Rude cleaner

[changedforthisone8533]

Had a few cleaners over the years. Got along with every one of them but this cleaner few across as very rude.

She doesn't say hello or talk or acknowledge when I speak to her and leaves without informing me.

Regardless, she's there to clean.
Over time, I grew tired of the rudeness and decided it wasn't a match so we both ended the situation mutually. I was actually planning on messaging asking her not to return when she messaged me saying she moved house so could no longer clean so I just left it.
All good.

I didn't end up replacing her as COL crisis mainly.

She messages me a few weeks back informing me she has moved to a new property near to my house so she can come back.
I responded and said I'd bear that in mind and may message her for the odd cleaning job.
I'm summarising as I don't remember the specific words exchanged.

Anyway, we arrange for her to come today. 3 hours.
She was supposed to arrive at 11am. Then changed it to 1pm but didn't arrive till 1:21pm. I have an intercom and a doorbell camera so checked these.
I was in the shower at the time as she was late and therefore was delayed opening the door for 12 minutes. (I live in an apartment so she was waiting inside my building on a sofa - warm not in the cold outside.)

At some point during the clean she informs me that she has broken an item. I was on the phone for a hospital appointment so acknowledged this but didn't spend too much time looking into the details.
She remarked at the time, "you can pay me £15 in full as I broke your item. Sorry"
She charges £16ph now, increased from last year.
Again she left without saying bye.

She messages me about the payment and informs me it's 3 hours £48. I remind her of the item she broke and ask her to clarify which item it was (2 bathrooms). She informs me it was a soap dispenser and I can pay her £45, a reduction of £3.
I informed her I'd check the cost and get back to her. It definitely wasn't a £3 soap dispenser.

Whilst I'm checking the price, she sends me a long message saying, 'she cannot accept any lower than £45. That the soap dispenser was loose and had tons of items around it and practically fell in the sink. She lives in London alone and the extra costs make a difference to her.'

Now, you might read this thread thinking I'm middle class as I can afford a cleaner. I'm a single disabled parent with a disabled child. I do not work and have a cleaner to clean things I couldn't clean (mobility issues). I'm in no way rich but I use some of my PIP to pay for a cleaner - haven't been able to do this for the past x months as mentioned though as costs have increased too much.
Regardless, my situation is irrelevant as is hers.

If she wasn't so rude and blaming me for the issue I may have tried to write it off but she has a habit of making me pay her extra for travel at times and tbh, I'm not in a financial position to write it off.

I'm starting to get pissed off with the blaming and the sob stories. She should have insurance to cover such a thing but I doubt she does from her messages.

AIBU?

She wasn't even talking about that image. She was talking about this image.

I will check properly tomorrow Re timings, it's around 2.30 hours.

The soap dispenser was from my mum and she said she will try to find the receipt in the morning so will know for definite then but she thinks £30

years ago we had a cleaner insisted they would only clean when we were out ment to be 2 hours, was never happy how much cleaner it was, i waited for them to say make this the last clean,they were an hour late so we went out, pasted them in their car as we left dont think they saw us, they clkeaned in about an hour neighbour watched what time they left, i phoned to say they had only done an hours cleaning paid for 2, they lied they did 2 hours, so i told them we had waited to tell them not to clean again after that day so knew what time they arrived,if you are not happy dont pay for the full hours if not cleaned for full time, get a new cleaner

🫨

The cheek of it! I hate dishonesty. It's good you were able to find out the truth.

Yep definitely not using her again. As pp said, an agency sounds the way to go.

Thank you. I might just do that. What a huge mistake I made having her back.
I agree Re the 5-10 minutes, always did that with my old cleaners. But when someone is trying to overcharge you they can forget it

It’s a soap dispenser. As if it’s more than £3 give or take.

@AnneValentine What a stupid comment.
You can get a fan for £10 or one for £500.

Insurance would not pay out for a normal soap dispenser. There will be an excess,

I know.

Do you have absolutely no imagination?

I think you can infer the reason from the OP's post

I feel you are being quite unreasonable I'm afraid.

If you Google soap dispensers even the higher end products are around the £10 mark. There's one single one at £27. Mid range is less than £10. I'm not surprised she thinks you are trying to cheat her and if I was to settle I'd be asking for proof of purchase.

She was 20 minutes late. That would be a £5.30 deduction from her usual price of £48. Which is not a million miles off her offer. I personally wouldn't quibble over £2.30.

If she replaces your soap dispenser she would receive a total of £18 for 3 hours work plus the travel to get there. That's £6ph for hard grafting for 3 hours. I think that's an unacceptable amount to pay someone gross and if you were my friend I would tell you so.

You said "2. I genuinely cannot afford to this time." You should have had the funds sitting for the cleaning, admittedly you maybe can't afford to replace the item right now but few would say that a soap dispenser is an immediate essential item, especially not one in the harvey Nichols price range. And as it goes I once kitted out all my bathrooms with beautiful ceramic soap dispensers but got rid of them all after less than a month because they all were unsteady and fell in the sink and broke and one cracked my sink which was a lot more expensive to sort.

It is the kind of thing I would get caught up in because its the principle of the thing and its not right that you are out of pocket but I think its a better solution if you pay her the funds she is owed and move on from the situation and not use her again.

Firstly, are you saying that no soap dispensers exist that cost more than £27?

Secondly, how can she think I'm trying to cheat her when I haven't even told her the cost? For all she knows it was £5, I haven't even provided her that information. All I said was I would check the price. It could have been cheaper than the £3 she offered.

Thirdly, she's not offering to accept the hours she worked. She asked to be paid for the full 3 hours, no reductions. So there's no £2.30 difference, not that the item was £3.

I'm confused, where did I say I don't have the money to pay for her cleaning? "I should have the funds sitting for cleaning." Where did I say I didn't?

Wtf? People buy nice things as a one off to last a whole, not looking to replace them every time a clumsy cleaner breaks one and expect the owner to replace it for fun! The attitude of some people smh

Where/how did you initially procure her services? Could some of the rudeness be explained by cultural differences? That aside, taking her back was a crazy move!

Pay her for the time she cleaned, write the soap dispenser off as a lesson learned because it would cost you more in funds and hassle to take her to the small claims court to get your money back. What soap dispenser was it?

High End Soap Dispenser

I don’t think you should charge her for breaking the item, it was an accident.
You are not happy with the time she worked and what she is charging you, so either reduce that a little, or just pay it and be rid of her.

She could not claim for the cost of a soap dispenser on her insurance, due to its low cost, and I doubt you can claim on your insurance either.

It’s an accident. Put it down to bad luck and move on and be happy .

I'm not going to take her to a small claims court. I'll either pay the hours she cleaned (not 3) or pay the hours she cleaned minus the cost of the soap dispenser.

Tbh I'm leaning more to the latter. I'll likely deduct it. She's threatened me just now saying she expects the money in her account in a few minutes. It's a hassle either way.

Are you OK?

Do you think disabled people should only buy items from pound land

God forbid a disabled person have a dispenser worth anything more than £3! How dare you.

Failing to pick up that it wasn't even me who purchased it.

Regardless, I can buy what the fuck I want with my money 😊

The OP has said it was a gift from her mother who is looking for the receipt. Rude post.