[clearview ltd]

im just writing to demonstrate my dismay at a statement written on a window cleaning  companies website. i was browsing the competition ...as you do ! and was quite annoyed to find a statement on one companies website that claims that wiltshire and gloucester window cleaning companies rarely have adequate insurance....if any insurance at all!! I for one am a long standing window cleaning firm based  in gloucester so this means me right? and every other one of the hundreds of window cleaning firms in wilts and glos? please let me have your thoughts on this...is it fair....or even legal for an individual firm to claim this? needless to say we are fully insured and have been since we started in 1982!! shoot me if im wrong ...but is that allowed?? view the offending article here>>>>>>>>        http://www.h2o-ltd.co.uk/commercial/insurance.html

[stevekennedy]

I can understand why you're annoyed but I would have to agree with this company's website. Here in Aberdeen we are required to have a license from the council. However, an estimated 2/3rds are working without a license. One of the main reasons IMO is that the council checks to make sure you have the relevant insurance. This leads me to believe that there are a great many w/c's working without the insurance.

Also, people who employ w/c's often do not have employers liability insurance as it costs a fortune, £1000 minimum in my experience. They get PL insurance for them and then try and make out that their workers are self employed. They won't get away woth that if anything goes wrong though. The worker's family will sue the employer and will argue that he was actually employed. MASSIVE RISK!

SLWCN is trying to enforce the license which will have the effect of enforcing the insurance as well. This is one of the major benefits of the licensing scheme IMO

[Bonkors]

Hi,

Pardon my ignorance, as a newbie, i have a newbie question. What insurances are large commercial contracts interested in/require from window cleaners? I assume public liability insurance. How about trade references?

[Neil Williams]

Luv the VIEW OUR INSURANCE IN DETAIL to find the link doesn't work at all.
There are loads per county who don't have the required insurances but if you have it don't worry.

[L.J.Thorpe]

i think this is out of order and would take further advice not only do they imply that wiltshire based window cleaners have inadequate insurance but also that you are incompetent and unreliable(click on the window cleaning tab and read that load of old toss) i hope you take this further i would defo get some advice and then write to the company try advertising standards authority do they cover tinternet idont know but worth trying as for scotland thats different all should have insurance but thats not point no company should make claims like this to get work  

[DASERVICES]

Here is some info that window cleaners in Scotland should think about, one window cleaner who is not slwcn told us that insurance is invalid without a licence. Even employees.

They snuck that in , always read the small print!!!!

[simonwonder]

hi there
d r b 
we are in swindon and would not worry about the affending article 
obviously they can't find their own usp so have to slate everyone else
live and let live my motto we like you are fully insured and  always have been nothing to worry about thay only have 2 million liability no good to man or beast these days
don't let it worry you we don't
respect
simon

[Ian W]

I always treat claims like this with a pinch of salt. It smacks of desperate sales pitch to me. :

[Davie T]

To DA
Reading thru the small print of my public and employers insurance policies, I see no mention of the requirement to be in possession of a licence.
Do you see any in your policies?

[DASERVICES]

Hi Davie,

No was informed by a couple of people, am looking into as to which companies are introducing this. But knowing the insurance companies they will word it in a way like must have relevant authority etc.. to cover themselves of not paying out.

Insurance companies are very devious, will let you know once investigated further

[L.J.Thorpe]

whilst i agree up to a point with ian w and simon wonder about not worrying to much i still think its a bit below the belt and just cos we can see through it as a cynical and yes slightly desperate marketing ploy there are still plenty of people who will swallow this old rot surely worth a snotty letter to the company or get together with some mates and send a letter to your local paper dont mention the companies name in that one just a "reassuring our customers" kind of thing theres enough work out there for everyone without people resorting to this sort of thing to get work i would not bad mouth another wcer to get work 

[Ian W]

I also think it is below the belt, but I think most people would see it as a desperate sales pitch. The few that don't probably aren't the type of customer you would like to attract.
This type of 'marketing' would put me right off using a company, whether it be window cleaning, construction, travel tickets or anything else.
Maybe they will actually increase your business by doing this...

[Londoner]

I don't think that "fully insured " is a desperate sales pitch. In fact quite the reverse. Rather than criticise it we should copy it.
Basically, the statement is true, most window cleaners don't have insurance, neither do they pay tax etc etc.
So anything that make us stand out from the crowd is good. Big it up. Maybe not the same style of confrontational finger pointing, but get the message across.

I am going to get my new van signwritten when it comes and I am tempted to include fully insured in the blurb.

[clearview ltd]

Vince,
my argument was not that the company claims to be fully insured. far from it. the website contains the following text " In Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, window cleaning companies rarely have adequate insurance for their changing needs, and worse, lack any cover at all " this is not an accurate statement and i challenge the company to provide the source of this information. i am a window cleaning company in this area and this statement implies that i have rarely got adequate insurance or worse........lack any insurance at all. im allowed to be disgruntled....wouldnit you be? i have been operarating since 1982 with full insurance. and reliable sources inform me that the company themselves may have been towing an overweight reach and wash trailer with an untaxed and uninsured estate car until recently.

[Rob.Hall]

They cannot be doing to much commercial as most good companies ask for 5 mill liability before they will look at you.

[windowwashers]

Vince,
my argument was not that the company claims to be fully insured. far from it. the website contains the following text " In Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, window cleaning companies rarely have adequate insurance for their changing needs, and worse, lack any cover at all " this is not an accurate statement and i challenge the company to provide the source of this information. i am a window cleaning company in this area and this statement implies that i have rarely got adequate insurance or worse........lack any insurance at all. im allowed to be disgruntled....wouldnit you be? i have been operarating since 1982 with full insurance. and reliable sources inform me that the company themselves may have been towing an overweight reach and wash trailer with an untaxed and uninsured estate car until recently.

thats there sales pitch, it is true that many window cleaners do not have insurance all over the UK, and the world more than likely, I have something on my website about this. If the person said that no window cleaners in that area had insurance I could understand you getting upset, as it says you most be a rare one  I would take that as a compliment 

Ian

[Neil Williams]

this is not an accurate statement and i challenge the company to provide the source of this information.

Give them a call and tell them you've seen the pitch can they tell you where they got this info from. Do it in a polite way not having a go, and perhaps they'll enter into a conversation about it.

[Ian W]

Saying you are fully insured isn't a desperate sales pitch - saying others are not is a desperate pitch! 

[windowwashers]

Saying you are fully insured isn't a desperate sales pitch - saying others are not is a desperate pitch! 

What works works, it is 100% true many window cleaners are not insured, if you are then thats good, but you have to remember many are not, people on here either are insured or they would lie about it IMO as they would get slated big time, if anyone uses this for marketing then fair play to them, the people that dont have  site or or worried have the problem again IMO

[windowwashers]

Saying you are fully insured isn't a desperate sales pitch - saying others are not is a desperate pitch! 

as i have already said ian,  my annoyance is not that the company claim to be fully insured. it is the fact that they are implying that other window cleaning companys in that area are not! did you miss the point?
 

I guess I did sry dude.

Implying things is there pitch saying a lie is different, they have to capture there market as do you online, and I am guessing that this works for them, I know full well that people are more likely to use a window cleaner that states they are insured against one that doesnt.

Ian