*grumble* Cleaning Lady problems
 

background: We've had Cleaning Lady for about 4 or 5yrs. I'll call her K. Hired her after having bad experience with a national chain of cleaning ladies. At first, K had employees that she sent to our house to clean. They were ok. Had a problem with one of them, but generally their cleaning was ok.

Couple of years ago, K got rid of most of her employees and started cleaning houses on her own. She's been the only one cleaning our house, except her friend J (former Army Reserves guy who was cleaning houses as a side job. He was cool. J may or may not be her boyfriend. She's driving his car, so I'm guessing he is her boyfriend)

Past couple of months, our cleaning day has jumped around a few times. Usually not a problem. We finally settled on fridays. Yesterday K cleaned our house. Halfway thru her cleaning job (takes about 4hrs) my doorbell rings, and B shows up. (B is another friend of K's and, not so ironically, owns her own cleaning company)

K showed B around my house. Which, at the time, I thought was weird, and it made me a bit uncomfortable. K was showing B our rooms, and explaining how she cleans them. After observing this for a little while, I got curious and asked K point-blank why B was in my house and if B was going to be cleaning our house. K told me. "No, she just works with me, and I'm showing her how I clean houses. It's just a walk-thru". (yeah...that didnt clear much up for me either)

About 20 minutes ago...I got a call from B. Who was calling to tell me that she would be here 2 weeks from now on a friday to clean our house. (~squealing brakes sound~ uh...what?)

I asked her to repeat what she said. She told me that K was moving to California to live with J (J is now a military contractor) B told me that she'll be cleaning our house from now on. She explained to me that she'd been cleaning houses since 2008. She told me her website and explained that nothing was going to change in prices or the day, other than the fact that she'd be cleaning for us.

I explained to B that K never mentioned this to us. (I asked my parents. They had no idea) When K was leaving yesterday, my mom asked K if she was going to be back in 2 weeks as usual, and K said "yep, I'll be here in 2 weeks".

B told me that she and K had talked and B was taking over any of K's clients that wanted to do the switch. She also told me that K was supposed to have sent out letters explaining her move to CA, and that B was taking over (yeah, we didnt get any letter)

Nothing against B. She seemed nice when I met her yesterday, but I only just met her yesterday. I dont know anything about her (I did look at her website...she'll do grocery shopping for us if we want...which is tempting for this winter) I havent hired many people when I worked, and have only gotten to hire one person last year when we did some construction at our house (I made the choice for the contractor), but when I've hired people. I really like to talk to them first. Not get blindsided by the person who wants to work for me.

Am I right to think that K was a bit unprofessional in not mentioning her moving and B taking over to us? (and outright lying to me when I asked about B cleaning for us, and lying to my mom about K herself coming back in 2 weeks)

I called K a little while ago to ask her what's going on and ask why she didnt mention any of this to us yesterday. Got her voicemail instead. So I'm waiting for K to call me back. (yeah, not really expecting a callback)

Not really thrilled about this. I'm willing to give B a chance, because the whole grocery shopping for us sounds interesting to me. (still traumatized by all the snow and ice last winter when I could barely keep from falling down on a carpeted floor because of the MS making me wobbly walk.) Having our stuff delivered sounds like a plus for me. (dont know what B would charge for grocery shopping for us yet)

I just dont like strange people being led thru my house by someone who works for us that I thought I trusted while I'm wondering why the hell the stranger is here. It just bugs me.

Sounds like K was pulling a fast one, and slipping out without a goodbye. some folks have a great deal of trouble letting go of attachments, whether it be work, friends, or things. K may be one of those girls. its not fair to "dump" someone else on you and expect that you will accept her without so much as a proper introduction.

It does however sound like B may be a Godsend! She shops! she does other errands! She is keeping the same price you negotiated with K and she has already been shown the way you like things to be done. While getting a new cleaning girl can be traumatic, it can also be a gift. Perhaps B will do a better job, and be more trustworthy to not just drift in an employee of her choice for that day, or run off to Cali when the b/f decides its time to go.

I hope you speak to B, and let her know that B and only B is who you authorize to clean your home, and then when she arrives give her the "if you steal from me, I WILL have you arrested" speach. Tell her that you will "shadow" her for the first few times that she is over, and while this all may have been worked out ahead of time between she and K, it was NEVER mentioned to you, and you feel tricked, and mislead, and decieved. its hard to build up trust in someone when you are replacing someone who simply disappears without so much as a goodbye, I have a chance I dont want to miss out on speach.

Cleaning ladies (good ones) are darn hard to find. I say give her a trial run, and see how it goes.

I am sorry that K decided to be a jerk about it. Everyone deserves a chance at a new life, but you dont have to step on folks to get there.

I'm willing to give B the chance if my parents are. (since they're the ones actually paying for it) I'm pretty lucky that my dad lets me have a say in who's going to be allowed in our house.

Just feeling like K was a bit unprofessional.

Was just looking at B's website again. She'll also cook and vacuum seal the food and freeze it so that you just have to thaw and cook it. She'll even do laundry and babysit/granny sit. (I have no kids, and I'm not sure my mom needs to be granny sat yet) Does other errands too.

