Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: Tasty on October 05, 2012, 02:53:41 pm
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As some of you may have read in my posts in various threads...we had a cleaner clean our new house that we moved into today as the owners had already moved out a few weeks back.
I chose her the real estate agent got her to clean the oven in the new place as it was disgusting. She did a really good job for the condition it was in.
Anyway, she I mentioned to her some of the things I wanted doing but she said she could do everything and it would take her about 6 hours. Anyway, today we got to go in and see the results. Firstly, she didn't do the dusty blinds which was the thing that I wanted done most. She said they needed unscrewing and doing by a blind cleaning person. I noticed one blind in the main bed had been removed and just left on the sill instead of being put back in place. She said she had done all the windows - but I could see all the watermarks like it had been washed with some cloth, especially when sun was shining directly through. The doors and walls hadn't been done even though she said she could do everything several times. She spent 7 hours there and all I can really tell that she did was the windows, which weren't done properly and probably the mopping. She said she did the kitchen but I didn't notice much difference to when I went earlier in the week and did most of it.
I'm quite disappointed and haven't paid her yet. I want to mention all these problems but don't know if I should pay the full amount and get her to come fix the problems or what? What would you do? And do your cleaners clean windows so they're streak free (I'm sure I do a better job with my cheap squeegee). I even noticed a flyscreen not put back in place and it had fallen apart too.
Does anyone know of any decent cleaners out there in Perth?
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My cleaner does anything that i ask her to do but obviously within the 3 hours that I pay her for..
She will clean windows, my oven, even my fridge and pantry.
Normally she dusts, vacuums, mops and does all the bathrooms thoroughly but if I need something else to be done I ask her to leave the guest bedrooms and bathrooms if haven't even used and she will do something else. She does the skirtings and steel balustrades on the staircase and void.
She works for magic maids here in Perth. We are NOR :)
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That's disappointing tasty. My cleaner is great. She doesn't do windows though, I have a fellow come and do that 3 times a year and he charges $200.00 for a 2 storey home and that includes the tracks.
I don't know what sort of venetian blinds you have. I had wooden (wood tone) blinds in my last house and I dusted/cleaned them regularly. I thought I would have them done professionally and the company came and took them away for the day and they came back like brand new. It cost me well over $500.00 for a three bedroom home plus study, lounge, familyroom and dinning room.
At the moment I have white wooden venetians and as I have had them from new they are reguarly dusted and don't require a lot of maintenance.
Maybe question the cleaner before payment is made.
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I have a cleaner 4 hours a fortnight.
she vacums, mops floors, does all my windows, ( I have a enjo) 2 bathrooms, dusts, mops 2 more bedrooms, and office downstairs.
I would question her before payment. :)
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Tasty that is no good, unfortunately there are a lot of bad cleaners out there, speak with the real estate agent and see what he says
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I thought it would have been up to the previous owners to either DIY or have professional cleaners come in as part of their obligation. I think this cleaner may have been a little overly optimistic as to how much she could get done - just the blinds would have taken considerable time to do them properly - and yes - if you can, have them done professionally. Companies who do this will come in, take the blinds down, and reinstall them after they've been cleaned. I know it's more expense but I think you'd be pleased with the result. As Yvette suggested, have a word to the real estate agent.
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Unfortunately there is no obligation on the previous owner to clean the house unless you have it stated in your contract of sale (as my Dad found out this year when he purchased a house of sloppy PIGS!!) the only obligation is to remove all rubbish from the property :'( :'(
7 hours is a lot of cleaning time, especially in an empty house where you are not having to work around furniture etc ... I would be questioning her before payment.
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You will need to negotiate the payment I think. The work was not done and no point in getting the same person again. Lesson learned. She probably did the best she could do but she was not a professional. I would say pay her 75%.
For a home like this you need what they call exit cleaners. You get a team who make the place like new including washing down the walls and every other service. One person for 7 hours is way to optimistic. 4 people for 8 hours would be reasonable.
Call in professionals. Expensive mistake but you want your new home to shine for you.
