We used to have a local lady do a couple of hours cleaning per week for us. Her cleaning standard is generally good, although not fantastic. It came to our attention that on a couple of occasions, she had brought another person with her who we don’t know without asking us first. We were not particularly happy about a stranger being in our home without permission, and as we were thinking about saving the money anyway, we ended the arrangement (amicably, we didn’t mention the issue with the other person). She has continued to do our ironing ever since.
We recently decided to ask her whether she was interested in re-starting doing a couple of hours cleaning per week for us. I broadly outlined the general tasks that we would like completed, and estimate it to be around two hours per week (this is the same duration we used to pay her for). She agreed and has been doing it for around 5 weeks now. On the first week she came I was working at home for the day. She was there bang on around two hours, and I was pleased with the cleaning standard. We had had some general chit chat about various things, including me mentioning that we had installed a security camera at the rear of the house (where the driveway, and entrance door are).
For the last 4 weeks when nobody is at home, we can see from our security camera what time the lady arrives and leaves, and have found she is consistently overcharging us each week (i.e charging us a certain hourly amount, but not actually being in the house that long). The overcharge each week has varied between 20 minutes, and 40 minutes. Today she charged me for an hour and a half cleaning, but was in the house for only 40 minutes.
She is a handy person to have on-board as she’s very accommodating re ironing (i.e will always take at short notice, collects and delivers back, usually within about two hours). We also know that as she holds a key to the house we can always call on her if we need someone to pop in and feed our cat or any other little task etc. We’ve always had a good relationship with her (i.e we’ve lent her bit snad pieces, given little gifts for her children etc and in return she’s given us fresh veg form garden) and get on well whenever we see her. She also only charges £10 per hour for cleaning and ironing which in the area we live is very good value.
So, my dilemma is – do I tackle her about the overcharging, and if so how? (I hate confrontation, and any kind of bad feeling), or do we accept that we are effectively paying a higher hourly rate for the benefits outlined above? My partner and I discussed it a couple of weeks ago, and concluded that if we were paying approximately 15 minutes extra per week (so £2.50) then we could live with it as she uses her car / petrol to collect and deliver the ironing. However, it’s really starting to really niggle me that she’s being dishonest. I would really rather she increased her hourly rate but was truthful about how long she’s worked for.