[Londoner]

A big box advert in the Harrow Times freebie paper offers

Carpet Cleaning. Lounge, dining room plus hall landing and stairs for £36 all in. Bedrooms £5 extra each.

The advert probably cost over a hundred quid!!

What a moron

[The Great One]

Hi

Depends if he makes more money than the advert costs.

Chances are he will be mobbed and make a mint !

Regards

Martin

[woodman]

Almost certainly bait & switch.

[Londoner]

I'm not so sure. How do you bait and switch when you have already laid out your prices?
Bait and switch usually relies on saying "HALF PRICE" or two for one and things like that without actually stating the price that you are halving.

I'm sure he will be mobbed but he is going to have to do four houses a day to make his money.

[Tony_Browning]

Just a Moron Then!!!!!!!   

[Ken Wainwright]

Sorry to disagree Vince

A typical bait and switch ploy is to lay a Bait of  low prices. No work is surveyed prior to the appointment. Technician arrives to clean a £12 lounge  and performs the Switch and says something like: "the traffic lanes are too heavily soiled, so will require a pre-spray @ £10 and those stains will require special treatment and that will be another £10" We now have a £12 lounge costing £32   If madam accepts, then fine. If she doesn't then there's the option of a cancellation fee as per terms and conditions, or a quick clean where the tech isn't obliged to produce a perfect result, so speed will be the order of the day.

Something frequently lost on these forums is that low prices is not always indicative of dodgy trading practice. There are many, many cleaners out there who will buy a machine from company X. The training they receive is "Put the yellow stuff in the tank, turn it on and move the wand over the carpet" They're led to believe that the rates we would regard as low are true and fair. They will believe that people like me are rip off merchants with grossly inflated prices. First impressions last, and this is the image they have of our industry/

As a caring and sharing industry, it is partly our responsibility to educate and encourage these inexperienced technicians to improve their skills and knowledge. If, in the light of their new found knowledge, they value their skills more highly, they will increase their charges and hopefully with a more transparent pricing structure.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[Mike Halliday]

if he gets 3 jobs thats the advert paid for, if he's got a truckmount he could do a 3 bed house in 1.5 hrs so he'd make £50 without any extras. he would'nt do the best of jobs but the carpets would look cleaner.

Vince give him a call see what he says, tell him you won't be in but you'll leave the £35 with a nieghbor who inspect the job when he's finished and pay him if the carpet are clean

Mike

[Ian Gourlay]

What has always puzzled me is how a truckmount operator is able to work faster

As far as i can make out most use wands so I cannot see where the time is saved apart from uloading filling and emptying.

Maybee Im slow

But i think Mike is only just a little quicker on suite I take 3hrs

I am told that Contract Cleaners have charts etc that tell them how long each task takes. Perhaps there is one for Carpet Cleaners I do know about.

[sfpcleaningservice]

HEY ALL

I think truckmounts are quicker on the realy big jobs but no quicker on the domestics and small area cleaning.

is it the operators fault or is it a general problem with truck mounts that they suck the carpet so hard that they pull it?, I know they leave it dryer but is the pulling a consequence of the extra sucking power, if this is the case then are they worth it.

[Karl Wildey]

Truck mounts are quicker on the bigger jobs, easier to use, due to no fillling or emptying, and you are guarantee hot water, all the time.
If you do a lounge only, then there is no saving on time, but the results will be better, and the carpet dryer with a TM.

the attitude of spfcleaning is typical of everyone who does not owe a TM, me included until I purchase one, after 2 years of thinking about it.

The TM is not the one and only machine you need, you still can't do sissal, belgian wiltons, sky rise flats, or work on houses were parking is not possible. And I still perfer a portable to clean upholstery.

The TM has its place in the market.

[Glynn]

Truckmounts are quicker on domestics even if its only a lounge, you can clean BW's with them as well in a safer fashion. You can clean high rises as well, and as many will know running hoses 300+ ft up a walk only road is still faster than portys.

