Abusive cleaner took pics of my home

[ChicExpert]

My lovely self employed cleaner went back to her own country. New cleaner started this week. House is tidy but dirty floor and surfaces, needs a good vacuum/mop/wiping up. We hire 4 hours a week for a deep clean of the downstairs(kitchen dining living room)/hallway and stairs. Standard 3 bed house in London with kitchen extension, takes me 2 hours to do but pay for 4 so the job gets done properly.

New cleaner came and in 4 hours couldn't clean what we asked which is just vacuum/mop and wipe down all surfaces. Had to ask her to clean individual window seals as she didn't and when she left I noticed the living room window seal wasnt cleaned. She broke my glass chopping board and didn't say anything and left chemicals in the oven which I told her not to clean. Last cleaner was able to wipe the skirting boards and didn't leave a spec of dirt in corners, this cleaner left many areas dirty.

I said nothing and thought I won't hire again. The company messaged me why I don't want to hire again and I said I wasn't happy with the clean nothing else.

I then get very abusive messages and pictures of my floor being dirty saying my house is disgusting. Didn't get to respond before I was blocked by the company.

AIBU? I feel completely violated and want to complain some how. She took photos of my home without permission.

Don't even know what to do now and feel uncomfortable using another cleaner. Husband says I'm over reacting :( am I?

FYI I've added a photo of my home before the cleaner came. Floors are clearly dirty but the kitchen is tidy/needs wipe down.

I must be a slob....it doesn't look really bad to me. I mean, not clean but the rest of the room looks fine. That's why you get a cleaner surely? Even i could do that in 4 hours!

They did

Quite some time ago 😆

But it is tidy. Cleaning a dirty floor surely comes with the job?

Because window seals are a thing.

That’s revolting.

No, but if we spill something on the floor we clean it, we don’t just leave it all ther4 till the cleaner comes.

bloody hell. Some folks houses must be minging,

Please do tell, I bet any money you're wrong.

I save the word gross for things that are actually are, not small differences is housekeeping standards that can be rectifed in 10 minutes

I'm astonished at all the people on here who live in immaculate houses, with regularly swept and mopped floors. When do you find the time? Or is this just another mumsnet pile on, because someone has honestly admitted to not cleaning before the cleaner visits?

What about that poster who regularly posts photos of her untidy, messy house - she gets sympathy and unmumsnetty hugs.

This poster is heavily pregnant and lives in a male dominated house with siblings and her father, by the sound of it, and culturally, men don't do housework. Give the woman a break FFS.

I agree with this. The competitive clean obsession is something else.

There is a huge ocean of space between imacculate and that floor. But if you feel it’s acceptable then it says a lot about your own standards,

I get it op, six here and shift work/lazy git adults and only me cleaning. I often have a corner of the kitchen where I've swept all the crumbs to and not managed to get to a dustpan. I work full time and am naturally clean and tidy but turn my back and it's a shit hole.

How does a kitchen floor end up like that with a dog in the house!? Dogs hoover up food crumbs - at least any dog I've ever encountered has.

That floor is really bad, and no, not just an average family making breakfast.

No one is saying it's clean in that picture but they are saying that is what the cleaner's job is. If they can't handle a dirty floor I think they're in the wrong job.

Again,what’s with the word immaculate. Not having a floor like that doesn’t mean it’s immaculate.

The point is not they can’t handle a dirty floor. The point is the op asked for so much to be done in 4 hours in a filthy home that the cleaner couldn’t get it all done. That’s what th4 agency was saying when the op complained.

The thing is the OP clearly isn’t happy with it being like that hence she has hired a cleaner to clean it and bring it to a standard she is happy with. She’s not suggesting the floor isn’t dirty. I honestly can’t see how that level of crumbs is more work to sweep up than just a bit of dust so unless there is some other issue than the floor the cleaning agency owner seems totally unreasonable. Even if it was wholly unacceptable I’d expect the cleaner to say so vs just not doing what they had agreed to. Honestly it looks a lot to me like the cleaner has cleaned out the oven, roughly swept the whole room and then taken a picture of the accumulated debris. The two areas on the floor you can see in the original photo from OP look to have nowhere near as much debris as the cleaners one

I guarantee, the second someone says they are struggling to get on top of their housework, the response here is always to get a cleaner. I am recovering from an illness which has left me behind on the housework and I was going to get a cleaner in to help me, but have changed my mind since reading a lot of these replies.

Honestly doesn't look that bad my cats can trash the kitchen floor with one meal I'm forever sweeping up bits of biscuit or meat but if you came in between me sweeping (several times a day btw) you would think I was a minger who didn't clean

I think the problem here OP is you want a deep clean in 4 hours but if it's like that for a standard 3 bed it's not enough hours. 3 hrs a normal cleaner does a 3 bed normal clean. I.e. vacuum mop, dust but in a normally clean house. Your photo goes ways beyond any state I'd leave the house in for a cleaner. Especially if that scenario is repeated in multiple living area I.e. not just the corner of one spill in the kitchen which you didn't get to in the morning in time before she came scenario. Also its a new cleaner it sets the tone for things to come, she prob took one look and thought god no.

Yeh, the floor has got quite dirty in a short space of time, hence why OP pays for 4 hours of cleaning a week. That is the job of a cleaner, to clean things. If they were already clean, you wouldn't need a cleaner.

A cleaner is there to clean not take photos!
I don't know what the cleaner did for 4 hrs.
On the other hand, new cleaner will take longer than the one that was used to your house and had a cleaning routine.

This, I agree entirely.
Enjoy your new addition OP and ignore the exaggerated responses on here.

Excuse me for coming across as a tad presumptuous but isn’t cleaning a cleaners job. Do they expect to go in to sparkling homes

Bur the OP said she only asked for downstairs to be cleaned. Bedrooms irrelevant

Why on earth would you sweep a floor before the cleaner came? Bizarre behaviour.

OP it does look in need of a good clean but then you paid for 4 hours for just the downstairs which should have been plenty of time. My cleaner does my whole 4 bed house in three (she doesn't deep clean but 4 hours for a dirtier, smaller area, deeper clean should have been fine).

And the cleaning company are being massively unprofessional. You didn't complain but just quietly decided not to hire again as you weren't happy. This should be fine. No company should then be arguing with a customer about that, when they asked!!!. And insulting you, wow! I can't believe people are trying to justify this horrendous behaviour. I would be contacting the company and saying that you aren't going to leave an online review, but you will now because of their insulting and unprofessional behaviour. A review of one unhappy customer due to a poor clean wouldn't necessarily put me off a company, but I would never go with a company that behaved like this and would be very grateful for your review.