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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Is this a reasonable refund for a shitty cleaning service?

79 replies

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 20:45

Very recently moved house to a new area. Took a fb recommendation for a cleaner. She charged for 12 hours at £16/hr to clean our house (with her 2 assistants). the brief was to make the whole house spotless. She failed to clean any of the utility cupboards, several of the kitchen cupboards (and the ones she did clean were superficially cleaned i.e. not gone into the corners etc), the cupboard in the downstairs loo, the cupboard in the living room. I text her with photos and told her that it was considerably below the standard I expected. Her first reply explained that she had hired someone new (and subsequently sacked them) and she was so sorry. She said "how can I make it up to you.My reputation is everything". I text back and said she could do 2 x weekly house cleans for me (probably about 6 hours work in total) or give me a partial refund. She text back and said that she thought that the work not done was about an hour, and "as a gesture of goodwill" she would refund 2 hours work. Do you think this is a reasonable offer or not? I think its bloody cheeky, but prepared to be told IABU. Its not really about the money, its about having paid for a service that was well below expectations. I just wanted to move in and unpack my stuff, not find cleaning materials and start cleaning.

OP posts:
iano · 17/12/2019 20:48

from what you've said I think yabu... 2x weekly house cleans is a hell of a lot more time than it takes to wipe some cupboards. Her offer seems fair tbh

HanginWithMyGnomies · 17/12/2019 20:51

Whilst it’s annoying to have some unclean cupboards. I think YABVU to expect 6 hours of free labour for at most 1 hour of work! She’s been more than fair imo and is suitably mortified by her response.

It’s a few cupboards, why not just ask her to come back and clean them? Problem solved.

HeatedDryer · 17/12/2019 21:01

Well what was the rest of the house like? Did you specifically ask for the inside of the cupboards to be cleaned?

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 17/12/2019 21:03

So you expected her to do 50% on top? Yabu.

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 21:05

why not just ask her to come back and clean them....err because I was unpacking.....what should I have done, left the box in the middle of the kitchen floor until the middle of next week when she could fit me in?

Did you specifically ask for the inside of the cupboards to be cleaned? I did as it happens......but surely if you are doing a moving in/moving out clean as a 'professional' cleaner you shouldn't have to be told to clean the cupboards? (or am I totally missing something here?)

OP posts:
ShirleyPhallus · 17/12/2019 21:07

£16ph for 3 cleaners is REALLY cheap!!

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 21:17

£16ph for 3 cleaners is REALLY cheap

it wasn't £16ph for 3 cleaners it was £16ph per cleaner so £48ph! Which is NOT really cheap.....in 15 years of having cleaners its the most expensive I've ever employed.

OP posts:
FalalalalaloreanFortescue · 17/12/2019 21:18

Sorry OP YABU. Her offer sounds fair.

tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 21:21

So you paid £192? Unless you live in a 1 bed flat you are being massively unreasonable.
Used to run a deep cleaning company. That level of detail clean could cost up to £400 for 3/4 bed.
Poor woman.

Dontlikeoranges · 17/12/2019 21:29

So it was 12hr at £16 an hour each for three people yes?

So £48 per hour for 12 hrs would be £576 you paid for a total of 36 man hours.

I'd be furious if it wasn't spotless! I think you're rightly annoyed but if she's offering a refund of 2hrs @£48 an hr then that seems ok

MollysMummy2010 · 17/12/2019 21:31

Surely she paid £576 for the clean if she paid for 12 hours? I would expect spotless!!!

Concestor · 17/12/2019 21:34

If none of it is up to scratch I'd want pretty much a full refund. If it's just the kitchen and utility I'd want 50%

Or for them to redo it up to standard.

Definitely not one hour's refund!! That's taking the piss.

AdoreTheBeach · 17/12/2019 21:35

YABU. For the type of clean you were looking for is tantamount to end of tenancy and would be considerably more. The offer of 2 hour refund is more than adequate.

tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 21:36

I'm guessing the 3 ladies did 12 man hours between them.

Spacebowlisback · 17/12/2019 21:36

Seems fair. And good on her for asserting herself when she knows she has her reputation to lose. It’s a full house clean for moving in - that’s a lot of work. Did see visit to see what it actually entailed before she took it on?

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 21:39

12 hours in total. 3 people @ £16ph each.....each did four hours. so £192 in total.

But I don't see how if I'd paid more it should be cleaner? I doesn't take any longer to wipe a shelf properly. And given that most of the cupboards weren't cleaned at all, if I'd paid her £100/hr it wasn't going to suddenly make them clean. She could have had a job out of it - a 4 hrs/ week clean, but funnily enough, I won't be offering that.

OP posts:
Woeisme99 · 17/12/2019 21:42

How big is the house op? Surely it's fairly easy to clean an empty house, assuming it was left in a decent state by previous owners. 12 hours sh9be adequate for say a 3 bedroom place surely?

TheTrollFairy · 17/12/2019 21:44

If you have paid 3 x cleaners for 12 hours and it’s not spotless then I would be pissed off.
I think 6 hour clean is too much but I’m not sure what’s right as 2 hours seems too little

TheTrollFairy · 17/12/2019 21:47

Sorry, just seen your update. It’s 12 hours combined so 4 hours each.
In this case I think 2hrs is fair as a refund

tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 21:56

You needed to pay for more man hours.
You want the moon on a spoon but you don't want to pay for it.
To be fair she's priced the job up unrealistically.

HanginWithMyGnomies · 17/12/2019 21:57

.err because I was unpacking.....what should I have done, left the box in the middle of the kitchen floor until the middle of next week when she could fit me in?

Oooh get you! I only asked a question. I think she’s had a lucky escape by not getting that lucrative 4 hours per week. I somehow think she’d end up giving away a lot more time to you for free.

tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 21:58

To be clear. You want a 50% refund. So for all the cleaning they DID do you want to pay 3 people for just 6 man hours. And you think that's fair??

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:06

And you think that's fair?? I'm not sure what is fair, which is why I'm asking. If it was my business and I really cared about my local reputation I'd offer more than a 1 hour refund and 1 hour 'gesture of goodwill'. Its not a gesture of goodwill.....she did a shitty job. A gesture of goodwill is me not writing her a dreadful review on the fb page i found her on!

OP posts:
tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 22:10

DID she do a shitty job though? Genuine question.
Yes she didn't get inside every cupboard done. As I say she has not allowed herself enough time here. An end of tenancy clean is VERY time consuming so perhaps some naivety here on her part.
BUT they do deserve to be paid for the cleaning/time that they did do.

nowaypose · 17/12/2019 22:13

How was the rest of the clean? The things they missed don’t sound too dramatic and I think her offer is fair.

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