[Mike Halliday]

 don't want to make this another T/M V portable debate, my comments about a T/M user cleaning faster is based on the own exsperisance I can turn up the heat and flow and blast through a carpet giving a good result with minimum time,

I know some off you will be choking on your tea over this statement but its true

if I wanted I could forget about vaccing, pre-spraying & aggitating and just use the extra heat, flow & vaccum to clean a carpet, while still giving great results.

If I did this and told the customer to move the small items of furniture I could clean a 3 bed house in 90 mins

Ian, you're right about suites T/M are not much faster.

Mike

[paul@ctcs]

Mike,

This is also similar to the effects gained using the Eclipse, though possibly on a slightly lesser scale As the 500+ psi, 249" lift and 250F may not be quite as much as a good TM, but I agree It would be possible to rely on this power and something like Ultimate master to clean sufficently enough if offering a basic clean in record time.
Its not an approach I would take as I prefer MS and like to take my time, but then again I wouldnt charge silly prices either.

Paul

[Ian Gourlay]

Opps I did not mean to start a debate on truckmounts and certainly not give the Eclipse yet another plug


My humble machine has 240 water lift and I could fit larger pump etc

And it has a Large capacity tank

[Londoner]

Sorry its a bit of a long way back but what Ken said about some people only want to charge low prices is very true.

It might be that he's retired and is just looking for a bit of pocket money.

The thing that gets me is that everyone sees the advert and starts to think thats the going rate.

[Derek]

Vince

You have to take into consideration that as you get older you simply cannot work at the rate you did when a few years younger...you suddenly discover that you are NOT immortal after all.

The spirit is still willing its the flesh that is weak 

My prices reflect the time I take to do a good job and when I want to slow down further and work for 'pocket money' (or if Gordon Brown has his wicked way... my pension) my charges will remain the same.

A great many low price cleaners have a block in their own minds about price thereby imposing their own restrictions... easy done

Cheers
Derek

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys,

Why work for £20/hour when you can work for £40?

Why work for £40/hour when you can work for £60?

These  prices used to annoy me but as I've aged I just think silly fools.

One thing I've mentioned before is that these cheap end operators vac up all the cheap end customers, you know the one's who we don't want anyway.

There will always be a range of prices , the trick is not too worry about others but to  charge what you are happy with.

I never ring to find out what competitors charge because  I quote what I am happy with so if they are cheaper than I am  , I would'nt work for that anyway.

I know it is more difficult for newer businesses but you really are better keeping prices up.

Cheers,

Doug

[darrenlee]

3CHEERS TO THE MAN ABOVE.
I WOOD NOT WORK 4 SILLY PRICES, BUT DID 16 YEARS AGO.
JUST LIKE ALOT OF U PROBABLY DID, TAKES YEARS TO BUILD A GOOD STRONG CUSTOMER BASE, THATS WHY A LOT OF NEWBIE
CLEANERS CHARGE SO LITTLE, GRANTED SOME ARS POOR AT WHAT THEY DO.
BUT THEY WILL BE FEW THAT ARE QUITE GOOD, BUT WHEN YOU ARE THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK, U NEED TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS, SO A LOT USE PRICE.
ENCOURAGE THIS PEOPLE DONT PULL THEM DOWN

[Dave_Lee]

Derek,
Speak for yourself
I am 59 soon, CC 25 years, and I now do twice as many jobs a month as I did 10 years ago (TM makes this possible) I still participate in road and fell running and very active in mountaineering when I find the time. I haven't any where near started to slow down or take it easier yet, though I do have plans in the not too distant future, but this will be, so I can spend more time on my active leisure pursuits and not because I cant keep up. Slowing down is a decision its not compulsary.
Dave.

[Len Gribble]

Come on be fair we all pop at the cheapies how many of you recommend one of the franchise networks to potential customer for a quote, I often do! Dose that make me a cheapie?

The word value for money the customer decides, these words have no meaning unless the customer is happy but you get what you pay for! They don’t mind paying £5 to wash there car per week but get very upset if you charge say £50 for a lounge which has not been cleaned for 5 years!

Re bait & switch two way street, and yes we all go out to survey.

Am very tempted to get the £15 lounge person in to watch but I would have to up my price to next customer to cover it.

Len