[supernova77]

I have quoted 3 jobs within the last 5 days... 2 I didn't get because I apparantly cost much more than other quotes they had received, and the other 1 I got after a bit of negotiation  :.

I usually get 90% of jobs that I quote for especially in the winter months. I think it just goes to show the amount of "pocket / beer money" windows cleaners that come out of the woodwork during the summer months! 

Anyone else experience this?

Andy

[Chris Cottrell]

I quoted for a 1st clean on a new house this week, a sort of build clean really the only mess on the windows was dust/dirt the builders had been really careful (rare I know) there were 34 windows in total all georgian lookalikes with 12 to 15 small panes including 2 velux in the roof an 2 x 2nd floor dormers and 1 barn door style window about 8' wide x 15' high with 15 panes in bottom 5 had a botched attempt at removing stickers the other 10 still with stickers on, My regular price for this property would have been £38.50 so I doubled it them rounded it to £80 for the build clean
I got told were to go cos "hubby" knows what it cost to clean windows and it ain't that much


I think their loss, I would have done a marvelous job

Chris

[Roy Harding]

It’s a funny old thing window cleaning; you seem to go through phases of getting all the jobs you price. Then the reverse happens, it depends how bad you need the work as you have already done you can negotiate.

Early this year work flooded in for me boosting turnover by £20,000 within just two months. Yet the last 3 months only 1 job and two customers have moved. So it really is a numbers game. But you can bet your bottom dollar when your full to the brim work just comes from all directions. This is the time you can really name your price, agreat postion to be in.


Roy

[dave0123]

it is a funny old game!!!

i had loads of calls the other wednesday all on the same day about 4 and then :|  nothing since ...

i dont no if its the same for you guys but they all come at once.. for example monday morning u get 3 calls in the space of say 2 hours and then thats it lol.. madness


Dave

[Paul Coleman]

it is a funny old game!!!

i had loads of calls the other wednesday all on the same day about 4 and then :|  nothing since ...

i dont no if its the same for you guys but they all come at once.. for example monday morning u get 3 calls in the space of say 2 hours and then thats it lol.. madness


Dave

I have had very little in the way of enquiries recently so I am going to change things around a bit.  I'm going to indulge in a bit of door to door cold calling again and will be getting my van written in the next couple of weeks.  I have tried a few different things but I've never been able to match the returns I get on door knocking.  I'm well out of practice but time to do what has worked for me in the past.  It will have to wait a few days as I need to play xcatch up after a break but I'm going to get out there and foot slog it once more.

[groundhog]

£38.50!! Always round the price up, make it £40

[Londoner]

The old logic says that if you get all the jobs you quote for then you are too cheap.

I have quoted for a few this past week and got them all but I have been out delivering leaflets in the evenings so a few calls are to be expected.

This time of year you get the new summer customers who only want their windows done because the sun is shining on them or they have friends coming round for a barbeque etc . Come November they pack you in 

[vwm]

i aggree there vince "oh i have freinds coming around"
this year i have takin a differant approch to pricing because i made a good living trad and since going wfp i have a 50% higher turn over and i have given 10k of work away.

when pricing now it is first cleans min £25 and have a min of £10 per house. the first clean is for if they wish to cancel after a couple times then i havnt lost any thing. what i have found is that any customer that has said wow thats dear are the ones that will drop you when the sun ent shining but the ones that agree understand what us pro w/cers have to put up with and pay it. the words i cant get a w/c ring bells for me cus most of the time its not the w/c but the customer.
i also give new customers a terms and conditions of business letter which they need to sign after the first clean or they will not be placed on my round. again the ones who think its a bit much for w/cing are the ones that will mess you around in time and the ones that have signed are fully understanding and the sort of customer that i want.

yes i dont get every job i dont need to and the jobs i get are good jobs and good customers. i pride myself on the fact some customers when calling after a freind has recommended me say " i've heard that you are expensive but you are regular and do a good job" even had one call saying " are you the expensive w/c and could you come round a give me a price so i can work out what loan i will require"

all in all most are willing to sign and uderstand why and the ones who dont well it makes no differance to me.

just some of the terms.

1. windows will be cleaned every 5-6 weeks
2. only heavy rain or high winds will prevent me from working (this is at my decression)
3. any window that i feel is unsuitable to clean will be left (ie an open window)
4. must have full excess or windows will be left (ie gates locked ect)
5. payment to be made within 7 days of being cleaned ( should payment not be made within 30 days of date cleaned a late payment charge of £5 will be payable unless arranged.
6. all cheques under £25 are charged 50p
7. cancellations are to be made within 4 weeks of last clean and will be charged at 50% unless cancelling for good. once taken off round first clean charge will apply.
8. any cancellations on the day are charged at full rate.
9. payment of one clean is payable up front with first clean.

there is a full list properly worded but having comp problems at moment so the above is off the top of my head.

many of you will think this is crazy but remember i am not lookin for work just better work and customers and so far its working.

i feel that if w/cing is promoted as a professional business by all then customers wouldnt take the p as other professions dont get it so why should us put up with it.

had a plumber come roung to plumb in kitchen and as i was not ready though no fault of my own still charged me for turning up £45

its time for change  i say and we all need to do it

[xxmattyxx]

a late payment charge of £5 will be payable unless arranged.

