To think £14 an hour for a cleaner is too much??

[LucieLucie]

Booked a regular 2 hour cleaning slot with a local business on the understanding it was £14 an hour and work in pairs.

Discovered today that 2 hours actually means 1 hour with 2 people.

I turned up mid clean last week to find just one person doing the cleaning - I was charged for 3 hours.

Challenged her today after coming home to a half hearted attempt at cleaning, beds not made, bins not emptied, glass & mirrors not polished, only floors mopped.

Owner went mental at me on the phone for , only questioned how I can be charged for 3 hours when I was only out for 2 hours and it was some time during this time the clean was done.

When I asked for key back she hung up.

If she'd explained her terms and conditions properly and calmly rather than acting like a loon I may have given them another chance.

AIBU? Is it really the norm to pay a cleaner £14 an hour EACH??

OP it seems like your company have been purposely misleading. I'm looking for a cleaner at the moment and they are either advertised per person per hour, or a fixed price - e.g. £30 for a bronze-level clean including x,y,x...

It seems they want you to think your getting 2 cleaners for the rate but that isn't the case. Plus they're skimping on the job, and being unprofessional. It certainly doesn't sound like a good fit I'm afraid!

My cleaners work on this basis £12/hour, I have 2hours so £24, they simultaneously do an hour each and are in my home for an hour.
This arrangement in itself isn't your problem, your problem is that they are basically dishonest and trying to do less and charge more:

1. that they are only sending one person so you are getting half the amount of cleaning that you've paid for. I'm presuming they didn't think you'd find out.
2. That they are billing you for extra time that, as far as you can tell, they can't have done.
3. Their attitude on the phone compounds the fact that you don't want them in your home.

Try and get the key back and get recommendations for a new cleaner.

I have a cleaner.

I got one when i was 6 months pregnant 5 years ago and suffering from bad SPD. The initial thought was that once the pain went after the birth we would cancel the cleaner. As it turns out i wasnt pain free untill dd was 10 months old! However by this time we had got used to a cleaner and dh felt we got on alot better with a cleaner as we were not arguing about who did more than the other round the house.

Dh cleaning standards are no where near like mine so he felt something was clean when in my eyes it was filthy!!

So we decided to keep the cleaner on and dd is now 4 and we still have one. We pay £10 per hour in the north west.

Also i think some people who say they worked full time, had 6 kids, looked after granny etc and still kept a clean home may have different cleaning standards.

Many people who clean their own houses do not clean skirting boards regularly, fridges, microwaves, inside of cupboards, on top of wardrobes etc where as cleaners do this very regularly.

littlefrog3
I just don't get it myself, but if people choose to hire a cleaner to do their housework, that's their choice I guess. It just doesn't 'compute' with me. especially if it's only 2 hours a week. Not much can be done in 2 hours.

You're obviously not big on imagination. It may be that the parent(s) work long hours and want to spend time with the children, not doing housework. In my case it's because I'm physically disabled and there are many things I can't do - like pushing a vacuum cleaner round a room or bending down enough to clean inside a refrigerator or oven.

PS I pay my cleaner £13 for an hour a week, she does everything I need and more in that time and I couldn't manage without her.

People spend their money on all kinds of things that I wouldn't enjoy enough to think they were "worth it".

I enjoy coming home to a clean house that I didn't have to clean, more than I would enjoy the other things I could do with my money.

OP - this company sound shit. Ditch them.
£14 per person-hour is not extortionate and you were naive to think that it would be £14 per two-people-hours.
But they have been rude ad have not done a good job, so you don't want to employ them at any price.

Littlfrog I choose to have a cleaner because I work in a full time high pressure job, have 2DD the eldest of which has my DGS (still lives with us) and the youngest is 5, my DH works away 4 days a week. I have no family that lives near to help with anything. It's hard enough without the added cleaning in top. Also weekend time is precious.

