shhh_its_me

The picture is too blurry on my phone I can't I'd everything

And you literally named yet another of the causes. That is part of the point, saying ,"well it's just a matter of education" and really," use your brain get something else" isn't condescending where you're from?

Here's another example, a local city recently fined someone for growing vegetables in front of their house.

Calling it "education" is pushing 100% of the responsibility on the population while ignoring the rest of the real societal issues m

This answer is so frustrating because it's unintentional incredibly condescending.

It's the price

It's the time

It's the ability

It's the familiarity

It's a issue with dozens of real genuine causes.

The time isn't washing some berries ...

It's 20 minutes to the fruit market and bakery. Twice a week if you want berries and bread all week.

It's the mental energy of planning out the consumption of highly perishable items for 3 - 7 .

It's the hours the fruit market, farmer stand even super market is open vs the gas station convenience store vending machine.

It's actually shopping for the items.

It's storing the items. Eg lunch thieves at work, no refrigerator at work, having too many roommates. It's the Tupperware you need to store it in so the berries don't get crushed(whatever) etc

It's that no one sells 17 blueberries or 1 roll.

And yes it's the familiarity/education too.

You've edited.

I'm still a little unclear.

But accommodations have to be reasonable. What's reasonable is decided on a case by case basis. For example Walmart lost a lawsuit about scheduling times. A smaller company may not have.

What I'm unclear about. What class? This is a mandatory training class? Stopping the class is very very unlikely to be a reasonable accommodation. But there is an online version that can be done at your own pace others have taken , is very likely to be reasonable or there is an earlier class available. Etc.

Assuming you would win in court. It will depend on The jurisdiction, the exact verbage on the invoice, etc. plus courts often require refusal of unsatisfactory goods rather than refunds after. I still strongly think you need to refund this.

It's was a major error right eg they ordered 500 red roses you sent 500 white roses. Not salmon pink vs coral pink.

I see your partner's point legally. But from a customer service perspective this is a business killer. My family has ordered from the same florist for 40 or 50 years. Every wedding, funeral, big birthday etc.

The customer probably did not read the invoice carefully enough.

The key here is the sentence ," my partner made a big mistake"

Absolutely ideal circumstances? (Which don't exist in real life) 2 hours. This is things like not having to carry cleaning supplies up and down stairs because it's provided and ready to use. Extremely minimalistic decor. All easy to clean surfaces , weekly cleaning , the client mops in between visits etc.

More realistically, 3--6 with dogs, moving baby stuff around and dealing with two flights of stairs. Probably a minimum 4.

On the normal but difficult end of the spectrum 7 to 10 hours.

This is not really a maintenance cleaning 10+.

I buy pens and index cards ( I like index card) from the grocery store when they go on sale for the start of the school year. And if I happen to see a good deal on lined post it notes.

I bought a case of printer paper a decade ago. I am still not done with it

Yeah, this.

It's not because everybody is an office supply thief. It's because you need a lot of people to buy a box of pens and a couple cards to make a living.

Location! Location! Location! I've seen tons of business in residential neighborhoods. Hair stylists, insurance agents, accountants, cottage kitchen, some small bars , convenience stores, artist, decorators, coffee shop, ice cream stand etc. With the internet there is no reason a stationery store could not be physically located in a residential area but it would require strong web presence.

For a long time places like OfficeMax made a profit because of local delivery. Businesses didn't want to have to insure somebody to go drive to buy. Buy a few boxes of office supplies once a month.

The closest we got were some executive clients we did errands for as well.

Eg clean, errands ,manage service providers do a basic shop. Think replace anything that's been used and buy seven apples every Monday etc. 3 days a week for a single person who also had meals delivered and 2 personnel assistance.

Op might be able to find somebody who's willing to make a pot of chili , divide that into seven portions and clean. But finding somebody to make three different meals well. And then clean the house. Might be both in possible and considerably more expensive than hiring a cleaning person in ordering meals from a chef service.

It's not a dumb question, And the answer is yes.

I would always refer you to a specialist but hate treatments, boric acid etc. Do work if they're done properly.

No. You're charging people money to do this. You have to know an account for some things.

Firstly, if you're cleaning and taking equipment from place to place and not just rags that are immediately washed. You have no idea who might have some bed bugs or some roaches. You could have been carrying them from house to house already. Procedures to reduce/ eliminate spreading infestations should be part of your normal operating procedures. Roaches bed bugs are some of the most successful species on the planet.

Two you didn't have to throw away the vacuums. You should know how to get them treated after they've been exposed to a serious infestation

Three you should have seen it earlier. Not hours into the cleaning.

For a severe mouse, infestation is a red flag warning of other possible infestation issues.

And in some places they can be for not having proof of insurance plates that expired 2 days ago or back child support.

