[P @ F]

Hi guys , i cleaned  a customers gutters yesterday for £30 and the windows for £7 , the gutter quote was for 2 sides , inside and out , when i checked the insides of the gutters they where spotless so didnt need doing , i went back today and she refused to pay anything !
She said that because i didnt do the insides thats why she wasnt paying , how can i clean out what isnt there ?

 What should i do ?

  Rich  P @ F

[alpha]

Honesty is the best policy because people talk. So tell her you didn't find anything and charge her for what you did do. I have had the same thing happen to me. And got three houses to clean the gutters soffits and eaves Because I didn' t try to do her she blabbed to her neighbors.

 

[H h20]

Knock off what you would have charged for doing inside the gutter,she should then pay you for what you did,Gaz 

[mark6765]

i would ask for half of the £30
and the £7 for doing the windows.
if she refused i would politely tell her she would lose me as her window cleaner.

[williamx]

I would charge her £7.00 for the windows and £20 for the cleaning of the outside of the gutters and the inspection of the inside.

If she refuses to pay, then tell her the debt will be passed onto a debt collection agency, and any further charges will be added to her account, including county court costs it it has to go that far.  She will then pay up but you will lose her custom.

[stevef]

So how did she know the gutters were not cleaned ? did she climb up and have a look!
To answer your question dump the £7 customer, that wont hurt will it, what will she try on in the future?

[P @ F]

She is binned anyway , i tried the court threat but she did not batt an eyelid , she said her hubbie went up and pulled loads of muck out of the gutter , he must have done the gutter next door , trust me there was nothing at all in his .

The money bit has done my head in but i want revenge , what can i do apart from clean her windows with grease as im going to do on monday ?

 All ideas greatfully accepted !

 Rich   P @ F

[busydaffodil]

Do nothing that could get you into trouble. Is losing £37 worth being arrested & locked up for?  Surely not!  Your reputation will also be lost.   

I would write to them, explaining you were not given the chance to explain that upon inspection, there was nothing to clean.  For that inspection only, the average charge is £15.  You were only going to charge her that, along with the £7 owing.      You attended her property upon request, spent?? minutes doing the inspection & would therefore request payment for time spent inspecting.

[alpha]

If you want to take it further Citizens advice Burea helped us out a couple of time. With taking someone to the small claims court. It doesn't mean though that you will always get your money. But it does show them that you won't be messed around.  And the process is "fairly" straightforward. But whatever you do don't  do anything daft it will come back on YOU.
 

[Morph]

Just ask her what she thinks she owes you.  Take whatever she gives. (even if it's just abuse, which it won't be).

Then tell her you won't be back!  The sweetest revenge.  Say you provide a fair service for fair people.  Have a nice day

[windows_chepstow]

Hi guys , i cleaned  a customers gutters yesterday for £30 and the windows for £7 , the gutter quote was for 2 sides , inside and out ,

Rich;

Never mind the 'not being paid bit'.  You can't do anything about it so put it behind you.

That's good advice; but if it had been done to me; I'd still be raging about it two-years-later.  In fact I've still got one ex-customer from the Summer who deserves a couple of handfulls of carpet tacks strewn about their driveway.

Anyway,

When you're asked to clean a gutter, I always go up and check they require cleaning first.  Sometimes they're clean(ish) and the customer mistakingly thinks they need cleaning because they haven't been done in years.

On occassion, they'll give you a funny look as if you're trying to 'slope shoulders' and get out of a dirty job.

Then when it comes to pricing, I think £30 is too cheap for an inside 'gutter scrape' and an outside gutter clean; including soffits.

£50 is a better price - £25 per side - if it's a terraced house at least.  More if there's more.

If it's purely just an inside gutter scrape - charge them £15 per side.  If they need doing, they need doing otherwise the weight of all that muck will damage their gutters.

I believe people are willing to pay more if it saves them money on repair costs.

Use a ladder stand-off and get a bucket with some string and a big hook to put all the muck into.  Don't forget to use a Rojak ladder stopper too.

I advertise this service to all of my customers and had a deluge of this sort of job in the summer.

My ex-neihbor, a proper 'cash-in-hand dodgy-guy' worked for a 'professional' gutter cleaner and told me how much he charged for a large detached house.  It was £180 and it took two of them two-hours.

Okay, with regular window-cleaning customers, we can charge less and if any of them baulk at your price, you could advise them to get another quote from a 'professional' gutter cleaning service who'll probably charge treble.

