[Rob@Blast off]

Round here everyone seems to be having their drives cleaned by gipsys I can't work it out. If a fella with a thick Irish accent and a sign written van saying roofing on knocked on my door I would tell him where to go yet they getting loads of cleaning jobs round my way.

[Neil Jones]

Cheap! They don't pay tax so can be.

[Aqua Power Solutions]

Neil , how did you get on with the council job ?

Ed

[Chris waters]

They've parked on a field nr my house,all brand new caravans and cars and all roofing or surfacing sign written transit vans. There not short of work or money,

[drive surgeon]

Millions of them doing drives, tree surgery, tarmacing drives etc.  people get them who are just after a cheap job. All the rich people in the big houses we see gypo's there. Rich people are the worst for penny pinching.  We gets more tips and better jobs and tea and cakes from the so called poor areas.  I wouldn't let a gypo near my property. I would only ever get a recommended tradesman or firm.  The horror stories we have heard from people about gypo's is scary. Also we have heard all sorts of gear going missing and even washing of people's clothes lines. Yet their seems to be droves and droves of them and breeding like rabbits!!!!  They pay no tax either. They shud be stopped.

[drive surgeon]

All us firms who pay tax and insurances are being undercut and losing work because of gypo's. So I'm not a fan of them to say the least.

[Marc Stock]

its cos they are pikeys.

everyone loves a pikey..

[BDCS]

All us firms who pay tax and insurances are being undercut and losing work because of gypo's. So I'm not a fan of them to say the least.

I have some insurance but I don't earn enough to pay tax  They get the work because they bang the door and ask for the work - a certain type of sales pitch that obviously works. How many people on here moan that its quiet  but would never bang a door - a lesson to be learnt maybe

[Mike Halliday]

They get a lot of their work work from OAPs who still think of the Irish as the hardworking navvy from the 50-60s who came across from Ireland in their 1000s to work on britains roads and building sites,

They originally knocked on doors offering to Tarmac drives cheap with a bit of asphalt they had left from a road construction job , they then moved onto fascias & soffits, now they do pressure washing.

But in the end (like bdcs says) they get the work because they have the bottle to knock on doors and ask for it

[Kevin Miller]

Has anybody on the forum ever tried knocking on doors for custom. I've not but going to start shortly as I'm only getting around 3 calls a week now so wondering what success people have had this way

[Rob@Blast off]

I knock doors when canvessing for window cleaning so I'll have to try it for the pressure washing when i have a quite week but got loads on at the minute 

[drive surgeon]

We wouldn't belittle ourselves by knocking on doors and don't need to. Only quiter in winter but don't go knocking about gutter clearing. Wud rather watch tele with a pack of digestives 

[Kevin Miller]

We wouldn't belittle ourselves by knocking on doors and don't need to. Only quiter in winter but don't go knocking about gutter clearing. Wud rather watch tele with a pack of digestives 

I understand what your saying but I'm in my first year so not really got that big client base so watching TV eating digestives us not going to pay my bills 

[Rob_Mac]

Kevin

Get yourself out there. Just because other people don't do it it doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.

Do what you need to do to get the money in!

All the best

Rob

[justin cooper]

I dropped some leaflets off at a row of big houses near to where I live, they all had big extremely dirty driveways so I was hopeful. About 2 weeks later I'm driving past and two pikeys were cleaning one of the driveways, then the very next day they were doing next doors drive . I was gutted but that's the way it goes.
Thing is they looked like two of the roughest looking people I'd ever seen, so they must of had a good sales pitch.

[BDCS]

Who's the fool 

[drive surgeon]

No sales pitch mate. Just cheap as chips job. The rich people are the worst for getting gypo's in. Let them get their inferior work done.  I've seen a lot of jobs done by gypo's and it makes me laugh now how bad it is. I used to cry!! 

[Andy_MK]

The consumer show on my local BBC radio show is always telling his listeners not to use companies that drop leaflets through the door so it's a waste of time round here leaflet dropping.

[Mike Halliday]

What the listening figure for that radio station?  Probably less than 10% of the local population, plus our target audience for powerwashing is only 10% of the general population so you are not leafleting becuase 1% of the people who would respond are being put off by that consumer programme.

It could be on national tv between eastenders or coronation street and it would'nt have a massive impact of our business

[M W.]

Cleaned a single car drive this morning/bit path. was cleaned and sealed last september. grass weeds etc back,

he was a door knocking soft spoken smart lad. they pressure washed the drive/took  3/4 price , put down 1 x coat sealer on barely dry blocks/sand and f*"ked off £360.

Cant stand the Bas*ar~s