cheeky customers

[lee.h]

cant actually complain because i have managed to get a good few customers going and most of them are brilliant , iv had tips etc endless offers of tea and frankly they've been great.

however iv had two rite nutters this week.

one woman expected me to clean every window in the house ( they were absolutly filthy) then out of the blue clean her conservatory. and then she expected me to do the roof as well ... all for £10 the conservatory was literally green and about 5m x 4m . the house had 9 windows.

i then did a full clean of upvc on a house.. agreeing £30 doing windows as well. but just to clean the green mould off gutterers windows and downpipes etc.. job done. the customer said his freind would like it done and her house was the same size etc.. i turn up , do her house which was same size etc and at the end she hands me £18.... after ten minutes of politley explaining i actually gave up as she clearly was not going to pay and her husband was getting quite aggresive.

i realise my mistakes here and i will put it down to experience. but does anyone else suffer these problems and how do you solve them.


i must point out i didnt carry out the first job for £10 but she fully expected me to including the green roof of the conservatory

 

[jambo113]

not had that yet but ive had people trying to negotiate the price or when ive done a first clean i had one lass say what day do you collect i said now while im here then she said can u come friday when i get paid 3 weeks later and still not been paid the worst one is when theyve rung me and asked me to clean there windows and told me a time and date to come, my response its a window cleaning round, not a window cleaning when. rant over

 

[badbusdriver]

Ha ha!, got to give them extra points for trying!.

I went to a customers house today, an older woman, in a bungalow with a conservatory which i do for £12. The woman comes out and asks if i can do the wooden bits under the roof overhang all the way round as she had the roof 'sealed' and there was a bit of a mess. She was expecting me to do it there and then, and didnt look very happy when i told her i was pushed for time so couldnt do it today!. Then when i told her it would be £20 to do the work (which, given it would take me at least an hour, i thought vey reasonable) she just about fell over, "i didnt think it would be as much as that" she says!. Ha, unbelievable, they just dont have a clue. So anyway, i start doing her windows only to find that they are all covered with little spots of whatever it is they used on the roof!, so i told her about it, but she didnt ask if i could remove it?!!.

 

[Belfastcleaning]

£30 is cheap for a PVC clean including windows. Have never had a problem getting money after agreeing a price, I think I would lose the rag with them, some people just don't appreciate what you do for them.

I was asked to do the PVC on a bungalow which had a good lot of fascia and soffit on 3 sides plus a dormer windows with PVC all around.. Plus gutters cleared. I asked for £70 ( bit below what I'd usually ask for ), the famous words '' that much?! '' So I said £60 or it's not worth my while.. And she just said forget about it!! Swear word!!!

 

[lee.h]

another woman asked me to clear her gutters. 4 seperate lengths totalling round 16 metres. i knew she was tight so i said 35 quid and ill clean the green mould off as well etc. so alot of work really... she nearly fell over. its alot of work to do on a ladder and yet you get these dreamers.. haha. ill just learn from it i think.

from now on i think i'll ask more for such jobs and if it does not suit the customer i'll happily not do the work. its a lot of graft for the price people expect really. but not everyone is that bad so i dont mind.

 

[Belfastcleaning]

I have told people £250 for PVC and they never even thought, just asked when can I start.. And other Iv said £60 and they say wow couldn't afford that..

Don't forget it's you doing them a favour, not the other way around.. If they can't afford it.. F**k em!

 

[Ryan]

my min charge for a full upvc clean is £60 did 1 on tuesday took me 2-3 hrs with a bit of talking and 2 cups of tea

if thay got a conny it could be double

nice earners but much harder work than just doing windows

 

[beaver0_15]

Im currently a builder (hopefully getting into window cleaning) i get these customers all the time, i go out of my way to get them really good prices on materials and work them out a price with labour at only £12 an hour, u tell em the price n they think ur trying to fleece them, its so annoying when ur trying to do them a favour and not only r they not greatful they think ur robbing them, u just think why do i bother. im starting the window cleaning with a completely different at***ude, i will not be doing anyone favours, ill tell them what i want for doing it and if they dont like it they can get some other mug to do it

 

[All Round Cleaning]

Maybe you should take the same approach with your building work then !

I had the same trouble as yourself when i was in the game if they were not prepared to pay the price they didnt get the job done !!!!

I even had one customer call my friend the plumber up in tears because she got ripped off big time because a cowboy totally bodged up her bathroom after telling me and the plumber we were trying to rip her off .

In the end we said sorry love its your problem not ours .

 

[beaver0_15]

yeah well to be honest im starting to go that way with new customers, but i still let it get to me when they think ur overcharging and ur clearly not. hopefully i shouldnt be building much longer anyway /emoticons/wink.png

 

[simon]

beaver0

where are you working at????????? £12 seems very cheap, if you charged that round my way they'd be queuing up for you

 

[jambo113]

beaver0

where are you working at????????? £12 seems very cheap, if you charged that round my way they'd be queuing up for you

must be were im from any self employed tradesmen round here will struggle to get 12 an hour i spent 11 years as a joiner even worked away and still earn more doing windows

 

[beaver0_15]

it is very cheap, i live in harrogate where the going rate seems to be £20ph but as my dad lives in bradford we tend to get most our work there and the money seems to be tighter. Theres compe***ion charging £60 a day, to be fair they prob aint worth a sh**e but if customers get quotes of ppl like that they obviously gonna be cheaper and it just pulls everyones prices down. a few years back my dad was working for a company on the books for £15 an hour with company van and mobile.

beaver0

where are you working at????????? £12 seems very cheap, if you charged that round my way they'd be queuing up for you

must be were im from any self employed tradesmen round here will struggle to get 12 an hour i spent 11 years as a joiner even worked away and still earn more doing windows

where r u from?, this is why im wanting to do windows im hoping ur going to tell me its less hassle aswell

 

[Whizz-Bizz]

In my experience if you get a recomendation its generally more trouble than its worth and if you get it from a good customer your best bet is to say your over booked. They play on the fact youve got a good relationship with their friend and think they have you at there whim.

My personel favourite ***htmare customers are can you text me each time before you clean my £6 front "er, erm er er... erm NO madam put it in your diary and Ill see you in 4 weeks" is my response