Gardiners charging for delivery even though spend is nearly £100

[steve garwood]

1 agree. The English, and I have to say from experience the Irish culture (I have an Irish bloodline though I was born and reared in North London) is by and large for the short term gain, ie cheap prices.  Not for quality or national loyalty. Our manufacturing quality overall in either countries has never been anything special enough to justify loyalty. There are, or were exceptions, mainly in the very high end market : Rolls Royce, Bentley, Britool, Lister and others. But our normal every day standard has mostly been pretty mediocre so didn't really justify loyalty. Perhaps if our product quality was of the standard that Germany, Sweden, Japan and Switzerland for instance are renowned for we'd have more reason to be loyal.

I try to be loyal to British Isles manufacturing but I find it damn near impossible, for two reasons. The quality is rarely available, at any price and most goods are now produced in China at a much lower cost to the manufacturers than can be produced like for like in the UK or Ireland so UK suppliers buy in, put their own labels on and sell as UK branded. Some Chinese goods are now made to a high standard that would at present be hard to compete with if we did finally wake up to the dire straights we're blundering further into.

Two examples :  I occasionally renew kayaking equipment that is worn. My main two suppliers are Palm UK and Peak UK. Top notch quality from both of them but I know for sure that Palm equipment is made in China.
Peak is labelled as made in the UK but I have my doubts.

I recently bought a phone holder for the van. I spent hours researching for what I thought was a good product that was not made in China. I settled on one that was advertised as Swiss made. It arrived ,with small writing ; made in China. I used to try to be loyal to British car makers. I had Commer and Morris vans. Vauxhall, Hillman and Leyland cars. Would they start? Would they get you there and back?
How long till you could look through the growing rust holes in the floor or sills to the road underneath? It used to be said that if you wanted to keep a Jag on the road you needed two. My son has a 4 litre S Type. If it goes two or three months without a visit to the garage it's a miracle. Seems things haven't changed much. I had a Land Rover County. That was similar, loads of character but never long between something needed fixing.

I got rid of Landy and bought a Hilux pick up (Japanese of course). What a revelation, very rarely went near a garage except for fuel. Wife and I now only drive German: BMW M Sport in her case. Merc Vito x 2 in my case. All three vehicles are well over ten years old. Again rarely visit a garage except for fuel.  It gauls me to buy from countries that were and in the case of Germany still are our enemies. I would love to buy British but loyalty has to be a two way street. Supply us with decent quality British made goods at a fair price.

However, too late now. Our manufacturing is a shadow and other countries have reaped the benefits.

A last word from me on the subject of Brexit as it has been mentioned as being a bad idea. We should never have let Europe take charge of our independence and destiny. We have one national government that is accountable to us, good bad or indifferent. They can be voted in. They can be voted out and they have a duty of national loyalty to us. They are accountable to being audited for where our tax is spent, squandered, fiddled or wasted. One government is enough to finance and our government is answerable to us. One government should be enough to run any country.

The EU has several government type bodies : The European Parliament, The European Council, The European Commission, The European Court of Justice, that I know of. None of these has a national loyalty to us. None of these, as far as I know is accountable to financial scrutiny or auditing. Can you imagine!?

They are all financed by the tax paying public who has no say in the matter. None of these, as far as I'm able to ascertain is elected by the normal democratic process. None of these to my knowledge can be removed and replaced on the say of the general public.

Europe has never been our friends except for when our young people's blood was being spilt to rescue them in times of war. "Divorce!" We've been at war with one or other of the buggers for most of our history. Their behaviour and vindictiveness towards the country that saved them from anhialation in two world wars has been clearly shown in the wake of the Brexit vote and has only reinforced my views.

 Next time I have a week off I shall read this ?

 

[Davy G]

 Next time I have a week off I shall read this ?

 I wouldn't. I think it might be over your head. ?

 

[spruce]

There’s no doubt window cleaning is a luxury. If the **** hits the fan, we are the first to go and could all suffer some real hardship. I reckon I had around 10 customers that lost their job during the last year and quite rationally some of them stopped the cleans. 

It’s interesting to hear you’re already noticing a difference in prices. I’ve not spoken to anyone who’s said that yet. As you say, window cleaners are becoming ubiquitous and I think it’s inevitable it’s going to lead to lower prices. 

I’m sure I said this before but the trades are to be cyclical. You get to the age where you want a trade and are told there’s a shortage in plumbers, over the next few years you have an influx of newly trained plumbers that’s come at the expense of brickies . So then everyone trains to be a bricky at the cost of sparkies etc. 
 

With window cleaning, there’s no buy-in in terms of qualifications and the investment time. People can just jump in and do it. It’s almost surprising it hasn’t happened sooner. 

I can't say that exactly. But what I believe is that in our area, a customer's perception of the price of a window clean generally has stalled. If they were paying £5 some 20 years ago then some still believe that £5 is a fair price today. Unfortunately in our neck of the woods £9 will probably get you a nod for a 3 bed semi but £10 is the tipping point in a lot of the areas we work.

We have a business operating close by that is still advertising a £6 front and back clean every 2 weeks wfp. The only good thing is they have a very poor reputation. The not so good thing is that the 2 week interval might end up being 4 weeks when the weather is bad.

About 3 years we had a window cleaner leaflet a street we do. We charge £15 for each house which has 3 floors (ground, first & top floors.) His price was £8 which he included the garage doors as well. He went bust and went back to being employed. He's gone but the stink of his pricing still remains. He took a few customer's of mine away due to pricing, but it didn't impact on my business much - those customers were quickly replaced.