That said, I actually choose to have a cleaner because I can afford to and because I want to! Simple. I have a lovely cleaner who works for herself and is £10 an hour - she does 6 hours per fortnight (4 one week full super clean plus ironing, 2 hour whizz through clean the next week as that fits her schedule)

I've had a cleaner for about a year now and it's well worth the money. I hate cleaning, life is too short to spend cleaning my house but I want a clean house so am more than happy to pay for it. I have a full time job and a disabled husband which keeps me busy so the last thing I want to do with my free time is clean.

I live in an expensive area and pay £14.50 an hour per person. I pay for 2 hours worth of cleaning a fortnight so £29 each time. Sometimes I get one person on their own for 2 hours, sometimes I get 2 people for 1 hour but it all works out the same. They provide all cleaning materials, vacuum cleaner, buckets etc so that's a saving for me already.

Once a fortnight is enough to go through my house and clean bathrooms, kitchen, dust, hoover etc. I change beds and bleach and wipe down in between but every fortnight, it gets a good clean and that's enough for us with no children or pets in the house.

I pay £14 in central London but the agency charges £25 per hour for 1 person and they usually send 2 so £50 per hour. So I don't use the local agency. I e had really bad experiences using agencies - I once had someone raise their voice at me as well.

But it's worked out that the person does far more than just cleaning and agency staff can't do that so a single contractor has worked out better. In 3 hours work, I can definitely tell she's been here, especially if it's all cleaning!

Once you find someone who does a good job for a fair price you'll see that it really can contribute to the smooth running of your home! I couldn't manage without my lovely cleaner/housekeeper. Hope you find someone.

littlefrog I was recently involved in a survey whose results were very interesting. Over 80% of the people (male/female mix) who have a cleaner had not told ANY of their friends that they do. Over 60% had not told even close family members (parents/siblings etc).
So you may know plenty of people "in real life" who do actually have a cleaner they just haven't ever told you or anyone else!
Maybe so they don't get judged by close minded little people who can't see outside their own world view perhaps? Just a thought.

Not trying to be pedantic or goady. I just don't get it. I have worked all my life, (half of it 3 days a week whilst raising kids,) raised 2 kids, looked after DH, looked after our home, looked after elderly parents etc, and it never occurred to me to have a cleaner. Never wanted one, never needed one. Why do people have them?

Because they earn much more than minimum wage, and still see nothing wrong with paying a cleaner below minimum wage. (Sorry, but 7 a hour per person? Unless the pound is much more worth than the euro, that's exploitation)

I earn only minimum wage myself, I just could not afford a cleaner.

And the whole system only works if either you despise cleaning so much you would rather do another hour of your regular job instead of cleaning your house, or think there are two classes of people, and the second class citizens deserve to be paid only half of what you earn for a hour of their work.

Phone the police, someone who refuses to return your door key cant be trusted. Then change your locks.
Then contact Trading Standards. They have been dishonest the whole way through. People who come into your home need to have high standards and this person clearly doesn't.

I choose to have a cleaner because I don't like cleaning. I'm a sahm so should have plenty of time to do it I guess. I don't want to though so I pay someone else to do it.

I think £12ph is pretty normal if it's a company, but you can pay quite a bit less to individuals - just make sure you take references.

My cleaner is £15 per hour, she comes 6 hours a week. She has been coming for about 6 years now, she really is marvellous.

littlefrog I have a cleaner because I don't enjoy cleaning and neither does dh we don't want to do it so we pay someone to do it. I tidy up the dc mess in between my cleaners visits but she wonderfully does the bulk of actual cleaning

And the whole system only works if either you despise cleaning so much you would rather do another hour of your regular job instead of cleaning your house, or think there are two classes of people, and the second class citizens deserve to be paid only half of what you earn for a hour of their work.

