Anyone else noticing this trend lately?

Conversation
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This year was the worst one since in business (nine years…) with losing bids.

In particular with prevailing wage projects.

In this area, it’s always been the case; you know…how these janitorial outfits will bid on these projects and not know how to bid the ccu for the window cleaning/building washing aspect so the lowball it to get the contract and whine to you how they are under budget and get you to lower your numbers?,

What I’ve been seeing is two scenarios;

They have someone they hired and end up needing to hire someone else or;
call me for a bid, have me spend all freaken week on it because it needed to be turned in yesterday when it’s all a lie (theres no deadline folks, they absolutely DO make it up to get you to drop what your’re doing. Really.)

and during this whole process blow smoke in my ear and tell me I got the gig, while my other line beeps and its a friend of mine telling me he was asked for numbers as well!

This happened on 3 occasions this year!

They always picked the lowest numbers DESPITE QUALIFICATIONS or recommendations from the Prime Contractor on site.

Now, thats not the thing that gets me ticked…

If its prevailing wage, the only area where the numbers would fluctuate is in the profit margin because everyone has the same overhead give or take a few bucks. Everyone is bidding for profit margins only.

How can other professionals be HALF MY PRICE?

You’re supposed to turn in your certified payroll sheets etc…before you even see a check! I ain’t no whistle blower, but this ain’t cool.

Look, I know you gotta cut corners in order to make a buck these days. I simply can’t.
Unfortunately, I have to pay the price for that too.

Anyone else in that boat?

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I had two cleaning companies I was working with earlier in the year you kinda satarted the same thing, " we only budget x amount" and what not… needless to say I chose not to work with them anymore

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[I]‘Bidding by profit margin’[/I]
That’s a VERY good way of putting it.

I rarely do prevailing wage jobs.
Right now the only one is a Coast Guard building.

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I bid a prevailing wage job some years back. Daily cleaning of a post office. The winning bid was half of mine. Mathematically there was no way that the other company could have satisfied the requirements and paid a prevailing wage. Unless they allotted 1 hour for 4 hours work, maybe.

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I have had janitorial companies or floor guys take commercial jobs from me, by offering free window cleaning in the contract.

Alan Karr
Window Kare
Telemarketing
905-321-7720
[email protected]

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It’s why i no longer do ANY subbed commercial or CCU contract work.

I deal direct with the customer or get my custom elsewhere…

If im not likely to get the job anyway if they go for the lowest low ball bid offered, why waste my time dealing with them in the first place.

Most commercial work i do, is spawned from higher end residential customers who have offices etc they want cleaned by a reliable contractor.

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Wow. Interesting how little enforcement there is with these gigs. So its everywhere.

Unreal.

Well, it’s a good system if it was enforced I think.

You know, if one day the powers that be decided to audit the certified payrolls on these CCU’s there would be alot of people outta biz or in a heap of trouble thats for sure.

Thanks for the replies fellas.

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Totally agree with you. The only problem is that you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you by busting contractors who are “giving you jobs” so no one says anything. I had one who owed me a ton of money and then told me he was just going to hire someone else which turns out to be a crew of house cleaners who did crappy work and charged half as much. What did I do? Went to his bank and called him and said he needed to come down and pay me because I was sitting with the bank manager. Got paid in 20 minutes.

Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource mobile app

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I had the same thing happen bid $880 Ina construction clean up million dollar home contractor said are you guys in cahoots. I said wht do you mean. He said I got about the same bid from two other window cleaners. He said he just didn’t have that money in his budget. . I explained how I was different and if he had any scratches we could take care of that also. Didn’t hear back for 1 month. He had hired the house cleaning crew to do the construction clean up. They scratched 17 window I told home it would be $5500 to remove all the scratches. He asked if I could cut him a deal and he would use me on EVERY SINGLE CONSTRUCTION CLEAN UP from know on. Yeah I’ve heard that one before. I told home hire me for this and I’ll work with him on future construction clean ups. Did the scratches got my check. I’ve never heard from him again and that was 6 years ago. I guess he hasn’t built anymore homes. Lol

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Actually, the contractors who are giving these jobs is NOT the prime. It’s the janitorial outfits that bid in the blind, lowball it, and expect us to ride in that sinking boat!

Each subcontractor (including the janitorial company) under the Prime, is accountable for their certified payrolls and all subcontractors they hire. Which is why usually nobody gets paid until payrolls are turned in.

I ain’t a rat, and don’t even condone someone blowing whistles here at all, but if someone did it wouldn’t be the Prime contractor who would feel uncle sam’s wrath…all those who get popped will. Lets just say that did happen, the janitorial company would be in deep poo over it.

I wonder if after that, the rules would change and instead of the janitorial be made to sub out to us they take that scope off the RFP and submit directly to the window cleaning outfit??

Now THAT would be a game changer for sure!

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True! Had some dealings with jan-pro and a few other’s in town like this… Asking for a CCU bid exterior only “we are only going to do the interior” Need bid for 5 of six stories exterior only … Or another bass pro high windows only “we can’t get them”

Builder’s are amazing as well… Had one this last year whining how he can’t get good people for final cleans. Asked what he paid
.18 per square including windows… Hmm i wonder why?? No wonder why he balked at my price for his own house

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Thats funny.

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Contractors give cooked books on the certified payroll. It’s not hard to do.

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I won’t get into that boat.

Our company provides the best service in our market. I know what my costs are and I don’t lowball or cut prices. Our company name stands for quality and service, not price

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