Sydney mum scammed out of $300 by domestic cleaner after overlooking a glaring red flag: ‘I wanted to vomit’

A young mum has been left devastated after being ‘scammed’ by a local cleaner who swindled her out of hundreds of dollars.

Indy Clinton, from Sydney, was ‘overwhelmed’ by the stress of two young children and a busy schedule when she decided to hire a professional cleaner to help get her home in order.

The mum-of-two sent out a few messages with the intention of hiring someone on a weekly basis, and a cleaner quoted her $55/hour and promised to bring all her own equipment.

Based on Indy’s calculations her home would take two hours to clean – and she was willing to pay $110 for the job.

But the mum was shocked when the cleaner showed up with three other women and demanded $440 for ‘eight hours of work’ at the end – despite never informing Indy about the extra hands or extra money.

There were a few warning signs Indy missed during the process. 

‘I received a text the night before the cleaner was supposed to come, and she said: ‘We will be there at 10am’,’ Indy recounted in a video.

‘We? She had just told me, ‘I’m $55 an hour, and I bring all of the products and the vacuum’. But when she said ‘we’… and I thought ‘We?’ What does ‘we’ mean?’

The cleaner sent Indy another message a few hours before arriving saying: ‘By the way, I’m bringing three of my girls’.

The mum was stunned when four women showed up at her doorstep to clean the house – but she was still convinced she would only have to pay $55 per hour with the cleaners doing the job at the same time.

Indy soon realised her mistake. 

‘So, it’s the end of the clean, and they took two-and-a-half hours. She comes out and she’s doing the math in her head.

‘She said: ‘Okay, so that’s $55 an hour, there’s four of us. That’s around seven-and-a-half or eight hours at $55 an hour’.’

Indy was stunned – she couldn’t believe she had to pay $55 an hour, per person.

‘I died. I pretty much passed out, I vomited in my throat. But I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

‘I looked at her and smiled and told her I’d transfer the money and then see her next week. 

‘But I don’t want to see her next week! How can she say she’s $55 an hour, brings all her own stuff, and she just slides in there with three other girls with her?’

The mum added: ‘Should she have told me that I am pretty much chopping off a limb to have a clean house? Since when did ‘I’ mean four people? Am I the confused one?’

Thousands were outraged on behalf on Indy and made their opinions known.

‘I have my own cleaning business, we charge $25 an hour, everything included. We charge $400 for a bond clean!’ a cleaner shared.

‘It honestly sounds like she knows what she’s doing, she knows she tricked you and put you on the spot!’ another wrote.

One added, ‘I would’ve passed out as soon as she told me the total. No way would I be seeing her again next week.’

‘How do businesses do this?! Like honestly, if I forget to tell someone the cost I’m literally copping that loss instead of going back on the quote,’ another cleaner said.