A young mother is devastated after being “swindled” by a local cleaner who swindled her hundreds of dollars.
Indy Clinton from Sydney was “overwhelmed” by the stress of two young children and a busy schedule when she decided to hire a professional cleaner to tidy up her house.
The mom-of-two sent a few messages intending to hire someone weekly, and a cleaner quoted her $55 an hour and promised to bring all of her own equipment.
According to Indy’s calculations, it would take two hours to clean her house – and she was willing to pay $110 for the job.
But the mother was shocked when the cleaner showed up with three other women, eventually demanding $440 for “eight hours of work” — despite never informing Indy about the extra hands or the extra money.
Indy Clinton from Sydney was overwhelmed by the stress of two small children and a busy life when she decided to hire a professional cleaner to get her house in order
There were a few warning signs that Indy had missed during the process.
“I got a text the night before the cleaner was due and she said, ‘We’ll be there at 10 a.m.,'” Indy shared in a video.
‘We? She had just told me, “I pay $55 an hour, and I bring all the produce and the vacuum cleaner.” But when she said “we”… and I thought “we?” What does ‘we’ mean?’
The cleaner texted Indy a few hours before arriving, saying, “I’m bringing three of my girls, by the way.”
The mother was stunned when four women showed up on her doorstep to clean the house, but she was still convinced she only had to pay $55 an hour while the cleaners did the work at the same time.
Indy soon realized her mistake.
“So it’s the end of the cleanup and it’s been two and a half hours. She comes out and pays off in her head.
She said, ‘Okay, so that’s $55 an hour, there’s four of us. That’s about seven and a half or eight hours for $55 an hour.’
Indy was stunned; she couldn’t believe she was being charged $55 per hour per person.
‘I died. I passed out, I vomited in my throat. But I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.
“I looked at her, smiled and told her I would transfer the money and see her next week.
“But I don’t want to see her next week! How can she say she’s $55 an hour, bring all her own stuff and just slide in there with three other girls?’
The mother added, “Should she have told me I pretty much chop off a limb to have a clean house? Since when did “I” mean four people? Am I the confused one?’
Thousands expressed outrage on Indy’s behalf and expressed their views.
‘I have my own cleaning company, we charge €25 per hour, all inclusive. We charge $400 for security deposit cleaning!’ shared a cleaner.
“It really sounds like she knows what she’s doing, she knows she fooled you and set you up!” another wrote.
One added: “I would have passed out as soon as she told me the total. I would absolutely not see her again next week.’
How do companies do this?! Honestly, if I forget to tell someone the cost, I literally absorb that loss instead of going back on the quote,” said another cleaner.