Cost of cleaner…

[PeonyPatch]

I live in the SE of England in a home county. I had a cleaner who used to come once per month and would clean kitchen/living room, hallway downstairs & upstairs plus downstairs loo and upstairs bathroom. She would charge £120 a month (only come once a month) she claimed to do a deep clean (as in would move all appliances out of the way in kitchen and clean underneath). Besides this, I’m unclear as to what differentiated this from your standard clean. I also found that skirting boards still had dust on so I would clean these myself.

I’ve made the decision to cancel her service, and I’m now wondering what the going rate is. She would be here for 3 hours.

No one referred to you as snobbish. It was another poster.

And what’s wrong with this exactly? If the cleaner has chosen to do that, that is absolutely fine… meanwhile some of have studied long and hard and work in a very challenging professions and are limited with time to do things like clean.

It doesn’t make one better than the other, or less intelligent, it is just different circumstances.

Oh okay.

This is exactly what I’m looking for.

I am a cleaner and very educated. Not as any contribution to an argument - just a point of interest,

Yes, it is a low skilled job. However, given the amount of negative threads on this site, it is clear that it is a low skilled job that it is possible to do badly.

At the same hourly rate, I do a far better job for the customers who treat me well - I will tidy up, clean under furniture etc, than the ones who are less nice and considerate.

That’s interesting. I’m not sure it’s professional though. I work a client-facing job and I’m not able to give bad service to those that treat me less well. It’s part and parcel of the job.

I didn't say I gave bad service to those who treat me less well. I give good service. I am professional. what I said was that I gave out of the ordinary service for those who treat me well. I would think most self employed manual workers would and do

That’s fair enough and you’re only being honest I guess, but you’re being paid for a service, not to be someone’s friend. If I had my own cleaning business, I’d just focus on the actual job and less on the interpersonal side of things, but that’s me!

It's not a question of friendship. It's a question of someone treating you considerately and not just like 'unskilled'. There are plenty of people who do themselves no favours in the way they treat those who they pay. And as a result they might ultimately get less good service from many people. I think that is poetic justice

@PeonyPatch all that is unrelated to your original post. It was in response to the comments about paying off student loans and unskilled etc. Cleaners in many parts of the country, are in demand and can turn down work

I do think you are being totally overcharged though

Are you willfully misunderstanding me. That's exactly what I meant.

No, I’m not willfully misunderstanding… I apologise if I got you wrong

Fair enough. I agree with you. I’m always very friendly with cleaners, waiting staff etc. I think it’s only polite and they’re hard working too. I would always ask how my cleaner was, offer her a drink (though she’d always decline) and do a bit of small talk. When she’d leave I’d ask if she had a busy day etc etc.

I pay £15 per hour but she does 5 hours a week across 2 days. Sometimes this is 2.5 each day or 3/2 etc etc. it depends on what needs doing each visit. We are Yorkshire based so likely to be a lot cheaper than the SE

Think she saw you coming

What do you mean?