Cleaner not doing hours she's paid for

Pixie5740

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section of the forum but I think I'm being bumped by my cleaner.

I know cleaners usually stipulate a minimum of 2 hours otherwise it's not worth their while. I pay my cleaner to come 3 hours a week to clean my 2 bedroom flat and do my ironing. I've recently discovered that my cleaner is doing less than 2 hours a week. I had suspected it but now I know for certain. Her ironing is also pretty poor. I'm sure a lot of items are just folded and not ironed at all due to the creases in them.

I'm not quite sure how to handle it. I'm reasonably happy with her standard of cleaning, just not paying for an extra hour that she's not doing. Would you confront her? Sack her? (Maybe not right before Christmas because I'm not Scrooge). Reduce her to 2 hours a week and take the ironing back in house or send out to someone else because I hate ironing?

I know this is very much a first world problem. I just don't like being ripped off. Paying over the odds for a service you're not receiving isn't very money saving either.

sniggings

hard one because knowing the people involved helps but going by just your post I would no longer take her services ( you are not sacking her as she is self employed), bad/no ironing and ripping you off for a third of her hours!

The trust would be gone for me, letting someone into my house, I would have to feel I can trust that person.

Better_Days

I had this happen to me, although not as bad and she did it while I was in the house. She arrived by the clock in her car which was 10 minutes fast and left 5 minutes early so every week I lost 15 mins out of the 2 hours I was paying for every week.

Dreadful fuss when I tried to get her to stay and work for 2 hours and she went on a 'go slow'. Rang up the agency and asked for someone who would actually work for 2 hours.

Agree with sniggings you can't trust this cleaner - she is basically stealing from you (although she probably doesn't see it like that - I never got to the bottom of my cleaners motivation for her behaviour, or what had changed as she had previously been very good).

Two hours should be plenty to clean a 2 bed flat, and usually have some time over, especially if you are out at work all day.

I'd sack her and get someone else. It may cost a bit more but consider going through an agency - you can then easily ring up and change cleaners if you are not happy with your current cleaner.

imho

I think what happens to cleaners is it does take them 3 hours to start with then they get in to a routine and manage to finish the cleaning earlier. Trouble is i think she is cutting corners and probably rushing to another job.
I would just get rid of her and maybe say you are only working 4 days a week now so you can do it.Or just tell her the truth and let her go.

Pixie5740

Thanks for the replies. I think you're right, it might have take over 2 hours the first time as she was still cleaning when I got home from work. It was at this point she suggested paying for 3 and doing some ironing as well.

I had suspected she wasn't doing the full 3 hours any more. Then the other week I had to wait in for a BT Openreach engineer (who surprisingly turned up when they said they would) and my cleaner arrived at 2:40pm as was already gone by the time I got home at 4:20pm so I'm not even getting 2 hours of work from her.

I suppose I'm concerned about confronting her because she has a set of keys to my home as usually I'm not shy in coming forwards. Then again I don't have to give a reason for no longer requiring her services.

I'll look into getting a cleaner through an agency. It would seem easier to phone them up to replace someone who wasn't up to scratch.

[Deleted User]

Pixie5740 wrote: »

I suppose I'm concerned about confronting her because she has a set of keys to my home as usually I'm not shy in coming forwards. Then again I don't have to give a reason for no longer requiring her services.

I think the first thing to do would be to change the locks ? If she's dishonest enough to rob you in terms of hours not worked, I wouldn't trust her general honesty (or who she hangs out with). This may seem a bit over the top, but would you really want to take the risk that she hasn't had them copied ?

Pixie5740

You're right. She is actually stealing from me.

I think I'll say that December is her last month or is that too Scrooge like?

I might even have a go at cleaning my own home but still outsource the ironing.

System

Pixie5740 wrote: »

I might even have a go at cleaning my own home

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Pixie5740

the_r_sole wrote: »

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

I'm a contractor and I can charge my clients a lot more than a cleaner charges me so it's actually good MSE sense to pay someone to do my cleaning whilst I do work for my clients. :money:

phill99

Everyone is obsessed with hours worked.

I have a cleaner and pay her for 3 hours a week. I come home and everything is done that I expect to be done. If it takes her 2 hours or 2.5 hours I really don't care. As long as its done to a standard, thats all i'm worried about.

If you are generally satisfied with what she does, then don't worry. Have a word about the ironing. Its difficult getting trustworthy cleaners as it is, so worry about something worth worrying about.

Pixie5740

Good point phill99. I think if I was talking an hour or 30 minutes less than she's being paid for I wouldn't mind so much but I'm paying for 3 hours and getting close to 1.5 hours. My clients wouldn't stand for me charging twice the hours that I work.

Since I'd have to pay someone a minimum of 2 hours anyway I might just say that I'm having to cut back so I just need cleaning and not ironing too.