Gert
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How very frustrating. Perhaps you could ask her to itemise the jobs she did.
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Wow! 7 hours! The house should have been sparkling.
Definitely speak with the Real Estate Agent.
I'm so very lucky. The house we bought was pristine clean when we took over. We purchased anything they wanted to leave as they were travelling and leaving a lot of stuff. I can't believe how much stuff I got for the money I paid. And how gorgeous the place looked.
She had put a reed diffuser in the main room and had little smelly things in other rooms. They even rang a couple of times to make sure everything was all right and she even wanted to come and do the gardening after we'd taken over!!
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Here in the west they are called vacate cleaners which would be exactly the same as Gert's exit cleaners.
I have done this in the past after selling a home and it's been sparkling clean everywhere.
Well worth the little bit extra cash as nobody wants to move into a home that is less than clean :)
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Thank you all for your responses. I am definitely going to be questioning her and am still deciding whether to pay her in full and ask her to do the windows again properly or do as Gert sugggested and pay 75%. Needless to say, I will not be using her or recommending her in future.
7 hours - although it sounds a lot isn't much time when the place needs a good clean. I did a quick clean of all the kitchen cupboards the other day when I had the carpet cleaner go through and that took me long enough. Then I did a thorough clean today (after the cleaner had gone through) and that took quite a while, amongst sorting and organising the kitchen.
As for the blinds, we are thinking of getting new ones in the main bedroom as the current ones are temperamental and flimsy and we want blockout blinds so the room doesn't heat up in summer.
I'll keep you updated with what happens re the cleaner.
Oh and I did look into vacate cleaning but thought it was just a big cost at $550-$600 to have a few people come in and do an exit clean. So instead I went with this cleaner the real estate agent recommended at $30/hr. Next time, I will just save my money and do it myself slowly to my standard (something I am in the process of doing now anyway :-)))
Thanks for all your suggestions/comments. Something I've learnt from.
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So I ended up calling the cleaner saying I wanted to discuss the cleaning. I told her some of the issues I've mentioned above in a calm and polite manner. The cleaner started making excuses eg saying 'did you know it rained?' regarding the windows. When I told her these were not rain stains....she didn't have anything to say. She just kept saying 'What do you want me to do?' so after mentioning a few of the problems I had with her cleaning...I mentioned how I did not want to pay her in full due to these. She had a really bad attitude during the conversation and as soon I said this, she got angry at me and hung up.
Later in the day we received a text from the real estate agent asking her to pay us in full as she did what we asked of her and at short notice.
We informed the real estate agent that this was not the case and even though she made the initial referral, it was now a matter between us and her.
So we texted her (so she couldn't hang up again) and she ignored the fact of the blind that was broken and couldn't be reattached, etc and her reply was only. Are you going to pay me in full? We asked her for an itemised invoice of what she did and for how long ....as the more I think about it....there was no way she needed 7 hours for what she did end up doing. We're still waiting to hear back from her even though she agreed to it.
I think next time I will only trust recommendations from people close to us.
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Sounds like you are doing everything right. Good lesson for all of us to call in the professionals.
I am surprised that she did not own up to the broken blind though. We all know theses things can happen but at least say sorry and the whole job was beyond her . Cleaning is a very hard job and to do it well it does take time. I am astounded that my cleaner has to take three hours to clean my house but it does actually sparkle when I return. If she were doing a vacate clean she would need two days at least if she were on her own, possibly longer.
I hope it is sorted soon so you can be rid of the angst hanging around the house.
Gert
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Tasty I would be tempted to just send her a cheque or however you were going to pay with the 75% of the total as you had mentioned earlier which is probably still too much and see what happens :)
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I use a husband and wife team of cleaners every week for a two storey house and they take 2 hours per week. For a scrupulous house clean such as this job sounds, I think in 7 hours my two cleaners would have done a good job but certainly, for someone (ie one person) to promise to clean an entire house, including blinds etc particularly after the previous owners had left the house in that state, sounds like it was incredibly ambitious in the first place. I would definitely only pay 75% of the invoice as she needs to be paid at least for doing some work and just write this off as a bad experience.
