Frequently Asked Questions
Domestic Cleaning Service options
There are three easy ways to pay the agency fee, and the cleaner is paid directly by the client.
1, One off cleans
Please see the one off cleaning section.
2, Regular Domestic Cleaning Service
This is by far the most popular as it includes the entire service which we are very proud of.
Insurance, ability to change your cleaner whenever you like, temporary cover cleaners should your cleaner be sick or on holiday, and help and advice from our highly trained and experienced domestic cleaning consultants.
A license to use a cleaner for a certain number of hours per week, which is paid monthly.
The Agency fee is only due once we have allocated you a cleaner from the database, so we have found you a cleaner. You can change the cleaner whenever you want to, and have temporary cleaners to cover your regular cleaner's sickness and holidays.
3, Introduction Fee
Although many customers love this, it is not as popular because it does not include insurance, ability to change your cleaner and temporary cover cleaners.
This entitles you to pay a one off introduction fee, and then use the cleaner forever for the pre agreed amount of time per week.
It is just £500 plus 12 times what the monthly agency fees would be for that amount of usage per week.
If a cleaner is used, monthly payments are not in place, and it is not the date and time of a pre agreed one off clean, then this is the fee that is due.
Why is Cleaner & Agency Paid Separately?
A big secret to how we manage to vet, train, insure and monitor our domestic cleaners to such a high degree, with such a low agency fee, is that the money is going directly into doing that work, and not just administration. If you paid us, and we paid the cleaner for you, you would be paying:
* VAT on top of the amount paid to the cleaner
* Cost of the agency running a payroll.
* In depth health and safety policy, as any company employing more than a few people has much greater legal obligations
* and so on...
Consequently either the service or amount paid to the cleaner would be lower.
We can pay the cleaner for you and are delighted to do so, this service is used by about 0.5% of our clients who have UK homes that they only use a few weeks of the year at random times so are not in the country to be able to pay the cleaner, or high net worth individuals who do not have the time to pay their cleaner.
Due to the above costs we can pay the cleaner for you and maintain our high levels of service for £12.50 + VAT per hour of cleaning. As the basic costs of the work mentioned above do not increase if the client has more hours, if the client uses 10 hours or more per week the price starts at just £9.60 + VAT per hour of cleaning.
Agency fee debited monthly from my Mastercard or Visa card
This is because with other cards we would have to 'remind clients to pay' each month, whereas with Mastercard or Visa we can do recurring transaction authority payments so can automatically charge clients each payment period. This is how we can offer:
* Such a low price for such a high level of service
* Vet, train, and manage the cleaners to an incredibly high degree
As we are putting your agency fee into doing this rather than un necessary financial administration.
You do not pay anything until we have allocated you a cleaner from the database, so we have found you a cleaner.
You can change that cleaner whenever you want to, and have temporary ones to cover your regular cleaner's sickness or holidays.
Your Mastercard or Visa card details are completely safe
We use the world's most secure systems, they are the same as the top banks use:
1. Our website is secured by the same system all the banks use on their internet banking. It is called AES-256KB encryption, for many years there has been a well known prize of $1,000,000 for the first person who can break it, despite many enthusiastic attempts no one has managed it.
2, We are unable to see your card details, only the bank can see them as the website links directly to the bank through their specified security systems. This is of course standard for all online transactions, we can see the last 4 digits of the long number of your card purely to identify your card if the bank wishes to ask any questions about a client's card. However of course that is not enough for us to be able to do anything with them.
3, Our server has been inspected and given a certificate by Thawte Consulting CC, they only give certificates to completely secure sites. Thawte certificates are approved by Microsoft and all the other large and respected internet companies.
4, Royal Bank of Scotland bank have inspected and approved our site, so much so that they have even allowed us to put their card payment logos on the pages where customers enter their card details and this is something that they do not take lightly.
5, Our computer system is completely secure, with two levels of password protection. The first level password is to get onto our office network and the second password is for getting onto the payments program which is only accessible to our highest level accounts executives. All our account executives have also signed trust and confidence agreements and been carefully vetted as you would expect.
6, As a final level of security all activity on this isolated system is recorded and tracked, so that each computer operator's activities are recorded. Thus there are copies of screen shots, buttons pressed, files transferred and all other such activities so that there is all the evidence should anyone be silly enough to try it.
