ABOVE PAR CARPET CARE

It was a nightmare!  We called the company and asked if they would honor the estimate they had provided us seven months earlier and they said yes.  We arranged to have the service performed on a Thursday and moved all of our furniture outside so that the grout could be cleaned, a process that was represented to take 2 1/2 hours.  The first worker arrived and tried various applications in one area, but was unable to get the grout clean.  He promised to return the following day with an industrial cleaner, but he never came.  On Monday we called both the worker and the company and were repeatedly told "we'll be there in 20 minutes" or "we're leaving now," but nobody ever came.  On Tuesday we called again and a crew arrived to inspect the floor in early afternoon.  Again, we were told that the grout wasn't that dirty and that there would be no problem getting cleaned.  Another person (perhaps the owner?) arrived he assured us that the grout would be cleaned.  He and the other workers went outside to wait for the original worker and equipment to arrive.  My wife heard them complaining about the original worker and his failure to let the applications work to loosen the dirt on the grout. The original worker returned later that afternoon and worked on the grout.  Several dark patches remained, but he assured us that they would lighten up once they had dried.  The following morning we noticed that these patches had not lightened up, so we called the company to complain.  Again, we waited and waited for the owner and/or crew to arrive, but they didn't show until the the late afternoon.  I noticed that this crew wore shirts with a different company name, but they obviously knew how to clean the grout, even though this had reportedly been done two days before by the original worker.  The person we believed to be the owner came to inspect the progress and he even commented several times on how much dirt was the second crew was removing.  (Again, this was the same dirt that the original employee supposedly had removed the day before!) This man promised that a crew would return between 9-10 the following morning to seal the grout.  No one arrived that morning and we called the business at 11:30 and were told that they were leaving now.  It turned out to be the same person we believed to be the owner, who didn't arrive until 12:15, even though the business is located less than three miles away from our house.  He applied the grout sealer and presented us with a new bill, which was more than DOUBLE THE ORIGINAL ESTIMATE!!!!  The new bill contained charges for tile cleaning & striping, as well as the sealing of grout and tile, as well as a 20% discount of these inflated charges to compensate us for the inconvenience of enduring this misery for a week. Frankly, my wife and I discussed arguing over and/or refusing to pay this bill, but we were so upset with this company that all we wanted to do was get them out of our house!  I have no idea if the original worker was a trainee or just incompetent, but his work was pathetic at best.  Likewise, our calls to the company were met with unrealistic response times, that were almost certainly based on the hopes that another job would be finished early and a crew would become available. In retrospect, we should have paid closer attention to their company name.  In short, this was an absolutely horrible experience and we will never use this company again!!