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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:
tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 22:13

I'm assuming, as you haven't mentioned it, that they DID dust & hoover every room, clean kitchen, bathrooms etc?... so quite a lot of work completed satisfactorily?

HanginWithMyGnomies · 17/12/2019 22:16

Just to be clear op. You’re asking for £96’s of free work from a local cleaner, who has already paid her employees (and sacked one for neglecting your cupboards) and you think that’s reasonable?

You’d have to be all kinds of nasty to damage that poor woman’s business by leaving a dreadful review when she’s offered you a perfectly acceptable apology and resolution.

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:17

Pictures of Uncleaned cupboards attached

Is this a reasonable refund for a shitty cleaning service?
Is this a reasonable refund for a shitty cleaning service?
OP posts:
shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:18

And another

Is this a reasonable refund for a shitty cleaning service?
OP posts:
tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 22:21

^^ what @HanginWithMyGnomies said.

She didn't clean the cupboards. We get it. I'm out.

MadeForThis · 17/12/2019 22:22

You paid for 12 hours yet expect to be refunded for 6. They didn't miss half the work. 2 hours seems vary fair.

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 17/12/2019 22:25

It sounds like they weren't thorough however six hours is far too much.

HanginWithMyGnomies · 17/12/2019 22:25

Oh the sheer f*cking horror.. my eyes 😂😂😂 literally laughing so hard. Those first two need replacing, not cleaning.

This has to be a joke. I’m with @tobedtoMNandfart I’m out. Thanks for the giggles.

user764329056 · 17/12/2019 22:25

You sound like a bloody slave driver

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:27

You’d have to be all kinds of nasty to damage that poor woman’s business by leaving a dreadful review when she’s offered you a perfectly acceptable apology and resolution.

I'm sorry, but I don't think that leaving a dreadful review, regardless of the resolution, is nasty. I paid for a service, my house to be clean, so that i could move in and unpack. If I'd read a truthful review about this cleaner which said that she failed to clean most of the cupboards, but offered the equivalent of 2 hours refund, I would a) appreciate the review and b)not employ the cleaner in the first place.

And just for the record, I'm not going to write a review.

As for the rest of the house I'd give it 6/10. We'd had the carpets taken up, so it was just floorboards and I didn't feel they were properly cleaned, so I hoovered them all again myself anyway. It was a brief hoover, she didn't individually hoover between each board. It was obvious a decent clean was beyond her, so I decided to leave the lesser stuff, but I wasn't going to ignore the cupboards in the pictures.

OP posts:
WhenISnappedAndFarted · 17/12/2019 22:27

You've got a point with the first two. Not the third.

Still not work refunding half.

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:29

This has to be a joke, sadly not.

OP posts:
tobedtoMNandfart · 17/12/2019 22:31

"She didn't hoover between each board" 🤣

itsbetterthanabox · 17/12/2019 22:33

Do you think the missed cupboards are 6 hours worth of work?

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:34

You've got a point with the first two. Not the third. Really? Thats a genuine question. I appreciate its not on the same scale as the first 2, but there were crumbs (you can't see them in the picture) and all the marks you can see came off with a simple wipe. Surely thats not too much to ask?

OP posts:
Puzzledandpissedoff · 17/12/2019 22:35

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

Do you actually know if three people came?

I only ask because I paid a commercial company to clean a community centre and heard a lot of blasting on about "the team" ... except that "team" was one cleaner and her two young sons

shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:36

Do you think the missed cupboards are 6 hours worth of work?. No, of course not, but I don't think compensation equivalent to the time it took me (or them) to clean it is fair either....there is the inconvenience factor, and how much that is worth is subjective.

OP posts:
shoebedobedobedobedoo · 17/12/2019 22:37

Do you actually know if three people came?. Yes they did. 3 at the beginning and all 3 were still there at the end....although maybe 2 of them went off in the middle!!

OP posts:
Christmasslippers · 17/12/2019 22:38

I think you've had a bit of a hard time on here actually OP. I've just started working for a cleaning company and we're expected to do deep cleans in roughly around 6hrs so I think 12hrs is more than reasonable.

I would understand if the house was in a shit tip before they arrived but it doesn't sound like that was the case. It does sound like she is sorry though so maybe just accept the 2hrs refund and chalk it up to experience.

Christmasslippers · 17/12/2019 22:39

Oh, and we're expected to do the 6hr deep cleans on our own as well so I think 12hrs between 3 cleaners is more than reasonable.

notapizzaeater · 17/12/2019 22:42

A deep clean is so much easier when it's empty. Did she look before quoting ?

PixieDustt · 17/12/2019 22:42

"She didn't hoover between each board"

Who does this?! On a professional a clean they won't go between each board!
Did you even ask for a professional clean because if you did £16ph per cleaner is bloody cheap!

HanginWithMyGnomies · 17/12/2019 22:47

@PixieDustt it works out at £4 p/h per cleaner. £196 for 12 hours work for 3 cleaners. Get what you pay for imo.

@tobedtoMNandfart I know right? 😂

WhenISnappedAndFarted · 17/12/2019 22:53

@shoebedobedobedobedoo yes. Maybe it's because I saw the first two before that or it's just not showing up that well on my phone but it's not something I would personally complain about.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 17/12/2019 22:59

it works out at £4 p/h per cleaner. £196 for 12 hours work for 3 cleaners

No, OP said quite clearly that the three cleaners did 4 hours each ... see the post at 21.39

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