Suns out and so are the chancers

[Incheck]

As soon as you see ''Like I said'' anywhere in an open message you know the kind of person you're dealing with. It's naturally quite a rude thing to say, most people probably don't even use that. As for the kisses at the end I imagine she was sat on an old broken chair out the front of her house writing that, a roll up in the other hand, still wearing her dressing gown and shouting at some kid to ''F**k off down your own end'' ???

 i have no objection to it really. Not relating to this Context but when i have to repeat myself. E.g. when they don’t provide their full name, or address, they only mention the one, or just wont give a straight answer, and then you have to ask.. again....

When people don’t pay attention or follow instructions it can be infuriating as it wastes our time.

one time i had a conversation that went something like.

“hi how much for ? “

Me - please provide your full name & address & i’ll come to provide a written quotation, thanks

answers with neighbourhood and first name only

”please provide the street number and your second name”

answers again “but how much will it cost?”

Me - ^ (as if to say, the above requests have not been answered)

customer - ?

by that time i’ve accepted its probably time to give up lol. 

 

[Dave B]

If you do everything the old way (on paper) like i do, i think it has to be submitted by october, if you submit your accounts digitally, maybe december sometime? And the payment deadline is like Janurary? Dont hold me to this but i just do it asap while the busy season is in full flight, i submit accounts to accountant in april & pay the bill in like may or June, that way i know i’m not paying tax in the winter when moneys tighter

If you submit your tax return online you have until January 31st to do it but also you only have until January 31st to pay it

Why is money tighter in winter?

Work is all year round

 

[Cleanco]

It sounds like he is trying to employ the old stack em high, sell em cheap tactic in an era when it’s more or less impossible to build rounds like that anymore. Everyone knows it does work, there’s still lads out there today cleaning £4.50 semis and getting £30+ an hour which even after expenses, tax hol pay etc is a damn sight more than min wage. Don’t get me wrong there’s still loads of work out there, just not at them prices any more. 

 

[dazmond]

I was tagged into a post looking for a window cleaner and I could not believe what I was reading!

I’m sure this chap is taking the leap for all the right reasons but the execution is awful!

i might just sub out my work to him and retire...

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at the end of the day he can charge what he wants for a window cleaning job.....theres no "standard charge" for window cleaning......

i have all sorts of prices low and high.....i  have some cheap estate work that is very compact(90+ houses on one estate and 70+ on the one across the road)some jobs are only £4 for fronts only(3 windows and a door)and they take min 5 mins to clean....im still earning £40-£50 an hour on this work....i have other jobs that are £80 and take an hour to clean in the same area......i must be doing something right as im earning around 45k a year for 20-25 hours a week window cleaning....which i can live on quite comfortably

 

[Iron Giant]

 i have no objection to it really. Not relating to this Context but when i have to repeat myself. E.g. when they don’t provide their full name, or address, they only mention the one, or just wont give a straight answer, and then you have to ask.. again....

When people don’t pay attention or follow instructions it can be infuriating as it wastes our time.

one time i had a conversation that went something like.

“hi how much for ? “

Me - please provide your full name & address & i’ll come to provide a written quotation, thanks

answers with neighbourhood and first name only

”please provide the street number and your second name”

answers again “but how much will it cost?”

Me - ^ (as if to say, the above requests have not been answered)

customer - ?

by that time i’ve accepted its probably time to give up lol. 

Don't understand why you need the full name, I ask for the first line of address so I can define whether it's a yes or no from me, if it's an area I don't cover but I know someone who may or does cover the area I pass there number on and I don't visit the address to quote unless absolutely necessary  

 

[Incheck]

Don't understand why you need the full name, I ask for the first line of address so I can define whether it's a yes or no from me, if it's an area I don't cover but I know someone who may or does cover the area I pass there number on and I don't visit the address to quote unless absolutely necessary  

It brings some “officialness” to it all. in the event of non payment...if you file a small claim against e.g. first name only...it’s not a good start. 

