BEVERLY HILLS HOUSE AND WINDOW CLEANING

Service Provider Response

I’ve owned BHHW for 34 years and this is the first time my honesty and integrity has been questioned and assailed. Customer has accused me of being a hustler and a bold face liar. She has accused us of pretending to clean something we didn’t do and pretending we worked longer than we did. These are very serious charges, and if true, would cast a pall on this reputable business that has been established in the Los Angeles area since 1928. I hereby will categorically refute these accusations. In regards to the extra $50 charge for pressure washing her two patios, she told me in our initial phone conversation about one patio, not two. When my Operations Manager Mario arrived at the jobsite after customer’s departure around 9:30 AM and saw the extra power washing work involved, we called her and explained the extra $50 charge before we started the power washing, and she readily agreed. Regarding Customer’s assertion that the two-man general cleaning crew of Nelson & Adrian finished the general cleaning and the power washing by noon at which time they packed up and left is not correct. They had not completed the general cleaning and the power washing was not started until 1:00 PM (by Mario). They left for a one hour lunch break, returning at 1:00 PM to complete their work. Mario, who also had left, returned at 1:00 PM with the power washing machine and he performed the power washing between 1:00 and 3:00 PM, during which time Nelson and Adrian spent 45 minutes (1½ Man-Hours = $60) completing the regular general cleaning and 30 minutes (1 Man-Hour = $40) re-wiping all exterior surfaces due to a fine layer of sawdust that had settled on these surfaces as a result of Customer’s Handyman cutting wood in the living room with a power saw. Customer was not seen by any of our crew again after she left at approximately 9:30 AM. Her walk through had to be after 3:00PM when we left. Her Handyman can verify that we were still working when he left at 2:00 PM. Nelson and Mario had separate conversations with the Handyman between 1:00 and 2:00 PM. Mario had also told Handyman between 10:30 and 11:00 that Handyman’s power sawing may cause us to do some extra work, as the case turned out to be. When I talked to Customer the next morning, she told me that she was quite please with the quality of our work and intended to write us a glowing review on Angie’s List. She commented that even though she hadn’t mentioned to us to clean the insides of the drawers and cabinets, she was quite pleased with their improvement. Although she questioned the extra charges relating to the re-cleaning of the external surfaces (she was not aware of the power saw sawdust issue at that time), she agreed to have all the charges of $540 placed on her credit card, which we did. I called her back a short while later and left a voice-mail message that as a courtesy I would issue a credit for the re-clean charge at $40 (one Man-Hour). She didn’t return my call. She posted the Angie’s List review two days later. After re-examining the situation, I decided to refund her all of the $150 additional charges bringing the total back $390, the exact amount she expected to pay at the beginning. I reasoned that she should have had all the information about the extra charges in a timely manner. She should have been informed of the possibility of re-cleaning charges when we saw the power sawing happening at 10:30 or 11:00 AM. The need for extra regular general cleaning time should have been communicated to her when Nelson and Adrian returned from lunch. The timely communication of the extra charges was poor on our part, so I refunded her the entire $150 extra charges. In conclusion, Customer was not hustled or lied to. She was charged only for the time we actually worked and for the work that was performed. I trust that this clarification will clear the air.