To object to being paid like this

[carparker]

I need a sense check really, I'm so annoyed and I'm not sure why. I'm a cleaner, work in people's homes, they usually pay me cash. Most leave it out for me and I take it when I'm done,

This one client though, I have to find him and ask for the money every time, I say ok I'm finished, he says oh are you, then I say yes can I have my money please, then he gets out his wallet and takes it out note by note, so one fiver, holds it out till I take it, rinse and repeat. Always £5 or £10 short so he says oh I'll transfer the rest. 24 hours later I text to ask, he pays a few hours after.

It's driving me nuts, how hard is it to just have £30 ready? Why does he do it? I need the work so i don't want to complain but I'm living on my nerves waiting for the last £5 or whatever, and the note by note thing is just weird. Should I say something or am I being a princess?

Unrelated but some clients are awful, why? I had one family with a 4 bed brand new house who made me clean with 1 cloth and hardly any products and no hoover. There was so much dust I spent a whole hour out of the 4 rinsing dust out of the cloth between wipes of the skirting boards and bannister. I ditched this family after the 2nd visit when them obtaining a hoover hadn't made any difference as it wasn't charged

If you're going back to do one last "get out of jail free" clean (and by that I don't mean that he won't pay you for it, more that it's a last chance for him to show you that he can have the payment ready for you), I'd state at the very start of the cleaning "Hi X, I'm here now to do the cleaning. I will need full payment once I'm finished. If the money isn't ready for me, I can't carry on being your cleaner and you'll have to get someone else in. Can you make sure that you have the money ready for me please?"

Be really clear. Don't leave him any wiggle room and if the money isn't ready, say "Thank you. I'll expect the rest of the money by EFT (you'll have to take the hit for it going to your overdraft) by close of business today, no exceptions."

Doubache tax is a thing. Impose it at the current rare of 25%.

Say you're now only accepting bank transfers so can he transfer the whole amount once you've finished. Send a reminder text if he hasn't paid by a certain time the same day of the clean.

is this thing a man/woman thing.

if a woman counted out the money, would that be considered "creapy"?

i bought a hoover recenly, via ebay - went to collect and i counted the notes into the chaps hands. As i would if someone gave me say £80 for something - i'd want to make it clear to both parties that the correct payment was both given and received (as errors can't be corrected afterwards)

(when i give £34 to my cleaner i tend to fan it all out so its clear - £20/£10 plus 4 coins - but if i gave £80 i'd quickly say - here is £20/£40/£60/£80 as i gave her the 4 notes in quick succession)

so maybe there is a male/female dynamic going on here that woudn't be an issue if it was an older female doing the counting out of coins/notes?

(obviously underpaying is unacceptable)

Unfortunately you get men like this, he will think he is so powerful and funny but realistically he is a big k**b and probably other people who know him think this. Write a formal terms and conditions letter advising full payment needs to be ready to collect upon completion, anything short will be charged with interest and if he tries to do the one by one note thing again just say something really belittling like ‘oh not this pathetic carry on again’ he will hopefully feel embarrassed.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with promptly counting the money into the recipient's hands as you place the notes/coins.

Absent a learning/cognitive difficulty, the weird thing is when you do it slowly and showy like Des O'Connor used to do it in Take Your Pick, when the whole purpose of the game was to use the power of the money to disconcert somebody and put them on the spot. It was somebody hoping to win a very nice prize in a one-off spectacular opportunity; not just wanting to be paid their normal wages for work that they've already done every week.

Dear client
With effect from DATE my cleaning rate will be x/hour.
I am also taking this opportunity to update terms & conditions

• payment in full needs to made/left on arrival
• a late payment fee of £10 eill be charged if the full amount is not ready on arrival as requested.

This is a non negotiable alteration so please do not ignore it or attempt to agree different terms

What a power crazy creep.
Round our way you can barely get a cleaner for love nor money.
I get that not everywhere's the same but dump and replace him asap

No she needs to hand it back to him in coppers! A penny at a time…… 😂

No it isn't just like counting it into my hand, I don't mind that, it's a weird sort of flourish with each note and waiting till I've taken it before getting the next one out. I do think he's more a bit odd than dangerous just to put minds at rest but I'll go back after the holiday and see what happens then. You get all sorts in this job and I don't want to cut off my nose so to speak, as I say it's not a difficult clean.

You are not being a princess he’s being deliberately derogatory and has some weird power trip over doing this to you

if you can find another client to replace him do it

Small man making the world’s smallest power play. Vote you dump him.

yeah he’s enjoying the power trip of doling out your ‘wages’, urgh. Tell him that you are having to ask all your clients to pay you upfront, in entirety and to have the money ready before you leave to make sure you are on time for your next job and to prevent cash flow problems.
If it feels too difficult to single him out, can you message/email all your clients with the same message ‘hey folks I know most of you do this and I’m grateful but I’m having to implement a policy that all payment is made in full before I leave and also that people have money ready so I’m not late for my next job.’

I'd grin and bear it, and have a little giggle about it in my mind while he's "flourishing the cash" at you.

Then I'd gather/shuffle the notes together and with a shit-eating grin say "Lovely. Same time next week."

I forgot to add mine in the shop when he placed one 20p at a time into my hand, trailed a finger across my palm with each coin, and not in a nice wway, it really was un-nerving, I totally get how OP's weirdo is making her feel

I'm a cleaner and is drop him and find someone else. Ask to be paid all by transfer, if not paid by end of the day cancel his cleans. To me the way he's acting he thinks your beneath him

i hope it works out with the bank transfer, if the job is handy for you

Keep it simple bank transfer the lot

If it was me I'd deliberately change the price to something with a decimal, say 33.10. Just to make his life harder. You have to keep up with inflation, after all!

Well done

Let's see if they works

How old is he roughly ?

My friend’s a tutor - she says the men are always weird about paying. She has been paid in £1 coins in the past - she gets really fed up with people screwing around with the money side of things.

Replace him ASAP.

Life's too short OP.

This completely. Thank god he’s your client and not your partner!

I think you’ll be ‘busy’ in his slot from next month. You’ll have another client in no time.

we don’t treat people that do amazing services for us as servants any more, it’s hugely disrespectful!

It sounds really disrespectful but if you otherwise want to keep the job I’d add a £5 douchebag tax and set up a current account separate from your overdraft for him to pay in to.