[Marc Stock]

Dont know what peoples opinions are on here. Its been touched on before regarding  sacking off customers.

Personally i will do anything in my power to not sack off a customer. They have to either be blatantly abusive or actually refuse to pay for work done for no good reason.

But generally im happy to do the work if they are happy to pay, even if they are a bit difficult. After all im not after making friends, I'm maximising business.

I had a customer a while back who was late with payments. So i said to her that in order to continue the service she has to go onto dd. 6 months have passed and i havent cleaned her since as she hasnt filled out her dd mandate yet, she asked me if i can come back and i said yes but you need to fill in that dd. She hasnt yet, will she? I dont know and i dont care tbh.. when she fills it in ill add her back onto the round and she knows that, have i sacked her though? No. Im accommodating her within the scope of my business

[dazmond]

im surprised MALC GOLD has got any customers with his CIU famous "flounce" at the merest hint of trouble!

[P @ F]

She will fill in the DD let you clean , then she will cancel the DD and it will all begin again !
I think a Golden Flounce is the best course of action 

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

im surprised MALC GOLD has got any customers with his CIU famous "flounce" at the merest hint of trouble!

lol i am the queen of flouncing 9 dumped this week alone ! which now takes us down to a 1000 customers dead , i wont stand for trouble customers one bit   

[Slash]

Customers are not bothered,they will just get somebody else to clean their windows,I've dumped a  few and haven't got paid but that's buisness,I've replaced them with better ones but my round is getting better as the years go by with more loyal and better paying customers.
When non payers  do ring  me again after their windows are filthy I have great pleasure telling them where  to go and that's priceless but they do get other window cleaners but I'm not bothered.

[AuRavelling79]

I have a customer who was a bit ditzy. Pleasant, coffee providing, attractive - but ditzy when it came to paying. Things came to a head when her cheque bounced.

I photocopied the "refer to drawer" thingummy with the amount I was charged (£4 I think) and asked for it to be remedied and she paid me cash there and then. Then a few months later she got behind again and I asked for full payment before I would continue and she paid me. I said she must go on standing order and she agreed but it didn't happen.

Last year she pulled up in her Range Rover, all fluttering eyelids and winning smile and said coquettishly "I'm so sorry for messing you around - I've got a proposal ... will you take me back on if I start up the standing order like I said I would."

I said "As soon as it starts landing in my bank account I would do it" (ie - she now had to pay BEFORE I'd clean) I also stipulated that the first clean would be double as they hadn't been done for a year.

She paid me cash on the spot for the first clean and set up the standing order which has been regular since.

So I'm not all prickly and flouncy all the time - especially if they have a winning smile. And that's not just the men! 

[robbo333]

I have two types of customers:

1. Nice, ordinary people, who are polite, well mannered, leave their gates unlocked, pay on time,  sometimes offer me a cuppa, sometimes not, never cancel a clean when I text the night before, just generally nice, normal people. They probably wouldn't knowingly muck me around. Sometimes they do but they just forget. Ok on the odd occasion, they may forget the gate and I'll clean the front only and charge half price, but that is rare. Sometimes they may forget to pay but I'll remind them and it's all sorted. I think I can fairly rely on these people to be good customers. Some talk to me regularly and some I don't see for 6 months. Sometimes I may see them and they are not in a good mood, but that's not my problem. My 8 weekly cycle continues...

2. Then there are the not so good, the ones that tend to look down on me a bit, don't really want their windows cleaned (at my intervals) so cancel now and again, muck about paying (because i'm just the window cleaner), moan about the price, can't be bothered to leave their electric gates open, (they forgot about me the minute after they read my text), can't be bothered to clear up the dog poo, or all the dangerous crap down the side access. Generally just messers who ruin my chi and don't really deserve my high quality service.

Actually thinking about it, i've dumped all the number 2s and i'm working towards building a compact round full of number 1s.

Roll on 2018.   

[Walter Mitty]

Sure thing, it's a business transaction rather than a personality contest.  If a customer regularly messes about and causes the job to take longer than it should, then I need to review that because it's not what I signed up for.
I'm sure we've all had customers where it takes as long to get paid as it does to clean.  After a quick ten or fifteen minute clean, they hunt around for the cheque book, eventually finding it in the bottom of the fridge. Then the pen, located in the pocket of something they haven't worn since the coronation. They start to write it. Once completed they tear it up because they've inserted the wrong number, and so another five-minute wait as the fading daylight threatens to bring the day's income to an end - or my bladder is close to imminent leakage.
It would be cheaper not to charge a couple of them.

[AuRavelling79]

Walter Mitty - top post!

Why can't they just write the cheque as soon as they've answered the door and have it ready when you knock at the finish? Oh no! Same old rigmarole ...

"What's the date? ... how much? ... how do I spell your surname?

22nd / £20/ G-O-L-D - the same as the last hundred times you dozy bat!

 

[nathankaye]

This is why GoCardless is great.
You turn up, clean and move onto the next one and 7 days later their money is in your account

[Bungle]

Sure thing, it's a business transaction rather than a personality contest.  If a customer regularly messes about and causes the job to take longer than it should, then I need to review that because it's not what I signed up for.
I'm sure we've all had customers where it takes as long to get paid as it does to clean.  After a quick ten or fifteen minute clean, they hunt around for the cheque book, eventually finding it in the bottom of the fridge. Then the pen, located in the pocket of something they haven't worn since the coronation. They start to write it. Once completed they tear it up because they've inserted the wrong number, and so another five-minute wait as the fading daylight threatens to bring the day's income to an end - or my bladder is close to imminent leakage.
It would be cheaper not to charge a couple of them.