I found my cleaners through word of mouth and as they own their own franchise (ie they belong to a large cleaning company chain) I have found them very reliable and trustworthy, plus I have the guarantee of their parent company if anything goes awry. I also had several other firms come to do a house clean as a test run to see what they were like before deciding on my current cleaners.
Unfortunately, with any cleaners I have used they never seem to see the small things that you do so I have found you have to be very specific in asking them to do various jobs around the house and my cleaners know by now how I like things done and they will often do little extra jobs around the house if they see something has to be done even when I haven't asked them to.
Good luck though- sounds like this lady is a piece of work!!
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I agree that doing a vacate clean would take longer and was surprised that she initially said that she could do it in 6 hours (she had been in the house to do the oven so she knew what it looked like). I thought maybe she had more efficient methods being an experienced cleaner but not so!
Anyway, I don't even know how to pay her as I only have her mobile number. At this stage, we are going to wait for an invoice or further contact from her.
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Tasty, even better! No news is good news in my books. If she does eventually send an invoice, she should list which jobs were done and I don't think she can just text you or verbally ask for her money without one. Also, she should be dealing with you directly and not asking the estate agent to do her dirty work, pardon the pun!!
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Well we got the invoice and I was furious when I got it.
This is what she did in 7 hours (and she didn't write how long on each task like we asked).
Vacuuming (all rooms had been vacuumed and steamcleaned a couple of days earlier and i mentioned this on phone)
Mopping
Cleaning windows
clean bath
bathrooms
toilets
laundry
Apart from the windows, all the above tasks were just done quickly like a weekly clean and would've 1/2 hour of less. Even the windows weren't done the best as mentioned earlier.
I've decided to pay her in full as I am sick of having it hang over my head but I will be asking her to pay for the broken flyscreen on a window which I doubt she will pay anyway. I have learnt my lesson and will never trust another recommendation from this real estate agent and will take photos in future. So angry at the wasted money. >:(
Fortunately the guy coming to put curtains in for us (over the blinds in main bed) fixed the blind problem for us for free.
On top of this, I will also be forking out more money to get the most of the blinds in the home cleaned (something she said she would do) as dust keeps falling everywhere every time we open and close them.
Vent over!
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Tasty I would still only pay her 75% and say you are taking some out for the broken screen. She will probably be glad to see the end of it too. Judging by what she did there was no way it should have taken that long ;)
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Do you mind us asking just how much the invoice was for as it is difficult to tell whether it was for a professional clean or just for. A amateur one.
Gert
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No worries. It was $30/hr so $210
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Ok just to compare my wonderful Maria works for Absolute Domestics so is supervised and insured. She works for no less that three hours for which she is paid $78.
In three hours she does not stop believe me. My house is one level, 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms , two living areas, a study and laundry. She comes every two weeks and one week she also cleans some of the floor to ceiling windows and the very large outside under over patio. The other in the month she cleans all the high stuff with a ladder. That includes changing the ceiling fan blade stockings as needed.. She sweeps then vacuums and washes the tile floors with a rag mop.
Some weeks she does the three blinds I own but when she washes the windows she also cleans the screens on the sliding doors. The skirting boards are always clean and the hanging stuff on the walls are clean too.
Truthfully I am amazed she can get through it in three hours. It used to take me three hours just to do the floors. She even cleans the outside furniture once a month. I never ask her to do anything extr? I just say if you want to do such and such and it takes extra time just take the money out of the drawer. Sometimes she may take an extra half hour but not often.
My house is not really dirty with just the two of us. I mainly want her to do the floors . I am always astonished and pleased to come home to a sparkly house.
If I wanted a vacate clean that would involve the walls, ceilings, inside all the cupboards and the wardrobes which have that plastic covered steel which is a b*****d to clean. We worked out that it would take at least 10 to 12 hours and 2 people to do it properly in a day.
I have watched the defence force houses in the area with interest. They get cleaned thoroughly ever time a new officer moves out. They have a professional team of four who start at 0730 and finish at 1630 and the houses are much smaller than mine.