I've had the odd customer tell me they have had a more competitive window clean price and would I beat it or at least match it. No. I've found that most customer's who cancel us never tell us the truth as to why they are cancelling our service. Later on we will come across a newbie cleaning the house with a backpack out of the boot of his car;  seen a couple of times and then never again.

It's the nature of the game. It doesn't only happen with window cleaning; carpet cleaning is cut-throat here as well. There are to many carpet cleaners chasing too few jobs.

 

[ksp]

I can't say that exactly. But what I believe is that in our area, a customer's perception of the price of a window clean generally has stalled. If they were paying £5 some 20 years ago then some still believe that £5 is a fair price today. Unfortunately in our neck of the woods £9 will probably get you a nod for a 3 bed semi but £10 is the tipping point in a lot of the areas we work.

We have a business operating close by that is still advertising a £6 front and back clean every 2 weeks wfp. The only good thing is they have a very poor reputation. The not so good thing is that the 2 week interval might end up being 4 weeks when the weather is bad.

About 3 years we had a window cleaner leaflet a street we do. We charge £15 for each house which has 3 floors (ground, first & top floors.) His price was £8 which he included the garage doors as well. He went bust and went back to being employed. He's gone but the stink of his pricing still remains. He took a few customer's of mine away due to pricing, but it didn't impact on my business much - those customers were quickly replaced.

I've had the odd customer tell me they have had a more competitive window clean price and would I beat it or at least match it. No. I've found that most customer's who cancel us never tell us the truth as to why they are cancelling our service. Later on we will come across a newbie cleaning the house with a backpack out of the boot of his car;  seen a couple of times and then never again.

It's the nature of the game. It doesn't only happen with window cleaning; carpet cleaning is cut-throat here as well. There are to many carpet cleaners chasing too few jobs.

There is more of that type starting around here as well. A few months ago I had someone message my Facebook page saying he delivers leaflets and wanted to know if I would use his services. He messaged twice and I wasn’t interested.

A few weeks ago I saw the same guy post on a local Facebook page that he has a small window cleaning round and wanted to know if anyone could use his services. A few people messaged about prices and his was £10 for a house, £8 for a flat. I start at £25 for a first clean. 
 

Maybe I’m wrong - it would certainly seem the guys in the 90s were wide of the mark - but I see it coming and if people plan for that eventuality now, they will be in a better place if it ever does transpire. 

 

[scottish cleaning service]

There’s no doubt window cleaning is a luxury. If the **** hits the fan, we are the first to go and could all suffer some real hardship. I reckon I had around 10 customers that lost their job during the last year and quite rationally some of them stopped the cleans. 

I believe window cleaning now is a necessary. With house prices continuing to rise folk realise its an asset that needs maintenance. It is also a reflection on what type of person you are. I begun advertising on Checkatrade and now I'm getting repeat business for gutter clears and pvc cleans.

 

[spruce]

 The Website doesn't get me work but I have an ad in a book that gets delivered through doors they stipulate you must have a website, also I have links to pricing on it and a link to Go Cardless I don't really want to move it and start again I'm just hoping the high price increases don't become an annual event.

If they do become an annual event then you have to do the same with your prices.

 

[dazmond]

we had a hol in china few yrs back i was suprised that they all use English alphabet labelled keys on the lappy . that means they need to know  A means #  . i wanted them to have a weird rugby ball shape keyboard with 100s of characters.  Another thing i realized how cruel and ruthless they are,frequently saw cat? skins drying pegged out on boards on sidestreets . had a donkey kebab which was nice ,slices of moth pupae looked bad but ok taste . Hubby got ill after eating wafer thin raw meat from a bowl turns out if hed waited 5 minutes they were going to cook it for him at the table .

i rather go to greece any day karen.....the food and wine is a lot better!and the greeks are such nice genuine people....love it.....

 

[dazmond]

following year we were in russia and i was put off folk picked their teeth across the dinner table /dug at ears at breakfast time not embarrased one tiny bit .  Hubby wanted to go on a moose hunt after seeing a docu on breakfast tv but instead got a tour round a relatively famous local cow shed  . Different cultures ! Apparently back in the Soviet day you were given a job after leaving school and there you Stayed. if you quit you just started starving to death nobody lay in bed 

russians and ukrainians are like gargoyles(the men anyway!)and stare right through you....rude,arrogant and chips on both shoulders!ive met a few in egypt over the years...it was absolutely shameful the way they treated the egyptians while i was there...really embarrassing...the women are something else though!most of them are sexy and a bit slutty....i had to wear wrap around shades as i didnt where to look!

 

[steve garwood]

russians and ukrainians are like gargoyles(the men anyway!)and stare right through you....rude,arrogant and chips on both shoulders!ive met a few in egypt over the years...it was absolutely shameful the way they treated the egyptians while i was there...really embarrassing...the women are something else though!most of them are sexy and a bit slutty....i had to wear wrap around shades as i didnt where to look!

Those blokes wouldn’t of minded probably ?

 

[dazmond]

Those blokes wouldn’t of minded probably ?

one of the russian chaps(he looked like a mobster to me)was trying to get me to swap with my girlfriend one night(who at the time was a blue eyed nurse with more front than blackpool)...his missus was ok but no way was i doing that!

 

[Guest]

Found xline brush today they must be making a very good profit on them 

View attachment 24912

Just for the record 

this is not the xline brush, they are a cheap imitation of the brush. for the record our brushes are Manufactured in the uk  

 

[Guest]

Found xline brush today they must be making a very good profit on them 

View attachment 24912

Just for the record 

this is not the xline brush, they are a cheap imitation of the brush. for the record our brushes are Manufactured in the uk