So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

themadvix

The owner is an older lady who doesn't do online banking etc. She left me three blank cheques for each of the months she has been away and these have been paid in at the beginning of each month for the cost of the cat sitting and any expenses due up to that point - it's just that these expenses have all come after I paid in the last cheque. I think to some extent the cost of extra duties (the vet visit) is covered by the regular daily charge - and most of the time you win on that as you just go in and do the daily stuff. I am charging an extra £5/day for the additional visit which is about what people charge extra for two visits instead of one on CatInAFlat, so it's commensurate with the going rate.

In future scenarios, for long-term sitting, I would definitely have a more structured system set up for issues like this, but it's the first time it's come up when I've been cat sitting and I feel its unfair on her to start adding large additional charges on that we hadn't agreed in advance. Lesson definitely learnt here, but only so much I can impose it after the fact.

It's interesting as CIAF don't make any provision for additional visits/vet visits (beyond that you might have to take them and there's a waiver permitting you to do so in their paperwork), nor is there provision for additional charges when the owner is delayed (as happened to me last year, with someone I knew who had booked through CIAF - leaving me in an awkward position of having to ask for extra money as it wasn't offered). It's definitely not a perfect system!

Baileys_Babe

Thanks for the additional details it helps understand the situation better and I understand why you do not want to add additional hefty charges.

The things you have learned from this will help you in the future when taking on a cat sitting jobs.

themadvix

Thanks BB - it's always good to have another POV and it has reminded me/helped me clarify what I need to set out in future. I'm a bit lackadaisical sometimes (and soft-hearted), so it's good to put my business head on (I'm perfectly business-minded in my 'proper' work!).

Karmacat

So interesting to read the details about the catsitting, I'm glad its a lesson learned rather than a huge problem.  An older lady who doesn't do online banking, that's tricky for excess costs: maybe an extra cheque to be left if you get someone else like that?  

Her 3 months away makes me think of the round the world cruises I've been ogling 🛳 (that's a passenger ship, btw).  

Baileys_Babe

themadvix said:

Thanks BB - it's always good to have another POV and it has reminded me/helped me clarify what I need to set out in future. I'm a bit lackadaisical sometimes (and soft-hearted), so it's good to put my business head on (I'm perfectly business-minded in my 'proper' work!).

You are right you need to remember that your catsitting is a business transaction and you need to think of it as such when setting up books for future jobs.

I'm glad you read my original post as supportive as I intended, which I find hard to put across in words.

EssexHebridean

It's tough when you are self-employed the strike a balance between not doing yourself down but yet also not ruining your reputation by being too demanding or being seen as unreasonable - and of course for a lot of SE businesses reputation and trustworthiness really is everything - and particularly in your case where people are trusting you with their pets and their door keys! The "in line with market price" extra charge sounds like a fair solution - and as you say, these longer term deals probably really need a special approach don't they with their own paperwork. 

Well done on negotiating the right price on the bike - I'll be really interested to hear how you get on with it. I know a few people who have them for pure "entertainment value" as it were, but I love that you're viewing it as a proper mode of transport in replacement for a car! 

themadvix

And I'm glad you took my response in the way it was intended - I realised afterwards, I probably sounded a bit defensive, but that wasn't my intention - you really made me think, which brought up a lot of things!

badmemory

Just think though.  All those people who read this & look after other people's pets have just gone OMG I need to make sure I am covered for this, I can't afford to take a hit.  Everything has a purpose, we just didn't think it was this!

themadvix

Karmacat said:

So interesting to read the details about the catsitting, I'm glad its a lesson learned rather than a huge problem.  An older lady who doesn't do online banking, that's tricky for excess costs: maybe an extra cheque to be left if you get someone else like that?  

Her 3 months away makes me think of the round the world cruises I've been ogling 🛳 (that's a passenger ship, btw).  

Sorry Karma, I missed this! I think an extra cheque would be a great idea for the future. In the past she's booked me through CIAF, so she can do *some* Internetty stuff, but as this wasn't through them, we had to find a different solution. (She's visiting her children who have both emigrated to Aus!)

themadvix

EssexHebridean said:

It's tough when you are self-employed the strike a balance between not doing yourself down but yet also not ruining your reputation by being too demanding or being seen as unreasonable - and of course for a lot of SE businesses reputation and trustworthiness really is everything - and particularly in your case where people are trusting you with their pets and their door keys! The "in line with market price" extra charge sounds like a fair solution - and as you say, these longer term deals probably really need a special approach don't they with their own paperwork. 

Well done on negotiating the right price on the bike - I'll be really interested to hear how you get on with it. I know a few people who have them for pure "entertainment value" as it were, but I love that you're viewing it as a proper mode of transport in replacement for a car! 

Aargh, lost a long reply to this! But the gist was that we (my friend and I) have set ourselves up with separate insurance for this cat-sitting job as it's so long - CIAF take a 20% cut, which would have been rather a lot!

Bike is definitely ready for collection on Saturday! I'm really quite excited about swapping my car for the bike - certainly around town as it's perfect for cycling with a full segregated but parallel to the road cycle network. I love the feeling of being out on my bike, but this is going to make it so much better - for starters a frame that fits (currently bike pedals are virtually directly under my bum and I can't get my feet on them properly) and then not having to stress about hills! Looking forward to many adventures on it!