by the hour isnt all that bad mate
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LWC

  • Posts: 6824
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #15 on: October 05, 2007, 07:43:07 am »
oh yeh, they dont realise how much yu can earn working self employed. they're used to £5.50 in shops. not seeing the expense we have.

i think salmon is too expensive in sainsburys. but i dont go to the counter and tell them i think its too expensive. i buy it because i want it. as said they dont HAVE to accept your quote

does my nuts in this does. people taking the mick
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supernova77

  • Posts: 3547
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #16 on: October 05, 2007, 08:53:02 am »
Quote
on the other side of things, i said to someone an hourly rate last month and this site ripped me for doing it. so i rang her and gave her a one off charge...i thought it would take around 4 hours so charged her accordingly. it took me ALL day so i lost out money cause i listened to people on here. most of the advice is superb on here and has helped me lots. but that one was not good advice. from that job i just learned that i wont b charging by the hour, but charging a dammed lot more!

i dont care its gone now and im not having a dig at anyone. charging by the hour isnt all that bad mate

You can't blame anyones advice if you got the price wrong on a job! There is plenty of other advice on here that helps when quoting for jobs that would have helped you price it right.

Andy
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Ian_Giles

  • Posts: 2997
Re: too expensive?
« Reply #17 on: October 05, 2007, 10:11:34 am »
Never price up a job on an hourly rate, and never tell the customer what your hourly rate is.
It's fair enough to charge a 'DAY RATE', ie, you charge £150 per day (or whatever it is you think represents the turnover you want to make)
An hourly rate almost never equates to a day rate, most of us are lucky if we work 5 or 6 solid hours a day, take out tea breaks, dinner breaks, ttravelling between accounts, talking to customers, writing out invoices and so on, and that's just for starters.
If possible, always price per job, if you think it's 4 hours and it takes you all day, well..tough, you screwed up, live and learn.
As you gain experience you will make fewer and fewer mistakes, there will also be times when you might reckon on 4 hours work and get it done in 2 hours, but thats what pricing is all about.


Ian
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Ian. ISM CLEANING SERVICES

windowwashers

Re: too expensive?
« Reply #18 on: October 05, 2007, 10:16:09 am »
Quote from: LWC on October 05, 2007, 07:41:02 am
on the other side of things, i said to someone an hourly rate last month and this site ripped me for doing it. so i rang her and gave her a one off charge...i thought it would take around 4 hours so charged her accordingly. it took me ALL day so i lost out money cause i listened to people on here. most of the advice is superb on here and has helped me lots. but that one was not good advice. from that job i just learned that i wont b charging by the hour, but charging a dammed lot more!

i dont care its gone now and im not having a dig at anyone. charging by the hour isnt all that bad mate
alot say on here they dont charge by the hour, when in fact all work is priced that way but in rough terms,
I will prove my point: wc sees house 8 windows will take say 30 mins he looks for £15 an hour so quotes £8. thats 50p over what he wants an hour to allow to extra time that could be needed just incase.

every window cleaner that i know and have read about on here all have an hourly rate they just dont state it to customers, I on the other hand do sometimes if I am unsure I put in a quote and an hourly rate so they have a choice (that does not happen often) working for less money to get a job is not in my nature.
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pingu

Re: too expensive?
« Reply #19 on: October 05, 2007, 03:47:05 pm »
I quoted for a job and told the person I thought it would take 4 hours and gave a prices accordingly....in the end I worked 10 hours on this house with only a 15 minute break ....at the end of the day, theu guy came out and said 'where's the bill' I gave it to him with the price as agreed.....he said that's not right, you worked 10 hours and you said it would take around 4....

Yes I told the guy but thats is my mistake and as such I will honor our agreement....he wanted to give me more money I declined...and said if it was such a problem how about he gave some money to a charity of his choice...he said this he would do....

The next day I checked my bank account and the guy had put 400 in the bank instead of the 160 I was going to charge him.

But this job did make me think about how I will charge in future...and hourly rate is not it.....it is what I think the effort expended is worth....

Ok this guy lives in a really posh house but in the end he showed that he knew the value of money and could see very early on in the day that I had made a big mistake....and so did I !!!

The fact that he paid me more that I quoted was really nice...and put my faith back in some customers as I have recently been 'done' by a couple of customers.

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