7, We are registered under the Data Protection Act and we comply with all of its provisions.
In actual fact these 7 levels are far more than is actually needed. We only do it because we clean for very high net worth individuals, members of parliament, diplomats, famous people, professionals where confidentiality is paramount, people who are always surrounded by bodyguards and other high security measures because they need such levels of security.
The staff and services that serve these clients have checked us very carefully to ensure we meet their needs, and we have always passed. This is in part because we have a highly trained security manager on our staff and ex-policemen as consultants to the company, they ensure our security in the office and with the cleaners fits these needs.
We recommend that your home cleaner is given one week's paid holiday for every 12 weeks they have worked.
That week's pay is the average their earnings over those 12 qualifying weeks.
Ironing
Please inform us in the initial order if you would like ironing as part of your service. We can them make sure you get the right domestic cleaner with excellent ironing skills. This is all part of the service and the same hourly rate as cleaning.
We expect domestic cleaners to iron to a minimum of seven men’s working shirts per hour. We use this as a measure of a cleaner's speed, so for example:
* A t-shirt is equivalent to 1/5th of a long sleeved man's working shirt.
* A pair of standard trousers is equivalent to 3/4 of a long sleeved man's working shirt.
Our customers love our domestic cleaners to do their ironing for them, and when you look at this speed with the amount that Amy charges, this is so much cheaper than a dry cleaners or launderette, for a service that is easier and much more personal.
Cleaners love Amy because:
* If they are good, we can fill their entire schedule within one week
* We get them temporary jobs to cover them while then their customers go on holiday.
* We help the cleaners with issues such as personal safety, if a customer is naughty and does not pay them for their work; we chase the customer for them, and so on.
When cleaners try and get work themselves, they have all the problems of:
* It takes them a long time to find any, and is a lot of work.
* During this time they have no work, and are not earning any money.
* They usually end up only being partly booked up
* When their customers go on holiday, they do not have any work
We are able to get as many great domestic cleaners as needed, at the price we recommend you pay, so there really is no need to pay more. You will also find that the cleaning results are determined by how good the cleaner is, and this is a result of our vetting and management. Paying more does not improve the cleaning service you will get.
The agency fee is exactly the same in each area, only the amount paid to the cleaners differs.
This is because of the local market rate in each area for domestic cleaning people.
For example in East London we recommend you pay your cleaner £6.50 per hour, whereas in Esher in Surrey we recommend you pay your cleaner £8.50 as few cleaners live in that area and so the local market rate is higher.
Please do feel free to select different areas to see for yourself how this works.
When our customers are away on holiday they generally ask their cleaners to do lots of special tasks such as special dusting, cleaning silver and so on.
If you decide not to use the cleaner while you are on holiday, please inform the agency directly so that we can bank your unused hours. You can then use these hours at a future time for catch up cleans.
Please do ensure though that you tell the agency before you go on holiday so we can organise the credits. Also please tell us at least 1 working day before the clean that you will be using these credits for.
Our customers love us because we carefully vet, screen, train and monitor all our cleaners to a very high standard at such a reasonable price. This is because we spend their funds on doing this, rather than on administration.
This does mean that regular customer’s agency fees runs throughout their membership. Before 2001 we used to stop the charge when customers went on holiday, however we find that customers no longer want this old service as it is 25% more and does not come with insurance, this is because:
1. The administration costs of stopping and starting the service when the customer went on holiday. This actually costs more to process than the agency fee paid when the customer was on holiday. As a result the agency fee as a whole is higher if we stop and start the service in this way. We prefer to use customer’s money to find them great cleaners, rather than the administration.
2. Many customers were away for a lot of the year and away almost every month and not using their cleaner during this time. Regular customers were in effect subsidising these other customers which is why the figure in section 1 was so high.
3. It is far more expensive for the agency if a customer does not use the cleaner for a period as we also have to try and find those cleaners other work.
4. The pre 2001 service did not have insurance. We cannot get the insurance money back if customers do not use it when they are on holiday, because as the customer is paying the cleaner we are brokering them insurance. We pay this quarterly and cannot get it back if the customer does not use the cleaner, a bit like how with car insurance one cannot get it back if the one goes on holiday and does not drive the car.
As a result we apologise that your agency fee still runs while you are on holiday, but this does in fact result in a far cheaper total agency fee. We can provide your cleaner with other work during this time so there is no need to have to pay them.
