[Carpet Dawg]

This is probably not very professional of me but just got this email from a previous customer 5 minutes ago.

Hi Tony,

I spoke to you earlier today about professionally cleaning the carpet in the bedroom (5.1m x3.1m) at my flat in *********

At the same time my husband received a quote from another company who charges £25 to clean the carpet and apply something to protect that carpet from further stain. Are you able to match the price since I had you professionally cleaned it just over a year ago? I hope you are happy to match it and I will just have you clean it for us next mon or tues afternoon.

Let me know. Thanks

Kind regards,*******


Kind regards! cheeky bugger!

I've just stopped laughing and thought I'd share it with you guys

2nd floor tenement, £25 for clean and protect!! bargain! wonder how much protector she'll get for 25 quid...

[Kev Loomes]

Could be water?

I had a quote yesterday and he moaned that my prices were extortionate and that he was quoted £10 a room for protector after the clean. I said if you believe you are going to get the same quality clean and protection [after explaining & why], and that getting what you pay for means nothing - then I would book him instead as it sounds like a bargain.

He booked me.

Trying to educate them is hard sometimes - but you have to try, then just let them get on with it tbh.

[Russ Chadd]

People are ignorant... common sense is shouting at them saying "how can another firm possibly clean and protect the carpet for as little as £25???)
They will be the first to moan if that £25 carpet clean fails to meet their expectations!
The hardest people to educate are women who have a fixed price or idea in their heads... no matter what you say will convince them!!

[Carpet Dawg]

and she pays by cheque!!

I've had a lot of odd balls in the last few months. One guy wanted to rent out a machine, when I explained that we clean the carpets not rent out machines, he said how much to you charge for bedroom, lounge hallway and if it was more than £30 for me to forget it as he can rent a machine for that!!!  I told him I'll forget it then. He then started asking me where are the best places to rent out machine!

[gwrightson]

I quoted a job for a busineess premesis last week.

Ground floor roomj, !50 sq mt, an office 30 sq mt,   an entrance stairs 16 steps, upstairs   100sq mt.

The owner rang me , said he was sorry i didnt get the job but he had been quoted  £140 ,  ohhh well   cant win them all,  oh the clean to be done with t.m too

Geoff.
ps  please dont tell me you would clean for that price .

[Neil Jones]

That can't be right Geoff?

[M.Acorn]

On the other end of the scale here,I did one yesterday,single bedroom,lounge,small kitchen carpet,2 x 2 seat sofa and a footstool.
This was in my inbox last night,charged £250....

A big thank you for all your work today. It is very much appreciated. Can' t
tell you how relieved I am that you managed to get the stain out of the lounge
carpet. The alternative filled me with horror, it must be said.

I know you advised that I leave removing the bits from the feet under the bed -
will it be best to leave the sofas for 24 hours too ?

I will take delight in recommending your services.

Speak soon

Kind regards -

[SteveAllan]

I get it all the time very frustrating. We also offer oven cleans and what I just cannot get my head round is they will pay us £50 for an oven in and out in an hour but god forbid go anywhere near that for average lounge carpet and its "boris down the road will do it for £20" grrr

[gwrightson]

Neil,

That is right !! amazed me too................   

I do know most of the c/c in my  area and do know who are cheap and who are not so cheap,  I know of 3 with t/m

and I do know Mike H certainly wouldnt do for this price, and i certaily know the other wouldnt either, leaving 1 who I have never had any contact or dealings with .

Geoff

[wynne jones]

It's an opportunity to replace them with someone who gladly pays your charges, is appreciative and tells all her friends to give you a call.

[JandS]

You can't blame people like this.
If they have never had carpets cleaned before
then they have no idea of the amount of work
required.
You charge £50 he charges £25 hey let's have
the £25 one.
Think it goes back to the times when some plumbers
and other tradesmen were charging stupid prices, then
people realised if they shopped around they could
get the same job done much cheaper.
Still a good price for the tradesman but cheaper than
there usual one.
So now they ring round and hey so do I for some stuff.

[AshWhite]

John,
Tony said this was a previous customer.

[Russ Chadd]

Most smart people will obtain around 3 - 4 quotes and then weigh up each quote based on its individual merits such as

Availability, proposed method, time spent, price, drying times etc...
The clueless ones simply get a bunch of quotes and then pick out the cheapest one... without asking any other questions!

[Carpet Dawg]

Yip, she's a previous customer hence the title.

That's the annoying thing, she was obviously happy with the clean and knew they could trust me etc. but they still went round to find another quote.

Still not answered her. Not sure if I should try to educate her and show her a link to how much protector costs or tell her well done for finding a bargain, good luck.

[JandS]

Sorry forgot she was previous.
Maybe she thought she would get the same
standard of job only cheaper.
Maybe she would.
Some people working out there have virtually
no overheads whatsoever.
They live in a rented house with 5 other adults
contributing to to rent and bills so a saving there.
They probably don't pay tax or NI either.
They , in all probability, are on benefits and fiddling
as well.
They may do a half decent job and that's their beer
and cig money.
Or it could be as simple as it's their 2nd job.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I don't think that they are 'your/our' customers until you've cleaned for them twice then they have a bond with you, if they are serial customers say once a year then you are dug in.

People aren't as loyal as they used to be many don't expect the price to go up probably because they have a set price in mind sometimes we may do too good a job to the point that a lesser cleaner only has to spruce up the carpet in the next visit and their charges may show this or I think mainly that customers have you to clean and you do a fine job then think we'll try someone cheaper as nothing went wrong.

Shaun

[james roffey]

People just have different ideas of what they expect to pay, had a call last week from a lady who wanted a quote for stairs and landing, it was two stories up a lot of hassle getting easy access so i quoted £75, "that's a lot she said i have already been quoted £35" to cap it all the guy who quoted £35 is not a cowboy, but i do think he's a fool to drive to do the job lug all the equipment out climb all the way up two flights of stairs however many times reload all the equipment and drive home for £35 less his expenses, what is probably £20 for almost a couple of hours work    

I would "try" and point out to your customer why she was happy with your work last time !

[bennymon]

Today done a job small lounge £60 large stain came out all done in 1 hour customer over the moon . I also supplied them an oven cleaner great job customer well happy but the oven took 3 plus hours for £55 . Made me glad I just book the ovens .  I think the protector on that job may be water for that price lol

[COLIN BRIGHT]

peasants, peasants, peasants, peasants, peasant oh and did i mention the peasants

          

having said that ive had some cracking jobs latley...seem to be peasant free at the mo!

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Colin go back to your yacht moored in Monaco we don't need you lording it here.

Shaun