My friend wet a thin Japanese futon-like mattress during a 6am seizure, and I live far away but wanted to help her.
My friend had already dabbed up with a towel and scrubbed the area with upholstery cleaner and wiped it off, but that meant it was once again in need of a good dabbing.
I had checked the box that I wanted NON-TOXIC cleaning services ONLY.
Yelp connected me with 5 companies with a $2,500 guarantee, so I was willing to risk hiring the one with 0 reviews one when it was the only one who could send anyone same-day before it would have dried.
"We charge $85/hr for a deep cleaning.
We bring all supplies.
We will be happy to help with your overall deep cleaning."
For $80/hr and a 2hr minimum, you can get 2 people in LA. His 'we' was 1 person. Okay. Fine. It's a Sunday, on short notice. Fine. I was only grateful (see my original review, below.) The whole point of paying anyone to come out ASAP was to stop the stain from setting and stinking.
Guess what "We bring all supplies" means?
Febreze Air Freshener!
No cleaning supplies.
No enzymes.
No chemical-free cleaning.
(No gloves -- to treat urine?!?)
No paper towels, or any communication to my friend about needing towels, while the coordinator specifically promised "it would help if your firend has towels, but we bring paper towels to soak up the area" and said, ever so kindly: "that makes sense, to re-wet it with the enzymes first, and then absorb what we can."
On the phone he promised to use pet odor removal stuff with enzymes and dry it further, but he sent someone who doesn't follow his instructions.
I'd offered to, so I was happy to pay for the time it took to go to the store and get the right spray for the job, so they could leave a bottle of enzyme spray with my friend.
But no enzymes were applied,
nothing was soaked up.
My friend was burnt from the seizures and non-confrontational because she was trying to focus and just do her remote phone job, but after all was said and done, I learned that they had brought nothing to clean urine with.
No cleaning supplies at all.
Just Febreeze and a vacuume.
At 8pm the bed was still wet, probably with Febreeze, so my friend slept on the couch. I hope she doesn't get a rash from the immense amount of soap she'd applied herself (that should have been removed with some kind of towels by this one-person "team") and I hope that she doesn't get chemical sensitivities from someone spraying toxic chemical air freshener into her mattress instead of doing anything like cleaning.
The woman talked loudly on her cell phone and didn't stop even when asked; it had to go through the coordinator to get her to stop.
This was with the inhabitant home, working from home on the phone, clearly wearing a headset. At least my friend had managed to get clear that there could be no vacuuming because of the noise... you'd think with hand gestures about loud talking it would not be hard to guess what she was asking for: please either close the door, or talk more quietly.
Yelp!
Then I was told she wouldn't leave without payment (something I was clearly going to provide, and which I would have gladly provided in advance) I felt tremendously pressured to transfer money using the personal Venmo Fernando provided me, which felt sketchy. I told him I had PayPal, but he only offered Zelle, Venmo, or Apple Pay. I was told "My Yelp account lists the payments we recieve."
Yelp had given me a comparison of companies I then texted back and forth with. Am I old-fashioned to assume credit card is fine with everyone?
When Venmo didn't work, even after multiple attempts, he finally offered that I COULD use a credit card. Geez!
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5* I WAS GOING TO LEAVE:
Fernando is kind. Karla went above and beyond on short notice for a small job, showing nothing but patience and grace. It was a bed-wetting incident and I also needed them to bring quarters for the laundry machine, and leave me some cleaning supplies -- amazing they accommodated all that!
(First-timers: have your money ready -- this was my first time ever hiring cleaning services, and I didn't look into what the payment methods were until it was time to pay. Oops.)
Fernando sent one person for an hourly rate others send 2 people for, but on a Sunday, on short notice, with an urgent stain that would otherwise set, and so much extra little things I needed, I was happy to pay. Thanks Karla & Fernando!
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NOW THAT I HEAR AND SEE WHAT DIDN'T HAPPEN, I can't leave a positive review!
To think I tipped them $50 for being so responsive and accommodating on top of the mysterious
$205 with service fee (remember: I was quoted $85/h for 2hrs)
plus spray $18
Quarters $20
Total $243
My friend and I both live below the poverty level. I thought I'd splurge $160 on her and help her make about that much in a day keeping her part time job without using sick time she didn't have. This ...would have been okay ...if it had actually helped. read more