Problem with 'workman'. Help please!

Could you ask your husband to speak to John. He seems to be bullying you, but may not bully a man.

I think Ben seems a better bet.

FannyCornforth Sorry to sound dim but why do you need you bins cleaned? Council empty them once a week. Never known anyone clean their bins before.

I agree withgrandtante I couldn’t have put it any better myself!
He actually owes you 6 months pay and yes, there seems to be an increase in the number of businesses and individuals blaming Covid for their incompetences
I’d keep with Ben.

Sounds made up this?if its not get advice from citizens advice or get them to ring john- maybe they will get your money back too! NEVER jump in to pay a year upfront for anything like this- or window cleaning etc, just pay as you go.?

FannyCornforth
Re name change - I originally gave my username one which was very obvious, like you tried to change it myself but couldn’t. So I contacted Admin, explained reason for wanting change (ie too identifiable). I gave three options and they were kind enough to do it for me.
Worth a try.
Sorry about your predicament, I would agree that he had his chance to retain you as a customer, remind him he has been paid for a service you’ve not received and terminate his ‘contract’.
Good luck.

You have paid him in advance for work that he has not done, or got this young woman to do on his behalf. He might just be using covid as an excuse and not have been ill at all.

The man may well have been ill with covid as he says, but that does not explain why the young woman stopped coming, or why she failed to notify you if she was unable to do the work.

Check whether you are legally entitled to tell him that the pay he has received for work he has not done is now to be considered payment in lieu of notice.

You have someone else doing the job and as neither he nor the young woman notified you that he was ill, you see no reason to ask Ben to stop now.

Sorty but you need to stop the payment and email to say you have made your choice.
At the end of the day you choose who you want his covid woes are his affair not yours and badgering and talking over you is wrong.Stick to your guns.

Anyone deliberating about having the second COVID vaccination.

I had a really bad reaction to the first. I live alone so no-one could look after me. Just would like to know if I’m the only one thinking about this. Comments please.

I would just text him and say you no longer require his services.
Someone should have kept you informed about his health if they wanted to keep your business.
No one can expect you to wait indefinitely,his daughter could have gone through his business accounts to get all his customers information ,unless of course he isn’t declaring his business to tax man

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 .

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 ?

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

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.

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

Chemistry?

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