Slight increase? 25%!

[MusicMenu]

The window cleaner's been today. "I'm afraid there's a slight increase, it's now £15, not £12"

• he's been doing my windows for nearly 20 years. I think it was £7 when he started so over the time the rise is not so extortionate.
• I don't think the price has increased for the last 3/4 years.
• He's an old fashioned bucket and shammy window cleaner and is a bit slap dash
• windows are never perfect when he's been, but it's much better than me having to do them!
• you don't get much for £15 these days
• 4 bed detached, plenty of windows, but he's here no longer than 15 mins
• he always wants cash, which has started to make me uncomfortable in a world where above board businesses seem to prefer electronic payment these days and is inconvenient. He's the only person I ever give cash to now, so I have to go to the bank specially.

So, quite a steep increase in isolation but still a fair price, let it go?

Use this as a catalyst to find someone who'll do a better job?

What do you pay? Is better going to cost me more?

I am honestly shocked!

We haven't had a window cleaner here for ages but if we did I'd expect to pay £30 ish? and be happy to! 2 x bay windows, 1 smaller bedroom window, glass above the front door at the front, 3 standard windows, a glass door and double glass patio doors at the back. I'd expect it to take about an hour.

I'm guessing a lot of the window cleaners on this thread are doing it for cash as a side hustle?

He might prefer cash so he knows where he is up to with payment. I think it is easier for non payments to be missed when done online. I imagine he must have hundreds of customers so hard to keep a tab on

I pay £7. First floor flat 7 windows.

He comes every 5/6 weeks ish.

Use to pay by cheque in advance for 4 cleans a go because I was always missing him as working.

He now takes BACs so he just leaves a note and I transfer.

I think it's cheap so £15 for a 4 bed and 2 floors seems reasonable to me.

@MusicMenu

What non dodgy reason might a window cleaner have for insisting on all transactions being cash? I agree it's perfectly possible cash transactions are put through his books, but why would that mean he never took payment any other way?

The onus may be on the recipient legally, but morally we have a duty to not deliberately assist tax evasion, surely?

It could be because

• it's easier than chasing customers for payment
• his bank account is overdrawn past his limit and if payments are made into the account he won't be able to draw it out of his account
• he doesn't have a business bank account so likes to keep the cash separate for accounting reasons or so he doesn't give out his personal bank account details

My window cleaner (midlands) charges £16 for 13 windows, french doors and they sometimes gives the front door a wipe if it needs it

What non dodgy reason might a window cleaner have for insisting on all transactions being cash? I agree it's perfectly possible cash transactions are put through his books, but why would that mean he never took payment any other way?

• maybe he finds it easier to keep track of things that way.
• it costs money every time a businesses takes payment via card reader
• maybe he gets a discount for paying for his supplies etc. in cash
• PayPal business also takes a percentage of each transaction

or yes, maybe he's a dodgy fucker, but as an above-board small business owner who regularly takes payment in cash, I find it really tedious to keep seeing the whole "cash = tax dodging scum" trope appear on these threads.

3 bed terrace on SE London. $25 a clean

They don't need a card machine. I pay DS's driving instructor and the bloke who cleared my gutters by bank transfer.

@MusicMenu

They don't need a card machine. I pay DS's driving instructor and the bloke who cleared my gutters by bank transfer.

You're right, he doesn't need a card machine.

But as a window cleaner, he'll have hundreds of customers paying small amounts each time. Maybe he finds it difficult to keep track of hundreds of small payments coming into his account each day?

Maybe he's old school and just prefers dealing in cash?

Why are you seemingly convinced that cash = dodgy?

Jesus it’s only £15 just pay it!

I pay £20 in the north of England but I've got a lot of windows and could not be arsed doing it myself.

I pay 23 Inc conservatory. 25 Inc facias.
South.

I only pay two groats myself, and for an extra penny he sends his boy up to clean the chimney.

Sometimes I think I'm living in the past...

I have a small business each bank transfer costs me money each paypal transaction costs me money every 10 customers I lose £13 ish then I also get charged just for having the account, and also withdrawing money so I do as for more people to pay cash if they can and everything goes though my books also a £3 increase in 4 years is peanuts he will have to pay insurance ect

He may want cash because it’s frustrating chasing customers who pay via bank transfer as some regularly pay late/forget to pay or forget to put their reference number on the transaction etc. By taking cash he knows who has paid, maybe he ticks it off in a book the old fashioned way.

I pay £14 for a 2 bed flat. Only 7 windows, S.E London. Ruddy rip-off, but it's first floor and I'm too old to be hanging out of windows.

We pay ours £12 and ask him to only come and clean them every 6-8 weeks. We have a 4 bed detached with a few outbuilding windows. I was already to hand over cash when we he started two years ago but he takes payment via bacs. No idea if that’s the going rate, he lives in the village and there’s loads advertising on the local pages.

I’m stunned by how low all these prices are... I pay €30 here in Dublin and that was the cheapest quote I could get

London, £5 - 2 bay windows and a small window.

He takes all of about 4 minutes doing it - he's got one of those machines that just pours water all over the place. I'd rather pay more for someone to do it properly.

We pay £8 in lancs, large 3:bed semi with bay window and two sets of large patio doors at the rear, and they do such a good job!

Mine's £15 every 6 weeks - 4 bed detached. Previous crap window cleaner who never came was £12.
I reckon he's just old school, rather than dodgy. 20 years ago we all would have paid via cash. I think ask him once more if you can pay by bank transfer as it's more convenient for you - say you can't get to the cash point. If he refuses then maybe it's time to look for another one. Ask neighbours or have a nosey at vans you see in the area.
I think an increase is understandable to be honest. He's probably lost customers over the past year. My beautician's prices all increased similarly after lockdown 1 and I don't have a problem with it.

We pay £6 a fortnight for a three bedroomed semi. They accept bank transfer.

I dated a window cleaner who only wanted cash. It all went through the books but he briefly did take bank transfers but it was much easier for him to be paid on cash because

• he could do 15+ houses a day sometimes. Keeping on top of that many people paying small amounts was a total nightmare.

• he had to chase people far more then he did with cash (most people had it ready or he would swing by a week later to collect it) as people either avoided paying or it was a pita for them

• like a poster mentioned above, he got a discount when paying in cash for supplies (which also wasn’t dodgy) and it saved him constantly withdrawing cash

• it was less time consuming to go to the bank once a fortnight to deposit it then going to the cash point every time he needed cash for kids school, cleaner etc

I hate this common opinion that cash=dodgy. It’s a shit opinion to have of someone

Why have you only now decided that him asking for cash makes him dodgy when you have been paying him in cash for the last 20 years??? Why didn't you look for someone else before now? Funny how he's only dodgy since he put his prices up for the first time in years.

I’d say don’t piss someone off who knows exactly what’s in your house and how your gates etc work. Unless he’s awful or a totally ripp-off, which I don’t think he is.

Typos all over, sorry!