OFT may find this illegal 

[vwm]

why all other companys do it and charge more

[xxmattyxx]

So, because other companies do it makes it legal?

Banks are being sued left right and centre for behaviour of that nature.

[Paul Coleman]

a late payment charge of £5 will be payable unless arranged.

OFT may find this illegal 

Penalty charges are illegal I think but recovery of costs associated with late payment aren't.  It needs to be presented as recovery of costs - such as the cost of drafting and sending reminder letter(s), travelling to the customer to collect payment(s) and/or your time in doing these things.  Calling it a late payment charge could possibly be illegal but calling it cost recovery probably wouldn't.

[xxmattyxx]

That was my point, thankyou.

Matt

[vwm]

well i havnt charged anyone yet as all have paid on time and maybe i will think twice before charging it
mabe i will change it to " if payment not received within 30 days of being cleaned without proir arrangement a £5 recovery fee will be payable" this is to pay for my time and fuel and extra wear and tear on van ect to personly collect the money.

[vwm]

just looked at the small print on a credit card agreement and its late payment fee is for the extra admin costs ect but that means a letter so if a letter is sent then the fee must be legail. banks ect are being sued for the amount the they charge and have notice tyhat credit card companys have reduced their fee from £25 to £12

[Paul Coleman]

just looked at the small print on a credit card agreement and its late payment fee is for the extra admin costs ect but that means a letter so if a letter is sent then the fee must be legail. banks ect are being sued for the amount the they charge and have notice tyhat credit card companys have reduced their fee from £25 to £12

The reduction to £12 by the credit card companies was after a lot of arm twisting.  I saw a recent newspaper article stating that the CC companies have now fully recovered their reduced profits from this by raising interest rates, altering the date from when interest is charged, charging a higher transfer fee for for balance transfers, charging more for cash withdrawals and foreign exchange deals and a number of other stealth charges.  I pay $1.99 a month for file storage space on the internet.  I recently noticed that my credit card company have added 4p to the charge for "foreign exchange" - so you don't even have to travel abroad to incur this charge.  This could end up as quite a hefty fee for a major purchase from abroad.

There have been a couple of articles I've seen more recently suggesting that the CC companies reduce there late/overlimit fees still further.

[xxmattyxx]

It all boils down to for you as well as the banks, if the fee is reflective of the charges that you incur then its not illegal; AND so long as its not a penalty i.e. a punishment as such, just because they're late paying. I would love to be able to charge extra just because its an inconvenience and plays havoc with my cash-flow, but its not legal, so no can do.

The banks are it seems reducing their charges for unauthorised overdrafts, late payments etc etc, but it's likely to come to light that the £12.00 fee they're charging is still over the top,;its commonly thought that the cost to the banks for these transactions is somewhere in the region of £2.50. A recent court case between the OFT and a number of the banks regarding these charges, which wont be decided upon until the Autumn, is likely to make the banks reveal the true costs of those charges in court, it will then be common knowledge as to the extent that penalty charges have been ripping customers off.

So, even though the banks tell you their charges are this, that or the other doesn't make them legal; if I was walking down the street and told someone I was going to punch them in the face it doesn't make that legal just because I told them I was going to do it beforehand.

Matt

[Paul Coleman]

It all boils down to for you as well as the banks, if the fee is reflective of the charges that you incur then its not illegal; AND so long as its not a penalty i.e. a punishment as such, just because they're late paying. I would love to be able to charge extra just because its an inconvenience and plays havoc with my cash-flow, but its not legal, so no can do.

The banks are it seems reducing their charges for unauthorised overdrafts, late payments etc etc, but it's likely to come to light that the £12.00 fee they're charging is still over the top,;its commonly thought that the cost to the banks for these transactions is somewhere in the region of £2.50. A recent court case between the OFT and a number of the banks regarding these charges, which wont be decided upon until the Autumn, is likely to make the banks reveal the true costs of those charges in court, it will then be common knowledge as to the extent that penalty charges have been ripping customers off.

So, even though the banks tell you their charges are this, that or the other doesn't make them legal; if I was walking down the street and told someone I was going to punch them in the face it doesn't make that legal just because I told them I was going to do it beforehand.

Matt

I read something else a while back suggesting that the real charge to the banks is close to £4.  Whether it's the £2.50 that you saw or the £4 that I saw, it's clear that people have been ripped off for quite a while.
Although I could produce a standard letter, I would probably need to edit it a bit for individuals depending on circumstances.  I see no reason why I shouldn't charge the same rate for that time as I do for my top window cleaning rates.  The physical costs of items to send the reminder are fairly low but worth charging for (stamp, envelope, paper and ink/toner, address label).  50p would probably be a fair price for those items.  However, it is also necessary to shop for the items and to post them.  OK, so I would get them when I was at the shop anyway and post them when I was passing a post box but all this stuff is a bit disruptive to the work schedule and a hassle so it's worth charging for.  Let's face it, by the time it had reached the point of charging the customer, they would probably be an ex customer anyway.  The main point for me of having such T & Cs is to focus the customer's awareness that I'm in this as a business rather than for popcorn money and that if they can have a regular and reliable service if they choose to be a reliable customer.  I want my T & Cs to put off the people who aren't serious about having a good service.