[Jon-scwindows]

round it off to the fiver so you dont have to fumble around with change, just notes

[Sir Squeaky]

4 bed detached around 12 to fifteen quid up here.

Same down here mate.

I haven't been on this side of the forum for a while, but I see it's still full of absolute tripe.

£30 for 15-20 minute houses?
Never heard such rubbish. :

[macmac]

4 bed detached around 12 to fifteen quid up here.

but food , clothes and beer is much cheaper, than down south.... as are house prices, morgages, rent, gas and electric.

i reckon that balances things out a bit.

As are flat caps & coal

Tony

[alanwilson]

Here in Leicestershire, anything more than £10 is laughed at.  so many people here will do it for a fiver (fly-by-nights) that people will not pay too much.

Although I can make £100 a day (maybe 10 houses) if I work 10 till 2 or 3...

Well.. work a FULL day and make £200 

well said mate - 10 til 2 is still 25 an hour.

[geefree]

 

do you know flat caps started out as a london trait?

whats coal ?

[macmac]

do you know flat caps started out as a london trait?

whats coal ?

Sorry, meant coil.   It's gerrin cold up here, al av to put wood int' oil!

Tony

[Paul Coleman]

Certainly not thirty!

So if you did 5 houses and they had 5 window`s each would you only charge £25 on the basis that it`s a pound a window,that`s where this pound a window dosen`t work.It only works like that on large jobs when your going to be there for hours on end.

That's why I set a minimum of £10 in with my £1 a window.  Only a rule of thumb though as there are plenty of jobs where quoting that way would produce a ridiculous price (either way).

[Ian_Giles]

Mmmm....Well I think it all depends on the work involved, we still haven't been told how many windows this property has, or the type and size of the windows.

In most parts of the country, £30 for a medium sized house would be very expensive, but if you are trad and it has about 16 or 17 georgian windows then £30 quid wouldn't be particularly expensive at all.
WFP different of course because there is little time difference between cleaning a georgian window and a normal casement window.

Was the original window cleaner trad? Was his price including washing down all the frames, doors and so on?

For me, a £13.00 house would have to be cleaned (without racing or rushing) in a maximum of 13 minutes.
And if it is a stand alone house, that 13 minutes starts from getting out of the van to getting back in it when I've finished.

And that does not mean I earn £60 an hour all day long, all week long either, but this isn't the thread to go into that...

Ian

[peter holley]

Mmmm....Well I think it all depends on the work involved, we still haven't been told how many windows this property has, or the type and size of the windows.

In most parts of the country, £30 for a medium sized house would be very expensive, but if you are trad and it has about 16 or 17 georgian windows then £30 quid wouldn't be particularly expensive at all.
WFP different of course because there is little time difference between cleaning a georgian window and a normal casement window.

Was the original window cleaner trad? Was his price including washing down all the frames, doors and so on?

For me, a £13.00 house would have to be cleaned (without racing or rushing) in a maximum of 13 minutes.
And if it is a stand alone house, that 13 minutes starts from getting out of the van to getting back in it when I've finished.

And that does not mean I earn £60 an hour all day long, all week long either, but this isn't the thread to go into that...

Ian

my thoughts exactly.....

just one thing too add.... the wc charging the high over inflated prices have a higher cancelation rate......if i charged £30 for the average 4 bed semi , i would earn an average of £80/hr.......but where i live i just wouldn't get the work at that price.....

[nat]

it is great when you get as much as you can and why not its what most salesman or business's would do. The problem you have though is you leave yourself wide open to being undercut!! it would only take another window cleaner a matter of seconds to knock on your customers door and i can guarentee they will ask for a quote, they will then realise they are being ripped off and drop you like a stone.

There are a few houses we clean them and i can't help feeling we are ripping them off, but they pay it month in month out so i don't see the problem, i am expecting that one day they will cancel when another wc comes along and quotes them a REAL price.

