To pay less?

[WWYDwiththisone]

I did another thread some days ago about how our cleaner that we booked to do a deep clean of our new house and they did not do a satisfactory job. Doing a new thread as it’s a different question and not many will come back for the update I’ve just done

She said they work in pairs and would stay for as long as it took to do the job. £23 an hour each. I requested they prioritised the kitchen and the bathroom, particularly the toilet and the bath.

They arrived an hour late after running over from another job. She stayed for just under 1.5hrs before going home because they were ‘hungry’ and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. This was despite telling me they’d stay however late because they’d sorted childcare and so weren’t in a rush.

Now have a bill for nearly £70 for 1.5hrs of the two of them ‘cleaning’ my house. Our bathroom is small, 2mx2.5m max. They cleaned the bathroom walls (apparently there was loads of limescale), bath, sink and half of an IKEA wardrobe. The other half of it was dirty and covered in pet hair. They didn’t clean the toilet or the bathroom floor. There were two of them. Before they left, they said ‘we’ll come back tomorrow’ to DH. DH hadn’t booked them so just agreed, he was decorating and I was at work so nobody directly watching over them. I text her in the evening to thank her for what she’d done (before I saw how little they’d done) but please not to come back as we needed it that day, so I was going to have to tackle it myself in the morning instead

I’ve reasonably approached her and said we are dissatisfied with the service and she is refusing to budge on price saying they’d be working for less than the minimum wage. She has also said I’m lucky she hasn’t charged a late payment fee as we haven’t cleared the invoice 24hrs after the work was done.

Is it reasonable to pay them for 1hr each instead, or even just minimum wage for the time they were there?

I don’t know where I stand on it legally and don’t want to invite trouble given that they know my address- maybe overthinking here

WWYD?

YABU - you’ve got to pay the £70 and chalk it up to experience

YANBU - pay less / will comment

Do not be cross. You did what will cause you the least amount of problems

As I have said numerous times, this is my area of expertise and really I've met some incredibly "quirky" cleaning businesses and clients over the years.

You don't need my approval, but FWIW I think you did the right thing. You can rest easy knowing that at least you did the honourable thing. These people will learn - don't give them any more head space.

Key their car back.

Works for me 😀

@Thedayb4youcame hence why I said if that if what they can charge then fantastic. I am totally for people getting a higher rate of pay in all areas.

The only thing I’m not keen on is that this person factors in travelling time into their hourly rate of pay.

@Sosorryliver Im not sure we should be looking at it as the employer pays £20/hr.
We have a huge issue with pay in this country we’re most people can’t even afford to buy food.
What I earn is pittance for my role and I verbalise that all the time. In the private sector my role is on average £25/hr. The truth is I love it and it is very flexible. I am able to help a lot of people and it can be rewarding.

I honestly think it is great you earn £25/hr, to me it seems steep, purely because it is not what I am used to, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it is what you should be achieving.

!!!!

Cheeky so and so's - that is ridiculous

Personally you agreed the hourly rate and the time, even though she did less, and although not satisfied personally I’d pay and then tell her not to come back. She’s a scam artist, I would feel 7o quid is the price never to hear from her again and not enter a protracted fight, she will start hassling you, posting on social media about you, local Facebook etc, it’s not worth it.

i know it’s bad but the time to deal with the quality of the work was then and there. Not refuse to pay after. And take the fight.

This is exactly why anyone who works for themselves would be a fool to themselves to get into a conversation about travel time, travel costs, and everything else. A price is quoted, and the client says yes or no.

I read a post once from someone wanting a mobile hairdresser who "doesn't charge for fuel". It eventually transpired they'd been given the number of someone who said they didn't really work in that person's area, and would charge £X extra for "fuel" to make it worth going.

The potential client wasn't at all happy about that, on the basis that she didn't see why she should pay it, which is stupid.

Even more stupid is the hairdresser for mentioning it as a separate cost, rather than just giving a price for all of it - it just opens the floodgates for discussion where none is needed.

When I cost any of my jobs, I look at all my expenses and all my time - whether that's time cleaning, time sitting in the car travelling, or time at home reordering stock, washing & drying huge piles of cloths and mop heads, or doing my accounts. I'm not a charity. The simple act of boil-washing and drying cloths costs me several pounds a week in electricity and water alone.

Mmm, I had almost exactly this experience- they offered a whole house declutter, said they would stay as long as it took. When they arrived (late) they asked for areas to focus on which was a bit misleading but seemed more realistic. They did the room that I said was already done, did the kitchen really poorly and then ran out of time to do the third room because they hadn't eaten and it was a hot day. I did complain and they gave me some off but I was very very annoyed. I don't suppose yours have the initial CQ?

@Thedayb4youcame i would expect you to factor in costs such as electricity and water usage as it is at a cost to you.

Agree no one should mention it.

I would only expect to pay you travelling costs if I am asking you to travel from one place to another but I would never pay you to travel from another client to mine.

I also wouldn’t expect you to factor in time for ordering stock or doing your accounts.

I see where you’re coming from but if you were ever to mention this to clients they would turn their backs on your business.

Well, TBF, you might turn your back, others too, my clients I doubt it as I've been working for most of them for years and years.

But then again, I would never have those conversations with any client.

Ultimately, each week I look at all the time spent out of the house (from the moment I leave to getting back, no matter how many clients I went to in a day or where they were or how long the cleaning took), and I look at the time I spent at home doing anything in respect of my business, and I look at all my costs. Then I look at how much I charged to make sure I'm earning enough.

Your time has a value though. If you are going to spend hours on prep, admin, travel, whatever and want to earn £14 per hour you can’t just charge £14. You work out ( non billable hours+ billable hours) *14 + costs of running a business then divide by billable hours for your rate. The market then decides.

Obviously you don’t need to break this down for clients but you should be aware, as a self employed person, on the costs of what you are providing in both money and time.