Would love opinion on whether I need to just chalk this up to experience or if I’m within my rights to ask for money back.
Had a new-ish cleaner who came fortnightly. I pay her 2 weeks in advance so at the end of one clean, I pay her for the next one. She’s not reliable at all. She’s moved the clean several times with various excuses which is fine except I spend ages getting the house all tidy the night before / morning of to make sure it’s ready (not easy with 3 kids!) and so it’s pretty frustrating when she doesn’t show.
the last time she cancelled the morning of because she felt sick. Fine that happens. I had to finish work early to clean the house as we had guests arriving the next day and had expected it to be done.
Rearranged for the following week. She doesn’t show at the arranged time, I hear from her an hour later saying her childcare hasn’t arrived but she’s trying to make alternative arrangements. Never hear from her.
the point of having a cleaner (which is a huge luxury for us) is to make life easier and I realised this was just becoming more stress than it’s worth. I told her that rather than rearranging the clean for a 3rd time to transfer that to the next clean and that that would be our last.
I haven’t heard back from her at all. She has £80 of ours for a service which should’ve happened almost 2 weeks ago which she failed to turn up for twice. We have no contract or notice period etc. I would always have wanted to give her more notice but with her no-showing twice I just can’t justify paying her in advance for more cleans with no idea if she’ll show up!
should I insist she either does the time I’ve paid her for, or reimburses me the money - or accept I didn’t make a good choice of cleaner and suck it up to experience? It’s a lot of money for us to lose but equally I don’t want to start a fight with someone in the same town.