So even though you did not get what you asked for I think you were not ripped off too badly. I would send her $180 and tell her to sue ya for the rest just because she was not completely honest.
I am exhausted just thinking about all the cleaning. I would not do it for quids. Oh wait .....I don't ! ;D ;D
Gert
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I pay my cleaner $85 for 4 hours :D
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I would make sure that you let EVERYONE know that you would not recommend her services. I would also include a note with your cheque stating that you are disappointed and will not be able to recommend her services to anyone.
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Clever Judy!
Gert
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I did an exit clean of our 4 bed house & large conservatory, and exterior office, with a friend 2 weeks ago. I paid her for 6.5 hrs@ £10/ hr and was working just as hard at same time. So 13 hours. We had a vacuum each. This was while the removals men loaded the furniture. I had previously washed a lot of cupboards and drawers out as Id packed them, and already done the Aga inside and out. I ad swept out arages night before. So even more hours.
House only lived in 9 months all newly painted/renovated before and regularly cleaned. We did not have to wash all the paintwork as it was so new. 2 wood fires to empty too. It was spotless, but a lot depended on a good handover.
Came into our own house previously tenanted and am still cleaning. Fighting over tenants deposit as they did not have professional cleaning of carpets, oven etc as per tenancy agreement, so we hope to claim that back and a bit more for broken things and extreme dirt in other places. DH painted all walls and hoping when he is back he will wash all the internal doors as they are awful. Next job replacing taps.
Also i cleaned DD flat when she moved in, so feels like I do nothing but exit/enter cleaning right now. But I'd rather go nannying than cleaning to earn money.
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Me too DJ, way past cleaning my own home let alone someone elses
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Jess I really feel for you . You really need some Good luck coming your way.
Gert
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When we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago it was in a terrible state. The property was only 12 yrs old and had been let go. So while we got an excellent price as it was so poorly presented it was a big, big clean up. It took me a day just to clean the kitchen, including the oven and the kitchen is really small.
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Thanks Gert, hope my police check comes quickly.
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Well she received her payment (through the real estate agent as she left no contact details on the invoice just her business name and abn no.) in full.
I have recently messaged her saying I will be asking for payment for the damaged flywire and to confirm she recieved payment (which apparently she has from real estate agent) but I have not heard back as yet and doubt I will hear further.
Gert - although you think her payment is fair....I think if you saw what she actually did it's a pretty poor effort especially since we didn't do the dirtiest things which were more important to me that she said she would and also the fact that she spent longer than she said she would and only did half of what she said.
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Tasty you know best fer sure. I have to confess I do have A certain sympathy for GOOD ( not shouting just emphasisng MM) cleaners . There are a lot of rat bags out there and obviously you got a gem of one.
I get it and it is sooo disappointing. I have to say that buying a house is very stressful and Real Estate agents do not make it any easier.
They promise the world and often fail to deliver. Tears all around. I may have to confess my daughter and partner are both RE agents . Having said that my DH's partner is exceptionally ethical. My DD works in law so knows the ropes.
I know your stomach sunk at the sight. You were totally distressed . I was there with you. But also l would be totally p****d off at the owner and the RE agent who collected the commission. I would be more angry at the RE agent who recommended her friend knowing it was an impossible task and was possibly collecting a commission from her as well..
It was a really bad nasty experience. I am glad you posted it. A warning to all of us and especially any of us shopping for a new house like Frozzie.
It is not difficult to have these things written into the contract if it is an issue. Also good to,negotiate a lower price for cleaning up,the crapola.
And also an inspection before the cheque changes hands is essential. It is amazing how the buyer can control it the contract is well written.
Tasty I would not wish your experience on anyone. I am sure you have been sick in the stomach over the whole sorry mess.
Gert
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Wow, the more I read about it, the more I know how blessed I was having bought our house from owners who really looked after it when they rented after settlement.
Think I'll send them a little bonus as a thank you...
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The more I read this the more I realise how dirty my house is..... got to get me a cleaner (a good one).
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LOL, deedub ;D