[Alex Wingrove]

Anyways, got a call on thursday, "we live so and so, can you come and give a quote."

now i knew the area so i knew it must be a large house, and it was, so i was pleased, when i met the bloke he showed me round told me what he wanted and then i went off counting,

So for the outside, i made it to be £80, i thought if it take me 2 hours i will be happy, i didnt want to rush it,
anyways, he wants the insides done every other time, so in total it would be £200,

but then i get a funny feeling he wants to roof of the large con done each time, so before i put my price in i take a note that it would be £60 each time, so total for outside with that is £140 every 6 weeks, i didnt think anything of it, i thought it was reasonable.

So i explain how much etc, and yes he wants to outside of the con done every time and the inside on the con and the whole house inside every other, so it total it comes to 140 + 210 = £350 a price that reflected the size of the house, and the difficulty of the work.

So he says, "ill tell you know, your way off, last bloke used to charge £85 for the whole lot, and he was here all day, etc etc just thought id let you know so you can alter your price,"

then he tells me he is in estimation and he can get a surveyor for that price, so i said, "thats my price"


this is the first job i felt like i overpriced it, but i hadn't. it was the most underpriced  worst price house EVER, the price hadn't been changed in 9 years, one cleaned it for 5 years another 4 years, and they both vanished, i wonder why?


grrrr, oh year, NWH, tell me my prices are good

[macmac]

How long would it take you to do the whole lot in/out?


Tony

[michael papworth]

I wonder what line of business he is in whereby he imagines that a self-employed business owner can value himself at £85 a day including travelling expenses.

[NWH]

Anyways, got a call on thursday, "we live so and so, can you come and give a quote."

now i knew the area so i knew it must be a large house, and it was, so i was pleased, when i met the bloke he showed me round told me what he wanted and then i went off counting,

So for the outside, i made it to be £80, i thought if it take me 2 hours i will be happy, i didnt want to rush it,
anyways, he wants the insides done every other time, so in total it would be £200,

but then i get a funny feeling he wants to roof of the large con done each time, so before i put my price in i take a note that it would be £60 each time, so total for outside with that is £140 every 6 weeks, i didnt think anything of it, i thought it was reasonable.

So i explain how much etc, and yes he wants to outside of the con done every time and the inside on the con and the whole house inside every other, so it total it comes to 140 + 210 = £350 a price that reflected the size of the house, and the difficulty of the work.

So he says, "ill tell you know, your way off, last bloke used to charge £85 for the whole lot, and he was here all day, etc etc just thought id let you know so you can alter your price,"

then he tells me he is in estimation and he can get a surveyor for that price, so i said, "thats my price"


this is the first job i felt like i overpriced it, but i hadn't. it was the most underpriced  worst price house EVER, the price hadn't been changed in 9 years, one cleaned it for 5 years another 4 years, and they both vanished, i wonder why?


grrrr, oh year, NWH, tell me my prices are good

Alex stick to your price there`s a lot of toffee nose tossers out there mate i had 1 similar last week.

[NWH]

Just before you walk away ask him where is he now then.

[Alex Wingrove]

i did stick to my price, and who knows

the thing is with this job, it involved, the inside of a con roof, every 3 months its not going to be that dirty i know, but they are still a pain, and it was still big,

i recon, it would be there 8 hours,

[windowwashers]

i did stick to my price, and who knows

the thing is with this job, it involved, the inside of a con roof, every 3 months its not going to be that dirty i know, but they are still a pain, and it was still big,

i recon, it would be there 8 hours,

just quote what you earn an hour x 8 if they do not want it find another thjat does there are plenty out there, go in lower in time you will regret it, IMO stick with your prices they have 2 choices then.

Ian

[mr D]

where was this house? sounds like miami beach!!

i know diffrent people charge diffrent prices but IMO that was very very exspencive!!

how do you get to £200 from £80 out side?? thats £120 for the insides???

£60 for a con roof large you say, was it the old crystal palace???

granted £85 for a days work is poor but £350 for a days work. thats not on now is it? not for a house. i could understand for an office block or hotel. but just because some one has a nice house dont mean there game to be done.

or am i doing it all wrong? should i charge the earth and get my self a rep as a rip off merchant?

