Thats more then I was hoping for, can I get some more quotes and call you back....?

[TolishAPurd]

A part of me wants to just say "Sure, you can get some more quotes, but don't bother calling

back"?

To give this a bit of context...

Woman calls and asks for a one off/as and when. The windy she used to use before is no longer contactable.

I look at the house and its a nice simple clean.

"Price will be £20"

"Ohhh, that's a lot more than I was paying"

"Ok, how much were you paying?"

"£12"

"Thats exactly what I would charge you if it was a monthly clean, but I'm afraid for a one off/as and when you are looking at £20 for that".

"Ok, can I just get a few more quotes and call you back?"

Serious question; Would it be wrong to just say "No, don't bother"? I'm just not interested in wasting my time with people that want to play 'hunt the cheapest quote'.

 

[boarcity]

its a job knowing how best to deal with a serial messer /emoticons/smile.png

my local postman is one such, cleaned his windows a while then he got real sh/tty when one of my lads stood on his wheelie bin ,then sarkey comments started ,then he cancelled ,by letter, bleating that it wasnt my fault [wife lost her job] . anyhow months go by and then last week he calls at my door but im at work , tells my missus he wants it restarting

hmmmm,but i dont want Him,,,, so tell missus to relay the message that a John Richardson now covers his road,drives a white pug van reg number starts AX52 . missus doesnt know but iv just made up that name , yet its true a guy called john drives the pug but he runs the local ferry and never has and likely never will clean windows

the search for JR the windie will be long n fruitless!

 

[TolishAPurd]

its a job knowing how best to deal with a serial messer /emoticons/smile.png
my local postman is one such, cleaned his windows a while then he got real sh/tty when one of my lads stood on his wheelie bin ,then sarkey comments started ,then he cancelled ,by letter, bleating that it wasnt my fault [wife lost her job] . anyhow months go by and then last week he calls at my door but im at work , tells my missus he wants it restarting

hmmmm,but i dont want Him,,,, so tell missus to relay the message that a John Richardson now covers his road,drives a white pug van reg number starts AX52 . missus doesnt know but iv just made up that name , yet its true a guy called john drives the pug but he runs the local ferry and never has and likely never will clean windows

the search for JR the windie will be long n fruitless!

That is quality. /emoticons/biggrin.png

I don't mind one offs or as and whens one bit, I just want it to be a simple affair- Call me, accept price, pay me on the day of clean. Thats all I ask for. I don't want endless emails, questions, haggling (she offered 15), I just want a simple transaction with the understanding that they will pay an inflated price for not being regular.

 

[TolishAPurd]

I'll put money on her saying to the next windy she calls; I'm looking for a window clean but maybe regular if you do a good job....

 

[boarcity]

as i say its a job to know how best to deal with them. if i know i wont ever see them again [not so postie,i mean he could tamper wi my mail -that reminds me he once told my missus he knew folk were sending me money ,praps he already tampered and im sevral points behind already?]

thing is you need to make the point forcefully that theyre not to contact you ever again. the verbal "**** off " is often the best i find

 

[TolishAPurd]

as i say its a job to know how best to deal with them. if i know i wont ever see them again [not so postie,i mean he could tamper wi my mail -that reminds me he once told my missus he knew folk were sending me money ,praps he already tampered and im sevral points behind already?]
thing is you need to make the point forcefully that theyre not to contact you ever again. the verbal "**** off " is often the best i find

Good point. At least this one was reasonably polite barring the haggle, which I find rude. I've just had the same conversation too many times I guess. Put it this way; 1 phonecall where I spoke to her and took down address, I look at house on google, I call twice with no reply, I recieve call from her and discuss, ...yet no cigar. The way I see, she has already wasted too much of my time tht I will never get back.

