[jouk45]

i am sick of those national cleaning company's, no more free estimating for them, next time i just give them my rate, and thats it, i have had a couple call me to do this,, but this was recent, asking me if i could clean inside and out for a small company in dundee, as it was raining i went to estimate, gave my report back to them, i get the feeling we are being used, well in this case me, they either cant estimate the work, or they have no one near to estimate the job, what better way of getting it done, just call a local cleaner, and tell them they may get the job, i am starting to think this is something not all but a large majority of company's are doing, using us to do there dirty work, anyone else had this, and how do you deal with this kind of job offers by national company's

[jsm]

good tatic on their part - they get local firms to quote straight to them so they know your price then go in cheaper to get the job , so thats how they get all the work - lol

[jouk45]

you know what? am starting to think that is the case  :

[mci services]

its even worse when they ask for a risk assesment and you later find them using yours

[jouk45]

well from now on their businesses will not grow at my expense, lesson learned,
 

[wizard]

Maybe a good idea would be to charge and you can refund when you get the job.

[AuRavelling79]

Or - only if you have been stung by one of these charlatans before - estimate a very high rate and then go direct to the company and offer a better deal.

[michael papworth]

Simplest approach is quite simply to avoid them like the plague.

National cleaning companies AREN'T cleaning companies. They are management companies who manage cleaners and cleaning.

[jouk45]

very crafty ewan  there will be genuine companys out there, its just the ones out there that abuse it

[HIGH LEVEL WINDOW CLEANERS (scrimmy)]

this happened to me about 10 years ago...it was a guy from a major cleaning company who said they dont clean windows and use outside contractors for that  and if my prices were right i would get all the window cleaning work and can i go out and quote these six jobs, great i said.........so i quoted the six major jobs for them in and around glasgow......after a month i phoned the company to ask what the progress was........they had never heard of the guy i was speaking to..........alarm bells.....i went round to one of the jobs i quoted to "offer my services" to suss out who got the work......guess who got the work?....yep....lesson was well and truly learnt/learned.

i have not had any calls like that since, except genuine commercial enquiries....however if i had a call like that again i would def ask for a fee to quote, payable per job quoted and then and there

[prestige cleaners]

yeah, good idea, ive been messed about by big firms/cleaning companies. i think i will do that from now on just give them your hourly rate say £60 per hr and leave them to it, had one the other day asking me to do inside and outside of a shop for a tenner, oh and i would have to come back after doing outsides 2hrs later to insides for health and safety reasons! i told them no wonder the last cleaner left!
muppets!

[s.hughes]

Its not easy to quote on commercial, I now know how I can get the right price lol

[Pristine Clean]

National cleaning are the small mans worst enemy. Unless you are subbing to them.

The are doing the work dirt cheap. So cheap it unbeleivable. - I know a huge firm that seem to use subbies.

We did a one off clean for a large firm. We did the cleaning inside not the windows. I got several quotes for the windows.

The price by the small firms like one man bands or 2 people was around £370 - £500. Which I thought was reasonable. I would have done the window cleaning ourselves but we were short on time.

The price quoted by the BIG national firm was like £140 all in. - Absolutely amazing. Yes we got written quotation. I used them and stuck my profit on top.

Now I use the BIG boys to sub work out. They are dirt cheap. There work is not that bad. - You can make a killing.

Why are they cheap - I think its because they arive in a large number and are able to do the work in such a short time.

Also speaking to there directors, there actual profits are huge, but per job its like between £2 - 10 quid on some jobs

try it.

Dave

[Mr T]

I was asked to quote for cleaning the windows of a new Primark.
Outside windows daily
Inside windows  once a week.
Escalator glass once a week,  (4 escalators , 3 floors)

I was asked to put it in writting to his office.
He phoned me back saying I was too cheap and needed to add a few quid to it as they wanted a company that was not going to stop doing it because they got there price wrong.
So I added x £ to it and guess what I did not get it .
He would not return my call.