Top post! I had one today, I'm sure she's a control freak. Big house behind electronic gates. I get there and press the buzzer, bugger me she answers straight away! I crack on and get finished within the hour, light is fading and I've still got 3 to do. I bang the door, no answer, I pip my horn, no answer, I whistle, no answer, I phone her, no answer, I drive down to the buzzer, no answer, I reverse back up the drive. Oh there she is p155 arsing about in the bathroom. I wave and do a cutthroat sign to say I'm finished. A couple of minutes she opens a top window and asks how much. FFS you silly bint, you know how much it is. £55 please. Hang on a minute. I'm pacing around by now. Then I see hubby moving about in the kitchen. Like where the frig has he been hiding. Finally he comes to the door. Have you been waiting for me he says. Err yes. I hope you don't mind change as he gives me 2x £20 notes and 15 £1 coins. Have a nice Xmas he says. You too ya div.

[markymark]

Glad to know it's not just me....
Great time of year when dealing with good customers - ie those that pay on time; those that realise you're against the clock; those that are glad you clean for them or even just those that are.... well... polite.
Cr4p time of year when dealing with slack-jawed numpties that seem surprised you might want paying and can't remember how much it is (like every other clean. Ever) ; those that don't want you to clean today but "can you come back tomorrow between 12:23 and 12:26 as the cat/dog/goldfish is being permed for Xmas... and my favouritist now ex-customers - yesterday a truly ill-mannered customer treated me to a 'Merry Christmas' said with all the monotone sincerity of a petulant teenager or politicians apology whilst stood with his hand out for £2 change. With no eye contact whatsoever. Did make me wonder if he's on the spectrum. And then moneyed lady of a certain age who pulled a face that only the 60something self-entitled middle class can pull - you know, that sort of  constipated, patronising, pained offence - with a "not in THIS awful weather?!" It was overcast and damp. No wind, no rain, pretty good cleaning weather. When I pointed out it was quite good weather you'd have thought I'd been caught red-handed in her knickers drawer. Both ain't going to be seeing me at their gaffs again. And no, no explanations, I really can't be bothered telling them. I've made a nice net gain this year so their contribution won't be missed.
Minor problems, but this last few weeks has made me realise I don't need these customers messing with my mojo or even just slowing me up and affecting my income. The bottom line is the cash in the bank, and I want to be as happy and chilled as I can earning it.

[dazmond]

some really funny moaning posts about customers there lads!

i can relate to all of them at one time or another.

what gets me is how surprised some of them are when i turn up on their doorstep for payment(after no payment online/SAE/when their in when i clean because they cant be bothered dragging their fat arses off the sofa to answer the door)

the few that do pay by cheque 9 times out of 10 ask me HOW MUCH?WHATS YOUR NAME?even though some ive been cleaning for for over 20 YEARS!

luckily ive not got many of these types of customers left on my round these days,i used to have loads like this years ago but not anymore!

[RPCCS]

I'm thinking of dumping a customer too. Its a barn conversion in this outlying village, I do the majority of the village, and one of my regulars asked if I would take this job on, as the owner was a friend of theirs.  They paid me the first time,thenthe owner pulled up in his Merc, a developer from well known posh area locally. Asked if he could pay online, and would I give him an invoice each time. I agreed gave bank details, and the first 3 times or so all was good, then I didn't get paid in September for the job, so left it a month then emailed him a reminder. He claimed he couldn't open the original pdf invoice,?? well why not email me back and say it wouldnt open, instead of just not paying??  He paid straight away, last month he turned up while I was halfway through, and asked would I clear the leaves out of the gutters, I agreed and finished the job, and left to carry on with rest of the village.
 Emailed a pdf invoice, still waiting for payment, even though it states clearly on the invoice, payment required within 14 days.
Not bothering to send a reminder, but won't be doing the job again until he pays. The job is almost finished now, and I bet the contractors he's had working there joiners, sparks plumbers painters, won't have been as patient as me.

[tlwcs]

I've got lazy.
Over the years I've stopped getting shot of the rubbish and have allowed them to a point to mess with my head. Leave  it today's, and dog pooh gardens and slow payers are a vert small percentage but there's enough to lower my spirits.
No more. Christmas break I will reorganise the whole round and cut the crap.
I had a mate who when approached by a customer he had dropped some time before. She asked if he would start cleaning her again. He said his round was full and he would put her on the waiting list for people who were slow payers and had limited access. She asked if he still had her phone number. Lol

[Spruce]

I've got lazy.  I have as well
Over the years I've stopped getting shot of the rubbish and have allowed them to a point to mess with my head. Leave  it today's, and dog pooh gardens and slow payers are a vert small percentage but there's enough to lower my spirits.
No more. Christmas break I will reorganise the whole round and cut the crap.
I had a mate who when approached by a customer he had dropped some time before. She asked if he would start cleaning her again. He said his round was full and he would put her on the waiting list for people who were slow payers and had limited access. She asked if he still had her phone number. Lol 

If it wasn't for some it would be a boring life. 

[markymark]

I've got a spare afternoon and some spare beers. I'll be sat all nice and cosy like in the front room, stereo on, working through my lists. I figure if I get them done before the fourth pint I'll still be in a culling mood before the Beer Mellows kick in and I revert to my default 'good will to all men' setting. It also gives me a chance to practice my New Year Flounce as I collect each chilled beer. I may start wearing a cape and monocle for added effect.

Although I did have to re-read the title of this last night. I wondered if some of them were making cleaners REALLY work for their tips this year.