 

[boarcity]

ignoring them never works , thats why you must make it deep,the final cut, cruel to be kind

a customer on my round turned bad a couple of months ago, text said wed missed a sill-so we hurried back,recleaned it and got her to come to the door [reluctant] and apologized to her .

next clean extra effort was made .2 days later i get a letter in the post-" the same sill u missed last time was wiped -but only once and in the past it was wiped twice,i was very happy with you -whats gone wrong with you?"

i know ignoring wont work and writing back isnt an option

 

[Dave B]

She's telling you how many wipes the sill needs..i wouldn't be polite

 

[TolishAPurd]

That is awhole new level of being picky, lol.

 

[Jacob]

Just ignore her in the future if she calls you back say you sorry you missed the gap i had in my claender to clean your windows.

Is just having my own, sort of, cleaned his windows, got paid. He wanted regular service fsir enough i mail him and it has been back n fort for 6 weeks now, i dont know what he wants me to write other than price and when i come again. Latest he sent me a mail and said maybe we could discusd over the phone.. Aggghh what do you want!! Was my thought but just agreed with my self that i only speak to him if he bother too call me, i shouldnt take 6 weeks to agree a regular clean!!

 

[TolishAPurd]

Just ignore her in the future if she calls you back say you sorry you missed the gap i had in my claender to clean your windows.
Is just having my own, sort of, cleaned his windows, got paid. He wanted regular service fsir enough i mail him and it has been back n fort for 6 weeks now, i dont know what he wants me to write other than price and when i come again. Latest he sent me a mail and said maybe we could discusd over the phone.. Aggghh what do you want!! Was my thought but just agreed with my self that i only speak to him if he bother too call me, i shouldnt take 6 weeks to agree a regular clean!!

I have an old gardening customer that I may have mentioned (Moaned about) on here before. In one year of haveing her as a custy we exchanged 70 emails. Longed detailed ones too. Just when I thought I had explained everything, she would ask me to explain something else. I stopped the gardening this year, but she wanted two hours work combined with a window clean. I obliged last week and did the gardening portion today. Just as I was having a moan about the way she used to be, anemail sprung up on my phone asking me to break down the price. /emoticons/angry.png(

...a few abrupt, not rude, abrupt, emails later and I don't think she will be calling me again. Its the end of a very long and painful saga. And that combined with the other hedge trimming job I had today,and I can officially say I am knocking gardening off my list of services. Come to mention it, the handyman work is slowly getting eaten up by this wavingat windows lark.:think:

 

[Danfire]

I'll put money on her saying to the next windy she calls; I'm looking for a window clean but maybe regular if you do a good job....

That's why I price first cleans as one offs...even if one in ten try to take that liberty they don't get away with it.

 

[armagh27]

Just one point to clarify over here in the northern of Ireland everyone is so close knit that everyone knows everyone's business so if you were to be rude or blatant about the F.u.c.k off I think I would end up loosing customers so I just bite my lip and smile....did have one fella that didn't like paying a few years back so I ripped him a new as hole threatened to knock him out then turned round to work off and walked into a copper who casualy asked if the was a problem to which I replied yes but got told to be quiet as he was talking to the other fella as it was I that was being the aggressor lol but on the plus side the copper was calling at his house for using illegal fuel in his car lol

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

I'm struggling to see the issue here.

You gave her a price for which your happy to do the task, she aint happy with the price......

Solution......'Thank you madam. Please call if there's anything else I can do for you'

You don't have to do the job of you don't want to and was it really so painful to take 2 mins out of you day to give an over the phone quote?

Mountains and mole hills springs to mind here

 

[TolishAPurd]

I'm struggling to see the issue here.
You gave her a price for which your happy to do the task, she aint happy with the price......

Solution......'Thank you madam. Please call if there's anything else I can do for you'

You don't have to do the job of you don't want to and was it really so painful to take 2 mins out of you day to give an over the phone quote?

Mountains and mole hills springs to mind here

I'll admit I was in a bad mood yesterday due to the two gardening jobs I had. Its like anything, when you hear the same thing a lot, it gets annoying, but the folk that don't pay our regular wages are the exact people that I don't want to waste my time on.For them to call around to try and find a cheaper quote, and then call back when they can't, just winds me up. I'm always polite as this is a small area like Armagh says, I was just having a moan.

