First of all if you have already read the previous reports that have been written by both customers, and techs that have been wronged by this company I urge you to do so. Dont be fooled by there advertising and marketing strategies.
I was a contractor for Kiwi for three years, and most of what has already been said in previous reports is will give you an idea of what this company is like, and hopefully help you, if your making a decision of whether or not to work for this company or use there services.
There is no contest between bonnet cleaning and steam cleaning. Bonnet cleaning removes a small amount of surface dirt at the top of carpet, while the rest is dispersed, pushed down and blended into the carpet. Viola! Carpet looks clean.
There are always going to be a handful of people that dont know any better, or dont really care whether or not thier carpet is really getting clean or not, and just want to go by looks, and that clean smell. I dont know about you, but I would rather have clean good smelling carpet, than dirty, clean looking, smell good for a day carpet.
Steam cleaning is the industry standard, and with todays more advanced and powerful machines, along with stronger and safer chemicals, and better educated technicians, all the old arguments about steam cleaning are just that. Old and out of date.
Now to get to my story with Kiwi Services. I always knew that they were not the greatest when it came to a lot of things and I have had my share of ups and downs with them. The last six months that I worked there is what really did it for me, and brings me here.
They asked me to go Houston for them to water damage-disaster, after hurricane Ike hit. The company had not done this kind of work before, and I was kind of leary about going. My manager and the company said I would make a lot of money down there and offered anyone that was willing to go 250 to 300 a day.
I was one of the few that went ahead and stepped up to the plate for them.
The first week I was there I made 250 a day as a helper. Then a lot of jobs went in my name, because another tech was fired for not listening to a manager. To my surprise I was going to have to wait until the insurance company paid the customer, and the customer paid the Kiwi before I got paid.
Talk about disaster! And on top of that I had about six techs helping me, and did not find out until I was neck deep in all this work that they were getting paid 250 a day, but that it was going to come out of my commission! It took about a month to tear out and dry out all the houses that we were working on. After that they decided to get temps to help us.
I stayed down there for another two months trying to make it worth it and did about ten more water damage jobs. I also held on to the idea that any day I would get a big check for all the hard work I had done, and being away from home, and all that.instead my checks were very small and some times in the negative because I did not have time to do any regular carpet cleaning. Just disaster, and demoliton.
Right before Christmas I came back to Dallas and thought things would be better and I would finally get paid, and get out of debt, which was the whole reason I went down there was to make money, and ended up in worse finacial shape than ever.
Sometimes every day, and at least every week for months I spoke to my manager, about the floods that I have done, and that I need to get paid, and if there is anything i can do to help, and gave him lists of all the jobs.in the mean time I did three more floods for them here in dallas and still have not been paid for those. Out of all the flood jobs I did they have only paid me on a few small ones. The rest I am still waiting for.
To me its ridiculous and unheard of to have to wait so long. And what bothers me, is that I always have to go to them, or ask them, and get the same answers, and never get anywhere.
I know a lot of other technicians that they have not paid that they owe a lot money to. Some have left, or have been let go, and others are still there. I am not the only one.
Two weeks ago I found another company that does steam cleaning and water damage that does things right, takes good care of there technicians, and makes them employees, and gets them certified. Thank God. After working for kiwi all those years I feel like I have died and gone to heaven working for this other company.
I still want to get my money from kiwi that they owe me, but I kind of get the idea that its not going be easy, and there going to try to get away with what they can. So that's my story, and any help or advice will be appreciated. Thanks
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