[The Great One]

Hi Guys

Got a call at 8am this morning asking for an emergency clean, other company let her down, moving in, removal van coming at 1pm.

Told her ok, I will be there at 9am and do the job.

Got there and that is when the problems started...

painter & decorator was still painting skirtings and cupboards, so I told her that is was going to be ifficult with him there and she said 'do the best you can'.

Lo & behold, half an hour later the removal van turned up 3 hours early!. I soldiered on and carried on cleaning around them (not easy).

Anyway finished in 4 hours, got paid.

An hour later got a call, not happy, dust here, here, there and here, could of got it for £10 an hour (yeah right) want it rectified, etc etc etc.

At first I agreed but then on thinking about it I decided not to revisit as what does she expect with contractors and removal men all over the gaff, of course it's bloody dusty. I tried to qualify this with her and she would of course have to do some cleaning herself, I told her it will probably take 3-4 hours to rectify what she wants doing and I cannot give her that time for free, she feels she's been overcharged as it is (£30 p/h)

What would you guys do, thoughts?

Regards

Martin

[Derek_Walker]

Well Martin,  she did say do the best you can, so you did. To be honest that sounds like a real pain of a job and totally unorganised. My thoughts would be she agreed the original price per hour so there should not be a problem, she was lucky to get someone at such short notice to take care of the worst of the cleaning for her. If she wants extra work done then it means more hours to be charged.

[keith b]

What the hell was she doing getting a painter in on the same day as the removal?

She sounds a right pain in the arse!

Moving-in always creates more dust anyway, so given she could not organise herself properly, and the fact that you had to work around others that you were not told about, I think your charges were fair!

[Cleaning Resource]

If it was me, I would go back surely spending a couple of hours is worth not having someone slag you off.

 

[The Great One]

Hi

Thanks for the copmments guys.

I thought about going back but working in an atmosphere of animosity is not good. Her main beef is that she feels she could of got someone for £10 an hour.

Regards

Martin

[drivewasher]

How much of the dust from cleaning stuck to the wet pait then???

[Jan K]

then she should have shopped around and hired someone at £10 per hour, at the end of the day you were good enough to step in a short notice, what does she want blood???  :

[Ian Rochester]

I have to agree, if people want you to drop everything to cover their balls up then they should be prepared to pay for it.

Providing you made a reasonable job of it and did your best in the situation you were given, then I wouldn't worry about it.

£120 for a call out and 4 hours work is a fair price, she says she could have got someone for £10ph, but she didn't, or couldn't, so she had to call on you

You were the only one available who could dig her out of the proverbial.

The only thing I would do next time is quantify your minimum charge and hourly rates to them before you start.

[The Great One]

Hi guys

Thanks agin for posting, we did agree before the work started, there must be loads of dust on her paintwork!

I actually called her and tried to discuss with her but as she wasn't getting her own way she decided to threaten me with trading standards and then put the phone down...

Ah well.

Regards

Martin

[Karl Wheeler]

Hi Martin
Apologise for not contact you this week, been snowed under with work. If you're still interested maybe we can meet up next week.

Thanks
Karl

[The Great One]

Hi Karl

No worries at all, give me a call when you are ready.

Regards

Martin

[gmccleaning]

Martin reading your post i would say a job well done ,hands up to u for cleaning round painters & removal men.

                   george

[cruciblecleaning]

Personally I'd ask her why she didn't get someone for £10 an hour, if at that short notice and in those cricumstances it was so easy. 

Sounds like you gave great value for money in difficult circs and at insanely short notice.

Don't give her a penny and don't go back.