WELL, do I have a story. A fellow wcra member forwarded me someones one contact information for a cleaning job by my house that they wanted done ASAP. A beautiful home by a lake with 65 casements. With paint spray. All over. Someone had quoted them $287. Yes, you read right: $287 for all of those windows loaded with dust and paint. Of course they wanted it done asap. The potential customer flips homes, so that was a red flag for us. Of course they’ll want it as cheap as possible.
We quote the job at $990 (though really I feel I should’ve bid it at $1,100, estimated 16-20 man hours). Too expensive, I’ll get back to you in a couple days. We followed up with them today. They tell us its not a big deal, not much paint anywhere, just a matter of windex and razors (ROFL). His “highly recommended” cleaner can’t come till next week (aka mister $287), can we do it for $350? My mistake was telling my wife $600 was the lowest (stupid, I know). STILL TOO HIGH.
Anyway, though we need the work right now and we’re new owners I AM SO GLAD WE DIDN’T GET THIS JOB. I’m so glad for all of the posts I’ve read about CCU so many of you have talked about. Thank you thank you thank you. I keep learning so much from all of you.
Oh, one last thing: do we remove scratches? This guy is nuts. Rant done.
It’s hard to say no when you’re new, but when it comes to ccu, you can never bid it too high. You can only cause yourself pain and frustration and possible lawsuit by going too low.
Thanks god for you you didn’t get it, and I’m hoping you have scratch waivers. I’m sure you doi if you have done reading about the subject.
Some people want to devalue what we do for a living . You have to have rebutles for stuff like that .
Customer I got a quote for 287
Me. Well must be from someone who doesn’t understand this line of work what happens with that situation is once he realizes what a mess he has gotten himself into then that’s when all hell sets loose
Not good for you am not good for him. So with that said I stand by my price , and I wouldnt do it for a penny less , because after years of experience I’ve done many jobs like this and my price is fair
With rebutles if you say it in a professional way if you don’t get the job at least you feel good about it I do at least
Moral of the story, sometimes NO is the best answer you can get from a prospect. It’s similar to a marriage proposal in that regard. (I forgot to get the waiver signed when I proposed to my now ex-wife)
Went by the house today to see what “work” was done: scratch ville. Steaks all over. So far we’ve yet to land that “big” job but we’re getting steady 200-300 dollar jobs with an occasional $400ish job too. And most of the time they appreciate what we do so it leaves us with a good feeling.