 

[MrBump]

I agree it's annoying. Especially when its only for windows and so over a couple of quid, surely by phoning around everyones time is wasted, even the customers, so whats the point right.

What I get happening to me is they email/text and say "I'm interested in say bi-monthly, how much is it?" I say £X and they say "ok come over and I'll try you out before we commit". What now? They have the regular price, now they want to try before they buy! I can't be arsed with going back and explaining thats not how it works and one-offs are double, its wasting more of my time and I do need custies so I don't want to scare them off. Guess I'll just turn up and explain it face to face, hopefully when I'm there they will just agree to regular. But annoying!

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

It's you that's wrong here Bumpy i'm afraid.

You should have explained in your text / email that the price is a monthly price and the price for a one off will be £X

In the past when they have given it 'we'll give it a try' I simply ask do you want a regular window cleaner or not?

If the answer is yes, then I reply 'well no need to try, let's just get them done'

If the reply is 'well try it and see' then my answer is 'I'm sorry I can't help, you don't fit my customer profile'

If they want to know what that means then I tell them that I only take on regular clients at that price and if they only want a one time clean then they can pay the price when I can fit it in as I wouldn't be able to let down a regular just to do their windows.

At that point, once they are the ones being rejected all of a sudden they start to fight tooth and nail to get on the regular round.

A little reverse psychology never hurt no one. /emoticons/smile.png)

 

[TolishAPurd]

I agree it's annoying. Especially when its only for windows and so over a couple of quid, surely by phoning around everyones time is wasted, even the customers, so whats the point right.
What I get happening to me is they email/text and say "I'm interested in say bi-monthly, how much is it?" I say £X and they say "ok come over and I'll try you out before we commit". What now? They have the regular price, now they want to try before they buy! I can't be arsed with going back and explaining thats not how it works and one-offs are double, its wasting more of my time and I do need custies so I don't want to scare them off. Guess I'll just turn up and explain it face to face, hopefully when I'm there they will just agree to regular. But annoying!

Thats just the classic lie as they know we're not interested in one offs,so they want to dangle the carrot of a regular clean in front of you. Just charge a one off fee and don't bother trying to sell them any more.

 

[MrBump]

Reverse psychology lol. I wish I could be blunt and risk the take it or leave it attitude, but I need the custys at the moment ;-) My leaflet says I do either monthly or bi-monthly, no mention of one-offs and then they say I'm interested in regular, so I say great (my prices are on flyer already), then they say ok we'll try you out first right at the last minute. Nothing I can do and don't even give an option of a one-off. So far its not made a difference and they all become regulars, its just annoying. I canny wait to one day be in the position your in to be able to say what you do and not be bothered either way. Its one of the things that attracted me to this job, as the customers are many you don't have to take the **** or care about pleasing them all lol /emoticons/biggrin.png

 

[Green Pro Clean Ltd]

Oh Bumpy, I do care about pleasing them all, that is what get's me into a position where I can be choosy.

As some know this is not my first round so when rebuilding this time I knew the pitfalls and avoided all the **** from the off so as to avoid depressing myself.

However in just the past month alone I have had two new customers that I have cleaned as first cleans and then they have said 'oh don't bother again, we've decided not to have them done regular' and that's the only two I can recall this year playing that s**t

They are now noted on my cleaner planner, should they ever call again I will book them in then not bother to turn out, make my excuses when they call and re-book them, then still not bother to turn out.

They eventually get the hint.

 

[Dave B]

We all get caught out sometimes

Not happened to me for a while but just informed a new customer i received her payment and thanks and this is the reply i get for a supposedly monthly £10 job

Ok cool. As long as I can see through them I'm not that fussed about having them done every month so would you mind if we have an adhoc arrangement as I'm trying to keep my costs down (I think you're reasonable btw I'm not complaining you're expensive or anything!)

I am not going to dignify her with a response