You can get away with charging a premium if your a premium set up, but theres premium then theres just idiotic. I prefer to keep my business than lose it hence why we have a sensible pricing structure. but we turn over a very healthy profit  doesn't need to be maximum profit out of each house, just condenst and sensibly priced. you will not achieve that by ripping everyone off, people arn't stupid.

[simon knight]

it is great when you get as much as you can and why not its what most salesman or business's would do. The problem you have though is you leave yourself wide open to being undercut!! it would only take another window cleaner a matter of seconds to knock on your customers door and i can guarentee they will ask for a quote, they will then realise they are being ripped off and drop you like a stone.

There are a few houses we clean them and i can't help feeling we are ripping them off, but they pay it month in month out so i don't see the problem, i am expecting that one day they will cancel when another wc comes along and quotes them a REAL price.

You can get away with charging a premium if your a premium set up, but theres premium then theres just idiotic. I prefer to keep my business than lose it hence why we have a sensible pricing structure. but we turn over a very healthy profit  doesn't need to be maximum profit out of each house, just condenst and sensibly priced. you will not achieve that by ripping everyone off, people arn't stupid.

Spot on!

[Gary Oldman]

people arn't stupid.

Yes they are - well, some of them. It's these ones you want most of. By 'stupid' I mean the ones who are gagging to have their windows done and ohh and ahh all over you. It's the price-savvy ones you want to get rid of. The more stupid, financially the better, IMO.

[nat]

you will only get away with it for a while, you will turm over customers like theres no tomorrow

[frames to panes]

point is, if i tried for thirty pounds then i wouldn't have got the work, simple as that. £13 is still better than £0 unfortunately. Obviously had i known of the previous quote maybe i might have got away with £20 but that wouldn't be every five weeks. This woman hadn't had them done for a year. She did them herself by leaning out of the window. Probably around twelve windows in all - upvc modern house no bay windows.

[groundhog]

I haven't been on this side of the forum for a while, but I see it's still full of absolute tripe.

£30 for 15-20 minute houses?
Never heard such rubbish. :

Whatever you say Squealer!!! You carry on charging low prices and I'll carry on with my premium prices (premium service also) and you will have a low paying round, and I will have a high paying one!!! Simple as that!!!!  

[JSMC]

4 bedroom house of my mothers cost 3.50 in scotland

[Paul Coleman]

4 bedroom house of my mothers cost 3.50 in scotland

Yes, but how much to clean the windows?   

[Sanity]

Here in Leicestershire, anything more than £10 is laughed at.  so many people here will do it for a fiver (fly-by-nights) that people will not pay too much.

Although I can make £100 a day (maybe 10 houses) if I work 10 till 2 or 3...

Well.. work a FULL day and make £200

I like my 'me' time too much : )  ::beer::  ::Family:: ::more beer::

[SonOfFormby]

£30 sounds about right to me for a 4 bed detached! I wouldn't even bother getting out of the van for £13!!!! Thats a daft price if you ask me, at least round it  up to £15!
Why do so many of you sell yourselves so short, when I price up a job I think like a salesman and try to get the best price that I possibly can for the job, first of all I get the customer on side, I compliment them about their house or garden, ask about their job or family, maybe a bit of flirting if the customer is female! Then I work out a price that I would be prepared to do the job for, then I work out what I think is the highest price I could possibly get, this is the price I tell the customer, sometimes they will agree to this (brilliant quids in) sometimes they will say it  is too expensive, in which case after a little bit of banter I will lower the price (because I like the customer so much! ) Quite often they will agree to this second price (great still quids in!) if not I will revert to the original price that I worked out, if they agree to this then great its still a good price, if they still say no I walk away!!

I have thought about doing this but, some potential customers must think that you may be ripping them off if you move your price down like this.

Lee

[Helen]

I can understand where groundhog is coming from, but to be honest when I have asked someone for their best price for something, I expect that to be their best price and not to then move downwards in  order to get a sale.....just makes me say no in the end 
We do "push" prices whenever we can, of course we do!, but if we really want a property on our books and the potenetial custie says that is too expensive we just say well we'll do the  first clean at that price and then we knock off 15% or whatever for the price thereafter....works some of the time