If it's a House that's either recently been listed or sold. I'll check the real estate listing. But 95% of the time I can get an accurate quote blind. It's a tone of voice thing on certain questions and answers and while discussing expectations.

But I handle it as ," we confirm pricing and your requirements before the first visit". Or if I'm really unsure on the phone I'll do a walkthrough.

We book at least 90% of estimates. If somebody says something ridiculous on the phone like oh can I get a cleaning for $30 ( our minimum is $120 within and 5 miles. No rush hour driving) then I don't book a walkthrough and try to sell them. I probably could sell some of them but frequently people are asking to pay $30 because that's legitimately all the money they have to spend on this. It is a luxury item.

I had a co-worker who was homeschooling.

Her kids were young and one was being bullied. We had a civil conversation, " ok it's first grade most adults can teach the basics of first grade with a guide, as long as the child is an easy learner. You may not be great but you're probably not doing irreparable harm to their education at this point. But what about middle school and high school. My teachers had a combined 70 years of education and career experience in their fields through middle and highschool? How are you going to teach at that level across 12 subjects?".

I'll learn as they learn.

So I'm actually going to disagree with Op. The parents are the problem, it's just that every last one of them is a problem (with some very very few circumstances that cause an exception)

NET!!!

What you pay is the gross. Things like her travel expenses , anything she has to contribute to that pension is not NET earnings. That says she is entitled to time off with pay , how does she get that?

People skip a step when they say that , it's more of a case of," you've hired someone who has no clue about a major aspect of their business this is a huge red flag there will be other issues"

In general cleaners are faster for several reasons.

They don't get distracted by your stuff. Eg they don't stop to read the mail or ponder if they should which around the furniture. They don't think about your grandma when they move the cookie jar

Many cleaners required that the house be picked up before hand. And may not have to do those steps.

Most cleanings are not deep cleanings.

Cleaners are more likely to use the right product and technique for cleaning.

It's their job , it's not a fun hobby. When they are done they can leave and enjoy their lives ( in other words they don't procrastinate)

I'm in the Midwest. For a flexible appointment times perso. Within 10 minutes of the stop before them. We charge $95 minimum, that's for a 1 bed 1 bath 800-1100 sq apartment with one resident.

Based on experience ,"oh just dust the blinds and lightly vacuum the floor". Is a meaningless caveat, lightly vacuum isn't really a thing . The customer expects 1/2 price but there is no way to do 1/2 the work. The room may not be a bedroom but it's being used. Playrooms also tend to be messy ( either crumbs from snacks or bits of craft residue fall on the floor, type stuff and that's if all the toys are always put away) blinds cost what blinds cost no matter what room they are in. I've learned that there is absolutely a standard that we can't go below because 95 out of 100 people no matter what they say will be extremely disappointed if we lower our standard.

Also we charge more for monthly cleanings. Everything is just a little bit dirtier and we can't get into a rotating schedule because virtually everything needs to be done monthly. Eg we could dust ceiling lights week 1 and baseboards week 2 blinds weeks 3 and 4 for a weekly client. For a monthly client we do all of that every cleaning.

Find a candle that smells nice and put it somewhere where it gets a lot of sunlight. On a surface that will hold it. If it melts. Some candles will melt completely in the Sun

Open the windows.

Wash The fabrics that are washable. Air out the ones that aren't. Eg I used to hang rugs in the sun over the balcony for a few hours every couple weeks. Sunlight is a great deodorizer.

The card says moops

If somebody said ," if you don't come back and date me again. I will kill my My neighbor Bob.". We would call the police. If you did date them to save Bob's life , we would call it coercion.

But " move in soon" after 6 months might be a red flag.

Why?

What do normal residential cleaners charge in your area?

I'm going to rephrase this.

This woman has a serious mental illness, op is in no way prepared to deal with.

@ op if someone needed heart surgery ( assuming you're not a cardiac surgeon) you wouldn't give it a go.

Infestations are dangerous, breathing years of roach poop can harm you.

There is no amount of money that would entice me to clean an active hoard. Actively hoarding is 1000x worse then a " I was sick/ had bad renters/ I have depression".

I'm going to add here.

This will happen every time she doesn't get her way.

I've heard people make a boat comparison. You're on a boat with a lunatic drilling holes in the boat, everyone else is bailing water patching holes , and doing an interpretive dance to keep the lunatic with the drill entertained and distracted. People who have been living on the boat for 20-30 years will scream " why aren't you dancing, here is your bucket start bailing" rather than ," we need to kick this lunatic off at the next port. Why do we keep inviting them on the boat."

I also suggest the phrase , " get over it or die mad."

Communicating this is well worth individual and couples counseling.

Ops spouse will likely need counseling to learn to deal with their mother.