Only thing that intrigues me other than the cleaning is the grocery shopping. I'd have to taste her cooking to see if that's any good. I like doing my own laundry. (did have a problem washing my clothes last winter when I had the wobble walking flare tho)

our (former) cleaning lady called me back.

She's moving to CA on the 5th. (next time...little more notice please?) and she sold her client list to B. She told me that B jumped the gun on calling people on the client list. (as in, she called everyone this morning to tell them that K was leaving and she was taking over)

I think K should have given everyone a lot more warning that she was leaving, and my dad and I think that K and B should have told me the truth yesterday when I asked point blank if she was about to have B cleaning for us. That wasnt a walk-thru to teach B how to clean houses. It was a walk-thru on how to specifically clean our house. Now I can look back and see that.

We're still going to give B a chance, since it's a pain in the butt to get a new cleaning lady that's trustworthy. If B doesnt work out, two of our neighbors have a lady who cleans for them and they really like her. So we might try her if we dont like B for some reason.

I'm hoping B will work out. Because the grocery shopping service she offers sounds good to me for this winter. Hoping to not use that service, but if the weather is as bad as it was last year, and I have problems walking on snow and ice, I'm not going to want to do all the shopping like I did last year.

I read somewhere that WalMart was going to have a grocery delivery service in some stores, and I keep hoping they'll do that here. I'm betting it's just a rumor. I'd love to be able to get groceries delivered tho. I hate it when I'm so tired that I cant make it thru an entire shopping trip and then get too tired to drive home.

I don't know where you are, but check with you chain stores. Here, if you contactPublix with you list, they will have it ready for you to pick up. I've heard that rumor about Walmart too.

Just talked to my dad about the cleaning lady problem. At first he was ok with having B come and clean once to see how she does stuff, but he said he got to thinking about it. He really doesnt like how both K and B handled the whole thing.

My dad was home yesterday and was talking to K for a couple of hours while she cleaned, and she never once let on that she was going to be leaving. He said she could have told us about it, rather than keep the whole thing a secret. He also didnt like how B went about calling us this morning to inform us she was taking over.

Since my dad is the person who makes the money in this house, he gets to be the one who has the last say. We talked to my aunt (who happens to be our neighbor) and she told us about the lady who cleans for a couple of the other neighbors. Gave us that lady's business card and he called to talk to that lady (we'll call her G) G is going to come over tomorrow to give us an estimate and to talk to us about how she'd be cleaning the house.

My aunt has seen G cleaning at the neighbor's house and said that she's one of those perfectionist cleaners. The house looks brand new after she leaves. My aunt also said that G didnt set off her internal Radar of Suspicion like K did. (K used to clean for my cousin, and my cousin thought that K was a bit...inconsistent. My cousin is a perfectionist too tho)

So, I guess because of how K and B handled this whole thing, B is going to be losing us as one of K's former clients. Wonder if any of K's other clients feel the same way about this or if we were the only ones they screwed up with how they handled things.

I just want someone who will clean my bathroom properly (as in, not using the toilet as the soap bucket for cleaning the rest of the bathroom like people from Merry Maids did! EWWW!! I dont like bleach bombing my bathroom right after it's been "cleaned")

Just when you think you've finally got a cleaning lady who was somewhat reliable and trustworthy, they turn on you...at least that's how it keeps happening with us. At least we've had better luck with the ones who work for themselves rather than the national chains of cleaning services.

I just wish I had a cleaning lady to complain about! :p :rolleyes:

If you can find one that would run errands - like grocery shopping - I'd give her a chance. That sounds wonderful. Although, that's the only reason I ever get out of the house so I might find that too confining.

Good luck! :)

Me too, lol.

Good luck Erin. Your Dad is probably right. The whole thing was a little too fishy to me.

Almost like the first lady was trying to hide something. I guess she just wanted the other lady to purchase her list of people. But she should have left the decision up to each individual customer whether or not they wanted the other girl. Some folks like to conduct their own background check and make sure the person is insured.

I'm hoping the lady that's coming over here in a few hours to give us an estimate on cleaning ends up being nice. After not being told by K that she was leaving, and being blindsided by B saying she was taking over. Just annoyed with the two of those girls.

G (the lady coming over for the estimate) cleans 3 other houses in the neighborhood. My aunt knows those people and she said one of the neighbors told her that she pays about $10 less than what we were paying K. Our house is the same size, so hopefully our estimate will be similar. We wont be having her clean our glassed-in deck, or my dad's old office room downstairs. (too full of junk right now. I'm the middle of cleaning that out and re-arranging the room into a library/sewing room. Taking me forever because I get tired quickly. At least I can clean out dad's bookcase while sitting on a desk chair)

Our house is pretty clean right now because K was just here friday cleaning it. We havent had time to make it dirty again, so at least G can see what it looks like without being horrified at dirt.

My dad has been thinking about backing off on how often the house gets cleaned, so maybe we wont have to be paying as much as often. Were getting it cleaned twice a month, maybe we'll drop back to once a month.