[gwrightson]

went to survey a job last night, introduced myself and started to explain the proccess etc,

I was stopped in my tracks my the chap. " well I,ll be straight with you, I am thinking of hiring a rug doctor from Morrisons. This is £35  plus £5 for the cleaning stuff, if you can do it for that price and I give you a little extra for you doing it you can have the job "   

Now it was a bungalow, so Hall, lounge, diner 2 bedrooms  , erm "what was you thinking of paying me extra "   sarcasticly  .

"well how about I give you an extra tenner"   :  :  :

thats  ok I said  " when would you like it booking in ? 

asap  he replied, ok next friday 1oclock but I need a deposit lets say £25  I knock that off your final bill

oh Ill pay you the full £50 now   

Well actualy the full bill will be  £145   , £40 for what we agreed and extra tenner   £30 for the travelling time £30 for the survey and and £35 for running of my machine and vehicle on the day 

He was not amused, infact quite annoyed    and no I didnt get the job  :

Geoff

[suffolkclean]

I know Geoff - this whole situation is driving me crazy at the moment too. Its so frustrating that people think they achieve the same results as a professional cc at a fraction of the cost by hiring rug doctor + they think we are overcharging for a very simple cleaning job that anyone can do. Its the difference between night & day but the money concious just don't see this.
Yes it is all part of running your own business but it is frustrating.

[derek west]

this is what i say
"to clean reasonably with a rug doctor you have to clean first then do it again about 3 times with just water to rinse out the cleaning fluid. if you don't rinse the cleaning solution out, the carpet will have sticky soap in it that will attract dirt really quickly, also by time youve finished your 3rd rince your carpet will be soaking wet for about 3 days, as the rug doctor only cleans the top fibres, once you walk on it wet (and you'll have to unless your going away) the deep down soil will blot up to the surface and your carpet wont look much better, ive just cleaned a house where a women has been using a rug doctor, she told me the first time she used it, the results were ok, but she noticed exactly what i told you, it was getting dirty really quickly, so she did it again a few months later, then again a month later, then she realised and called us in, we rinsed all the built up dirt out and the sticky cleaning solution and she won't need it cleaning for at least another year, we don't have a £15000 machine in our van for nothing"
i usually get the job,
if not there and then, i get it 3 months down the line from a red faced customer.

tolerence, patience, education, kerrrching

works for me.
derek

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

You get a feel for this type of 'customer'.

I don't normally visit to quote but if I am going to , I price qualify first.

e.g A rough ball park figure which hopefully exposes the timewasters.

I had about 8 price shoppers yesterday, which is unusual for me, must be the weather !

Cheers

Doug

[from edge2edge]

Doug if i think the person is a cheepskat?(price shopper) i tend to push them towards hiring a machine off me  so at least i dont have to do the graft for burggger all money.I am turning more hires into real jobs as well my best being a hotel who wanted a hire for a week which i now do regularly with the host dry cleaning method.It will always be part of our job taking calls from people who dont have any appreciation of what we do so want us to do it for very little money.Regards Alan(in sunny swindon)

[clinton]

Think with the slowdown people see the sales in shops and most companys doing a discount so they think well we must be the same.

I can see it saying to a plumber do you have a sale on or a painter and decorator

Think its going to be good to get an extra service on the go to compansate for it

[JandS]

I'm advertising patio pressure washing as well now.
Nice to be outdoors now and again.
That beautiful day on Wednesday was spent in a 4 bed house from 11.15 to 4.45.

John

[daysdeepclean]

Same as me John, I looked outside and there were boats bobbing up and down on the peaceful Helford. I would love to have shut my machine down and slurped a nice pint of "Tribute" and scoffed a pint of prawns in the sunshine

[derek west]

work wear shorts for me, hope it don't upset the custys
derek
ps
this is my first post from my new laptop, and you guys with pictures look 10 years younger on this quality display.
just set up all 5 of my emails so gonna do some testing now. then its transfering all software and photos over, is there an easier way than memory stick?

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Let me know how you get on Derek - I've just ordered a Vaio 4gb 320gb - should be here wednesday. Then all the usual crap of swapping over files, photos, setting up internet & wifi - really looking forward to that NOT.

But at least it will be faster than what I've got now. I seem to be having a different problem everyday with this Dell I've got. I think manufacturers programme these laptops to self-destruct after 4 years.

Might have to pick your brains if I have any probs, if thats ok.

Steve

[derek west]

so much cwap on the old one i don't know where to start. trouble is, you bring over files and they won't open cos the new pc hasn't got the software so you have to download open extension readers. by time youve got it sorted to how you want it, its 4 years old and you need a new laptop.

anyway, i'm on line and ive set up all 5 of my pop3 accounts, had to dig deep to find the passwords though, and can't find 2 from another email setup, nevermind, mostly enlargements and viagra from that one
sounds like youve got the same as me,
has yours got blue ray,
this widescreen is awesome, might nip out and rent a bluray, see what all the fuss is about.
derek
ps my old laptops battery died after 10 mins so was permenantly plugged, so its nice to actually be portable again. tomorrow mornings posts will be coming straight from the pooptttttttttter
now thats what i call logging on.
derek

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Same as you mate, my battery has been shagged for ages, so it will be nice to be able to sit in the lounge instead of having to keep going upstairs in the office to use laptop.

Haven't got blueray on mine and not widescreen, only 15.4" - but it's got the memory and hard drive I wanted and Duo2 Core will make a big difference.

Apart from photos, most of the stuff I have on files are pdf's so hopefully not too many problems and the only e-mail account I use is through BT broadband.

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Clinton

In the last 3 months - battery packed up, dvd tray knackered, can't play dvd's, can't connect wirelessly to internet coz the drivers aren't compatable, have to leave it switched on all the time or it runs a complete system check everytime I switch it on etc,etc;

I paid over a grand for this and that was 4 years ago, the new one is just over £600 and 5 times more powerful.

Better put a note in my diary for 2013 to replace 

Steve

[clinton]

Steve

Same as mine and had a slow death and each week there was something else wrong :

A grand Some of us are making the money

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

That was in the days when I was allowed to have credit cards 

[mark_roberts]

Rug doctor seems to be doing a lot of advertising lately.  I seen a medium sized van with a rug doctor wrap a few weeks ago.  Not sure why maybe a delivery service.

Their advertising is good so we have to prove why a pro is better than a DIY machine.

At least he was upfront with you although over the phone would have been better instead of a wasted visit.

Mark

[clinton]

Steve

Or the ex mrs spent it all 

[clinton]

Steve

Dont let us down today utd are loosing 2 nil

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

We're losing 1-0 as well  :

You're not wrong about the ex-missus though, she got the lot ! 

[derek west]

beat villa tomorrow and theres 1 point in it.
its not over yet
derek