[TVCS]

Did a school clean a month or two ago.  The burser gave me the forms to fill in that gets you put onto the council approved contractor list. 
The other day had a phone call from a company that said that they put together a purchasing handbook for schools, which basically the schools use to find any type of contractor they need.  Apparently they dont go through the council approved ones anymore. 

Anyone heard of these guys?

For only £150 I can be in the book that covers 100's of schools and colleges etc.

I thought that the schools went through the council.  when we got paid for the school we cleaned the cheque came from the council, ( quickly too I might add)

I would love to get more school window cleaning work but dont want to waste money in this company if its a waste of time.

If anyone knows about this company any input would be a great help.
Thanks
Ant
TVCS

[dave0123]

its a con!

Iv had loads of them saying itl get u this amount of work from schools etc then nursing homes lists and its a waste of £150.00

[need a cleaner]

con

[S.A.J]

Sorry to say it’s a con!! The schools won’t even look at this so called booklet they will just bin it.

I’m getting loads of this a the moment, advertise here advertise there if I said yes to them all ill be bankrupt at the end of the day.

All so stay away from the emergency services one too!!

Stuart 

[Londoner]

Dodgy.

 Make a few calls to the Council, find out a named contact in the right department and cultivate them. Go and see them face to face,take a load of photos of your van, some of the jobs you do, anything to make you more real as a window cleaner. Once you have established a personal contact they will push work your way. Having someone good they can rely on makes their life a lot easier.

My friend Del runs a fleet of minibuses and does a lot of the special needs work for Hertfordshire. His success really came about when he made the right contacts in the County Council and they have established a good working relationship. When they want special jobs or one offs doing Del always sees they get covered. They know he is reliable.
Del also told me that some of the other councils he has approached were corrupt and he has been asked quite openly for backhanders.

[George P]

got conned into emergency services book a few years ago,  there all pretty much the same, save your money
george

[TVCS]

Thanks guys.  I thought it was a bit sus but thought I would ask the pro's. 

I think I will stick with the council. 

Thanks again

[Richard Holt]

i had a similar call from a company offering the same advertising, it was £400 for a 1/4 page ad.
i checked them out with portsmouth city council, this is who they said they were compiling the booklet for. and they confirmed that they were legit.

but i too have had calls from people saying that they're producing a mag for public service personnel, three infact, all different companies, all claiming to do the same thing, now that is dodgy!
the first call i had seemed ok, so i went along with it, i've never signed anything.
they sent me a proof of the ad they were going to publish, so i then e mailed them some logo's, they then after around two months! sent me another proof, i still haven't signed anything.
by this time i'd had phone calls from these other fraudsters, and had read one or two things related to this. so with that in mind, i shredded the revised proof and forgot all about them.
friday when i got in there was a large envelope in my post, inside was a copy of this magazine with an invoice for £141.00 inc vat.
the magazine is called "On The Bell".
anyone else had any calls or mags in the post from these jokers??

going to phone them tomorrow to find out what there game is?
in past experience, if you don't sign off on a proof, a printer will not print anything, well i know this to be true with business cards and other stationary.