Sparkletime Cleaning Service

"The customer contacted us for a recurring cleaning service and was given an estimate over the phone. The information on Zillow is not always accurate as additions and even actual square footage aren't always listed. In this case, Zillow was not accurate and the estimated price was increased by $20 before service even began. There was no contract and the customer had the choice to cancel and decline service immediately. She chose to commence service and even continued for almost 3 years, commending us for the good work we do. If our service rapidly declined as she stated why then did she choose to continue with us for almost 3 years? We can't imagine that anyone will stay with a service for 3 years if it was not satisfactory. The customer claimed that damage was done to a wooden chair not wood floor as she claims. It is obviously she is not being truthful because we have text messages from her claiming that her wooden chair was damaged. She has now changed her story and is now claiming that her wooden floor was damaged. We requested to inspect the damage to the wooden chair, which is the normal course of action. We don't deny that mistakes happen but we can't be held responsible without first inspecting the damage. Any claim of damage in any industry requires an inspection and assessment of the damage before any compensation. At every opportunity, the customer declined or cancelled inspection. She knew damage was not caused by our cleaners. As a matter of fact, our cleaners stated that the scratch had been on the wooden bench since the first visit. We are very cognizant of scratches because we don't want to be held liable for damage not caused by our cleaning crew. Soft cloth rags were used to clean the wooden chair, so it is impossible to cause a deep scratch. The customer demanded cash for the repair of the bench or a refund of the last cleaning. She stated that if she wasn't given cash or refunded the cost of the previous cleaning that she would sue. When we pressed for an inspection, she stated that the cost of the repair was "going to be way more than my monthly cleaning fee". She further said that we could either refund her money or she could sue for it and even said her immediate family were lawyers to supposedly scare us into paying up. She threatened to sue and give us a bad review if we didn't give her an immediate refund but cancelled every appointment we made with her to inspect the damage. At that point, we let her know that we will not be blackmailed with a false review. Some companies give in to these false and baseless threats, we don't. We had to tell her to stop sending threats via text messages because she continuously sent threats to sue if we didn't pay up. When she demanded a refund otherwise she would post a bad review, it made her claim suspicious. We respect the legal system and were awaiting her threat of legal action. We looked forward to our day in court because we know that once the merits of the case are heard, the case will be thrown out. This is defamation of our company's character because we refused to be extorted. Unfortunately many small businesses like ours constantly fall for this type of extortion and cyber bullying. We refuse because we have principles and our work and reputation speaks for itself. The customer's attitude towards us changed when we were unable to fit in a last minute request for cleaning at Thanksgiving. She threatened to cancel her service then but did not follow through. We remained professional and cordial in our dealings. But this review is false, dishonest and malicious. We have text messages from her threatening to post bad reviews all over the internet and she has followed through on her smear campaign against us."

"Thank you for choosing us."

"We thank you for your feedback. We made you aware that all pets must be secured when the service was initially scheduled and you agreed. This is standard policy with any reputable cleaning service. You asked for a discount if you were able to convince your neighbors to use our services (because you and your neighbors used the same cleaner, who retired) and we said possibly. We gave you a discounted price as promised. When it was discovered that your home was several hundred feet larger than the size stated, we notified you of a possible price increase. It is unfortunate that you chose to decline service based on the fair and reasonable rate we gave you.     PS: We are sorry you that you did not think the service was great. We aim to provide a consistent, quality cleaning service to all of our customers during each visit. We thank you for your high praise you sent us privately via text message. Please feel free to give us a call to discuss any questions or concerns you had with the service."

"Thank you for choosing us."

"Thank you for choosing us."

"Thank you for your patronage!"

"Thank you."

"Thank you for your patronage!"

"Thank you for choosing us."

"Thank you."

"Thank you!"

"Thank you."

"Thank you for choosing us."

"Thank you."

"Thank you for your patronage!"

"Thank you."

"Thank you for your patronage."

"Thank you for your patronage."

"The first time the customer requested service over the phone, he was not honest about the state of his house. We gave an estimate over the phone based on the information the customer gave us. Upon reaching his home, the cleaners stated that the house looked like it should be on an episode of "hoarders". The cleaners spent hours moving and hauling junk before cleaning could even start. We are not novices in the cleaning business but we have only seen a handful of houses as bad as this customer's house. The house was so disorganized that it is almost impossible to say where the "critical component “of his garbage disposal system was placed. The cleaners may have moved it while cleaning or the customer may have moved it, but it is fair to say it is somewhere in his house. We accepted to pay for the missing garbage disposal component to avoid an argument and it only cost $24. We actually provided the service at a loss because we gave an estimate based on 3 1/2 hours of service, it took 6 1/2 hours. We did not want to increase the price and be accused of pulling a bait and switch, so we took a loss. The customer called after the first visit to say he was very impressed with the job done that he wanted to book another appointment for service because he was putting his house up for sale. He even requested for the same cleaners. To be fair to ourselves and the customer, we informed him AHEAD of time that we would charge an hourly rate; the total cost would be based on the number of hours spent cleaning. Every cleaning company does this, it is not unique to our company. The customer's countenance changed when we informed him of the price. The customer did a walk-through when the job was completed and said he was satisfied. The customer's negative review is based solely on the fact that he had to pay the fair market rate for the service we provided. He had a few weeks before the second appointment to shop around for a lower price. He chose to keep the appointment because he knew our price was fair. This customer is being spiteful because he was unhappy with the cost of the service price. It is disingenuous of him to say our cleaning service was unsatisfactory. No areas were missed. Other companies would have scheduled multiple visits to perform the same service in order to make more money. Our honesty is being rewarded with a spiteful and unfair review. These types of spiteful reviews affect our livelihood and the livelihoods of our employees. It's just a review to him but it is a potential loss of income for us."

"Thank you for your patronage."