Do most cleaners take the piss a bit?

[Cubberley]

Have had three and all started well but started leaving early and the quality of the clean wasn’t great. could really do with some extra help but fed up of the stress they cause!

Do you have a good cleaner, and how did you find them?

I had one lovely one but she moved cities. Since then had ones that take the piss wherever possible. Typically they seem to think that arranging things slightly differently will trick me into thinking everything's been cleaned e.g. moving the soap from the left to the right of the sink.

I had a great cleaner - she had some blind spots but overall she was good. I moved out of her area. I had another who trained at a hotel who did an amazing amount in a short time - I had a big house and she was the only one who could do it all in the time allowed. But she became erratic (abusive boyfriend according to the person who recommended her) and eventually never came back - and I owed her money!
Last one was lovely but slow. Always moving very thorough but she never managed to do the whole house, or even both bathrooms. Again I moved out of her area.
Can't afford one now but definitely go with a recommendation if possible. I never had one who didn't do the full hours, which seems a common complaint.
My friend was working from home unexpectedly and overheard her cleaner say to her daughter who had come with her 'if it looks tidy just spray some air freshener around they'll think you cleaned it'. She lost that job that day!

I’ve recently taken on a cleaner. Sometimes she will finish a couple of minutes early but because she really grafts when she works, and she gets everything I ask done, I don’t have an issue with it. I’d rather she does the job I need and shoots off a couple of mins early, than spend an extra hour and not complete the list.

I had a couples who came for an hour. I paid for two hours because there were two. Dd put a stop to them, they were arriving at (for example) ten past the hour and leaving at twenty two. So I was paying for two hours but only one done. I need to find a new one but it’s a nightmare if you can’t get a recommendation.

I’ve just quoted £75 for one cleaner for 2-3 hours - absolute rip off!
deep clean is another £10 an hour for some reason
just gonna do it myself

Not at all, I have had a few cleaners over the last 10 years and all but one have been fantastic. My current cleaner is an angel.

I'm on my 4th cleaner in 25yrs. The first one was very unreliable, the next two were great. I moved away and am still brilliant friends with no.3.

No.4 is fabulous but I try to be out when she comes round because we end up talking all the time and the cleaning is a bit half hearted! If I'm out, it's perfectly done. But she's become a friend so I like to hear about her week.

Oh, forgot, mine were all word of mouth 'finds'!

We had Molly Maid. The ladies were always fantastic. After I had DD they went above and beyond what they had to do, a proper deep clean so I didn't have to do anything before they came again the next week.

I'm sure it was the particular ladies we had rather than the company but they really were lovely.

We've had several cleaners over the years but only 2 of them have been really good. Most are OK. They do tend to start well and then get less and less thorough as time goes on in my experience.
We need to ditch our current one, she doesn't even bother dusting any more but it's such a hassle to find another one I can't face it yet.

Mine is great, she’s been with us about 15 years now and moved with us twice. She’s very reliable, only had 2 occasions when she couldn’t come (once illness, once she had a personal appointment she couldn’t move). She arrives on time, does usually leave about 15 mins early but she does a great job and knows our house well. If she has finished much before 15 mins early, she finds jobs to do - hanging out washing in the machine, folding up dry laundry etc.

We really value her, make sure we pay her fairly, give her regular pay rises without her asking, paid her in full throughout lockdown and pay her on Bank holidays/our own holidays when she doesn’t come. We have a good working relationship which I hope is mutually beneficial.

I find the same that it's hard to find cleaners who don't start taking the piss. Even the ones that charge above average. I have had three and one was excellent and the other two less than good. The first one left early until in the end she left 30 mins early and was messing me around every week by trying to change times constantly. Another I let go because she smelled, didn't wash her hands after using the toilet and her cleaning was superficial anyway. She didn't hoover before mopping the floor and you could really tell.

Another two I didn't ask back after a trial clean. One took a pack of my wet wipes and 'cleaned' everything. I was appalled.

I have one who just started. It started off well but we'll know in a few weeks if she is thorough enough. I expect having to point out things soon. I can live with that. What I won't be able to live with is if I have to keep pointing out the same things.

I have always had a wee cleaning job for some pocket money.
I do 2 hours a week for a family friend and work my socks off. I want to do a good job.
Before this I cleaned for a local vet for years.
I am possibly in the minority but I definitely don't take the piss.

I've had the same problem.
When I clean the bathroom I always spray and rinse everything.
Have a bucket of flash and a Jay cloth to clean the toilets ( which I then chuck).

