I was looking for a house cleaning company that would take care of my floors and house furniture, as I have three dogs, lots of dust and little time to clean.
I wanted a company that had a license, or a bond/insurance as I have some expensive and delicate furniture that I was afraid they might break or damage, in other words I wanted peace of mind with strangers in my house!
I found a web site called "service magic" which allows consumers like me to place a service request, and allows companies to bid to get the job for you.
So I did and placed my request, and after beeing contacted by at least 5 cleaning companies, I chose the only one that had (at least that's what they advertise) an insurance.
Their web site is so pretty and full of "empty promises", that any one would go for it, even the most doubtful person. So I scheduled an appointment with the owner (elizabeth solo), which walked through my house checking everything and giving me a quote.
We agreed for a specific amount, $85 first cleaning and $55 every other time, and we agreed for specific services (floor cleaning, floor waxing, furniture dusting, bathroom sanitizing, mirrors shined) basically I wanted exactly what they advertise on their web site.
We scheduled for 10/03/05 at 10.30 am. Elizabeth calls my home phone at 9 am of that same day to advise me that the cleaning team won't be there until 1 pm, (their web site advertises their punctuality as their best quality).
After I change my plans and set my schedule according to them, Elizabeth calls me on my cell phone at around 12.30 pm asking me if it was ok for them to come at 3.00 pm instead.
Once again, my plans change again and I agree to this new schedule change, and get home at 2 pm waiting for them. 3.30 pm and no one shows up, I call her and she tells me they are almost there, it's a matter of few minutes.
4.10 pm no one shows up still, I call once again (please notice she never gave me a courtesy call to apologize and let me know about the status) and this time she tells me to wait another 10 minutes. I canceled, and told her to void the contract I signed and faxed her!
She tried to convince me to reschedule, but I had enough of that, I wasted all day waiting on them and I even inconvenienced my dogs which I took to the pet store in the kennels so that the cleaners would have full range.
Elizabeth called my girlfriends cell phone the next day leaving her a message (which we have saved) clearly stating that she wanted to make it up to us by giving us the first cleaning for free! Therefore we decided to give them a second chance, as people do make mistakes and it was nice of her to show us kindness, plus it was a $85 value for free!
We rescheduled for 10/06/05, and this time they actually showed up. I will say though that the elderly couple that showed up not only barely spoke english, but they didn't appear to me as beeing able to move our furniture around, since I can barely do it myself, and I am a big guy.
However even with doubts in my mind I tried to explain to them what we wanted, mainly the floors cleaned and waxed, and take the dust off our furniture. All they were answering us back was "yes, ok" like they were understanding everything.
We came back home after 2 hours, and as we walk in by surprise we see our floors still with wet spots here and there, no wax and balls of dust still showing around the floor.
Dust under the beds, behind and on top of the couches, dust on top of counters, bathroom still dirty and mirrors just cleaned with paper towels but without windex.
In other words nothing of what is advertised on their site, and as I was pointing out the dust and the floors not waxed, the male cleaner told me that they don't wax because it's too dangerous! To what? Who knows!!!
Obviously at that point I didn't even consider to continue that kind of service, as it was not what they advertise and I was expecting.
After the first time experience with the "no show", and after this fiasco, I didn't even know what to tell this woman (Elizabeth), since to me it was just unbelievable that something like this even happened.
She never bothered to follow up and ask me what I thought about it, instead she called me the next day and left me a message asking me to download a new contract online, and to sign it and fax it over.
For work reasons I was only able to contact her on 10/12/05 via e-mail. I told her our reasons, and asked her to cancel our contract.
Elizabeth decided to start an e-mail war by first demanding the $85 for the free cleaning, and then she started threatning me of taking me to court and ruining my credit, (everything is documented as I printed out her e-mails).
I kept replying to her not to be insulting and to keep it at a professional level, as I never threatened or insulted once.
She kept harassing, and stating that she has me by the neck since I signed a contract, and she wrote me that the BBB or the FTC can't help me since I signed a contract.
She wrote me a couple of e-mails insulting me, accusing me of ripping off honest people, telling me I will never have luck in life and stating she will ruin my credit. And also she stated that a judge wouldn't care at all about my evidence of her harassing nor the voice message she left about the free cleaning, and she also brags about knowing the law very well.
I discontinued replying to her, because I am tired of waisting my time with such crook and dishonest individual, however I am outraged, and I think someone needs to end her arrogant ways ASAP.
I don't think she really knows the law, I just think she tried to intimidate me into paying.
Luckily I didn't waste a cent on her, and I won't take any action for now, but if there are grounds for any kind of action I would love to be informed as I kept everything in writing.
Also I forgot to mention that they are the first ones to break the contract, as they state on their web site the services they render, such as waxing the floors, and Elizabeth sent me an e-mail stating that she told them specifically not to wax my floors as it's dangerous. On another e-mail she states that they don't do that kind of service at all.
I printed their web site as well.
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