Spectrum Home Services

"We have reviewed the member's recitation of the facts and basically agree with her chronology, with one notable exception. At no time did we agree to do the work for $30.00 per man hour. Our standard rate for hourly work is $40.00 per hour. We have never agreed to do work of this nature, which is very labor intensive, for anything less than $40.00 per man hour. In fact, the same day we talked with the member about cleaning up her yard we spoke with her tenant at one of her rental properties about cleaning up his yard. He was quoted a price of $40.00 per man hour and agreed to pay it. The member was specifically told about the agreement, including the hourly rate. The same day we did work on her yard, we did work on her tenants yard and he paid the bill without question. Why would we agree to do the exact same work on two different properties and cut our rate by 25% for her, especially when the work on her yard was significantly more difficult. Further, if, as she seems to suggest, some sort of bait and switch was employed, why would we highlight that fact by putting the hourly rate on the bill? We could have just given her a bill with the amount owed. As she stated, the member initially paid the bill without question upon returning from one of her pet sitting jobs. What she failed to mention is that there were a couple of other things that she wanted done, such as pruning and weed spraying, and these were done for her at no charge - approximately 30 minutes of free work. Also, the failed to detail the conversation between her and Karl when she called to question the hourly rate. Karl, who bids these jobs on a daily basis, was likewise certain that he never gave her a bid for $30.00 per man hour. However, he told her that because he appreciated her business and wanted to resolve the matter, he would be willing to split the difference at $35.00 per man hour. Her response was "That's fair". So she saved $40.00 and got a half hour of free work. So how did this happen? We don't know. There obviously was a misunderstanding which was resolved, as evidenced by the member's statement "That's fair". Furthermore, she was happy with every aspect of the work. It's mystifying that she would register a complaint on Angie's List three weeks after declaring that resolution of the misunderstanding was "fair". Now that's not fair!"

"We feel terrible about this situation, but there is absolutely NOTHING we can do to please this customer. Here is what happened when we went to the member's house on May 11, 2011: Before our two-person crew --- plus their supervisor --- made it to the member's front door, she opened the door and criticized the way they were dressed. They each wore new T-shirts with our standard company logo and slacks. As they entered her house, she criticized the cleaning supplies we used, saying that they were "all wrong"...in fact, we are a national franchise that uses cutting-edge green cleaning solutions from Eco Lab, a nationwide, respected company. Further, she said that she had hired 3-4 other cleaning companies (franchise cleaners), she named them to us specifically and she said that none of us know how to clean. Her comments were before our crew was even able to begin any work. The crew started working, and she criticized them for using cleaning diapers, instead of microfiber cloths. The diapers are standard soft cotton cloths that are commonly used in the industry to avoid scratches. Microfiber cloths have their own advantages and disadvantages, and we have opted to not use them. Person by person, job by job, she proceeded to "browbeat" our cleaners and criticize everything. Our crew stayed an extra hour to try to please the member, but with no success. She tricked our supervisor by pulling out a small mirror from an empty top shelf of the bathroom cabinet and yelled at her for not dusting it. The member saw the "deal of the day" ad in the daily newspaper for $69 for 3 person-hours of deep cleaning. She called us late, after the deal had expired. We honored her request for the deal. The deal is not to clean an entire house, it is to deep clean the customer's highest priority issues until the 3 hours runs out. We made this well know to her before we sold her the deal. We stayed an extra hour at her house. Much of the time frankly was spent trying to calm her down, explain our supplies, tools and methods and try to deflect her many insults and attempts to argue. Strangely, the supervisor later reported to me that the house was immaculate when they entered the house initially, it had fresh vacuum roller marks on the carpet, everything was extremely tidy and there was no dust anywhere. When the crew returned and relayed this information, I was dismayed and upset. Our business was founded on pleasing customers 100% of the time. I called the member and she was furious. I asked to meet with her and she refused. She said she was already "cleaning up after us". I asked her what I could do to rectify this situation. She said there was nothing I could do, but she promised to destroy our company on every internet web site she could think of. And now, she has posted nasty, unfair, libelous comments about our company on this website. I don't know what this woman's angle was when we arrived to clean her house. I could speculate that she is a competitor, she just had a very bad recent period of time, or that she is just plain nuts. Whatever the case, Google and other websites should not allow people like this to trash other people and companies without consequences. Finally, we sold 298 of those "deals of the day" and have already received rave reviews from 45 customers' houses that we have cleaned. That is what we are in the business of doing and will continue to do. We have not asked them to review us online, I suspect we will start doing that to validate my comments here. President of Spectrum Home Services of Colorado Springs"