United Building Maintenance Inc

"We acknowledge that we were late arriving at the customer’s home, and did call her to let her know we were running late. We squeezed her cleaning onto our calendar in order to accommodate her Thanksgiving plans, and told her we may be running late due to another job that was already on our calendar, which she was fine. We performed the following work: Tile & grout floor scrub & seal (241 sq. feet) Tile & grout floor scrub (206 sq. feet) Linoleum floor scrub (42 sq. feet) Hardwood floor scrub (1,100 sq. feet) We did not seal one area of the home- the patio off the kitchen, because the customer did not want to pay for that service, however we did seal the kitchen and bathrooms. I spoke with the customer the day after the services were performed and she expressed concern over the hardwood floors but said the tile and grout floors were satisfactory. She stated that there was a supervisor on-site for that part of the cleaning and they did a great job while he was there, but once he left she felt they did not keep up the level of work for the hardwood floors. She said that she and her fiancée used a Swiffer wet mop to clean the floors after we left. She requested that we refund her $100, which we did. She also asked why a Living Social promotion we had been running at the time didn’t apply. The Living Social promotion was a 2 hour house cleaning for $65 or a 3 hour house cleaning for $95. I told her that it did not apply to floor scrubbing or floor cleaning services (which is stated in the fine print), and she insisted that we were “ripping her off” by not allowing her to use that deal, which had already expired by the time she contacted us. I explained that we gave her our best prices and even provided a 20% discount because she is a realtor. On December 3, 2011 (2 weeks after the date of service) she sent photos of the bathroom floor showing that the grout was discolored. We looked at the photos and it appears that the discolorations is caused by Efflorescence, a white crystalline or powdery deposit on grout lines, stone or porous tile. This is caused by water flowing through the grout or subfloor that dissolves salts and minerals including calcium. The water then evaporates leaving a mineral deposit on the surface, which is similar to the process that allows stains to wick to the surface after carpet following cleaning. I did explain this to the customer. Because the customer said that she re-cleaned what we had done with a Swiffer wet jet and other chemicals, we cannot confirm that it was our work that caused the grout discoloration. She requested that we return to re-do the work on the floors in the bathroom and the hardwood floors, however we do not feel that doing so will satisfy her or make the situation better. We refunded the $100 she requested and spoke with her on the phone several times but were not able to satisfy her. She stated several times that she does not believe our technicians are capable of the work or know what they are doing. Returning to do the work in that environment does not seem to be a good solution."