To cancel simply fill in one of the Customer License Cancellation Request Forms.
The forms are on the ‘My Amy’ page which is the right hand side button of the main website toolbar.
Please choose from either:
-Fax or post customer license cancellation request form: This is simply filled in and faxed or posted to us.
-Email customer license cancellation request form: This form has instructions on the top part for how to fill it in and send it, below is a template which you simply copy and paste into your email. Then simply fill it in and send it to us.
Within 2 working days of receiving your one week's notice we will send you a letter or email to confirm your 1 week’s notice cancellation. This will contain a cancellation code showing your cancellation and the date we received your cancellation form.
To cancel the monthly payments agency fee, just cancel one week before the end of the period. The need for one week’s notice is because:
* The cleaners need income, it can take us up to a week to find the cleaner another suitable client, organise an interview and all the other things a client may require before a cleaner can start.
* We have to pay for your £1million insurance cover at the beginning of each period. To ensure you have perfect seamless cover this is done well before each month starts and sadly we cannot get this money back.
We would of course love it if you returned to us and used the agency services again. If you wish to use someone who has been allocated from our database after your license has expired, you can:
1. Order a one off clean.
2. Restart your monthly license.
3. Pay the introductory fee of £500 + the equivalent of twelve months agency fee.
If a cleaner is used and 1 or 2 has not been pre ordered, then option 3 is due, this amount is subject to prompt payment after cleaner is used.
You are paying for:
* Access to a database of cleaners
* The right to use a cleaner from the database
* Insurance.
The agency 'membership' fee is based upon the average number of hours you have the right to use a cleaner from the Agency database, should you have the cleaner for more hours, then more is payable. The fee remains payable, much like the fee for a sports club, car breakdown service, internet access subscription, insurance or other such service, whether or not you choose to take advantage of the database, use the cleaner, or insurance.
This is because we still have to keep our database full of good quality cleaners, who are available for one off and regular jobs, and this is constant work. We also still have to pay your cleaner consultant who is always on hand, and your insurance which is a large percentage of the agency fee, whether or not you decide to take advantage of the service or not.
If there is any problem, no matter how small please tell us immediately, so that we can speak to the cleaner, allocate you another one or do whatever is required!
If you would like a replacement cleaner, it takes us on average just over 1 working day to allocate you a cleaner, this is because we carefully go through your needs and requests, go through all the cleaners, speak to them about the job to ensure they really want it and so on. Due to the diligent way this is done, please allow up to 5 working days just in case.
If it ever takes us more than 4 working days to allocate you a replacement cleaner, so you have not had a cleaner available for a week. Please do request a credit note to be applied to your account, this credit note is added to the end of your payment period to extend it.
However it is essential that the agency is told immediately if you ever need another cleaner for any reason.
Of course if we have not been told that there was an issue then and you would like to be allocated a replacement cleaner, then sadly we could not have done anything. The credit notes are for if we have been asked for a replacement cleaner and have failed to allocate one within 4 working days, so you have not had a cleaner available for a week.
This is why we encourage you to give us the best feedback possible so that we can give you the best service.
We never have more than 100 clients per office person and we still have to pay your office domestic cleaning agency service account manager and your insurance even if a cleaner is not used. Therefore the credit notes are for if you requested a replacement cleaner and we have failed to allocate you one.
As we have over 600 cleaners, it rarely takes us more than a few days at most to find someone a replacement cleaner.
Credit notes are added to customers' accounts, so your quarterly payment period would be extended and your next payment will not be due until a later date. This is far more cost effective as it does not involve book keeping, business banking charges and other administration costs required in sending the money to a customer's bank account which would cost more than the value of most credit notes.
This saving has been passed onto all our customers due to the agency fee being lower than it would otherwise be, as a result please note that credit notes cannot be exchanged for cash.
How the monthly agency fee is worked out
There are 52 weeks in a year.
52 weeks divided by 12 months = 4.33 weeks per month
License for number of hours using cleaner for and insurance cover each week (or the average amount of cleaning each week if you are having fortnightly) x 4.33 weeks = monthly amount.
The agency and insurance fee is the same amount each month because customers said they found this easier.
This is because it is just like how customers' pay other bills such as satellite television, broadband, gym membership and so on, which are the same amount each month.