Cleaners ruined my bath Matt

[creamcheeseandlox]

I have my cleaners every week and over the past month or so I am getting a bit disillusioned with them. So much so that I am seeking a new one. Anyway, I came home today after they had been and I noticed white bleach spots on my charcoal bath Mat. The first of these appeared a while ago but I didn't say anything, but today there were noticeably a few more to the point where I am going to have to get a new one. AIBU to ask the cleaners to pay for a new one seeing as they were the Ones who spoiled it? I don't use bleach on the loo between visits so it's definitely not me who has marked the mat plus the shower is over the other side of the bathroom. Petty or principle?

yanbu
they should remove bathmats before cleaning.
how can they clean the room/floor properly otherwise?

You can absolutely NOT dock their pay. Talk to them, discuss it, ask them to replace it or claim it orevenletitgo but you can't just take it out of their pay. What are they making, 6 quid an hour? Max? tell them to be more careful replace it, and be the bigger person (the one who can afford cleaners)

So this ad came up on my FB feed today. OP is this you? are you selling your bleach art mat?

Where on earth would anyone be able to get cleaners for £6 per hours neil ?

They cost anything between £10 and £20 per person per hour in reality, most often within the £12-£15 price range.

Anyway the excess on their insurance will be between £100 and £250 so they can't claim for a bath matt but a lot of cleaning services would pay for a replacement. Personally I would only ask them to pay if they caused any more damage ie being careless, I would let them off with just one item as it wasn't done on purpose and as humans we all make mistakes.

When I cleaned through an agency I got £6.50 an hour. The agency got £13/hr and paid me half.

I am a cleaner, and being self employed and insured, I must tell you that we are not allowed to use bleach, mainly because of the fumes but also transferal damage, its been proven bleach doesn't remove dirt it just bleaches it. Today we use anti-bacterial, disinfectant, steam and elbow grease, so most insurance on your cleaners part would be invalidated anyway, especially for under £250. If they are with an agency then yes, they could be on as little as £6 after they have paid their agency fees and travel costs, so please also bear that in mind when considering unlawfully docking their wages, as if it turns out they have been using bleach at your request, and then go on to develop lung problems it may back fire.

Bath mats are not cheap. I looked at one in the summer, nothing special, in a high street department store, £20. And another £20 for the matching pedestal mat. I decided to make do with my bleach spotted set for now. Difference is, I had caused the spotting on my mat, so my problem. I would not expect to pay out to replace a product damaged by the carelessness of someone I employ to do a job. Accidents are one thing, carelessness another.

I know of platform/uber companies in London that charge their cleaners one-off £13 booking fees for new weekly customers, and £2.50 per hour for every hour worked, on top of that the cleaners have to pay their own travel, if the customer is not entirely satisfied the customer can claim a free clean and the cleaner doesn't get paid, some of these uber platforms practically encourage people to complain while handing out 2hrs for the price of one vouchers, which if a customer uses also means the cleaner only gets paid for 1 hr, its shocking what the agencies can get away with!

Soupandsandwich, but if you instructed your cleaners to use bleach, this won't be covered on their insurance due to the fumes and transferal damage, then I would simply stop providing them with it.

Op while I understand how upsetting this is, but seriously look up the effects of bleach, then you will understand why cleaners shouldn't be using it in the workplace (your home while they are working in it). Because its a health and safety issue, any insurance they have will be invalidated anyway, just be thankful they didn't walk it on your carpet. You can try machine dying your bathmatt with dylon, if it has rubber matting use cold water dyes and please in future get them non-bleach cleaners.

Go to TK Maxx. I bought a lovely huge charcoal grey bathmat there for £7.99 the other day.

OP just tell them (like you have) and move on. Cleaners work hard and if you just kindly say what you want and what you don't, that's fair.

But I thought the OP said they were private cleaners not agency staff so they must be charging whatever they need to operate viably.

I know some agencies to exploit their staff and that is not fair.

We are a private company and our staff earn up to £10 per hour working for us. I wouldn't consider running a business where our staff were paid min wage. I just don't agree with it. Cleaning at a high service level is hard work and needs a certain amount of skill.

Getting back to the Op's point, I think she was saying the cleaners suppply their own equipment and chemicals (as most will do) and she did not use bleach herself, so it was up to them to take care with the products that they are supplying within their service.

Yanbu at all. Don't understand all the people telling you to get over it either, just because you can afford it ( we have no idea of your circumstances. People have cleaners for all reasons, even when not well off).
Your property was damaged.
You shouldn't have to buy a cheap one to replace it.
Mine wouldn't cost £3.50 to replace
No idea Why you should have to move your stuff either.
I'm another asking why they are using bleach though?

You can't just dock someone's pay unless it's covered by the contract (and that contract is legal...). Just because you haven't yet handed over money for X hours they've worked, doesn't mean it isn't legally owed to them and you can just unilaterally withhold chunks of it.

A thrashing is called for.

Did they give you a contract or agreement of terms and conditions OP?

If so did it say what they would do if damage occurred? If so then there is your answer, hunt down their t&cs!

for gods sake, it's just a bathmat! I can't believe this thread. There's people on here who seem to want a pint of blood just for an effing bathmat!

I'd ask them to be more careful and just forget about it.

I will never ever be able to get my head around the exclusively-MN idea that cleaners have to pay replace things broken or damaged by accident.

I work in an office and have broken mugs, computers and once even a large plant pot which also required the carpet to be partially replaced.
It didn't occur to anyone that I ought to cough up. Isn't it the risk of having someone work for you?

Isn't it because an office is different to a person's home?

Think the op is more upset that they haven't told her and hoped she wouldn't notice.

Maybe they haven't noticed! It's a couple of bleach spots on a bloody bathmat! OK it's irritating but these things happen.

I don;t think they would have noticed tbh, cleaning keeps you really busy and it's easy not to spot something like that.

In contracts for cleaning homes (e.g. by companies or agencies) it is completely normal for the cleaner/company to be liable if they break or damage something. They will have insurance for this purpose though it sometimes comes with an excess. The first company I used tried to get away with a £100 excess, so they could have broken something worth £99 every single week and I'd have had to just suck it up. Needless to say they reduced it when I threatened to find somewhere else.

This is why my cleaner is my MIL, so when she acts up I can lock her in the chokey as punishment.

I have had cleaners break things and I've taken it on the chin. They do a hard job and I just suck it up. Of course if it was something very valuable (unlikely!) it would be different, but the odd breakage of something not worth much (or a bathmat), is really not the end of the world.

herethere all insurance companies inmpose an excess on a policy to cover a cleaning company, I have been in the cleaning business for 20 years and never not had an excess on any policy. Ours is currently £250.

We have within our terms that we cannot replace goods below that value.

Insurance is not there to cover for small damage, it's there to protect you in case the cleaner burns your house down, wrecks your carpet or smashes something very valuable - although it's also in our terms that valuables must be stored away in preparation for the cleaning service, for this reason.

The cleaning company you negotiated with will not be able to get their insurance company to lower the excess just because you presses them they will have to pay for any damage themselves. I would not have agreed to do that, there would be no point being in business if clients dictate you pay for small damage your insurance company won't cover.