Undercut

[Duncs]

good earner tolish

 

[Tuffers]

Thats my thinking too,but I'd feel really bad if he made an appearance on the fly.
The windows should take the morning, and the gutters in the afternoon. Probably finish by 4. I've had a lot of work from them in the past,and I am currently doing a full interior paint job, and hopefully the exterior in spring. So, a days labour is good enough for me. Like I said, they are as good as gold to work for which is surprising as they are minted, you usually expect the opposite.

I can't help where my eyes roam though. /emoticons/biggrin.png

Hang on, you're doing a full interior paint job!? Keep ya nose out the knicker draws ::

 

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

I've had this before, last cleaner just stopped coming. There will always be a reason for a windy to stop going. It always seems to be price based in my experience, i.e. the cleaner stopped coming because he'd vastly underpriced the job to begin with, realised this & dropped it.

 

[TolishAPurd]

good earner tolish

Their some of the best people I work for, so although I could charge more, I try to keep it on the reasonable side. We have a mutual trust which is good.

Hang on, you're doing a full interior paint job!? Keep ya nose out the knicker draws ::

I'm not ruling anything out.

I've had this before, last cleaner just stopped coming. There will always be a reason for a windy to stop going. It always seems to be price based in my experience, i.e. the cleaner stopped coming because he'd vastly underpriced the job to begin with, realised this & dropped it.

I already knew this was going to happen when I first met them. They told me he charged £30 (they're not the sort to bullshit) which like I said was stupidly cheap. Loads of glass but mostly small panes, and wood frames. Not quite georgian, but might as well be. And to make things worse he travelled a long way for it each time. So I knew it was a matter of time. I want the job, but I wouldn't be able to do it at that price, especially as they'll been neglected a while.

 

[Duncs]

used to clean this big house for couple of years ,can remember the custy saying she had the locals lads canvassing her house " duncs just wanted to give the local lads a chance " the guys done the job half price plus there was three of them.They done the job three guys for

£15

as boar said undercutting these guys are now finished long gone, the crack is they made nowt

 

[Duncs]

remember tolish when you have her knickers on your head

remember to take them off

she wont be happy if she comes home and you have her thong on ya heed

 

[TolishAPurd]

remember tolish when you have her knickers on your headremember to take them off

she wont be happy if she comes home and you have her thong on ya heed

Top tip matey. Easy to forget with those thongs as the string goes between your eyes. :thumbsup:

 

[gwindows]

I'm not expensive by any stretch of the imagination but I was undercut for the first time in ten years yesterday.
3 bed detached, if they were in a row & I was going quick I could probably just about squeeze 5 into an hour & got dropped by an almost ten year customer for someone willing to take it on for £5! I was shocked that somebody is willing to work for so little! I used to clean them for a fiver around 2007.

Good luck to them though, a web of washing lines at the back & most of the windows have awkward top openers above very large panels... :rofl:

don't worry about it but if there windy stops coming and wants you back again make sure to charge a few £££ more /emoticons/wink.png that will teach them

 

[Eclipse]

I've only been undercut once, on a house I got for £25(which 2 cheap to be fair), customer calls me and says a guy is going to do it trad for £10. I asked about the rear up stairs windows as we needed a 25ft pole to do them, she replied with "he'll walk on the polycarbonate conny roof"!

 

[Shiny]

Well the walking on a conny roof just about sums it up really...!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Smurf]

That will be @cheapncheerful then or one of his relations maybe /emoticons/biggrin.png

I've only been undercut once, on a house I got for £25(which 2 cheap to be fair), customer calls me and says a guy is going to do it trad for £10. I asked about the rear up stairs windows as we needed a 25ft pole to do them, she replied with "he'll walk on the polycarbonate conny roof"!

 

[Smurf]

I just don't get either why some still clamber over pitched roof tiles, do 3 storey work from ladders etc when they don't have to.

The mind boggles why customers allow this to happen as surely they are responsible if someone get hurt?

 

[cheapncheerful]

probably me brother smurfy i told you he was a rum un....actually my dad said his prices were good as he works with him....

i do promise to match another windys price but in the small print it of course says....if at all possible...

i do wander sometimes if you can undercut by accident as in....giving a price without knowing the other price...i am on one tomorrow and i kinda messed up as usual because it came from a neighbour who i cleaned and so i said the same sort of price thinking it was the same sort of size...it wasnt it was double...so i doubled the price....but i still get the impression i was cheaper than the other guy but how do i know....turns out to be a great job and she likes my wfp system lets me park on the drive and wants it done monthly so i love it...but if she is out and i can get gabbin to that nice cleaner i may find out...mind you...bloomin cctv everywhere so i doubt i can gabb for long.../emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[TolishAPurd]

probably me brother smurfy i told you he was a rum un....actually my dad said his prices were good as he works with him....
i do promise to match another windys price but in the small print it of course says....if at all possible...

