I am self-employed, housecleaner...have a question. (self employed, consulting, collect)

[TNGal78]

I have been cleaning houses for 3 years.


The other day I showed up to clean a house and found that they had not left a key for me to get in. (I don't want to carry people's house keys with me). This is the first time I've not been able to get in to someone's house.

I tried reaching them at their work, couldn't get them. Left a message. Tried their cell, nothing. I waited 20 minutes in the driveway to see if they would call me back. Nothing.

I left.

The owner called me back 30 minutes after I left, in a panic, saying how sorry they were and that they DID leave my payment on the dining room table. They forgot to put the key out. They told me I could get in through the garage and they gave me their security code.

I told them I was already back at my house, that I had waited 20 min in their driveway and then I had left.

She acted like it was MY responsibility to go back to her house to clean it, anyway.

I didn't know what to say, so I said "well, I will be getting a late start, but I will do it".


What SHOULD be done in this situation ? I felt like she should have someohow compensated me for my extra time/hassle/gas money.

So far she hasn't. It's a large house, too. They are LOADED.


Should I write some sort of policy into my paperwork ? What should the penalty be ?

OR

Should it not matter ?


Keep in mind, I do this in the mornings so that my husband will be home with our 2 kids, because he works 2ND shift and leaves at 2pm daily. So it REALLY threw me behind.

[Houston3]

It depends on how much they pay you to clean the house and if you need to keep the house. You can make good money cleaning houses if you can pick up enough of them..

About the key, if this was the first time they forgot to leave it and you want to keep the house, just let it go this time. But keep a record of it in case it happens to often.

I know someone that gets $200.00 a week to clean just one house... That's a big house tho.. And they are loaded too..LOL
Her normal rate for an average house is $75.00 a week...<<< and that is a good price around here...

[annerk]

You should probably tell your customers upfront that a no show/no key will be charged at 50% the normal cleaning rate.

That said, this was a first time and it sounds like they have potential to be good customers. I'd let it go. It's what, maybe $1 in gas? You should have told her that you are on a schedule, and because of the late start you might not be able to get to every detail that you would normally do--ie vacumming blinds or cleaning range hood. My guess is that she would understand.

[TNGal78]

I clean 6 houses right now. I can pick up more when my son goes off to elementary school.

I make 80 on her house and clean it every 2 wks.(the one who forgot the key).So that is 160 per month that I would hate to lose and they are pretty nice, that's why I went on and did it anyway. Their house is huge but fairly clean since they have no kids. It's 3500 sq foot, not counting the basement --which I don't clean. It's also a new house, so that makes it fun (literally, I enjoy cleaning the fancy new ones !).


Editing to say that 3500 sq foot seems huge to me, I live in 1200 sq foot house. LOL.

[FarNorthDallas]

I would give them a pass this time. If it was a pattern of misbehavior, I would think of some kind of policy to protect you from these types of surprises.

[GypsySoul22]

I wonder how you collect on people who stiff you?
Once, years ago, I decided to do tutoring. The first job I went on, (at someone's house), the kid was running around like a nut, and the woman was just asking me a bunch of stupid questions.

I mentioned on the phone I charged XYZ for my time/to tutor.

After consulting with her and watching her kid run around (she just wanted free advice if "Little Johnny was okay.') I said, okay, time is up that will be (mentioned the $).

She made a stupid face and said, "Sorry, my wallet is in my room and my husband is asleep..." I told her (again) I expected payment for my time and she just looked at me and I left.

I got stiffed! I was so put off and I never tutored (to make $) again. I was so livid.

Now I want to possibly tutor to make money and do not want the same thing to happen. Okay, I am not in NY (I expect such things there). People are probably more honest here..

What can a self employed person do when someone refused to pay?

