[Richard iSparkle]

I'm feeling a bit wound up...

we have had a customer for over 6 years. cleaned them on time every 4 weeks in that time. done extra work for them when they asked.

he is a medical consultant... sends his child to the private school in the area (about £20000 a year fees)..

last month we put his price up by 88pence. that's the only price rise he has had in his entire time with us. he cancelled because of the increase!

what a plonker!!! 

[8weekly]

You'll have forgotten all about it by the weekend. 88p?

[SeanK]

Richard tight gits come from all walks of life which is what this guy is, I'm surprised you've kept him for so long.

[Mick Kent]

How much was you charging before the price increase?
I wouldn't let it bother you in the slightest, with all the other price increases you have done you must be smashing last years take.

[dazmond]

i remember many years ago a customer cancelled when i went to put up his windows from £5-50 to £6-00.this was an up and over the garage flat roof job too.never had i increased the price on this job ever.he was really angry!

some people are penny wise and pound foolish.funnily enough i still see this guy as i still clean others around where he lives and i always nod and say hello.

he now has a trad guy(who i know) who cleans them for a fiver.i also lost another one years ago when i put his price up to £7-00 from £6-00.he also has the same guy who cleans them for a fiver now.

i clean 90% of these estate properties and all the others  pay £8-£15 now.i also clean them quicker with wfp.

theres been another couple of instances where ive lost jobs  from price rises and even had a guy who basically said "ive not doubled my earnings in the last few years like you!!"and slammed the door in my face after years of reliable service(again a £1 price rise from £6 to £7.) .the truth is I HAD doubled my earnings(and  more!)BUT HE DIDNT KNOW THAT!but it wasnt by raising a poxy £6 job.

some people dont like to see you do well for yourself.i spent years on ladders with old cars,scruffy jeans,low prices etc and then in the space of a few years i raised prices,invested in wfp,uniform,sign written van and started going abroad for my holidays a few times a year.some didnt like that! .

sod em.they just want you to struggle to make ends meet and barely scratch a living together as thats what a window cleaner does isnt it?NO not anymore.ive lived that life and its rubbish.

[ben M]

88pence? why not £1? how much did you charge before?

[nathankaye]

I had very similar experience (tho i think many of us have, who have been in this game for as long).
Each new customer gets the new upto date price, whilst my long standing customers have older prices. But the gap was getting too large between the two, so it was time to put prices up. A 3bed terraced house with a very small conservatory on. Kept same price since i started back in the day, £6:50. (In my other posts, i have said that in my past i now feel like i was a charity than a business. Before people start havin a pop at price!)
I put price up by a £1.  She moaned and groaned and cancelled, even tho it was cheaper than her neighbours so told her still had loyalty discount!
Within 6mnths she came crawling bk (which i expected) So i gladly took her back. However! Told her she lost her loyalty discount and has to come back as a new customer, £10for house and £5 for conservatory so £15 in total. I now clean just her house for £10. So less work for more money. Win win

[lal]

88pence? why not £1? how much did you charge before?

  +1    Exactly my thoughts, if you had put it up a £1 or two, it might not have  bothered him, but 88pence is an odd
  amount for a price rise, and probably annoyed him.

[Smurf]

Can I ask how you came to the strange amount of 88p increase?
Are you also vat registered by any chance? 

[steve rix]

Can I ask how you came to the strange amount of 88p increase?
Are you also vat registered by any chance? 

[Richard iSparkle]

88pence? why not £1? how much did you charge before?

  +1    Exactly my thoughts, if you had put it up a £1 or two, it might not have  bothered him, but 88pence is an odd
  amount for a price rise, and probably annoyed him.

people pay by DD so the 88p is no hassle

the reason is i was recommended by a really experienced window cleaner (multi vans etc) that they got less cancellations on 88p than a £1 rise.

funny thing is another customer said the same as you, why did;t you put it up to £1!

[Richard iSparkle]

Can I ask how you came to the strange amount of 88p increase?
Are you also vat registered by any chance? 

yep, VAT registered, but i didn't mention this or give it as a reason

i just said increases in min wage etc

[Richard iSparkle]

thanks everyone for their comments.

the guys a plonker. he gets automatic wage increases and then increases every co often being NHS and a consultant.

i always new he wasn't a nice gut though so it will be good to get him off our books. i don't have to worry about him anymore

it makes me feel better venting a bit and getting your solidarity

[Smurf]

One that sticks in my mind was a one-off exterior property deep clean for a consultant surgeon. He happened to be a barter type you know the sort I mean. Let’s just say after what I said to him after I got paid I don't have to go under his knife. 

[Tom White]

I once had a lady approach me and say I was cancelled because I never shopped at their butcher's shop and another window cleaner did.

I just smiled and thanked her for her custom.

She's obviously got issues.

[Smurf]

Classic 

[JandS]

I've just had to give CPR to an Asian guy.....internal gutter cleaning to 3 sides of a bog standard semi and one side of garage.....told him £65.

[Smurf]

I bet he was waiting for his change after you revived him too 

[SeanK]

I once had a lady approach me and say I was cancelled because I never shopped at their butcher's shop and another window cleaner did.

I just smiled and thanked her for her custom.

She's obviously got issues.

Nothing wrong with that, I personally would support or give preference to a business that would support me as long as I'm not getting an inferior product or ending up massively out of pocket.

[Tom White]

I once had a lady approach me and say I was cancelled because I never shopped at their butcher's shop and another window cleaner did.

I just smiled and thanked her for her custom.

She's obviously got issues.

Nothing wrong with that, I personally would support or give preference to a business that would support me as long as I'm not getting an inferior product or ending up massively out of pocket.

It was the bitterness mixed with the triumphalist demeanor that showed me she was a bunny boiler.

Her house was nothing special; just a bog standard semi - of which there's thousands of 'em all over the place.

The only interesting aspect of cleaning her windows was once when we did the insides; the house was filthy, but the porn CDs left out on display in the bedroom were interesting; not the dirty underwear strewn across the floor.

I wouldn't eat food from her shop if she paid me.

The dirty gopper.