i do wander sometimes if you can undercut by accident as in....giving a price without knowing the other price...i am on one tomorrow and i kinda messed up as usual because it came from a neighbour who i cleaned and so i said the same sort of price thinking it was the same sort of size...it wasnt it was double...so i doubled the price....but i still get the impression i was cheaper than the other guy but how do i know....turns out to be a great job and she likes my wfp system lets me park on the drive and wants it done monthly so i love it...but if she is out and i can get gabbin to that nice cleaner i may find out...mind you...bloomin cctv everywhere so i doubt i can gabb for long.../emoticons/biggrin.png

My understanding if undercutting, is that you have to know the price beforehand, and then go below that on purpose in order to get the job or contract. I don't always ask for the current price, but when I get it I am either the same, or more expensive. That way I get picked on my merits, and not on the price. It also means I can hold my head high if someone has a moan one day.

 

[cheapncheerful]

yeh i always try to be a little bit extra as i say thats probably why the other windy left.....i got a row which were £6 now£7 like that....not that i want any more work till i come out of hibernation in the spring time..../emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[Tuffers]

I slip in a 'how much was the last fella charging' when I'm asked to quote to give an idea of how much they're prepared to pay. I picked up a job last week where the windy had gone AWOL. I asked the lady how much he charged and when I went to quote it, I said that I'd be £10 more. She said ok :thumbsup:

I have never gone in cheaper to nick a job off another cleaner. That is a definite no no in my book. I don't need cheap jobs, if they don't want to pay me well, they can swivel /emoticons/smile.png

 

[SPECI4L]

don't worry about it but if there windy stops coming and wants you back again make sure to charge a few £££ more /emoticons/wink.png that will teach them

I'd thought that... but also thought of saying "no, sorry, too busy now" & let someone else deal with the hassle.

Although that could be a case of cutting my nose off to spite my face! lol

 

[spruce]

As a handyman I have my hand in a lot of trades, but unfortunately this has to be the worst one for undercutting IMO. Its usually the young and keen that want the work, but they don't realise that what they are doing is driving down their earning potential for the future- not just by taking on badly paid work, but also by ruining the customers perception of what they should be paying.

Its the job centers that also have a bit to answer for - around here anyway.

They tell a job seeker to get a small window cleaning round together. Easiest way is to look for bungalows as they don't need ladders. Then they tell them to under cut the existing window cleaner just to get the work. It doesn't matter about the existing window cleaner as he will already have an established round so can afford to loose a few. They are also told that they need to find enough work to keep them 'busy' for x number of hours a day, x number of days a week (24 hours a week I think it is.) If they only bring in £20.00 a day, that doesn't matter as their wages will be made up with family credits etc. One less job seeker on the books. Result for job center.

The new window cleaner doesn't have to be very bright to suss out that he doesn't have to find that much work if each job takes him an hour, and if he is really clever he can do a clean every 2 weeks for much less monthly than the existing window cleaner does monthly. This means he will only have to find half the number of customers.

Then as he gets quicker he can do the jobs in a couple of hours and still claim they took the full time.

 

[cheapncheerful]

yep spot on spruce and its likely to get worse as there just arent the real jobs to go around as the robots arrive....of course....i dont need to say who i am voting for but if you know what i mean....that doesnt bloomin help..../emoticons/biggrin.png

mind you....i think you have to like the guy who got the job in the kitchen at the shard....he had to take the leaves off water cress....hmmm now thats challenging.....

 

[spruce]

What did the paper say yesterday? Sir Charlie Mayfield of Lewis Stores says that 22pc of British jobs require only the academic educational attainment expected of an 11-year-old.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/festival-of-business/11224322/UK-workforce-must-change-radically-says-John-Lewis-chairman-Sir-Charlie-Mayfield.html

I can't say that window cleaning is mental challenging. My son says that I'm the only one he has ever seen slip into a coma and still remain standing upright with a WFP pole still in his hand.

Gone are the days when there were jobs that needed brain power. Even a plumber can become skilled after a 6 week training program - he doesn't need to know anything about soldering copper pipe or working with leaded pipe anymore.

 

[cheapncheerful]

yep certainly things are changing.....the trouble for me is keeping the concentration....i drift off and can never remember which windows i have cleaned....i swear i do most of em twice....still...its best to be sure.../emoticons/biggrin.png

you only have to watch the excellent ...how its made on quest i think.....the robots work all day and night and never want a break...and you can see that poor lad who sticks it in the box will lose that job soon....i love the titles some jobs have...i mean what do they actually do?

at least i can see a clean window when i leave....even if my one day contract work took me three days last week.....sometimes it works like that...i had to clean the gutters and took my multifunction ladder....far too heavy and too much messing about...also the hurricane gonzo left a mess thats not normally there and the sun was killing me...

its quite funny how the same work flys by one day and on others you just cant get going..../emoticons/biggrin.png

still one good thing....loads of new houses being built at the mo...