Urgh! Problem with a commercial job...

So I took on a car show room a couple of months ago. £200 every four weeks ‘because the window cleaners weren’t turning up’ as they told me.

Weirdly I went back today for my third clean. The old windies were back and had cleaned it already...

Apparently another person in the business to who I was dealing with said come back. I had emailed my guy, the sales manager yesterday to say i would be over today. Nothing heard from any of them...

I’m assuming I’ve lost the job, but haven’t yet been told. Like they hadn’t when they turned up when I was there the first time. Talking to them they have no idea what’s going on.

Going to email the sales manager now. See what’s happening.

If I’ve lost the job, think it would be fair to charge them for a lost days work? I set aside today every four weeks to clean the showroom...

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If you have it in writing then you have a case, if it was only verbal then you haven't. It needs to be sorted and if you have lost it ask them why. 

I think I have an email somewhere agreeing to four weekly.

Yes that is my priority at the moment. I have a feeling it’s a cost thing. The other company didn’t charge anywhere near what I do. But some courtesy to tell me wouldn’t go amiss!


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windowgleamtrowbridge said:

I think I have an email somewhere agreeing to four weekly.

Yes that is my priority at the moment. I have a feeling it’s a cost thing. The other company didn’t charge anywhere near what I do. But some courtesy to tell me wouldn’t go amiss!

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It's worth a punt but unless there is some sort of cancellation terms it wouldn't necessarily stay up in court. I would send the invoice over with an email. Worst case scenario is they just refuse and you go away a bit ****** off. The best case is that some jumped up little sales person decided to make a decision he didn't have the right to do and just said yeah come back on the phone, his boss will kick him up and down the showroom and tell you to come back.

In my last job the window cleaner charged us £35 a week for 15 mins work. When I took the store on I tried to find a new windy as part of our P&L review but the advice I got was to keep the one we had. Looking back, years before, that store had struggled to find a reliable window cleaner. Reliability was much more important than price. It will be the same to someone at the dealership i'm sure!

Well I emailed the sales manager who employed me yesterday saying it was due and I was coming tomorrow. I know he keeps his phone close by so would have seen the email.

I’m going to email tomorrow see if I get some kind of response. I planned the day for the job as I do every four weeks! No reason not to at least try and let me know...


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Invoice them for the clean.

it must be **** outfit if they can't notify the last company their service is no longer required and if they did, they shouldn't be paying them

Minty

It's your time to waste and your money to loose.   An email is just a conversation unless you specifically laid out terms and conditions and got a response agreeing  

Nothing is simpler than taking 5 min to type the most basic contract and get a signature on it.  

Sorry to be rude but if you can't be arsed to take 5 min to secure a £200 job properly then you kinda deserve the grief that goes with. 

Green Pro Clean Ltd said:

It's your time to waste and your money to loose.   An email is just a conversation unless you specifically laid out terms and conditions and got a response agreeing  
 
Nothing is simpler than taking 5 min to type the most basic contract and get a signature on it.  
 
Sorry to be rude but if you can't be arsed to take 5 min to secure a £200 job properly then you kinda deserve the grief that goes with. 

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I know... Rookie error from the rookie! One to learn from in the future!


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I had something similar happen to me. I took on a pretty big house and agreed a decent price every 8 weeks. Reason I was asked to clean was the other window cleaner had disappeared. After two cleans I get a text saying old window cleaner had turned up again. I sent a text back sarcastically saying that the other cleaner was reliable wasn't he. I guess it was down to price and he found someone cheaper.

Why can't people have a backbone and tell the truth? We all know when we're being lied to don't we!

It happens form time to time on various jobs but £200 is big hit to lose, I had a commercial job once every 12 weeks for the last 2 cleans i told them that thorny shrubs needed cutting back so i could clean the windows safely and not be risking injury as i struggled to walk around the building along the paths under the windows. 

They assured that they would get it sorted as they wanted me to continue cleaning the windows  turned up 6.20am to carry out a scheduled clean it would have being  impossible to clean most of the windows so i walked off the job and billed them for the job explaining that I wasn't happy about losing money on a job and was disappointed that my concerns weren't addressed I was told they would get it sorted and call me back asap that was last January not heard a thing. 

Part Timer said:

If you have it in writing then you have a case, if it was only verbal then you haven't. It needs to be sorted and if you have lost it ask them why. 

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Think you can have a verbal contract in law, but seems like bad communication between all concerned,and that one of the showroom guys is keeping his head down.

They may still say to you when you can contact them that they are going to use you for your reliability. As for trying to get recompence for time lost,I would not hold my breathe

mike007 said:

Think you can have a verbal contract in law,

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Not anymore.  The 'Gentlemans agreement' is no longer recognized in the courts as it relies on both parties to tell the truth.    That's never gonna happen..   

A verbal agreement, with proof i.e you can prove you have been doing what you say with a paperwork trail, is enforceable in law. Where he will struggle is there is very little proof and nothing written about compensation for not being able to do the job.