Cleaner ignoring me after paying cancelling - AIBU

[Terracottafarmers]

A cleaner I found through mutuals on Facebook got in touch after I posted about needing a deep clean following a renovation. She came over, quoted me, and I booked her in. As per her T&Cs, I paid a £160 deposit, and she invoiced me.

About a week before the scheduled clean, I told her I might need to change the date because my new kitchen was delayed. The day before she was due to come, I had to cancel, the kitchen still wasn’t finished, and I was hoping we could have moved everything from the bedroom into the kitchen by then. I apologised, explained the situation, and asked when she could fit me in next. She seemed fine with it and said she’d look at dates.

This was on Saturday. By Monday, I messaged her again to see if she’d checked her diary, but I’ve still had no response even though I can see she’s been online.

I know that I had to cancel, which is shitty of me but I’d already warned her about the possible delay, and it’s not like I’m not going to rebook her. I just think it’s really rude and now I'm wondering if I should message her again saying 'I really need to get this booked in, please can you let me know?

I agree

Letting her know it might be delayed doesn’t help anything. She can’t book anyone else in for that day, so would potentially not make the money she expected but couldn’t just book another job coz she was waiting for you and you were still booked. You then cancel the day before, too late for her to book another job so she lost the money she expected to earn that day.

Why do you think you can just rebook? The deposit is designed to hold your place and also to compensate her for lost income if you cancel. You cancelled with one day’s notice. Your deposit should be lost now, unless she explicitly stated that it was transferable.

If you want to rebook, you’ll need to pay again. Plus the final fee after the clean.

Lesson: don’t mess people around. Letting them know it might be delayed is not the same as cancelling with plenty notice. She couldn’t book someone else in, kept your place for you and then you cancelled short notice. That means deposit is lost.

When I booked a deep clean it was about £250 (small house) with half as a deposit so it doesnt seem unreasonable.

Absolute waste of money though. I'm still mad about it.

Hang on you messaged on a weekend when cleaners, like many other people may not work at all, and then you hassled her again on possibly the first working day when she might have had clients all morning. Ok it's now Wednesday, but it's summer who knows, maybe she is on holiday with her kids. Even if you are self-employed, running your own business you can still have a few weeks off in the summer if you want. If you had an office job surely you'd complain if you were paid 9-5 Monday to Friday and allowed a certain amount of leave, but expected to be on call 24/7 7 days a week 365 days a year! Give it a couple of weeks .... YOU chose to pay her the deposit and then change the dates with 24 hours notice and not confirm a new date at that time. Which is perfectly understandable given the circumstances, but does NOT mean that she is simply at your beck and call every minute until you decide it's convenient for her to give you the services you requested. Give her 14 days minimum to respond.

I look after properties for a charity and we do a deep clean between tenants. It usually costs me £300 for a whole property including windows in and out! She was very expensive.

The OP won’t be back

but hopefully she’s gone away enlightened!

Op, have you actually read the Terms and conditions ?

Sadly OP these days you have to think of it like a restaurant booking where they take a deposit etc - if you cancel, that’s a day she can’t fill at short notice - so she will take your money and keep it - I agree it’s a bit rubbish but that’s how things seem to be as others have said - don’t book any services asking for deposits where you ‘might’ need to reschedule ,

Sadly?? Why on earth shouldn't she be compensated for the substantial time she had set aside for this job? She can't fill that slot now and won't get paid for her time. This is why deposits exist.

Oh, I guess you meant sadly for OP. Got worked up and spoke too quickly!

You booked her and paid the deposit. You cancelled and lost the deposit. She probably feels that booking with you again will be awkward as you'll probably not be happy with losing the deposit. Thus easier to avoid you

I paid sixty for an oven and extractor fan deep clean. We had just moved in and the oven and extractor were disgusting. I picked someone local with loads of glowing reviews. The result literally looked like you had wet a sponge with water and dragged it around the oven surface. The extractor wasn't even touched. They dusted it maybe? 😂Literally the worst money I've ever spent. Felt like an absolute idiot handing it over but the situation didn't feel like it'd be sensible for me to say anything so I just handed it over and that was that 😂

some people don’t know how a deposit works

i’ve always assumed that if I paid a deposit and then cancelled / changed I lost the deposit

my beautician used Fresha so they have your card details
if you have to change / cancel up to 24 hrs before it’s free

after that they charge you the full amount

however I’ve been going there years and on thr odd occasion I’ve had to cancel they have waived this but I think it’s happened twice in 6 years

from what you’ve said - the cleaner has essentially lost a day as she won’t be able to book that day for someone else. What does it say in T and c’s? If the cancellation was less than 24 hours than she has every right to keep the deposit if this is what’s stipulated.

Oh no!

In a way it worked out for me though because I was trying to work out how to afford a regular cleaner. That made me wonder what the point of it would be. 😂

I was furious because Id emptied out the cupboards etc so she could just get on with cleaning without having to worry about stuff everywhere.

Ah, this thread has blown up 🤣 she was doing it in a Sunday, she doesn't usually work Sundays but does for deep cleans. Anyway she had messaged me saying she will look at dates and get back to me the same day. She didn't so I followed up Monday. She's now come back with new dates. She isn't pissed off it seems

So now you need to change how you treat cleaners going forward

and she’d be pissed off if she’d read your op saying you think she’s “really rude” wouldn’t she?