To think this isn’t 3 hours of work?

No, £23 per hour each. £46 per hour for both. Apologies I read that wrong.

Agree with above, In 3 hours she cleans a 3 bed semi done for £45.00 and that’s all dusting, floors, showers, toilets sinks etc. and any extra time will do extra bits.

If they were charging £23 per hour for two people, that amounts to £11.50 each which is cheap for a cleaner. Times that by three and you get the £69. So far so good but if that is all they did they were either slow or the house needed more than you thought.

Tricky one. I'd probably pay them (just to get rid) but give them a bad review (based on the facts) and don't get them in again.

Limescale build-up in the walls?? How would limescale get there??

In future I would never book a clean without getting a final price for it. I wouldn't leave the timing open-ended.

I'd say that she didn't say at booking that she didn't cover my area, that I'm not happy with their work or speed, and offer a final payment. Good luck.

No it doesn't it's 35 for claims under 300

Why not ask them and say how you're unhappy with the amount they've done and don't want to pay for what's not been done?
Also if they were late for you then that's not your fault so you should still get the usually clean. I'd be livid tbh

Did you agree when payment would be made? Was immediately on receipt? Unless it says so, you've 28 days.

I would reply that you were extremely disatisfied with their professionalism and the standard of the work done. The work was also not completed within the agreed time framework.

As such you are paying £x as a reflection/fair representation of the work done.

And to check to see if you agreed to £23/ph each or just to £23/ph. It strikes me that you are being majorly conned here.

List what work you feel they achieved with a time expectation so Wardrobe 20 mins for one person etc.

Bathroom tiles - wiped clean but limescale not removed - 10 mins.

Then add up the total work hours achieved and pay for that. Itemise your response. 3 hours with two people should equal 6 hours work. If you feel they only did 1.5 hours work of one person, that is what they get paid.

If you didn't enter a credit agreement with them the job should have been paid for when they left rather than invoiced later. Then you could have questioned it then. Them sending you an invoice means they think you'll just pay up without question.

@WWYDwiththisone I'd pay the £69 but leave a really poor (but factual) review online about how they were late and did very little in the time they were there.

And as they were only there 1h25 each and not 1h30 I'd pay £65.17!

A poor review will no doubt cost them more than the £69 in future work.

Take you to court over £69? Have a word with yourself! It costs a lot more than £69 to file a claim.

It might be poor value and inefficient but you chose to let them go and not come back to finish the job. They sound chaotic but still did three hours' work between them.

It's a straightforward breach of contract. They were employed to do a deep clean and failed to clean to a professional standard, neither was the work completed.
If you had to employ another cleaner to complete the work you would be out of pocket. Personally I'd probably tell them their work was worth £20 and pay them that. If they don't like it, tell them they shouldnt be silly enough to think they could let you down and get paid.

"What can I do"? Pay what they asked and leave it there. I told you it would be more hassle than it's worth. I have worked alongside so many cleaning companies and they rarely take a problem well.

For £69 and the fact some work was done (which as I said before is subjective and someone else may have been happy with it), it's a whole load of grief you don't need.

And as for a bad review, think carefully about how well that will go down.

I'm not defending the cleaners, but there's error on both your sides and they don't strike me as overly professional, so I don't know why you would risk any more hassle.

Pay them what you think the work deserves - the additional charges/comments about the state are a red herring. You've called her out and she's not happy!
At £23ph I would expect a much better level of service than you have received.
BTW That's way over what I pay my cleaner each week!

Genuine question, you say "minimum standard", but against what recognised standards for cleaning would you be able to measure the quality of the work carried out?

The only recognised standards for cleaning that carry any kind of weight would be those set out for the NHS, and they aren't legally binding. Everything else is specific to all involved.

I'd email them and say that you're really disappointed with how little they did in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

At £23/hour which is much higher than the normal cleaning rate, I'd be expecting blood sweat and tears going into the work!

I'd probably reluctantly pay them but also leave them a terrible review online stating they were really late and did very little for the 3 hours you had to pay them for.

A GOOD professional cleaner would be able to look at a job and know how many hours it would take to get the work done, then give a price for the job. Not just give an hourly rate then state it would take as long as it takes...

You've quoted the Contract as they charge £23/ph with no mention of each...

I would also point out that them starting at 15:30 and finishing at 16:45 is in breach of Contract anyway as they failed to do the job you employed them to do, nor did they turn up on time. The quality of the work was also below a minimum standard.

I'd pay for the work actually done and materials used if they brought their own. I would expect a bathroom deep-clean to take me a couple of hours which suggests you did get an hour's work from them. I'd be thinking more like minimum wage though. £20-30 perhaps?

If you pay "a fair price" for the work done, it makes it harder for them to take you to court for non-payment.

I thinks that's poor. Plus for a deep clean you want all the basics done, bathroom first really. Walls last, if at all.

Would you not be worried about them holding a grudge as PP has mentioned? It has crossed my mind

Nope. I had a similar situation where a cleaner turned up late, left early and did barely anything when she was here. I refused to pay. She threatened me with "you'll never get anyone to clean for you again". I said bring it on. Ended up with a better cleaner who has worked out that the tops of the cupboard doors exist as does the outside of the bathroom sink and toilet.
There's plenty of cleaners out there. It's not like it's a highly professional, qualified service. Don't let a couple of chancers frighten you.

Was the bath especially filthy when they arrived?
Diid you take any before/after photos?
Did they come with recommendations/ positive reviews/ references?
Did you give them a list of the jobs you wanted them to prioritise?
Did your DH pay any attention to what they were actually doing while they were there?!

Shocked to hear that they were booked in to do a deep clean of the bathroom and kitchen and didn't even bother cleaning the toilet during that entire time!

It sounds like they haven't done the full 1.5 hrs of work they're charging for, or are just spectacularly bad at cleaning. I would be inclined to tell them that you are unhappy with the quality and amount of work done, do not think it warrants £23/hr (a price you would have been happy to pay a decent cleaner for a proper deep clean service) and so will just pay them £12/hr each (still over minimum/living wage rates) and not use them again.

I don't think they'll bother taking you to court. It would be helpful to have evidence (like photos) if they do. And yes, write an honest review. Save others from going through the same bad experience!

In my old 3 bed semi, I had two cleaners for one hour, and in that time they would do bathroom kitchen, windows, skirting, hoovering and mopping to a very high standard. The first clean was the most difficult, and that was two cleaners for two hours.

I agree, that can be / is seemingly a problem, when paying "per job".

Either pricing model has its flaws - you only have to look at the posts here from people who say cleaners left "early", and yet in some cases there was no complaint about the quality of the work.

Sometimes there are complaints about the quality of the work too.

There's fors and againsts everything, however, in the case of the OP I am very disappointed to think that the cleaning company didn't make it clear they would attend for X hours or would clean X number of things, as opposed to charging by the hour AND agreeing to get it all done. It cannot work both ways, and an established cleaning business would know this.

And again, OP should have capped the hours at the point of booking.

Unfortunately, domestic cleaning is very much a finger-in-the-wind service, as standards are so subjective, as is the condition of the home being cleaned, along with a great many factors that can interfere with how easily the work can be done.

Add to that, people clean at different speeds, some know how to clean and some don't, and many would probably want to be anywhere else other than cleaning a home.

It is certainly one of those jobs you have to love in order to do it well. I don't love cleaning per-se, but I love my job. However, there's no way I would do it for a cleaning company or agency - they can't afford to pay what is needed to make the job enjoyable.

@Thedayb4youcame the problem with charging for the work, not the time, in my experience, is that the work is done scrappily so they can leave quickly. Obviously you don't, but so many do, I promise you.