[brett walker]

Was cleaning a customers windows yesterday 10 quid, she came out to ask me if i could do her gutters 2 sides
i said " yes it'll be 25 pound extra for the gutters " she said thats fine.

I checked down pipes the gutters were empty just 2 handfulls of muck, she paid me no problem-  10 mins work
having said that the gutters could have been completely full and could have taken a hour.  Ive had this happen to me before so i give them a price and thats it

Gutter cleaning's the worst thing about our line of work

Brett

[P @ F]

I hear what your saying tosh , but it really makes my blood boil , i explained that the £30 price included everything being cleaned if it required it , i did not go up to see if they were gunked up or not , i see it as win some lose some .
But as i didnt need to do the insides she deemed it as being half the job .

So i havnt conned her , she has moved the posts .

 Rich   P @ F

[Moderator David@stives]

Rich

What were you doing cleaning gutters inside and out for £30.

If it was me i would have charged at least £60 and that would be for 2 sides max

[windows_chepstow]

I hear what your saying tosh , but it really makes my blood boil , i explained that the £30 price included everything being cleaned if it required it , i did not go up to see if they were gunked up or not , i see it as win some lose some .
But as i didnt need to do the insides she deemed it as being half the job .

So i havnt conned her , she has moved the posts .

 Rich   P @ F

Rich,

Put like that, yes, I agree with you.

But I'm like you, and can get extremely wound-up over a customer who you feel has 'ripped you off'.

It's not nice going to bed with a head-full of vengefull thoughts.

Get it out of your system, Rich.  

Have they a drive-way?  Have you had a carpet laid recently?  Were there any left over carpet tacks?  At least a couple of handfulls.

Anyway, I'm getting off the subject here (we've just had a new carpet laid; honest).

And David has the right idea on pricing.

[P @ F]

Dont start Dave , just got it in the ear from the missus that im too cheap , she is more up for a confrontation with them than i am !
We are meant to be saving balls out for a mortgage at the mo and probs like this are not needed , i think im gonna go back in the morning to see the hubbie and if i dont get the payment then i will give him somthing to spend a lot more than £37 on , i know its not the done thing but i am so sick and tired of being walked on by idiots .
I have been so customer friendly up to date that you would not believe , and all its done its kicked me in the teeth , from now on its price rises and no favour whatsoever for anybody !
That big house i posted the other day , asking the price for , i asked for £25 not the £22 that the last wc charged i got nothing but hassle , and then it started  , there are runs and spots on some of the glass , i said from the word go about the old wooden sash jobs and being first clean and all that , 6 of the windows it became apparent had not been touched by the last wc , and all i asked was £3 extra , and i did both sides of that big glass porch too !

 I think it was Tosh who mentioned a rich tax a while ago , well its coming for me too , sod em !

 Rich P @ F      

[windows_chepstow]

Rich,

I've never mentioned a 'Rich Tax'.  That was Matt (of matt's DIY WFP site).

Also, don't go round to the 'numpty' customers.  If I say it's 'only £37' that sounds patronising, because £37 is a lot of money.

Rich, just leave 'em alone.  It's not worth it.  I was joking when I posted about 'carpet tacks' and stuff.

Google for 'Karma', and get some of it!

[Moderator David@stives]

thats the spirit charge what you are worth.

I have got the luxury of having a huge customer base to give me an excellent wage everyweek so  all my new jobs have to pay me good money to become one of my customers.

I have been there charging peanuts to get the work but it took me a few years to learn my lesson.

[macc]

like david said, "charge what your worth".

i was too cheep, had to work my bits off to make a good wage.

ive uped my prices, gone over to wfp. i work less hours now & earn more.

ok, i lost a few but replaced them, the majority will stay because they no you and a trust is built up over time.

believe in yourself & the customers will belive in you.

[P @ F]

NOPE , IT DIDNT WORK , IM STILL AS MAD AS A FISH !
GOING ROUND IN THE MORNING , SEE WHAT I CAN SORT WITH THEM , IF I DONT GET ANY JOY IT MEANS CRAZY BOY IS COMMIN OUT TO PLAY !

WATCH THIS SPACE , DO THEY LET YOU HAVE LAPTOPS IN PRISON NOWADAYS.

  Crazy Rich  P @ F Cell block 4 , H.M.P. Channings Wood !