[julianbiggs]

You spend all year cleaning someone's windows....heat, rain, fog, mist and wind, freezing cold. Month in month out turning up...being polite, courteous, sometimes doing the odd extra window for nothing like french doors inside where the kids have put their hands, you all know the sort of stuff i mean.....

Then they give you a £1.00 or £2.00 xmas tip......

Dont get me wrong it all adds up and i am grateful...

but the same people may go for a meal somewhere...once...spend 2 hours there and leave a £5.00 tip......

don't anybody reply with the bull#### story about waitresses not earning much...not interested!!!!!!!

[Chris A]

Why expect tips?

[julianbiggs]

I've only been wc'ing for 18 months but have tipped my wc'er for years. Why not ??

[Chris A]

Julian,
         Asking for or expecting tips seems to me like begging. If you make enough money out of the customer why not give them a tip? Half price clean for example, I'm not saying do this for every customer just the best ones. I have never cleaned a house window in my life so I wouldn't know how to approach someone for payment let alone tips.
                                                         Chris

[AuRavelling79]

It's tradition isn't it?

Domestic - they tip you (like the postie and the bin-men)
Commercial - you give them a "thank you" gift.

[julianbiggs]

yep thats what i thought...but obviously some people don't agree.

[david68]

Done my first christmas clean this week and only 2 of my customers have gave me a tip, one a bottle of wine and the other was a fiver.

I have even gave them all a christmas card.

I thought i would have got alot more.....but i know next year i will not expect it.

Dave

[KarlJones]

Does anyone on here tip their postie or binmen?

[eddie d]

i tip the postie ( £10) and bin men (£10)
i dont expect tips myself .some do tip me and some dont .but really im  not bothered just glad of thier custom  throughout the year .

[gmccleaning]

when i worked in the post office i always got tips at xmas (the xmas before i left i got round about £300 as a wage and i matched that with tips ) i was on the same post round for 10 years thats the thing i miss about the p/o.

george

[Fast 1 *]

Ive received loads of tips.Got a bottle of champagne and about £70 tonight alone.Roll on next christmas when ive got bucket loads of customers

[Ian_Giles]

I haven't had an awful lot of tips, but then most of my work is commercial, but where the domestic work is concerned, a tip is nice because it is a sign of their appreciation of the service you have given them over the previous year.
So though I don't expect it as a matter of course, I do hope that my customer will show me their appreciation by way of a tip.
How much is irrelivant, it is the thought that counts.

Ian

[D.Salkeld_Ltd]

I, now tend to agree with Chris; tips are not part of the job.  OK it's nice when the old lady gives you a quid or 2 or the odd good folks give you a fiver or bottle.
I do give the paper boy a fiver.
I also dropped in a dig box of chocolate fingers into the taxi office in town who act as a payment point for me.  The girls in there have been fabulous this year with the queries over WFP!  They have done most of the explaining for me!

There was a time I needed the tips for christmas.  But now I am mor proffessional about my business and earn enough all year to account for Christmas etc...

David

[Ian Lancaster]

Ive received loads of tips.Got a bottle of champagne and about £70 tonight alone.Roll on next christmas when ive got bucket loads of customers

You'll get a shock

Familiarity breeds contempt, and that works for window cleaners as well.  New(ish) customers tend to tip because the novelty of a new window cleaner hasn't worn off yet, by next year you'll become part of the landscape and they won't remember

Years ago I could rely on tips to pay me a weeks wages for my Christmas holiday, now I'm lucky if I get enough for a meal out.

It's nice to get a tip now and then, but if you're expecting your customers to tip you, you're going to be disappointed.

Cheers,

Ian

[Filllllll]

My tips have been rubbish this year.Even customers I've had twenty years haven't tipped.I feel so unappreciated I think I'm going to cry.

[shammy davis jnr]

i tip the postie 30 quid becase he is a top bloke and keeps an eye on my mail  if im not in he will off his own back take it to my mothers  ,
i dont take any tips i let the boys split them between them if there is the odd quid our two left we put it on a lottery