[Londoner]

The problem is you priced the job by adding up all the bits and thats what it comes to. Fair enough, but would you pay a window cleaner £350 a day?

Once you get past a certain size of job the only way to price it is by hourly or daily rate.

[ronnie paton]

me would love to see pics has that price seems ridiculas, i do a hotel 4 storeys 160 odd rooms in side and out for that.

[easy]

Alex...

So the job will take around 8 hours for yourself to clean and you want £350?
Have you any pics so we can have a look and to be honest,thats a hugh quote you gave there to the person.

Tony.

[peter holley]

£350 is way ott,but then £85 is way underpriced, i wouldn't worry though as he obviously doesn't want to pay more than his last cleaner, just learn from the experience 

[Paul Coleman]

£350 sounds a bit on the high side but not way over the top.  There are times it may be possible to earn that in a day with the right work (from a number of properties) but I think I would give some thought that it's coming out of one single budget.

[frames to panes]

Where are you? I'll do it quite happily for £150  If i could get two jobs a week like that at £350 a day i would have a very short working week.

[Clive McDonald]

I don't beleive it was possible for the last cleaner to do all that work, particularly the large con roof inside and out, without having full wfp kit and lots of other trad gizmos to get the job done.

The previous guy probably did the outsides, not the frames, and skipped the difficult access.

Obviously the customer is a very successful person with some quantity surveying etc background and succeeded in making you doubt your worth. In fact he was mistaken about a couple of things, including H&S ETC. However it never pays to get into an argument with a customer as you never win.

I probably wouldn't have got the job either, but I may have offered him £60 outsides only, no roof.(let him think you have the clear impression that he can't afford it)

[Alex Wingrove]

ok excessive maybe, but i dont know what i want to earn each hour, i know what i like to price per window etc etc and go from there,

i wasnt excessive on the outside, £1.50 for top windows, £1 for the lower ones and then adding it up from there,

remember its an old house they were a mixture of lead, old Georgian, old wood, bay windows and a gun room, and i didn't add a rich tax,

ok the roof could have been £40 every time, but i wasn't just going to wipe it over, i wanted it spotless, it is another peice of glass,

anyways insides where charge at time and a half, and there were a few extra windows to do inside and a few mirrors,

the best it was going to be was £300, and he wasn't going to pay that either.

also its going to be a pain fitting it around other stuff every other time getting another £210 worth of work to do,

baaa who cares, you win some you lose some, id be happy if i had got it

[frames to panes]

The rich ones are often the worst, i don't think they want a mere windowcleaner earning proper money.

[Alex Wingrove]

not always, i priced one a few weeks ago, same structure, wanted inside, of all glass done, and secondary glazing, so i went round the outside counting, rounded it up, did what the price would be at time and half, and added some because didn't want to be caught out, and they where so happy with the price

[Captain Scarlet]

Alex, you sound like me!!!! when they dont accept the price....WHO CARES. There not the type of customer you want. You give a premium service and charge a premium price. I had something similar a few weeks back......I just said " thats my price, its not negotiable". Luke

[Paul Coleman]

ok excessive maybe, but i dont know what i want to earn each hour, i know what i like to price per window etc etc and go from there,

i wasnt excessive on the outside, £1.50 for top windows, £1 for the lower ones and then adding it up from there,

remember its an old house they were a mixture of lead, old Georgian, old wood, bay windows and a gun room, and i didn't add a rich tax,

ok the roof could have been £40 every time, but i wasn't just going to wipe it over, i wanted it spotless, it is another peice of glass,

anyways insides where charge at time and a half, and there were a few extra windows to do inside and a few mirrors,

the best it was going to be was £300, and he wasn't going to pay that either.

also its going to be a pain fitting it around other stuff every other time getting another £210 worth of work to do,

baaa who cares, you win some you lose some, id be happy if i had got it

I know what you mean Alex.  On some jobs it can be very difficult to know exactly where to pitch the price.  In such situations I do a frame count AND I do a time estimate.  On very large jobs sometimes pricing by frame count can make a mockery of the price.  I did a new one yesterday - not as large as the one you mention..  Took me ages longer than expected as trhey were in a right state and all different types of windows.  Next time the price will be a decent one as I've done the graft on the first clean.  However, I am more prone to quoting higher these days as getting more work is less urgent than it was a few months ago.