Every cleaner I've had never seems to rinse. One left obvious fake tan marks on the toilet seat aBother when I requested she use a Jay cloth for toilets looked at me in disgust and said "germs are good for you".

Not sure if it's them or I'm too fussy??

Conversely we had Molly Maid for a one off clean and they were terrible and expensive.

My current cleaner does take the piss a bit, leaves early and doesn't dust enough but he's (yes a bloke!) very reliable and likeable. Best of all he's finished by around at 8 am as he comes super early.

I've not had enough cleaners to know how common or uncommon it is, but mine is wonderful.
She does crack on and work like a trojan, so it's no skin off my nose if she does the job in 75mins when technically I pay her for 90mins. As she has still done the work that would take me about 3 or 4 hours. Well worth the money. I'm not clock watching, as I see it more as paying to get the job done.

Mine is great - but I've had 2 previous shite ones

One broke things on 2 out of 3 visits (no offer to replace!)
Second one lost my key, ghosted me and still owes me for a missed clean!

Mine have been mostly pretty good.

A clear list of instructions and a rota system for doing the stuff that isn’t weekly will help you get what you want. Meet them in person from time to time, pay them properly, give a Christmas cash gift (or chocolates if you can’t afford it) - and if standards slip pull them up straight away, ideally in person.

Try and get word of mouth recommendations or otherwise keep trying people.

I'm glad it's not just me who had found this!

They just do a rubbish job... First week = brilliant job, 2nd week= ok job, 3rd week and subsequent weeks = crap job.

Eg putting toilet cleaner down but not using the brush, hovering barely worth it because just do a strip in the middle of each room, one starting mopping the floor before she'd hoovered 🤦‍♀️

Drives me mad tbh. They seem to substitute any actual graft for litres of cleaning products everywhere and no actual cleaning 🤦‍♀️ we're on our 3rd set now and they've all been the same. We've offered to pay for longer time for an actual decent job but even that doesn't work

Pair of ladies, really good, but wanted to spend half the session gossiping. We moved.

One lady via task rabbit. 30 mins late first time. Two hours late the second. Did not ask her back.

One lady very thorough but so slow it was painful. Wouldn't commit to a time, eg four hours, 'we will see how it goes' then promptly announced she needed to leave shortly, two hours in, and when would I like another session? Err, well I thought my house was going to end up cleaner today...!

Final lady really really good but had some personal problems so a lot of time spent talking. Would have her back as she is superb, but frankly I like having the place to myself more and am far more laid back about how clean the house is or is not.

I have 2 cleaners- one is great at cleaning but not at making things look pretty. The other isn't great at cleaning but makes my house look like a show home 🤣 I have the one that's better at cleaning in twice a week and the other one in once a week to keep on top of making everything look nice and presentable.

This thread has made me remember the relief cleaner that the agency sent years ago, when mine was away for a couple of weeks.

I had a large glass memo/weekly reminder board in the wall in the kitchen, that I wrote appointments, reminders and shopping lists on with chalk pens. This was before smart phone calendars.
He cleaned it. Wiped every appointment, reminder and shopping item off, to leave it sparkling clean.

I had one for 10 years - did a fantastic job but had to leave due to poor health.

Used an agency next (consisted of a woman and her cousins / friends). Some were good to begin with, but rapidly went downhill. What really sealed the deal was that any time there was a problem the owner completely denied there was an issue. For example one sprayed polish all over our walls, leaving huge greasy marks over them. Owner completely denied her staff member had done it. Another dropped the hoover down the stairs, badly damaging the bannisters and she denied it, even though I was in the house and heard it happen. The final straw was one arrived an hour late and left an hour early, having done a crap job during the hour she was there. I wouldn't have minded if there had been an emergency that she needed to leave for, but again - she denied it had happened, even though we had footage on our security cameras.

We had a guy after that who was absolutely fantastic. Stayed with us for 2 years but we had to give him up as it was just too expensive (we were paying £20 an hour, and didn't begrudge it as he did such a great job).

Our house is filthy now. I do the best I can, but I feel I'm doing most of it on my own and I just can't manage. I would dearly love another cleaner but I can't bear the thought of getting someone crap again.

These stories are exactly what happened to me, begin well (and in the case of the first one pestered me endlessly to do a review for them on social media) and then deteriorate to the point they become pointless.

I’m a great cleaner; I often do over my time in order to get things finished properly. However, if I was to break something accidentally, I wouldn’t expect to have to pay for it. Would you be out of pocket for something you broke accidentally at work?