It’s also good for tracking payments. If they forget to put their address as a reference when paying (as they often do) and you’ve got 6 people with the same name, you know which one it’s coming from. 

Also if they’ve changed telephone number or address and then contact you, you can have some incline as to whether you’ve worked for them before or not.

i find that the more information you have at the start the more time it saves later on down the line.

 

[Iron Giant]

It brings some “officialness” to it all. in the event of non payment...if you file a small claim against e.g. first name only...it’s not a good start. 

It’s also good for tracking payments. If they forget to put their address as a reference when paying (as they often do) and you’ve got 6 people with the same name, you know which one it’s coming from. 

Also if they’ve changed telephone number or address and then contact you, you can have some incline as to whether you’ve worked for them before or not.

i find that the more information you have at the start the more time it saves later on down the line.

I agree with what you are saying, but for me no GoCardless no window clean and once they sign up I have all there details, plus almost all of my quotes are done via Fb so the conversation is archived ?

 

[Incheck]

I agree with what you are saying, but for me no GoCardless no window clean and once they sign up I have all there details, plus almost all of my quotes are done via Fb so the conversation is archived ?

Fair enough dude ? each to their own. I haven’t gone down the go card less route, not really planning on it either but you never know. I try and keep things simple as poss. Cash cheques and BACS, i had a debit card machine before & it was nothing but a nightmare, constantly changing their regulations, re-funds & taking payments were a nightmare etc, the machine itself was poor quality and flimsy. 

My fear also is technical glitches. When online banking goes down as it has done before, sometimes for days, a considerable number of custys still pay cash, so can still operate to some degree

 

[Iron Giant]

Fair enough dude ? each to their own. I haven’t gone down the go card less route, not really planning on it either but you never know. I try and keep things simple as poss. Cash cheques and BACS, i had a debit card machine before & it was nothing but a nightmare, constantly changing their regulations, re-funds & taking payments were a nightmare etc, the machine itself was poor quality and flimsy. 

My fear also is technical glitches. When online banking goes down as it has done before, sometimes for days, a considerable number of custys still pay cash, so can still operate to some degree

Never had a single issue with GoCardless in over 4 years, it's always been cash or bacs payers that have ripped me off. 

 

[AndyG]

I think the "Like I said ..." comment in that screen shot of text messages isn't from a prospective customer but a reply from the window cleaner offering his services.

 

[P4dstar]

I think the "Like I said ..." comment in that screen shot of text messages isn't from a prospective customer but a reply from the window cleaner offering his services.

Yeah that was the window cleaner. My comments on the class of customer related more to the kisses at the end of her comment ?‍?

 

[P4dstar]

Never had a single issue with GoCardless in over 4 years, it's always been cash or bacs payers that have ripped me off. 

We've had a lot of these discussions and something has become quite apparent to me. We as window cleaners expect the customers to bring themselves in to 2019 and make remote payments, accept that we clean WFP and leave the windows wet, accept that we clean in winter etc. Then on the other hand some of us don't want to use the latest tech like GC. I'm not singling @Incheck out as there are many many more on here who run the same way, just an observation.

I have a little perspective with GoCardless. I now have 45% of my customers signed up for GoCardless. 15% of my customers pay cash on the day (retired oldies) and the other 40% pay by BACS, Stripe etc. Of my outstanding invoices 35% are GC customers waiting for payment to go through and 65% are people who haven't made payment yet but will make payment via BACS or Stripe. The percentage of customers not on GC is lower but the percentage of customers owing not on GC is higher. Why, because the customer is in control and they do it when they feel like. I am of course generalising, there are some very good customers in there that will have forgotten and feel terrible when they realise. I have removed one anomaly from my figures there as he is a £200 conservatory clean paid by GC, didn't seem fair to throw that into the mix.

