To feel annoyed I have to pay?

[Babablacksheep12]

Cleaner…

We have a cleaner who does every 2 weeks. She’s lovely and does the house well.

I have been in hospital for a few weeks following an operation that was planned.

I messaged her to cancel a clean whilst I was in hospital, ages ago - way more than the required notice time. I cancelled it as she cleaned the day I went in and then my house has been empty with me being in hospital so it’s perfect and not been touched and no one’s been in it so there would have been nothing to clean since she was last in.

In my contract I am allowed to cancel 2 cleans a year and she allowed 2, without payment which is very fair.

I got back from hospital today and noticed from my ring door bell that she’d been and cleaned despite me cancelling it , as per the contract and her acknowledging the cancellation.

I emailed her to ask if she had been , thinking she’d say no she was just dropping something off type thing and she just said yes, whoops she’d got confused. So now I need to pay. I’m slightly upset. I’m very short this month as I’ve had to have unpaid time off work to recover from my op so I don’t have the spare money and I feel like I’m literally throwing away money I don’t have when the house didn’t need cleaning.

There was also no apology just an oops type thing.

I value her so much so I know I will pay but I feel slightly miffed about the lack of accountability and that it’s on me to just pay.
I mean I know id pay as I respect her time and work but If it was me I would have said … I’m so sorry it’s my mistake please pay half etc and I would try and find the money to pay it all. But it was the lack of apology and just dizziness of whoops

YANBU to be annoyed, but yeah, if wanted to keep the cleaner I'd probably suck it up this time. But yes, it was her mistake. Really if people are away so the house is clean I'd expect the cleaner to do one off occasional jobs like pull out the fridge etc.

Who's Arsey?

Anyway, that's a dumb question

How do you know she's on minimum wage?

Sorry, but you don't pay her! You cancelled and she turned up anyway - that's on her and maybe it'll ensure she's more diligent in noting down a cancelled appointment.
It maybe a risk you'll loose her but equally she should respect what you say, and she also charges more to cover those 4 weeks of not working! So don't feel guilty.
FWIW we had a cleaner for 10ish years and even had her house sitting when we went away. Last time though, she overstepped the mark in several ways. Despite it being difficult, we stopped employing her.

I would 'forget' to pay (seeing as you've already said you would), and blame it on meds from your hospital stay.
Then pay for the next visit when she does that. And if she dares to ask for the unwanted clean, act confused and say 'but I cancelled that one when I went into hospital, you replied and acknowledged me, remember '. And pretend you completely don't understand why she would when she said she wouldn't , because why would she come and clean an already clean house.

I wouldn’t pay her, it’s likely she didn’t do anything for 3 hours if it was already clean?

Even if she us not it's hardly the point. I'm going to bet she earns less than someone who can afford her.
Temporary though the OP financial strain might be, she surely will make it up in the future.

For all those saying they'd pay her anyway, even if she hadn't turned up in error, how about when the cleaner uses one of her cancellations, the OP says "oops I forgot. Can you come and clean for free anyway?"

I wouldn't make assumptions if I were you

My insomnia is cured

Would that apply to all other jobs where people are on minimum wage? Someone turns up on a Sunday when the office is closed and says oops I forgot it was shut I did some work anyway so I want paid for it? It’s a big company so they can afford to pay it. So should they?

You're making a lot of assumptions there. You've no idea what the cleaner charges, but it will be more than minimum wage. There's no need for the aggressive tone or attack on the OP.

I would be very annoyed too, especially with the lack of apology/immediate expectation of payment. I'm wondering how many times she does "forget" cancellations and gets a nice easy clean and payment as usual. Plus I bet she didn't go in and think "oh it looks clean already so I'll wash all the windows or something I never usually have time to fit in" but just did some half hearted wiping of lovely clean worktops.

The thing is you've now indicated that you will pay her so you now have to. But I suggest delaying payment and explain she'll need to wait a bit as you're short this month because off sick and this is an unexpected expense. She'll still get the money but it might make her acknowledge her error to herself a bit more.

