Welcome to the UK Window Cleaning Forums

Starting or own a window cleaning business? We're a network of window cleaners sharing advice, tips & experience. Rounds for sale & more. Join us today!

Undercut

SPECI4L

Member
Messages
74
Location
Lancashire
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. :eek:

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:

 
10 years and they dump you for a few quid, that sucks mate. No doubt the guy thats taken them on will dump them when he realises how much work is involved for so little money.

 
pretty sad story that...but me thinks they will be looking for a new windy again soon...........

i am cheapncheerful which is why i am so much in debt but not any more....this place has made me up the prices now i currently am too far behind on my work anyway and new jobs are a pain...

i havent had much new work of any decent quality since i started back as the area i am in is heavily covered in windys but last week i got one ask me over the hedge...the obvious question when you are up a ladder with all your kit on....are you a window cleaner?

my house is smaller than that one....how much?

with out seeing the house.....hmmmmm.....so i just said...£8....then.....oh sorry ....£10 (i forgot my new minimum price policy on new jobs...)

she said....they usually put it up the second time not the first....not too happy.....

anyway it was friday and getting dark and i was tired as i carried my ladder over towards her house....and over the fence i spied a conny....so of course ...i did a cnc runner...feck that for a tenner../emoticons/biggrin.png

i felt a bit rotten as couldnt get back monday but fate is a strange thing....

in my emails....can i have a quote for cleaning windows....just two houses up..

so on tuesday morning i ventured out to look in the light of day.....at both jobs....

first i looked at hers and decided i could just do it for a tenner....but i did something i had never done before...i wrote the price on my card but....i didnt post it through thinking.....just lets see the house that emailed me first....

anyway....it was the same size...conny as well....so she was busy with a health visitor so i bravely pushed my card through the post box .....£15 first clean.....£10 normal...

i then went back to the other ripped up my pre quoted card and rewrote another at £15 first clean £10 normally.....

i then went to another identical one around the corner....and i thought.....got to keep the ball rolling and did the same again...

the moral of the story is....i got all three....

if only every day was like that...oh ...and er...the original lady...wasnt too happy about the double price increase...

 
Good for you as the only one being robbed is yourself if you decied to take on work too cheap

 
Good on ya davencheerful. :thumbsup:

My most expensive jobs are usually won by email, its a lot easier to quote high without being face to face./emoticons/biggrin.png

 
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. :eek:

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:
When walking passed their house flick the 'V' sign hidden behind your other hand. I guarantee you'll feel better for doing it :thumbsup:. I do it to cop cars, my hand is below the window as I flick the 'V'. Childish I know /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
I've been undercut today too. Long standing customer who's never had a problem with price & often asks "is it still the same"? as I've never put it up either. Been doing her for about four years @ £35, some handy man has come along & offered to do them for £25 & she's accepted:rolleyes:. The thing is, half her windows can't be done by ladders. Not bothered about losing the £35 as I've work coming out my rectum but I am peeved at the disloyalty.

 
I had a total opposite yesterday. It's a B&B and they had a bit of work done on it, no extra windows, just repositioned really. I gave her the invoice and she turned round and said she was going to put the price up by £5 from now on /emoticons/smile.png

 
as i posted , undercutters nearly always fail in under a year, its strange but true

theres a lad in my town just started up in October, he has got the website,got the Tshirts! etc . i notice on his website he has written -" i will better anyone elses price."

that tag line has signed the death warrant for his business!

 
as i posted , undercutters nearly always fail in under a year, its strange but true
theres a lad in my town just started up in October, he has got the website,got the Tshirts! etc . i notice on his website he has written -" i will better anyone elses price."

that tag line has signed the death warrant for his business!
And a few broken bones, he would round here any road.

 
as i posted , undercutters nearly always fail in under a year, its strange but true
theres a lad in my town just started up in October, he has got the website,got the Tshirts! etc . i notice on his website he has written -" i will better anyone elses price."

that tag line has signed the death warrant for his business!
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 a sign of a sneaky personality isnt it , the sneaky guy taking food off somebodys table when theres plenty of other food available but he cant make the effort/ has no idea how to make the effort to find it.

few years ago ,when i was still on my own , a bloke canvassed a few of my customers ,saying id sold my round to him . he gave them glossy fliers too . some let him clean and bleved his spiel.grrrr that made me mad

but he never came back to do the next clean, hed failed before the next clean came around !

 
I new when I started. Never undercut. I have got jobs form people who already had a windy , I know there prices I go in double. Thay do have hundreds of houses. It surprised me how many I have got. I'm certainly not trying to upset anyone. There's another guy who I'v got to know quit well. I'v been asked to quote his houses. I just say I'm sorry but I'm to busy to take any more work at present.

I can't be any fairer than that.

 
I've got a bit of a dilema at the mo myself. A couple that I have done a lot of handyman work for have had a window cleaner for some time on thier large 5 bed (I think) property. I asked them ages ago if they were interested in a window cleaner and they told me about this guy, and that he charged £30 for the whole house, which is about half what I was going to charge. I'm working there at the moment and i noticed that the windows were filthy, so I asked "what happened to the window cleaner?". And they said the... "I haven't seen him in ages, you can do them if you like?". These customers are good as gold, so I think he just charged wrong, put up with it for a little while, and then gave up. But the thing I'm a bit worried about is, how long should they wait before giving me the work. His visits apparently were hit and miss anyway due to him coming some distance, so I'd feel quite bad if he decides to use them to pad out a day, only to find that I've been and done them.

 
Filthy windows, custy wants you to clean them. Crack on. I take it you're charging a flat rate of £60 :nod:
Actually I was going to quote £70, or £150 with the gutter thrown in as I did them last year, but theyneed doing regularly since some of them sit under a tree. Either way its a nice days work, with nice low gutters, and the custies are good as gold with a pretty daughter. What's the worst that could happen. /emoticons/biggrin.png

 
I've got a bit of a dilema at the mo myself. A couple that I have done a lot of handyman work for have had a window cleaner for some time on thier large 5 bed (I think) property. I asked them ages ago if they were interested in a window cleaner and they told me about this guy, and that he charged £30 for the whole house, which is about half what I was going to charge. I'm working there at the moment and i noticed that the windows were filthy, so I asked "what happened to the window cleaner?". And they said the... "I haven't seen him in ages, you can do them if you like?". These customers are good as gold, so I think he just charged wrong, put up with it for a little while, and then gave up. But the thing I'm a bit worried about is, how long should they wait before giving me the work. His visits apparently were hit and miss anyway due to him coming some distance, so I'd feel quite bad if he decides to use them to pad out a day, only to find that I've been and done them.
if he has,int been for a while feel free to do them epecially if they have asked you

 
if he has,int been for a while feel free to do them epecially if they have asked you
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

 

Latest Posts

Back
Top