[johnnyzooph]

Hi all. I've just been told my prices are outrageous and I think the person is trying it on. I charge £12 per hour for office cleaning. I manage all my offices very closely and make sure they are top notch. One of my clients has just changed their office manager who has reviewed the contract and started adding in additional tasks not listed on it ie weekly cleaning the black safety tread strips on the stairs which is 2 staircases with 6 flights of stairs each and sanitising the phones  daily. These are very labour intensive jobs and I think she is being unreasonable to expect us to just start doing. She says as my prices are outrageous I shou;d include them.
 The price I charge include my staff, my time and every consumable imaginable such as loo rolls, paper towels,dishwasher tablets, washing up liquid, hand soap as well as the chemicals and equipment to do general office cleaning.
Any ideas how I can handle this?  And does any body know what the average price is. I am in the Midlands and I know we are not expensive.   Just curious

[darrenbale]

Your pricing seems spot on. Do you have an agreement in writing with them about what you are required to do? if so, stick to it and point out in a friendly way that you are doing what you are contracted for.

[garyj]

The answer is in the question! They have a new office manager.

Looks like part of her remit is to cut costs and make herself look good in the process. I would not be in this situation because I would not have stood for it, shes new, how bad would it look to be having a row with a long standing contractor.
Go above her and tell the MD that you will not be spoken to like that by anybody, tell him you have worked hard for the money they pay and you provide the service THEY asked for to the best of your ability and have had no complaints, and you are disgusted and upset and what she said.

[deborah waters]

I can see no problem with your pricing it's fair and if inflation keeps on at this rate then soon it will probably be to low.....   going above her head could work or it could give her a reason to open up on you. you could try a time and motion sheet to show her what is achievable in the time frame...maybe she just doesn't understand how much you do.

[Gerry Styles]

Have you agreed your contract with a written specification or schedule of works? If she wants extras then she will need to agree these with you at your price. I think your price is reasonable

[darrenbale]

how you getting on with them now? any better?

[mamb02]

I just started cleaning an office and i charge £8 an hour. However, i pay my staff £6 and by the time  take off my expenses (mainly insurance and cleaning products) i am hardly breaking even. I wont be making this mistake again and next time i am going to charge between £10 and £12 an hour. just going to put this job down to getting my foot in the door and gaining experience.

I feel that janitorial expenses (loo roll etc) should be billed seperately from your hourly rate depending on how much they use. Or if this woman is trying to cut costs, you could suggest that you could cut the price by her looking elsewhere for her janitorial supplies?

[steve_doyle]

you could always put together a different way of pricing it but which work out to your advantage when its all added up.

break it down to make your costs cheap but then add on the extras to get back to the same value or ideally more!

steve

[johnny_h]

i must be very lucky as i charge £12 an hour plus i put it into the contract that they would buy their consumables from me which i add 40% as for adding extras just add it to your invoice if its not on your schedule