Kiwi Services
Ripoff ripoff, Carrollton Texas

I worked for Kiwi Services for a month and things have not changed significantly since Jalil filed his report. All the training at Kiwi is OJT. I had two days riding with a senior technician, who was very conscientious and consequently left to start his own business. The crux of his message was don't overpromise results, test your chemicals in an inconspicuous area to ensure effectiveness and compatibility and work from least intrusive methods to most while working to remove soils and stains. He also mentioned following this advice would ensure you didn't work for Kiwi very long.

In my short tenure I concluded no one at Kiwi was responsible for anything but sending $ to the home office and presumably the owner's pockets. You were counselled to chat up your "mark", er, customer to find hot buttons for more sales of services and products. Kiwi has a revolving door of employees, constantly bringing people in off the street to service their worthless warranty. Anyone who has been in the carpet cleaning business for an appreciable amount of time knows you can't make any money cleaning a room for $4.00.in fact, you will lose money. Kiwi solves this problem by shifting the economic cost of providing the service to its employees in the field.

Of course the "mark" has been promised lavish service by the Kiwi telemarketing division because, hey! It's no skin off their nose.

In fact, it is very difficult to price a job that you can't physically inspect, particularly if your "customer" isn't extremely knowledgeable in stain removal, as most homeowners aren't. This is no problem for Kiwi, because of its risk shifting strategy.

The really good technician can assess with a high degree of accuracy how much of a stain can be removed or blended in and how long it will take to accomplish the task. All stain removing techniques have limitations and this too is part of the skill of the tech.

Experience is the best teacher of these skills. Your chances of getting an adequately prepared tech with Kiwi are about 1 in 3 on an average job. I was sent on a couple of jobs requesting experienced technicians the first week I was in the field. I insisted on clearing my plan of attack with the service manager, whom I knew to be well qualified in this field before proceeding and to my knowledge, no lawsuits are pending.

It is no surprise to read on this site and others about "customers/marks" who can get no response from Kiwi. They have one guy trying to keep track of 50 potential disasters in the making, each of which replicates itself 3 times or more a day. His job is to prevent refunds under any circumstances and employing all means necessary. Chances of getting him on the phone are "iffy" at best.

Even if you do, his decision on the correct course of action is subject to review by the big cheeses in Dallas (who presumably have a dart board available that says "Don't give back the money" for really tough calls). They manage this scam in four cities from central command in like manner, so your call will have plenty of competition for anyone's attention. Call customer service and you will get a representative in another city, probably in a t-shirt that says "Don't give back the money" so that she doesn't forget the company motto. Her job is to keep changing out employees to "redo" the job until you quit calling or your carpet disintegrates from the continuous chemical dowsing and buffing.

Cleaning carpet is an occupation for people who like a challenge, are willing to learn and research how best to do a job and get satisfaction out of the well-served customer. It is not for people whose only interest is money at the cost of all else. I saw a great deal of yucky stuff on the carpets of those customers I served, but nothing to compare with odiousness of the people who run this company.

Company: Kiwi Services
Country: USA
State: Georgia
City: Marietta
Address: 849 Pickens Ind. Dr

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