As for all the "I'd have paid her anyway" crowd ... I'm always surprised about the guilt complex people have about their cleaners. They are self employed and holiday/sick pay is already factored into their rates. If I told my clients I was going on holiday for 2 weeks they wouldn't offer to pay me for work I hadnt done! And if I tried to bill them for non existent work or work they had told me not to do I'd be told to fuck off and not be so ridiculous.

Cleaners are notoriously rich, you should hammer down on her and squeeze every last drop.

Yanbu, obviously. Just tell her you won't pay.

It didn’t take as long so you only owe for 3 hours not 4 as the house wasn’t too bad!
She can't think much of her own cleaning

Sorry that is you being silly with your money if you pay for something you don’t need when it’s a business. Cleaners are in demand all the time and she would have easily found another slot.

Op she is also cheeky suggesting you cancel another time as clearly this is the time when you do need a cleaner in the coming weeks as you’re recovering from surgery.

I would message her back again and say on review of your finances, you’re going to struggle tbh as you hadn’t budgeted for that clean as you had cancelled it.

So you think anyone paid lower than average (I mean cleaners around here charge £20-25 an hour which I think is pretty good. I’m self employed on £34 an hour and went to university for 3 years which cost a bomb to earn that plus I need to pay fees yearly to continue to do my job) should just get paid regardless of any other circumstances? So let’s say a hospital porter on minimum wage should be able to turn up whenever they want and just do some work and get paid for it? Regardless if it’s their working hours or not? I mean they did some work so they need paying! Even if they come in at midnight and no one needs porting at that time. Maybe they could just take Mrs Smith to xray and back even though she doesn’t need it. Then they should get paid for it. What about the Saturday girl who sweeps the floor and makes the tea at the hairdresser? She could go in at 11pm and sweep the clean floor and make some tea that no one will drink. I guess she should get paid for it. These people shouldn’t be squeezed either right??

I think this is a politic way forward. Trouble is you probably need her more than usual next time while you are recovering.

It's a bit complicated but you could also say ok I'll take 3 hours' worth of next week as my cancellation so if you could just do the one hour I will pay you for both visits then. If she says no, because she doesn't do one hour visits you say I understand that's the general rule but we had the cancellation in writing. I bet she stayed nowhere near 3 hours last week and asking for 2 hours not 1 would be fair, but maybe best to let that go.

Obviously you don't pay her as she said she knew not to come. But then 'forgot' not to?! So she acknowledged it's her mistake. If you ask what she did she'd have to say 'nothing' if she was being truthful. And your house is like a show home.

I remember once booking the cleaner for a certain day, but she turned up two days early and obviously nobody was there to let her in. She got paid as the rest of my family didn't believe me that she came on the wrong day as they were on holiday and told me off for 'messing her around'? Not the same but just reminded me of it a bit!

I'd be tempted to email her again, even though you have already made a mistake in agreeing to pay her. "Hi Laura. On reflection, I am still confused about your visit on x date which I had cancelled on y date. Can you confirm what cleaning you did, for 3 hours, as the house surely was spotless from your previous clean? Sally"

If you normally keep your house like a show home it may not have been obvious that you hadn't been there since her last visit, though. She's probably used to mopping clean floors, no dust or cobwebs etc in your home.

I would not pay her. If she had something to clean, it suggests she did a poor job the first time round. If she did a good job, it suggests she did not have 3 hours work to do the second time and is therefore lying. Either way she doesn’t sound like a good cleaner.

It didn’t take as long so you only owe for 3 hours not 4 as the house wasn’t too bad!

She's just given herself a bad review there, hasn't she? There's no way she stayed 3 hours if she'd previously cleaned the house well and you hadn't been there in the meantime.

She’s pulling a fast one but is only 75% confident she’ll succeed as she is only charging for three hours.
If you pay without question she’ll up it to 4 hours, her chances of success 100%.
The Oops imo confirms her cheek. She knew the house didn’t need cleaning.
Point out finances are tight which causes a delay in payment. It’ll give her the message she can’t take advantage of your situation.

The more I read about cleaners the less inclined i am to want one. People treat it like employing a cleaner is some sort of charitable act rather than a business relationship.