[colley614]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering what people do when they come across cowboys. I personally know a few that are in my area and have a lot of business between them. Do you guys report them or leave them to it?

[Adam Boss]

What do you call as a " cowboy " ??

[Russell Macdonald]

Leave them to it. Just make sure you dont look like one of them.

Macc

[colley614]

Somebody who is cleaning windows and does not pay tax and is usually also claiming benefits.

[colley614]

I have paid for uniforms and other professional items so people can tell that I'm the genuine article. Plus my work speaks for itself.

[Russell Macdonald]

Somebody who is cleaning windows and does not pay tax and is usually also claiming benefits.

Now thats different. If someone started poaching my work & they were the above there is a number for benefit fraud.

Write down their number plate, a few detail & pass it on. I would.

Macc

[steve k]

have you asked them if they are registered as self employed or are you just making assumptions based on their workwear...a lettered polo shirt is not an indication of quality or legality!

[Paul Coleman]

Somebody who is cleaning windows and does not pay tax and is usually also claiming benefits.

How can you tell from looking at them?   
People may have made that assumption about me when I first started as itr took a while to be able to afford getting kitted out better.
I leave well alone myself.
Although they may not directly poach my customers, working illegally can hold down the rates generally.  However, I would not make a snap judgement based on someone's appearance.  When I started in 1991 I was skint and had an old banger Datsun Cherry hatchback, a ladder borrowed from a plumber, and just regarded window cleaning as something on which to give my old clothes their final fling.  I was registered with the taxman though, had an accountant, and had public liability insurance.  To look at me you might have thought I was a chancer just earning a few extra quid on the side though.

[pylofm]

Being a cowboy is a state of mind not what the outer shell portrays...look at Estate Agents, most of those are well dressed and talk the talk.

Sorry to the honest Estate agent out there somewhere, you know who you are

  Dave.

[colley614]

I don't mean by what they are dressed like obviously a lot of window cleaners wear their own clothes to work. The people I mean are the guys that are walking round with cans of extra strength lager tucked into their pouches and walking around with a f*g in their mouth.
Plus they don't even clean windows properly just rub them over with a dirty rag (If anybody is in)

[Cleaner Windows]

Somebody who is cleaning windows and does not pay tax and is usually also claiming benefits.

dont mean to be rude but i have been cleaningh for about 8 years or so and dont wear a uniform etc but pay my taxes and am totally legal apart from the odd window i shouldnt be cleaning with a ladder!

[colley614]

I don't mean that I think that window cleaners without uniforms are cowboys. What I'm trying to say is that I know a lot of local window cleaners in my area don't pay tax and are not insured. I have even had one guy admit to me that he claims sick benefits.
Sorry for the way I have written the statement. It was not aimed to offend anybody, I just wanted people opinion on what they would do.

[Biscute]

I think yous have focused on the uniform part to much i think its more about the lads who do it on the side i think he meens. To be honest i hate taxes and NI as does everyone eles but telling sorry grassing on people who you think arnt is just wrong and low in my opinion. Wat they do is ther buisness let them get on with it.

[colley614]

I agree with you on that one. Better keeping yourself to yourself and just getting on with what you have to do. I just wondered what other people do when they came across guys doing it on the side.

[Cleaner Windows]

ahh i see, well in that case, i dont like the cowboys (even tho i used to be a bit of one to begin with) they give a bad name to the rest of us who want to do a good job and take a pride in what were doing even tho "its only cleaning windows"!

i like what im doing now and dont class it as "just a job".....i try my best to make sure every customer is pleased with the job and happy for me to come back!!!!

[Cleaner Windows]

I think yous have focused on the uniform part to much i think its more about the lads who do it on the side i think he meens. To be honest i hate taxes and NI as does everyone eles but telling sorry grassing on people who you think arnt is just wrong and low in my opinion. Wat they do is ther buisness let them get on with it.

yeah i agree, grassing on peops is very wrong, cos some people are in 2that" sort of position to have to do a bit of a naughty one to make ends meet through no fault of their own etc. live and let live etc

[colley614]

ahh i see, well in that case, i dont like the cowboys (even tho i used to be a bit of one to begin with) they give a bad name to the rest of us who want to do a good job and take a pride in what were doing even tho "its only cleaning windows"!

i like what im doing now and dont class it as "just a job".....i try my best to make sure every customer is pleased with the job and happy for me to come back!!!!

Yeah I totally agree with you. I started cleaning windows when I left the army nearly 7 years ago because I seen it advertised in the jobcentre and remembered my friend banging on about how good it was. I got the job thinking it would pay my bills until I got into my trade "which was port operating." I cleaned windows for 18 months until I got a job on the docks. Hating my new job on the docks I phoned my old boss up and asked to go back

I stayed there another 3 year and a bit years and have now set my own business up and just can't wait to get busy. 

[Cleaner Windows]

good on ya m8. hope it goes well for you.
i used to have my own round but got fed up with collecting money and stuff, went and got a normal employed job doing joinery but found it hard to work for someone else. i.e working for a pittance and doing as i was told etc, so went back to the chap i sold my round to and asked for a job! luckily he said yes, but is a bit odd working what was once my own and paying someone for the privalige!! but am building up my own round again slowly on the side and things are looking up now so who knows eh!!