Problem with 'workman'. Help please!

I feel a bit sorry for John, he has probably lost a lot of business due to him having Covid.

I would have him back as you have been happy for the last 10 years. However, as you clearly do not want him back just text to say you have made other arrangements.

I, too, have never come across the concept of having someone in to clean my bins. I haven't seen any adverts for bin cleaners anywhere.

Why do bins need cleaning? I swill through every thing that goes in the recycling bin, and shocking though it sounds, all landfill goes in a big black bin liner. . I use those cornflour compostable bags for food waste.Now and again I put a bucket of water in the big bins and tip them upside down

But a bin cleaner?

Hello all.
Thank you for your replies.
The more that I think about it, nothing adds up.
It wasn't John cleaning the bins for months - it was the woman.
The whole Covid tale relies upon me not knowing that that was happening.
There's a lot more going on here than meets the eye.
Also, I do definitely think that he was trying to bully me.

Well, FannyC Swanky old you, eh?! A Bin Cleaner - how the other half live (said she as she hosed out her own bins yesterday and put them to dry in the sun!)

Looks like you've made up your mind so don't want to have complaints that I never read the thread because I did. I think you're very reasonable and not a wuss, but just need to be assertive here. So, just a couple of points :

John disappeared well before he had or didn't have Covid, and the service was a bit sporadic. However, he is definitely well in hand with payment and you say is paid up until August this year. Lucky old him, then. Shame if he's been ill, shame if he has lost work, but you're not psychic and you're the one inconvenienced by having no idea if or when he's coming back. You're happy with his replacement now - he needs to just learn that next time keeping people informed is a good idea if he wants to keep hold of his customers. You are definitely not being in any way unreasonable and he needs to respect your decision.

Send him a message saying you are sorry but because the young woman had been doing it and then it stopped you assumed he had gone out of business, you have now given the contract to someone else and paid a year in advance, just as you did with him) so you can't change.

If you are feeling bullied, why not simply remind him that he has already been paid till August anyway - so you will continue with Ben for now but will call him in August if you feel you need him back?

nanna8

What is a bin cleaner? I am not joking, I am not familiar with them because I don’t think we have them here. We get plastic bins for rubbish and recycling and another one for garden waste but they don’t really get dirty. The main waste one you use plastic bin sacks so there is no dirt there. The others are for weeds, so no dirt and paper and bottles which we pre wash. You must have a different system.

Am equally astonished too nanna8 ?and I live in the UK.
Have never heard of this service, or need it, as the rubbish is put in the bin already bagged up and doesn’t smell at all.

The recycling bin stays clean too, as tins and jars are washed out first.

As to the problem by the OP, I would stay with ‘Ben’ now you have hired him.

I don’t have a bin cleaner, but our green waste bin, which is for garden waste, grass cuttings etc can get very smelly in the summer, so DH hoses it out and turns it to dry in the sun.

Enterprising people set themselves up as bin cleaners when our local authority changed to the different types of plastic bins we now have.

Our general and recycling waste bins stay clean as everything is bagged up or washed out beforehand, but I doubt if that is done by everyone.

(I don’t mean you Fanny).!

Never heard of bin cleaning! We have black plastic bags, green waste bags and glass and metal boxes. Oh and food chemistry waste bin. Which is a bit grotty and gets an occasional hose down.

In the NE there are definitely bin cleaners. They visit the area around my daughter’s street and do a number of the bins.

Chemistry?

Just for interest how much does a bin cleaner cost, in case I need one.

Not boring at all. This is something that could happen to any of us. If you live alone like me it would be very worrying indeed.

You have the right to choose whoever you want to clean anything of yours. I wouldn't pay in advance, only when the job is done.

I have moved to an area where recycling arrangements are totally different to my old house. There we had a small green food caddy which I emptied into a larger blue caddy when it was full. The lid on the larger blue caddy sealed in a way that kept any smells inside. I didn't believe it would work when we first got them, but it did !

Here all food waste goes in the non recyclable bin.

I hope you get a resolution to this. Don't be bullied.

Send him a text saying you no longer want his services and he also owes you a 3 month refund, asking him for that back will probably shut him up and stop him contacting you, you can always block his number as well

We had a bin cleaner but sacked him when his wife came to the door demanding payment for the last three occasions that the bins had been cleaned when I had already paid . He later said that she’d made a mistake but her rudeness and mistaken sense of entitlement showed me that I had made the right decision. My OH cleans the bins now and makes a good job of it. Could your husband clean your bins ?

I have never in my very long life heard of a bin cleaning service. I cleaned out my garden waste bin two evenings ago. It did pong a bit from grass mowings. I can imagine myself pre-cleaning a stinky bin before the bin cleaner arrived the way I did a whip round before our house cleaner came - before Covid put an end to that.
We get local ads from teenagers looking for a Summer job and I might suggest they try to set up a bin cleaning service.

I can clean my own bins...I have a hose and an out doors tap, and sometimes sunlight. It does the trick. What more would anyone require?

If John had been good for 10 years surely you’d be a loyal customer that would stick with him? If he genuinely has been unwell he is probably desperate to keep his business going. Didn’t sound threatening to me tbh, just desperate and you have got yourself in a pickle.

Our window cleaner has been very ill but his wife regularly posts local FB updates, so we all know why he isn’t around. John’s family could have done similar.

A decent businessman would have had someone in place to contact you and all his customers to put them in the picture about his covid situation , also they would not have come knocking at your door with the attitude of not letting you have your say as you were the one that’s been let down on something that you’ve already paid upfront for ,he owes you three months payment which should be refunded . He sounds desperate and panicky needing his past customers back but without any thought that he has let you all down badly . I’d give him a wide birth , block his number and keep the new guy . Personally I don’t think he deserves your custom .

I had a similar thing with a window cleaner who’d been doing my windows for years - he arrived on a Christmas Eve to clean the windows in the rain but when I said no I didn’t want him cleaned as there was no point, he was really verbally aggressive. I stood up to him though and told him that I didn’t want him ever again because of how he spoke to me . Rude, aggressive and inappropriate.

i would stick with the new person, how were you to know that he had been in hospital and couldn't his daughter have informed people that he wasn't available due to circumstances. I would send a text. This isn't a get out just a polite way of letting him know.

I think your custom should have been valued anyway but as a customer paying for a years work in advance you must be unique. So whether or not you have him to clean your bin he has been paid until August anyway.
We don’t have bin cleaning round here, someone did try to start a business but we all have tall bins on wheels and a quick swish round with a bucket of soapy water does it. Obviously neighbours didn’t want to pay for that.

Dud he offer to refund for the times he did not clean the bin? Send a text saying services not required anymore and block his number.

It’s not sensible to pay someone a year in advance. Things happen in life. Maybe he has been ill with Covid ?‍♀️

Also, our outside bins don’t need cleaning unless something especially bad has happened in there! It’s just another ‘false need’ that has been created in modern society.