[tonyoliver]

saw a new face on my rounds today a new wc with trd poles bucket and ladder taped together   with duct tape ect guss how the guy gets around ?

HE USES A WHEELIE BIN

 I TRIED NOT TO LAUGH and couldnt get the camara to work to share the joke with the familly here

but the best bit is i lost 6 jobs to him and two other undercutters they do the 9 bed houses for 3 pounds  each.
the custys told me i was ripping them off if i told what i charged them i give you all the second laugh of this post

aroud here every five mins or so i see a batterd old saloon with 20 year old ladders tied on with rope no roof rack ect  giving of just the image we all take years to get away from
these people are to window cleaning what harold shipman did for medicene we al gotta earn but..................

one uses a pole with a bit of old sponge on it and wipes and the with another bit of sponge  dry wipes it off gets on a battered honda 90  with no lights  and roars of the results are as you would expect
the other gets a chinaman to do the tops and lithuanian to do the bottoms and he  the boss collects he told me he p[aid the chini 18 per day and the lit 14 per day as he dosent do the tops . the thirds  meathod is highly original he uses tissue paper and wet and dries em that way resuls are as poor as tottenhams season so far .......
if  like you all i give a good service top of the range kit taxed insured and give a guarentee yet i am being blown out of the water by these clowns it will take years to get the custys to get used to paying ourproffesional  prices again long after they have gone west or east

[biggs]

smack em or grass em up

[Londoner]

Who do you grass them up to? Nobody in authority actually cares or does anything about it. You can phone one of these hotlines and tell them but nothing gets done.
A couple of years ago I reported a taxi driver I know, he's 50 got his own house (in his wife's name) never paid a penny tax in his life and boasts about it. I gave them all the details but nothing has ever been done.

Your last comment, it will take years to get the customers used to paying professional prices is so true. No matter what your business price cutting rots it away from the inside.

A good friend of mine has a business running minibuses to take handicapped kids to school on contract to Hertfordshire Council. He has to bid for the work and he puts in realistic prices. The margins are not that great but he makes a living.
Recently a number of new operators have appeared on the scene, undercutting like mad to get the contracts. My friend Derek says they simply cannot do the jobs for the prices they are bidding but they are destroying the whole structure of the business in the process.
These bandits won't last but in the mean time Derek has had to sack his drivers and sell some of his buses.

Derek is talking about going window cleaning because he sees I am doing OK.  He's going to get a tank fitted into the back of one of his smaller busses.   Thats another WC on the streets.   Aaaargh !

[simon knight]

Who do you grass them up to? Nobody in authority actually cares or does anything about it. You can phone one of these hotlines and tell them but nothing gets done.
A couple of years ago I reported a taxi driver I know, he's 50 got his own house (in his wife's name) never paid a penny tax in his life and boasts about it. I gave them all the details but nothing has ever been done.

Your last comment, it will take years to get the customers used to paying professional prices is so true. No matter what your business price cutting rots it away from the inside.

A good friend of mine has a business running minibuses to take handicapped kids to school on contract to Hertfordshire Council. He has to bid for the work and he puts in realistic prices. The margins are not that great but he makes a living.
Recently a number of new operators have appeared on the scene, undercutting like mad to get the contracts. My friend Derek says they simply cannot do the jobs for the prices they are bidding but they are destroying the whole structure of the business in the process.
These bandits won't last but in the mean time Derek has had to sack his drivers and sell some of his buses.

Derek is talking about going window cleaning because he sees I am doing OK.  He's going to get a tank fitted into the back of one of his smaller busses.   Thats another WC on the streets.   Aaaargh !

A bad business with your mate Derek. Unfortunately because you can go down to B&Q, buy a set of ladders, bucket, squeegee and scrim you can spend £100ish and call yourself a window cleaner and earn practically from day one and you need zero training.  Because of this window cleaning must be the easiest industry to undercut in, especially if customers are starting to feel the pinch.

