GeorgiaXplant
Well-known Member
- Location
- Georgia
Last week I sent the usual reminder to a client that I'd be there on Wednesday between 10 and 1030. This particular client almost always replies that she won't be "ready" to have her house cleaned so "early" and asks me to come at 11 or 12 or has even said that she'd text me when it was "convenient" and she was "ready" for me. It has happened a time or two (or three or more!) that around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, she'd text and tell me not to come at all and ask to be rescheduled. In the past three years, she's cancelled four times the morning of her scheduled day and another four times has kept me waiting until early afternoon, then told me not to come and to reschedule her. This time? She "forgot". Forgot the cleaning lady is coming when there are three kids and two adults living there, both adults work outside the home, and the cleaning lady is only there every two weeks? Forgot?
Well. I try really hard to accommodate my clients, and on two occasions when she let me know early enough, I've called the next day's clients and asked if they'd be willing to trade days with her. On two other occasions, I happened to have a day off the very next day so cleaned for her then instead. The other times, I've just told her that didn't have any other time and would just have to skip it until the next scheduled day.
The reason for starting between 10 and 1030 was so that I could be done and out of the way when her kids got home from school. Not too long ago, I told her that it's next to impossible to find another day to clean for her and that to please give me as much notice as possible so that I could call one of the (long!) list of people who have asked me to clean for them (and not lose a day's pay).
I might as well have talked to a fencepost because she simply doesn't get it. At 230 on Wednesday morning her husband sent me an odd and rambling text apropos to nothing much at all and finished up by saying not to come on Wednesday and to come on Thursday instead. You read that right. He texted me at a 230 in the morning. Huh?
I waited until about 8 am and sent a text back telling him that I didn't have another day available for two weeks and that after so many cancellations and requests to be rescheduled at the last minute, I felt it only fair to charge a cancellation fee of half the amount it usually cost to clean for them.
Other independent cleaning ladies and professional cleaning services charge a cancellation fee if they don't get 24 hours' notice. Friends and family have been badgering me for years to charge a cancellation fee and to quit being "nice"...and clients will no longer take advantage of me.
It has happened that a client has had a family emergency, a death in the family, texts me from the ER where they're waiting to be seen by a doctor...in those cases of course I wouldn't charge them. Stuff happens. It even happened to me once: I got sick. Except for that one time, I've been as dependable as church on Sunday.
I stuck to my guns. I expected to be paid a cancellation fee. I got the cancellation fee (in cash!), but they were both highly indignant and could not understand why I'd do such a thing. After all, they said, they'd been "good and reliable clients" for more than three years. Reliable? And he didn't appreciate being woken up via text at 8 am.
She sent me an email that was not very nice. I emailed her back and told her that I was sorry she felt that way and that I wouldn't feel comfortable working for them any longer.
Sometimes even I can stand up for myself! Not only got the cancellation fee but now I have every other Wednesday off. Who says I have to be "nice" ALL of the time? Nice cleaning fairies finish last. LOL And I'm not going to fill that day with a new client. Heck. I'm old. A day off in the middle of the week? Priceless!
Well. I try really hard to accommodate my clients, and on two occasions when she let me know early enough, I've called the next day's clients and asked if they'd be willing to trade days with her. On two other occasions, I happened to have a day off the very next day so cleaned for her then instead. The other times, I've just told her that didn't have any other time and would just have to skip it until the next scheduled day.
The reason for starting between 10 and 1030 was so that I could be done and out of the way when her kids got home from school. Not too long ago, I told her that it's next to impossible to find another day to clean for her and that to please give me as much notice as possible so that I could call one of the (long!) list of people who have asked me to clean for them (and not lose a day's pay).
I might as well have talked to a fencepost because she simply doesn't get it. At 230 on Wednesday morning her husband sent me an odd and rambling text apropos to nothing much at all and finished up by saying not to come on Wednesday and to come on Thursday instead. You read that right. He texted me at a 230 in the morning. Huh?
I waited until about 8 am and sent a text back telling him that I didn't have another day available for two weeks and that after so many cancellations and requests to be rescheduled at the last minute, I felt it only fair to charge a cancellation fee of half the amount it usually cost to clean for them.
Other independent cleaning ladies and professional cleaning services charge a cancellation fee if they don't get 24 hours' notice. Friends and family have been badgering me for years to charge a cancellation fee and to quit being "nice"...and clients will no longer take advantage of me.
It has happened that a client has had a family emergency, a death in the family, texts me from the ER where they're waiting to be seen by a doctor...in those cases of course I wouldn't charge them. Stuff happens. It even happened to me once: I got sick. Except for that one time, I've been as dependable as church on Sunday.
I stuck to my guns. I expected to be paid a cancellation fee. I got the cancellation fee (in cash!), but they were both highly indignant and could not understand why I'd do such a thing. After all, they said, they'd been "good and reliable clients" for more than three years. Reliable? And he didn't appreciate being woken up via text at 8 am.
She sent me an email that was not very nice. I emailed her back and told her that I was sorry she felt that way and that I wouldn't feel comfortable working for them any longer.
Sometimes even I can stand up for myself! Not only got the cancellation fee but now I have every other Wednesday off. Who says I have to be "nice" ALL of the time? Nice cleaning fairies finish last. LOL And I'm not going to fill that day with a new client. Heck. I'm old. A day off in the middle of the week? Priceless!
