AIBU to tell her to fuck off if she can't afford it?

[cleanerlondon1]

So I’m advertising on the next door app for my cleaning services, and this woman decides to send me a long message saying ‘how dare I charge £13 an hour, when the going rate is £8-9 ‘ ‘ people can’t afford it, and I’m being unfair’.

I just feel like there’s millions of cleaners out there advertising, and if she can find one she can afford she should go for that. Why send me a message complaining about the price? I could understand if it was £50 an hour or something like that. I even offered her a discount and said I’d do it for £10 an hour for her first clean, but no she wanted it under a tenner

I’m in East London btw, and I know people here charge £12-13 an hour.

StrangeLookingParasite 🤣

Even I get jealous of the dogs! They go to bed, nice and chilled, whereas I’m exhausted by the end of the day! Not to mention I’m usually sharing my bed with a snoring farting dog.

TBF, cleanerlondon1, I used to get embarrassed when people criticised my pricing and let people manipulate me into giving discount. That stopped when one of my very successful customer pointed out, that by doing so I gave the impression of being uncertain about my own skills and business, which came across as unprofessional. The penny dropped and even though I still often suffer from imposter syndrome, I put on a good act. I no longer let people do that, or keep on difficult clients and I’m now at the stage where I turn away customers every week and am so much happier as a result.

You can do this! You started your own business, I’m sure, because you wanted to work your own hours and not have bosses/other staff dictate to or bully you. Don’t let your customers do that. You’ll love being self employed, once you build up a great customer base.

She's a fucking chancer.
Just ignore and block.

Yep I run a business and get this crap all the time. I’ve learnt that anyone who starts by trying to haggle on price isn’t ever worth the time.

Recently spoke to someone about a project and before I even gave costs he asked if I could offer a discount. I laughed and said “but you haven’t even had a quote yet- I don’t think we will work well together I’m afraid”. He badgered me for weeks to take on his work while insisting that I did it cheaper (there’s plenty of other companies like mine who are cheaper too). People are bloody odd

I can see her point, though - I mean, how dare they charge hundreds of thousands for a Ferrari when many people can't afford it?

FFS! People offering services charge what they believe people will pay. The OP would drop her price if (a) she got no customers and/or (b) she could still make the business pay.

Just ignore. You’re not obliged to work for her and she is not obliged to hire you. There are chancers in every walk of life!

8 pound an hour is lower than the minimum wage!

Obviously don't tell her to F Off but just ignore her completely. She sounds a bit crazy to send you an email complaining about your prices. Very weird.

£8 isn’t even minimum wage now I don’t think!

Even if you did charge 50 quid per hour, why should it bother her?
You are not extorting it from the vulnerable, for goodness sake!!! Arghhhh...what is her problem?

Min wage is £8.21

To get the same as min wage on a slef employed basis you need at least £10.50 ish per hour

To cost everything else in like insurance/travel/ cost of doing business and come away with the min wage as you own wage, you need price to be £15 per hour. You can charge more than that, the market is there just don't do business with clients that won't pay what you need.

I have never been able to afford a cleaner - like millions of others, so guess what, I do my own cleaning, what I don't do is send emails to cleaning companies complaining that I can't afford their prices so therefore they should lower them. Yeah, right, like that's going to happen. Some people are lazy and entitled.

I’d really like a Porsche, I’ll email them and tell them it’s not fair 😂 I can’t afford one.

R/choosingbeggars

Let the market decide the rate. You get enough bookings clearly your rate is appropriate. If not you might need to change.

I pay £14 per hour.

Not somebody you’d want to work for, she’d never be happy even if she was paying £5 an hour.

Mine charges £13 per hour
Don’t sell yourself short, you get what you pay for

I’d really like a Porsche, I’ll email them and tell them it’s not fair 😂 I can’t afford one.

There really are some chancers out there. I am a music teacher and I was once had someone wanted me to half my price because 'they had to get the bus to me'

The problem is if you start doing discounts for people when its a weekly service like a cleaner or music teacher, you then resent them every time its their turn because they don't value you for your going rate.

Its not worth it.

Firstly why would you reply, and secondly why would you even entertain working for someone who treats you like that on your first interaction?

Ignore and do not offer discount to show you can do a good job - that is not a sensible idea.

Simply do a good job for the price you charge and wait for a decent customer who will appreciate you.

With the greatest respect, I hope your business goes well OP.
You need to get tough though, just ignore and don't offer discounts, word gets around and more will expect it.
It's very unprofessional too as it appears you don't have conviction in your pricing.
Just tell them you aren't stopping them from hiring someone cheaper.

I saw someone post this on their Facebook business page when someone was trying to barter them down

A reputable cleaner is, as a PP said, as rare as gold dust. She is trying to manipulate you but I guarantee if you stay firm she will eventually return. I have never known a cleaner charging less than £10/hr to do more than very light cleaning unless you have signed a long term contract - she will realise this too soon enough.

Tell her to hire one of those many people she's seen who charge less.