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Background first, naturally. My Mom and I run our own housecleaning business. There isn't much we won't do, providing its paid for, and we supply all the cleaning supplies, etc for $30/hour.
We have this one client whom I can't figure out is stupid, or simply doesn't understand what her requests entail, even though she has had us come every two weeks for 6 years. She has a 5-bedroom two-level house that has a en-suite for her elderly mother in the downstairs level complete with private bathroom/shower, living room, kitchen and laundry. She also rents rooms to visiting Japanese students taking English as a 2nd language programs at the local University. It usually takes us anywhere from 2 to 2 and a half hours to do a 'regular' cleaning of their place, depending on how messy it is. This entails cleaning all the bathrooms, washing all floors, vacuuming all rooms, cleaning kitchen, washing kitchen cupboards (they tend to be messy,) dusting, and getting the windows/sliding doors cleaned. She knows how long it takes us to do this.
However she has this horrible habit of giving us extra work to do, then going out "to do her shopping" and NOT LEAVING ANY EXTRA MONEY!!! We keep having to wait until the NEXT time we go to ask her to make up for whatever she had shorted us on the previous visit. This is becoming such a regular occurrence that it can't simply be her forgetting. Its not just simple jobs she asks us to do either. Last week we did our regular cleaning then she asked us if we would wash the walls in all the bathrooms as she's going to get them repainted. No problem. Took us an extra hour and a half to do all three, but naturally she steps out about 30 minutes before we're done to go to the library, and when we go to the fridge (where she always leaves our cheque clipped) we see its for just a regular 2 hour cleaning. HELLO???
PLUS?? She'd clipped a note saying "If you have time can you please empty out the fridge and clean it?"( at least another hour's job for one of us.) Does she actually think that washing walls in 3 bathrooms AND cleaning out her fridge can be fit into the 2 to 2 1/2 hours it takes to do a normal cleaning? She already knew we'd been there an extra hour when she left! She's a lovely lady, but I'm just getting the feeling that she *expects* we'll do anything extra without having to pay, since she always acts surprised when one of us mentions that she short-changed us.
Fortunately, there's a bright side - I've lined up a new client, and am going to inform the lady from above that I simply can't afford to keep cleaning for her. Naturally she's going to ask why and I'll tell her the truth - it COSTS me too much to clean for free every week and then have to wait 2 weeks to get paid the extra. I doubt she'll be able to find anyone else, as the only other 2 cleaning outfits in town have restrictions on what they will and won't do (no windows, no cleaning out refrigerators, no washing walls, etc.)
We have this one client whom I can't figure out is stupid, or simply doesn't understand what her requests entail, even though she has had us come every two weeks for 6 years. She has a 5-bedroom two-level house that has a en-suite for her elderly mother in the downstairs level complete with private bathroom/shower, living room, kitchen and laundry. She also rents rooms to visiting Japanese students taking English as a 2nd language programs at the local University. It usually takes us anywhere from 2 to 2 and a half hours to do a 'regular' cleaning of their place, depending on how messy it is. This entails cleaning all the bathrooms, washing all floors, vacuuming all rooms, cleaning kitchen, washing kitchen cupboards (they tend to be messy,) dusting, and getting the windows/sliding doors cleaned. She knows how long it takes us to do this.
However she has this horrible habit of giving us extra work to do, then going out "to do her shopping" and NOT LEAVING ANY EXTRA MONEY!!! We keep having to wait until the NEXT time we go to ask her to make up for whatever she had shorted us on the previous visit. This is becoming such a regular occurrence that it can't simply be her forgetting. Its not just simple jobs she asks us to do either. Last week we did our regular cleaning then she asked us if we would wash the walls in all the bathrooms as she's going to get them repainted. No problem. Took us an extra hour and a half to do all three, but naturally she steps out about 30 minutes before we're done to go to the library, and when we go to the fridge (where she always leaves our cheque clipped) we see its for just a regular 2 hour cleaning. HELLO???
PLUS?? She'd clipped a note saying "If you have time can you please empty out the fridge and clean it?"( at least another hour's job for one of us.) Does she actually think that washing walls in 3 bathrooms AND cleaning out her fridge can be fit into the 2 to 2 1/2 hours it takes to do a normal cleaning? She already knew we'd been there an extra hour when she left! She's a lovely lady, but I'm just getting the feeling that she *expects* we'll do anything extra without having to pay, since she always acts surprised when one of us mentions that she short-changed us.
Fortunately, there's a bright side - I've lined up a new client, and am going to inform the lady from above that I simply can't afford to keep cleaning for her. Naturally she's going to ask why and I'll tell her the truth - it COSTS me too much to clean for free every week and then have to wait 2 weeks to get paid the extra. I doubt she'll be able to find anyone else, as the only other 2 cleaning outfits in town have restrictions on what they will and won't do (no windows, no cleaning out refrigerators, no washing walls, etc.)
"You'd feel a Hell of a lot better if you'd just rip into the occasional customer." 
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