[sinsativ]

You need to add to your "policies" one time per, say, your discretion of course, but maybe, six months, no cost, unless the location of the house you are cleaning is more than 10 miles from your home base. See that is what happens when you let people get off on even one time, this family is nice and all that, but, business is business. You need to have a penalty charge, at least a 25% return cost, so if you charge $80 to clean their house, then you tack on $20. That way, you automatically get 25% for no matter what you charge, $100, you get $25, and so on. If you don't, you could be driving another 50 or 60 miles round trip to clean someone's house for $80, on the second trip. Now, let me get out my accounting book, and do a little math, I am going to guesstimate you clean the house in what, 4 hours? so $20 per hour, 1 hour drive there, 1 hour drive back, now you have 6 hours invested for $80, plus the time wasted waiting, almost another hour. 7, then you left and came back, probably by this time, 8 hours? So you just got down to about $10 per hour? You see where I'm going with this yet';? Now, if you leave and have to come back, add maybe 1 or 2 more, making it $8 per hour, that's not taking into consideration your cost of gas which in today's IRS records is: Rate for Business Miles Set at 50.5 Cents per Mile. So you do that math yourself. But at $8 per hour, is the time from when you leave your home base, plus the cost of wear and tear on your transportation, any business would charge you.

[sinsativ]

Gypsy, you have to get payment up front, when you walk in the door, for at least one hour. When you are at someone's house, you are at their mercy, you never know what will happen in the next hour, so if you get the monetary requirement out of the way while they need you, then you can do whatever they want you to. That hour is theirs, if they want to talk about the weather, that's fine, it will cost them $XXX. Just tell them, as soon as you put the money in your pocket, okay, your hour starts now,. See what happens when they realize they are spending money to have little Johnny run around the house. If they don't want to pay, then leave, cheap lesson, and you sometimes get out with your life before the crazies come out.

[bustaduke]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

I wonder how you collect on people who stiff you?
Once, years ago, I decided to do tutoring. The first job I went on, (at someone's house), the kid was running around like a nut, and the woman was just asking me a bunch of stupid questions.

I mentioned on the phone I charged XYZ for my time/to tutor.

After consulting with her and watching her kid run around (she just wanted free advice if "Little Johnny was okay.') I said, okay, time is up that will be (mentioned the $).

She made a stupid face and said, "Sorry, my wallet is in my room and my husband is asleep..." I told her (again) I expected payment for my time and she just looked at me and I left.

I got stiffed! I was so put off and I never tutored (to make $) again. I was so livid.

Now I want to possibly tutor to make money and do not want the same thing to happen. Okay, I am not in NY (I expect such things there). People are probably more honest here..

What can a self employed person do when someone refused to pay?

You should collect the money up front and don't take no for an answer.

I am a contractor and I don't charge for an rough estimate. I come out and look at your job and tell you that it should cost about xyz to complete the work.

If the homeowner wants a detailed estimate they either have to sign my contract and give me a deposit or pay me for my time spent on a detailed estimate which I collect before I start the estimate.

I got burned before by home buyers and realtors who wanted a price to do repairs on a home that was for sale that they never intended on completing the work on. All they wanted was an estimate so they could reduce to asking pice of a home.

Same think with homeowners who are fighting their insurance company to get more money for a settlement. If it is insurance work I ask them to sign my contract and for the agents number and tell them I will work directly with the agent.

If they really want the work completed they never have a problem with this. Only the people who are trying to use my estimate without paying me have a problem.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by bustaduke

You should collect the money up front and don't take no for an answer.

I am a contractor and I don't charge for an rough estimate. I come out and look at your job and tell you that it should cost about xyz to complete the work.

If the homeowner wants a detailed estimate they either have to sign my contract and give me a deposit or pay me for my time spent on a detailed estimate which I collect before I start the estimate.

I got burned before by home buyers and realtors who wanted a price to do repairs on a home that was for sale that they never intended on completing the work on. All they wanted was an estimate so they could reduce to asking pice of a home.

Same think with homeowners who are fighting their insurance company to get more money for a settlement. If it is insurance work I ask them to sign my contract and for the agents number and tell them I will work directly with the agent.

If they really want the work completed they never have a problem with this. Only the people who are trying to use my estimate without paying me have a problem.

I'd never use you. If I am thinking about spending $45K on a home improvement project, I don't want a "rough" estimate that could end up being double what you told me, and I'm certainly not going to give you a dime until I have an exact price, barring any changes I make as we move forward--and you're outside your mind if I'm going to pay you to do an estimate for the job I'm hiring you for (if I like your proposal). As far as I'm concerned, doing an estimate and giving a cutomer a firm amount is just part of doing business.