Monday, May 5, 2008

GRRRRRRR

OK, so I clean houses for extra money. Not the best job,and I don't look forward to it. Ever.
Once a month I clean for an elderly lady down the road. We will call her "Miss Gigi".Not her real name, but you know,protect privacy. Last wednesday was the day to clean her house. I went, I cleaned,I made my 50 dollars. No, that's not ALL I charge.
See, she was my very first client ever. An aquaintance of mine who also cleans houses( former friend,we'll get to that another time) had given her a quote of 100.00 each time she cleans. Miss Gigi said no way, too high,blah blah blah. So My aquaintance,who we will call "Cami "gives her my number because she knows I am looking to make some extra money. Ok, so I go to her house,take a look around at her SPOTLESS house. I think ok, it won't be too bad at all. And being poor and as desperate as our situation was at the time, I needed to bring in SOME money. And she lives just down the road so no gas cost,ok. Fifty dollars. Easy money.ok, back to my story.
SO I go clean her house last week which really is easy money most of the time. She wants me to come back the next day and mop her entry way floor and she says she will pay me 25.00.ok,sure. So I show up the next morning to do the floor. Not only did I do the floor but I took out the windows on her storm doors and cleaned them,scrubbed the baseboards,flipped the cushions on her wicker furniture,washed her wicker furniture and taped the bottoms of the legs of the wicker furniture so the wicker wont unravel anymore-taped with scotch tape. She insists that this is the best holding tape.ok,fine. You'll see,miss Gigi, that scotch tape won't hold the wicker and next time I will be taping yet AGAIN(the taping of the wicker is a regular occurrence) the legs of the wicker furniture. Now on to the floor. She tells me to first wash the floor with water and dish soap. Thats how she does it and its the only way she says.So I do it. I wait for the floor to dry,and she decides she wants mop and glow on the floor. Now, I have been cleaning for her for a year now, and I have repeatedly read her the instructions on the back of the mop and glow bottle. It clearly states, squirt the soap on the floor and mop with a wet mop. Thats it. but I had already mopped with the dish soap ,as she instructed,which is going to make the floor sticky after the mop and glow goes on.Told her this before too.but she still wants a "good coat" of mop and glow on that floor. So I do it. And since she can't do anything for herself,because she is old, I have to wait for the floor to dry so I can put the rugs back down. I started at 8am and by now it is 10. I waited 45 minutes for the floor to dry and put the rugs back. Then I go home. I was there at her house for 3 hours. I made 25.00. I go home and go about my business. Then she calls. I knew it, I knew what it was about. I didn't answer the phone. All 3 times she called I ignored the calls. Because I was frustrated. Later that night I checked the voice mail and all she says in her stern voice is "CHANTAL...this is Miss Gigi. Call me please." When she yells my name I know it's not good. So the next morning I call her and she YELLS at me over the phone about the floor being sticky. She says I did a terrible job on the floor and that it was awful. She says she will let it go this time but next time I better fix it. Then she goes on about how well she pays me. I tell her that I usually charge more,etc,etc,and she has the nerve to still yet all me about how she paid me so well for only actually working for an hour and a half.I was there for 3 hours.Most of the time was spent waiting for the floor to dry,but I was there 3 hours.I finally stood up to her and told her no, she doesn't pay good. I don't charge everyone only 50 dollars. I was being nice to her. All she has done for the past year is complain about how 50 dollars is too much.I do all kinds of extra heavy cleaning that I normally wouldn't do.Well, I have decided that 50.00 is not enough to put up with her. I have decided to not go back.

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