Lambert Cleaning is running some kind of scam. It's so unfortunate.
I had Lambert Cleaning Service out to a property I had rented and was vacating to do what they call a Move-In, Move-Out Clean. They quoted me a price of $369 to clean a split level house. When they arrived, we had the entire lower level cleaned out (it had been done for about 2 days) but there were still some small items in the living room upstairs that we had not yet removed (we were in the process of moving everything out, so we took all of the big items out, and left a few things while we were loading the truck and for which we were in the processes of removing).
I immediately received a phone call stating that the cleaners couldn't get their work done with "all this stuff" in the house. I thought it was odd. In fact, I thought in the beginning, they had the wrong house, as we didn't have a bunch of things inside the home, just a few boxes, lamps, a small table, 3 chairs and a few bags, all piled in the middle of the living room floor. The lady kept telling me that I may not be happy with the result because of "all the stuff" in the house. I thought maybe one of the workers was new or a primadonna and in a tantrum or fit of not wanting to do his/her work called her, since she was not on the premises at the time. I just couldn't take her seriously. She was rude and I didn't know what she wanted me to say, so I told the woman (the infamous "Sherry" that SO MANY have condemned for being rude in their reviews) to have them start downstairs if it was a "deal-breaker" while my husband and I move "all that stuff" to the lawn (again...a few boxes, lamps, a small table, etc.). I got off my phone and noticed she even emailed me stating that because of "all the stuff" they wouldn't be able to do as good a job. I just couldn't believe it. It just didn't make any sense to me at all why such a little bit of stuff in ONE room, would prevent them from doing their job or make me unhappy, or why that was such a big deal to this woman. Then, I got the bill.
So we're out on the back deck (the only area with chairs, because, again, the house was vacant) and the guy tells me they are done and I'll get a bill for the rest of what I owe in my email. Fine. I inspected the work; and I'd seen better quality, but I really liked the workers that were at the house and wanted to pay them plus tip. So I check my email and Lambert Cleaning charged us $40 extra an hour for 3 hours because of "all that stuff" they had to clean around made their job just super, duper complicated. I was outraged!
I tried to call and discuss it with Sherry, but she was unavailable and did not call me back. She just kept emailing me a bill. I was angry, but thought, okay, we had some stuff (again...a few boxes, lamps, small tables, etc.) and if they felt it was too hard to clean around it, then I'll pay $40 an hour for half the time, since they would have divided their time between the upstairs and the downstairs and it was the upstairs with the stuff. This seemed fair to me, though I still felt cheated. I tell Sherry this in an email and she insisted that we pay the $40 for all 3 hours. I refuse.
What it boils down to for me is honesty and integrity. This is something that a cleaning service MUST have. If she had told me on the phone or in her email that I would be charged extra for cleaning because of that little bit of stuff, then I would have known about it and could have immediately addressed the situation by sending her photos of the upstairs of the house right then to show how empty it really was, and to prove that this was an over-reaction. But instead, she waited until afterwards and didn't mention it directly, just put it in a bill.
So here's the thing. If you're a cleaning service, you should be able to clean around a few items. Certainly, not a house full of stuff, if you are hired to do a move-out clean, but you should be able to clean around a few items, in one room. It should not affect how well you clean the rest of the rooms, and if it does, you DEFINITELY should not charge someone more money an hour to do work that you admit is sub-par. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE ELSE? Also, when you are going to charge someone additional money for a service, you should tell them. They should be able to deny these charges if they are unjustified and explain why. Finally, if someone is willing to pay a portion of your unjustified charges because they genuinely feel obligated to pay a bill for services rendered, you should be willing to accept their offer and compromise. After all, the customer's satisfaction should matter, at least a little to you.
I am left with no other choice than to believe this is some type of scam to get additional money for their services and a hard lesson: IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO PAY ADDITIONAL MONEY FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, DO NOT CONTRACT WITH LAMBERT CLEANING. read more