"The whole system" WTF? We all are paying for services - not exploitation. It isn't a human rights violation to have a cleaner. I don't even have a job so couldn't pay my cleaner less or more than I earn per hour. In this line of thinking all trades people should be paid according to the customers wage which is absurd infinitum. People get so worked up here about nannies and cleaners. They are paid professionals, there are many contented with their job nannies and cleaners on MN - they aren't kept locked in our basements FFS.

I paid £10/ hour - south east. 4 hours was 2 ladies for 2 hours or 4 for 1 hour. That was a while ago now though

Mine is £13 per hour 4 hours a week, I tell you she is a godsend

littlefrog you can't see why people have a cleaner really? Try using your imagination or do you not have one. I am out the house 5:30am- 7-9pm depending on what time I leave the office, dh does nursery drop off/pick up and is out the house 6am - 7pm. The short evenings we have I want to rest and the weekends I'd rather spend with my dd

I don't want to though so I pay someone else to do it.

This is absolutely the answer.

We shouldn't have to justify how we spend our money.

There is no moral element to doing your own cleaning.

Floors do not care who mops them.

We shouldn't have to justify how we spend our money.

I agree entirely. And this one (cleaning) really boils down to "women's work" which is why I suspect it is so contentious.

Why do people have cleaners?

1. The cleaners do a better job of cleaning the house than I do. They are professionals who do a great job, which I respect.

1. I am self-employed and can earn a lot more money doing my job than I need to pay my cleaners. So it makes financial sense.

1. I don't like doing it.

1. Same reasons, actually, that I also hire an accountant.

I agree entirely that it is about it being "women's work" :)

We have internalised the idea that cooking and cleaning must be done yourself, out of love for your family, because that's what women are for, nurturing and feeding and providing a comfortable home

To employ someone else to do these tasks shows that you are a failure as a woman.

Little frog, I have a cleaner because I'm not well enough to do housework. I use a wheelchair some of the time and can't lift anything heavier than a cup or plate. My DH also has a chronic health problem and works long hours. He's too exhausted to clean after work. What do you suggest that we should have done other than get a cleaner? Get the neighbours in to clean for us? Let the house become a health hazard? I don't know anyone with my health issues who doesn't have a cleaner.

In 2 hours our cleaner mops floors, cleans toilet and bath, cleans the kitchen, dusts shelves, wipes windows and hoovers the whole house. She charges £12 per hour and I think it's helped me to keep my independence at home which is priceless.

Yes, trills exactly right!

Don't give up, OP: the right cleaner for you is out there, and if you can afford to hire one, and you want to free up some of your spare time for more important things than cleaning the bath, having a cleaner is wonderful.

I live in a one bedroom flat in Central London. I have a full time and a part time job. I pay the cleaner £30 for two hours work, once a week. I used to be a cleaner myself, so I have reasonable expectations about what she can and can't do in that time. For the record, in 2 hours, she:

Strips the bed, changes the sheets and washes and dries the dirty sheets
Puts away my clean clothes and puts dirty clothes in the laundry
Washes, dries, and puts away the bath towels and any whites in the laundry bin
Washes up in the kitchen and puts away everything (I don't have a dishwasher)
Cleans the kitchen and bathroom, including washing the floors
Dusts and polishes in the bedroom and living room
Hoovers the entire flat

What else? Straightens cushions, throws out dead flowers, empties the bins, and takes out the rubbish. And does the recycling. Cleans the bird poop off my conure's playstand. Yesterday she cleaned the fridge, and threw out some mouldy food in there.

I'm not a very messy person, so most of the week my house looks pretty clean. Once a week, as PPs have said, it's as clean as a hotel, though, for the price of a couple of drinks and a pub lunch. And it sets me up for the weekend of work in front of the computer for my part time job.

Op, get rid of this cleaning firm. It's completely unreasonable that the owner was rude to you and refused to return your key.

I suggest in future you make a list of what jobs you want done by a cleaner every week and what can be done every 2-3 weeks. I would never expect a cleaner to make beds or empty bins. The important thing is to agree everything in advance.