We all know customers are fickle

[LWC]

but on the lighter side they never last cause theyre not real men like what we are

[peter holley]

where i live there are wc popping up all over the place and all wfp  i havnt lost any yet, i have even seen them canvassing my round, i stopped introduced myself and wished them well

i have been going longer than all the others in my area, and i know them all....as i see it they have alll canvassed on my round when they started.....so i dont care if i flyer their areas, buisness is buisness, i picked up 2 of another cleaner yesturday, the custie phoned me after seeing my website...her reason for wanting to change was that the other cleaner was unreliable....i was happy to take the job as she contacted me, and i was more expensive so i hadnt undercut. iv had this happen a few times....its not always about price, good customers will pay fairly for a reliable freindly  cleaner :

[simon knight]

where i live there are wc popping up all over the place and all wfp  i havnt lost any yet, i have even seen them canvassing my round, i stopped introduced myself and wished them well

i have been going longer than all the others in my area, and i know them all....as i see it they have alll canvassed on my round when they started.....so i dont care if i flyer their areas, buisness is buisness, i picked up 2 of another cleaner yesturday, the custie phoned me after seeing my website...her reason for wanting to change was that the other cleaner was unreliable....i was happy to take the job as she contacted me, and i was more expensive so i hadnt undercut. iv had this happen a few times....its not always about price, good customers will pay fairly for a reliable freindly  cleaner :

I would guess the new wfp'ers are the worst for undercutting cos they've laid out £1000? and will want to get back their investment asap.

[Rob.Hall]

I think I will get the old ice cream cart out and strap a ladder to it like they used to in the old days 

Save on fuel.

Know how you feel on this one. Its happening in West Sussex to.

[dai]

I have lost nine customers on one estate to undercutting trad guys, it's surprising how quick people forget that their plastic frames are only gleaming because I clean them.
Their plastic frame and doors will soon be minging again, all for the sake of 50P.

[Jeff Brimble]

It does bother me that by showing everyone on here including tom and jerry - alias your competittion, that we are opening the doors to any tom dick or harry to get the knowledge for free. 

[dmlservices]

i agree, sharing some knowledge is good , but the down side is , with all the talk on here of loads of dosh,some think get a wfp system , go out, and earn loads of money straight away, result very bad job done (i've seen it) and wfp gets a bad name, on the flip side , some one decides to buy a ladder and deliberetly go out to undercut.

i have a mate who is a car valeter, his trade has been crippled by all the cheap car wash buisinesses that have been started up, usually by eastern europeans, saw one today advertising car wash and wax for £3.00, our trade could go the same way

daz

[Wayne Thomas]

I had a trad w/c pestering me today about wfp whilst I was trying to work despite feeling lousy with a stinking cold.. He was made redundant from a company this June, went trad cleaning and went visit a wfp supplier yesterday to start converting to wfp. Yet another wfp competitor in the area I work. I bet he underprices everything. Recession will knock all decent new customer prices down to be competitive. Good times with wfp are over, getting harder as this recession will go on despite having a positive attitude. All the newbies will bugger off when they get the opportunity of better jobs after the recession and credit crunch are over leaving us regulars with customers expecting knock down prices as the normal.

[Oakley Windows]

Sometimes I think some of you lot enjoy being negative.

[Paul Coleman]

I had a trad w/c pestering me today about wfp whilst I was trying to work despite feeling lousy with a stinking cold.. He was made redundant from a company this June, went trad cleaning and went visit a wfp supplier yesterday to start converting to wfp. Yet another wfp competitor in the area I work. I bet he underprices everything. Recession will knock all decent new customer prices down to be competitive. Good times with wfp are over, getting harder as this recession will go on despite having a positive attitude. All the newbies will bugger off when they get the opportunity of better jobs after the recession and credit crunch are over leaving us regulars with customers expecting knock down prices as the normal.

But think of all that cheap, second hand equipment going begging 

[karygate]

was it a green eco wheelie bin   . seen a cleaner yesterday with a ladder and a sparkling new b and q bucket. bet he is cheap