Peterborough Custom Clean-All

This company is expensive, unprofessional and has an appalling attitude toward customer service.

I hired the company to clean an empty farmhouse we had moved out of. The original quote was $85 for an estimated one hour of cleaning by a crew. The resulting job was incomplete, done in a hurry (I was on site at the time) and I was actually charged $115 plus tax.

When I called to complain about the poor quality of the job, the manager did not apologize for the substandard work, nor for my dissatisfaction. She admitted however that I had been charged too much by her staff person, and should only have to pay $85. she also agreed to send out another crew to re-do the house and we agreed on a suitable date and time for me to meet them there to let them into the house, and oversee the work.

On that date i arrived at the house and waited a full half an hour for the crew, who did not show up at the time they were expected. I was extremely upset, after having been let down by the company a second time. At that point i decided I was not going to deal any further with this company and would instead just ask for my money back in full. I left the site and returned my key to the landlord's mailbox, as i did not intend to return there again.

The crew apparently arrived at the site 45 minutes late and proceeded to call my voice mail wondering "where I was" (as if I were the one in the wrong). It so happened my landlord came to the house at that time, so the crew asked him to let them into the house, which he did. (?) The crew should not have done this.

A)I was not there to explain to them what i felt needed to be re-done

B)I was not there to check the work when they were done.

In the meantime I called the manager to once again complain about the service, and to ask for a full refund due to the inconvenience of my time and gas being wasted due to the no-show of her staff . She proceeded to make excuses for her staff not showing up on time, saying that they were held up at their previous job, and then had encountered heavy traffic.

She did not offer any refund to me, nor did she apologize for this SECOND incident of unacceptable service. She instead said that the invoice for the work that the crew did (while I wasn't there)had been left by them on the kitchen counter of the house. (meanwhile we had already moved out and given back our key). Therefore my landlord would be the only person who was able to get the paperwork (but this is a breach of my confidentiality). the cleaning job had nothing to do with the landlord whatsoever, so it was inappropriate for him to see that paperwork.

I told the manager I would not be going back out to the farm and did not have a key to get in. She said she would arrange to get the papers from the landlord then, and mail the new invoice to me. (a new invoice? i couldn't believe i was actually expected to pay for a service that I did not even have a chance to oversee, nor check).

Later she called again to instead ask if she could meet with me to settle the bill in person (obviously fearing that I would not send the payment by mail, and rightly so considering my ordeal.) When she came to my house, I had a written statement ready for her outlining all the events that had occurred throughout the course of the cleaning job I had contracted with the company.

She would not sit down to talk to me when offered a seat, and was reluctant to even enter my living room to discuss it with me. I told her that due to the 2 incidences of unacceptable service by her company, I was requesting a reduction of the original fee. She was not in agreement with this request whatsoever and did not admit the company's fault in any way.

She read my statement and then abruptly stated that she couldn't reduce the amount of the invoice because she had to pay her staff for going out to the farm twice, and needed to cover her expenses for having the job done twice. I told her I was EXTREMELY dissatisfied with the service and how everything had been handled, and was at the very least, NOT prepared to pay the full price.

I offered her an amount of $50. She refused the offer flat out, and again said it would not cover the company's expenses of doing that job. She said that $70 was the lowest she could accept. I felt this was not a fair price considering how poorly the job had been mishandled, and considering that her offer was only a mere $15 less than the original price of $85.

In my opinion I should not have been charged a dime, no questions asked. Despite that, I tried to be fair and offer an amount that I would be prepared to pay. Instead I got a defensive and defiant attitude, and again no apology for my dissatisfaction. She held tightly to her demand for $70.

I would not reccommend this company if it were the last one on earth. I feel that not only was the job very poor, but the way I was treated was even more appalling. The manager clearly has no regard for her customers' satisfaction and clearly puts her own expenses and her staff's interests first, NOT her customers, and certainly not her reputation. This to me is simply very poor ethics and I am very surprised this company can stay in business at all.
Kim Rogers, Peterborough