[TVCS]

Only had a couple of hours to clean today whilst the nipper was at pre-school.
Decided to do my cheapest houses and put them all up.

First 3 no problems at all.  Some of them I put up 3 or 4 quid and they were all happy.  The last one however was abit of a laugh. 
Old ish couple.  They look about 80 but I think they are only in there late 50's.  We call them the superkings as they are always smoking this brand.  When I say smoking I mean constant non stop chain smoking.

Typically as I was on a time limit today they asked me to do the insides.  Normal semi which I priced up when I first started out and it has been a £7.50 job for far too long. 
Just as I start the insides I tell the chap about the price increase.  making his house £10 a clean. 
"Fine, no problem" was his reply.
The lady of the house enters the room and the old fella informs her.
"WHAT" she says rather loudly. 
"Well you know dear" he says " everything is going up lately, you know petrol, fAgs, council tax, its just one of those things."
"Yes but the window cleaner is different, why should he put his prices up?"
On hearing this I stroll into the room where they are and remind them that window cleaners have to pay council tax and pay for petrol and pay rent and put food on the table like anyone else.  She just snorted something and stormed out. 
"Dont worry about her son, she's a tight fisted bitch at the best of times, see you next month."

These were all houses i priced when I started and now they are more realistically priced.  My first price increase in 18 months. Some people are never happy.

[trevor perry]

if you are putting your prices up by over 30% then i would expect a few moaning customers, i have just put some of my commercial work up by 5% and this has been held for 3 years they still wasnt very happy and its not brilliantly priced even with the increase.

[Trevor Knight]

It happens.

I had a customer moan about how much we charge him even though we haven't increased his price and he is still paying the same price from 3 years ago which was £80 every two months? I asked him why he was unhappy and he said we were very quick and earning far to much an hour. The job takes 2 guys 40 minutes plus 15 minutes travelling each way.

Now this comes from a guy living in a house well in excess of 1.5mil, his wife drives a porsche and he restores vintage cars for a hobby!

Some people just get out of bed the wrong side sometimes.

So just for good measure I have written to him thanking him for bringing to my attention his LACK of price increase and that his new price is now £85.

[NWH]

I put them up every 2 years regardless,leave it to many years and it becomes a chore to do if they moan and don`t want it done i don`t do it.I always make sure i have more work than i can handle then you don`t tend to mind aout increasing them,if i thought one was going to cancel i would already have one lined up to take it`s place of the equvilent price.

[Londoner]

My mate John has paid his window cleaner £4 for the past 15 years. Never put the prices up, turns up regular as clockwork. How do I compete?

[Trevor Knight]

Simple, ya cant! What is his house worth? What would you expect to charge?

[SherwoodCleaningSe]

People that under charge are either doing it as a top up or they will go out of business eventually.  You can't compete with that.

I put my prices up buy a mere £1.  Some I hadn't put up in nearly 10 Years, bad business on my part.  These were the ones that I lost.  I think NWH has the right idea, put them up every other year regardless, they get used to it.

I think customers can become tight because you train them that way by not putting the price up.

Simon.

[simbo]

My mate John has paid his window cleaner £4 for the past 15 years. Never put the prices up, turns up regular as clockwork. How do I compete

he probably has no mortgage or young children anymore is fairly old and not really bothered about making hundreds a week
simbo

[Tosh]

My mate John has paid his window cleaner £4 for the past 15 years. Never put the prices up, turns up regular as clockwork. How do I compete

I bet most of us know good window cleaners who we think are well underpriced.

The thing is, one bloke can only clean a finite number of houses per month.  Demand is greater than supply; have you seen how much glass there is in this country?

There's glass everywhere.

I clean a down-stairs maisonette for an elderly couple who live in Chepstow.  It's three windows and a door and I charge them five quid and they 'love' me.  They're always pleased to see me.

But they own a house in the valleys (they live in Chepstow to be closer to their son) which they use as a holiday home.  It's a terraced house and their window cleaner there charges ONE POUND to clean two big bay windows - one up, one down.  This old couple showed me a picture of their house and actually told me that they offered their other window cleaner more money, but he declined.

[NWH]

I do my family and freinds favours not customers,if you do all they will do is take the P*** out of you in the end.

[tony27]

My mate John has paid his window cleaner £4 for the past 15 years. Never put the prices up, turns up regular as clockwork. How do I compete

he probably has no mortgage or young children anymore is fairly old and not really bothered about making hundreds a week
simbo

Hello simbo,  im new to window cleaning and i have the same problem as the shiners around my estate charge £3.50 which is outrageous.

I was thinking of doing some selective canvassing knocking door to door with flyers, in the areas where i think i can get a good hourly rate as i cant compete with £3.50 that those guys are willing to work for on my estate.
They are probably not paying tax, insurance etc....makes you sick when you got bills to pay and someone will underprice for beer money.

[tacky]

hi tosh i clean valley houses in valleys. on street houses i charge 2 pounds .two top one bottom  i give some work to another cleaner. he said how much do u charge them .i said 2 pounds he said thats a bit cheeky i only charge mine a pound

[brett walker]

When im putting houses up or giving a quote i always look at the reaction on their face that will give you some indication.  Some customer dont bat an eyelid but then you get others that havent gone up for years and they will moan i once had someone cancel because it had gone up 50p, now thats tight

brett

[TVCS]

these were all customers in one street that i picked up when i first started.  At that stage I didn't have a decent pricing structure on the go.  As I have put the prices up I have explained to them my reasons and have also told them that the prices are now frozen for at least 2 years.  At the end of the day i was not too worried if they had told me not to come back as I am picking up more and more work in the £30 - £40 area.  I'd rather do these than the £7.50 houses.    But now they are priced correctly, happy days.

Saying that tho, did a new clean yesterday.  When I priced it up about 3 months ago, I failed to notice just how bad the windows were.  I mean flakey paint and in most cases lack of putty.  Tried the pole but as these windows were so old and wobbly I decided to get the ladders out.  Well 2 and a half hours later me and my other half walked away with £30.   HAd I been able to use my poles it would have been an hour tops. maybe my pricing structure isn't so clever after all.