Customer taking the p***

[Moondancer73]

I'm fuming and after opinions please. I work as a cleaner for a company. I have a client - a family home - that is a 2.5 hour clean, always been tight for time and the client has gradually been adding little things on that aren't on the original, agreed work sheet - 3 bed changes for a start, 'deep cleans' of the utility', clean the fridge, clean the freezer etc.
This week the house was an absolute shit tip, clothes everywhere in the kids rooms, things ground into carpets, half eaten sweets in the main bedroom and an overflowing bin stacked double height in the en-suite.
He's had the nerve to complain to my boss about his last two cleans. I've pointed out to her - via return email - that I've repeatedly told her that he keeps adding things to the clean and that I've even taken photos of the state of the house when the decorators were in and furniture was stacked in various rooms and he still expected a normal clean plus heaven knows what else but she hasn't replied as it was late on Friday when she said he'd complained.
Now it's just bugging me and I know it's going to bother me all weekend but I truly think it's him in the wrong. Sorry the post is lengthy but what do people think?

Of course he's in the wrong! He can't leave the place in a mess and add more jobs on and expect you to do the lot in a relatively short time. Your boss ought to be fighting for more hours from him.

The customer is BVU and I doubt your boss will be impressed by adding things on but not extending the cleaning time.

This comes down to whether your boss is reasonable and realistic - I hope both of these are true for you.

He sounds demanding and needs to add more time on for his extras

Do you need this client? I’d give notice tbh.

It's good that you've taken photos. He's in the wrong obviously, try not to stress about this because you've done nothing wrong. Hopefully your boss will assertively tell him he needs to add more time if he wants more doing!

He is bu. Really u. He either pays you for more hours or cuts the workload down.
It sounds horrific.
I 've cleaned a nightclub that sounds easier than his house.
By the way there are loads of cleaning jobs so if you want to leave you won't be out of work long!

Our cleaner cleans the house to a very high standard as we request. She then bills us for the time it takes - we have absolute trust in her so if she says it has taken half an hour longer we pay. If we add things on we pay extra. Your customer and boss are being unreasonable.

He's so demanding - also very over personal on occasion - I think I'm going to tell my boss that she needs to give his clean to someone else to be honest.

We are a cleaning company and if this situation occurred it would trigger additional charges for the client for the additional work so that you could be paid for more time to complete these extra tasks and pick up the mess before cleaning etc.

When/if the new price had been agreed to cover all the additional labour involved that the original quote did not cover this should then automatically rectify the situation as now you are being compensated to spend extra time.

If after all that, there were still complaints and we knew you were a competent cleaner with good all round feedback from most clients we would then let the customer go and save us all from the hassle of their general behaviour.

Take pictures and hope your boss sees the rest of the positive feedback you generate and sacks this customer. Or at least gives someone else a try with them.

I think you just have to hope that if you have good feedback from other clients that your boss realises that the problem is the client rather than you.
I can kind of see why you felt you needed take photos to demonstrate the state at the start of the clean. However if I’m honest, I have a cleaner and if she took photos of the inside of my house I’d be spectacularly unimpressed. It’s a huge violation of someone’s private space. I wouldn’t want a cleaner back who had done that so the problem may solve itself!

also very over personal on occasion

That alone is enough for her to swap in another cleaner. The owner would be a fool if she allowed her staff to do free work - unless you live in a very unusual area the shortage is cleaners, not people who want cleaning.

I should stick to what was agreed on the worksheet, as that is the essential job description. Simply ask your boss to confirm that the worksheet represents the extent of what is expected of you.

Your problem is that customers will invariably try to get more out of the company than they are paying for (it happens in a lot of service industries) and your boss may try to keep customers happy by, in turn, trying to get more out of employees than the company is paying for.

If your boss is unsupportive, are you prepared to take the matter higher as an official grievance? It would help if you are, or become, a trade union member. But, ultimately, it may be an impossible situation if it is representative of the culture within the firm to please customers at the expense of flogging the staff to death.

Taking the photos was very ill-considered and is likely to undermine any discussions about the workload, as they may hold it against you as an act of misconduct. It is a breach of privacy and trust, which could well leave you subject to disciplinary action, irrespective of whether the customer is aware. If they do find out, they could complain to the ICO, resulting in the company being fined under data protection laws.

Be very careful about taking pictures of inside peoples homes without their permission. That's an invasion of privacy.

Of course the customer is unreasonable though, if possible I'd refuse to do his clean from now on.

I understand why people are cautioning about the taking of photos. However, I'm wondering what other way the OP can use to back-up her side of the argument... I don't think she has a choice and as long as the photos are deleted once the situation is resolved, they seem to be the lesser of the 2 evils. Sorry OP, this doesn't really help you, and in your situation I would have done exactly the same thing.

Not unrelated but I live in a summer holiday destination. I go for a walk by the beach 2 or 3 times a week throughout the year. After a lovely sunny Sunday, the bins are completely overflowing on Monday mornings and often have beer cans/bottles and disposable barbecues stacked next to them. The chap from the local council who is meant to clean it up often takes photos of the piles of rubbish as evidence of why he is late getting through his round (this is 8 - 8.30 am). It is no different to the OP's position other than my example is a public area.

I think that some people aren't really aware of how long jobs actually take to do. So your customer might think that what he is asking is perfectly reasonable.

Have you at any point given him any feedback that what he is asking for can't be completed within the time he is paying for? If not then this might be why he is now complaining.

Just to be crystal clear, when did you first tell your boss that this client was asking for extra jobs on top of the original list agreed for 2.5 hours?

I'd be telling him to do one.

2.5 hours is not enough for that level of work and I think you are right to take photos to show what a state they are leaving their place in.

I have a 2 bed flat that is tidy/minimalist, we have a 3 hour clean done every week, there is no "deep clean", there are no extra jobs and no bed changes.

Why are you even cleaning for a company? Go self employed and then you are the BOSS! Better pay and no micro management.

My boss has already been out before because of the extras he was adding in, way back last summer. I took photos when the customer had decorators in and had stacked furniture from two rooms in s third, to show to the office. Nobody else saw them and I've since deleted them although I do take the point about privacy but the office junior saw them and nobody else.

Malbecfan

Taking photos in a customer’s home is almost certainly unlawful unless they have agreed for it to take place, and agreed for the photos to be used for the purpose here stated. The comparison you draw with the council refuse chap is not analogous.

There is some likelihood that the OP taking photos in a customer's home is an unlawful act which could represent gross misconduct.

Doing something that might get her dismissed is by no means the lesser of two evils.

YANBU, some people will always be like this they think because "they've paid" they're entitled to whatever they ask for. What your describing sounds more like a 5 hour clean.

It's certainly not a 2.5 hour clean - it's a 3 bed, 2 bath, lounge, kitchen diner hall and downstairs loo and they're a very messy family. The fact is that I've spoken to my boss on numerous occasions about this clean and she's done nothing - I'll have to go over her head to the owner if she doesn't listen to me because I really feel that I'm not in the wrong in this occasion

Better to just mask if someone else can take it on, as nothing will change with this family.