Am I out of touch or is this poor professionalism?

[cleanormean]

Took on a fortnightly cleaner at the beginning of the year, agreed she'd do Tuesdays. Never had a cleaner before but with a toddler and both parents working full time with no external childcare, it's become an unmanageable ask to keep on top of the house to a standard we're satisfied with. However there are a number of things I think are quite unprofessional, but I'd like some other perspectives to confirm whether or not they are reasonable to raise:

1. She doesn't inform us of what time she is coming until approximately 10pm the night before, it's never a consistent time and we have no say in the timing. It either works or we go without

2. She brings a helper (or two), however in the 8 or so visits we've had so far, it's almost never been the same people. One week it was two teenage girls, and another week she didn't come herself but sent two strangers in her place. This is not a cleaning agency, this is a sole trader who brings people she knows/friends who are looking for some cash in hand work

3. We live in a very hard water area and thus our toilet bowl gets quite a lot of limescale build up. This is never cleaned and nothing is ever put down to help remove the limescale, so the toilet doesn't look at though it's been cleaned after the visit

4. Hoovering and mopping of the hard floors downstairs is only done in the areas people walk, i.e. under the breakfast bar or in the corners by the cabinets are always left untouched. Similar story for the (easily accessible) corners of carpeted rooms

5. Kitchen cupboard doors aren't wiped despite any obvious marks

6. We have a double sink, and they will not lift up the chrome draining insert to clean the actual sink underneath (neither do they clean the insert)

7. We have patio doors with blinds, if the blinds are still halfway down (due to being overlooked by neighbours), only the bottom half of the window is cleaned

8. Lightswitch faces are dusted but shelves (with a single ornament on) aren't

9. They do not clean the shelf that our toiletries sit on within the shower, despite removing all of the toiletries beforehand

10. They don't appear to vacuum bathrooms

The agreement was bathrooms, kitchen, downstairs floors vacuumed and mopped, carpets vacuumed, dusting and internal glass. Our house is immaculately tidy for when they arrive so there are zero obstacles for them to have to work around. They are here for 75 minutes and we pay £50 (in Leicestershire).

We have previously highlighted bits that appeared to have been missed and were told it was accidental, however the quality of the cleaning has not improved despite the price having increased by £5 since we took them on.

Are our expectations too high or is (at least some of) this as unprofessional as it feels like it is?

I was gonna recommend this, or the harpic specifically for lime scale

Wow, I live in the south east and I paid £16 an hour. £50 for 75 mins in bonkers. If I were you I'd look elsewhere.

Well no, not really. The whole "sending someone in your place" thing is part of the test applied by HMRC to see whether someone is really self-employed, along with lots of other things like being able to set your own rates, hours, work for multiple clients. It does not follow that if you are self-employed that gives you some sort of legal right to get a randomer to do your job and the client can do nothing about it.

I am self-employed and when clients ask me to do a job - they want ME to do that job, based on pervious experience working with me, or my qualifications, or what they've read about me on my website. They don't want my friend Johnny to do the job, even if he is equally qualified and experienced.

Get rid OP, she's taking the piss.

I am a cleaner. I would do all of these areas. Except the windows. Clients can add these on if and when required. They are not part of my routine cleans.

My clients all have regular slots. If I ever need to change a time, it’s usually because another client has cancelled due to illness/holiday and left a gap in my schedule. In that case, I will move other clients to fill the gap but always with notice.

The toilet, I would do a deep clean first to get a grip on that limescale. This would then be easy to maintain.

I can’t comment on the price because I can’t be sure of how many man hours you’re getting.

I would look elsewhere. Make sure you get someone who has T&Cs which outlines their complaints procedure, day/time of cleaning and a schedule of what is included in their cleans so that you know what is included.