. . to have just sacked my cleaner ???( help!)

[wheredohairbandsgo]

I feel terrible.

We just got a new cleaner today, from an agency ( the first time I've done that ) and she came to meet us last week.
Dp said she seemed awful but I thought he was being judgemental (she raved about us not phoning agency if anything was wrong but speaking to her first and didn't understand us very well- english not first lang)
Anyway I thought she seemed okay and she started today.

We agreed she would work four hours.
I asked her to start with ironing first, but she refused and insisted on doing the kitchen.
She took 4 hours to do the kitchen ( I know it's a mess but I thought in a toast crumbs kind of way...

Then when the four hours was up, I said, she should go cos only getting paid for four.But she insisted on staying, saying for first clean it takes longer, but doesn't expect extra pay (??)She showed me texts that seemed to indicate the agency expected this too. .
So she cleaned for further 2.5 hours, didn't finish everything and said she was going.

I offered to pay her extra fiver ( all change I had) thinking I'd top her up next week. She looked at fiver and said it should be £7 ( despite it being £6 and her insisting she didn't want extra)

Then she left, and returned two mins later to say she'd only been given one ten pound notes, instead of two.

I looked in my purse etc. couldn't find it and swore I had given her two. Then she went MAD, literally tipping a messy bag upside down, then stripping ALL of her clothes off in my hallway.
DD7 was watching it all completely agog.
Then I asked her to leave and gave her another £20. By now I didn't know what to think!

Eventually she did. Then I found the tenner, on the floor where her bag was.
I have no idea if she dropped it or I did. I am sure I had given it to her ( she keeps notes lose in her bag) but what if I hadn't?.

She's already left the key cos I said I didn't think it was working between us.

I feel awful

Most agencies I've dealt with usually have a trial period in which they will replace the cleaner before charging you any fees. You've got to check the fine print. It's very dodgy if they don't agree to replace her for free.

It's for finding a cleaner and then their fees for the next month or so ( DP organised it, but think that's it)

We have to pay extra for the cleaner too though!

ouch

I thought my cleaner experience was bad!

If this is for real you need to get ALL your money back and never use them again.

It is honestly for real

Do people really waste time making up stories ?????

Yep, they do!

Goodness. Well in this case its good you use an agency. We had a replacement cleaner once, lovely girl, but didn't speak a word of English, managed to set off our alarm as she didn't understand the instructions and our neighbour had to sort it out.
I phoned the agency and said we wanted someone else, after all they make money per hour for doing nothing, so why should you have grief when you are paying them to sort it out.

my goodness! what a tale.

yes, yes, but more importantly how clean is your kitchen?

bloody hell, just be thankful she showed her true colours on her first visit - you could write a bad horror film about that sort of thing

I know this is probably a bit off, but could you not employ a cleaner directly - the thought of cleaning agencies always leaves me thinking of exploitation. They send someone to do the work, you pay them and they cream off a percentage of what this person earns. My partner often works for agencies and they charge a lot more for his time that what he gets paid. For him, in the building trade, its kind of OK, it usually gets him immediate work and is a stop gap - plus the money is reasonable so he is happy. But what would someone working for a cleaning agency get? minimum wage? I could be totally wrong about this, but i certainly wouldnt want to clean for an agency - i am happy to clean for someone, but not have someone else cream off profit off of my labour.

did you check that there wasn't a bunny boiling in a pot after her visit?

LEM - teh agency we use just charge us a yearly fee and we pay cash to the (self employed) cleaner. No creaming, everybody happy. Esp because with an agency the cleaners have been vetted and you can try multiple cleaners before you settle with one you're happy with.