I also wonder if sometimes these new ways of accepting payment may actually slow customers down. They can see we offer X, Y & Z but it's all too complicated for them. Had we just offered BACS or Cash they may in some circumstances just have paid quickly and got into a simple routine for future payments. I can't imagine it's as easy as that, I expect just like my example above they would drag their heels about it.

 

[Incheck]

We've had a lot of these discussions and something has become quite apparent to me. We as window cleaners expect the customers to bring themselves in to 2019 and make remote payments, accept that we clean WFP and leave the windows wet, accept that we clean in winter etc. Then on the other hand some of us don't want to use the latest tech like GC. I'm not singling @Incheck out as there are many many more on here who run the same way, just an observation.

I have a little perspective with GoCardless. I now have 45% of my customers signed up for GoCardless. 15% of my customers pay cash on the day (retired oldies) and the other 40% pay by BACS, Stripe etc. Of my outstanding invoices 35% are GC customers waiting for payment to go through and 65% are people who haven't made payment yet but will make payment via BACS or Stripe. The percentage of customers not on GC is lower but the percentage of customers owing not on GC is higher. Why, because the customer is in control and they do it when they feel like. I am of course generalising, there are some very good customers in there that will have forgotten and feel terrible when they realise. I have removed one anomaly from my figures there as he is a £200 conservatory clean paid by GC, didn't seem fair to throw that into the mix.

I also wonder if sometimes these new ways of accepting payment may actually slow customers down. They can see we offer X, Y & Z but it's all too complicated for them. Had we just offered BACS or Cash they may in some circumstances just have paid quickly and got into a simple routine for future payments. I can't imagine it's as easy as that, I expect just like my example above they would drag their heels about it.

Yeah we used to have too many payment options, some people used to pay through pingit (no problem) the debit card machine (more hassle than it was worth) and i have one only that pays through paypal every time which is ok as i know exactly who it is. It all just got a bit too hard to track with payments coming through so many methods.

i like cheques, especially for ad on jobs worth over £200, as you just pay a flat £1.50p on a cheque regardless if it’s value, there’s no upper cap on the bank charge. They’re also good for people who dont do any online banking and wish to post a cheque (a great number of our customers are elderly and if they don’t see us to pay cash then they prefer posting a cheque) 

means then i dont have to go on collection ?

BACS of course is free so it keeps the bank charges down, and i like to have a significant amount of cash coming in because every time we pay for something on the business debit card there’s a standing charge of £1.50, so by us paying for diesel, all those little screwfix trips for degreaser, window cleaning warehouse etc, it keeps the monthly bank charges down as a significant proportion of the cash is used in suppliers or petrol stations. I also want to keep cash going, never liked the idea of a cashless society ?‍ But that’s just me. I’m old before my time ?

 

[Part Timer]

BACS of course is free so it keeps the bank charges down, and i like to have a significant amount of cash coming in because every time we pay for something on the business debit card there’s a standing charge of £1.50, so by us paying for diesel, all those little screwfix trips for degreaser, window cleaning warehouse etc, it keeps the monthly bank charges down as a significant proportion of the cash is used in suppliers or petrol stations. I also want to keep cash going, never liked the idea of a cashless society ?‍ But that’s just me. I’m old before my time ?

Why not pay on your personal debit or better credit card and transfer the money from the business account free of charge. As long as you have the receipt you can still put it down as a business expense. It will also build up your own credit score and you can get a reward card for freebies. 

 

[Incheck]

Why not pay on your personal debit or better credit card and transfer the money from the business account free of charge. As long as you have the receipt you can still put it down as a business expense. It will also build up your own credit score and you can get a reward card for freebies. 

I often do this when ordering stuff online so yeah it’s a viable option ?

i try not to order online unless it’s something i cant get in a local store though (like to support local business where i can) and also i’ve often had problems with late deliveries from some suppliers or faulty equipment (parts were missing off two deliveries) so i think it’s always good to see things in the flesh where possible before paying for them