Here is a shortened version of the email I sent to the owner, Jennifer after I was dissappointed in the move out cleaning they did on my previous house.
When the cleaners first arrived I said to them, this is a move-out cleaning so I would appreciate it if you did a general overall cleaning, and don't spend too much time on any one area.
I then left for about an hour and a half to run some errands. When I returned to wash the outside windows, I observed that the two cleaners were talking a lot about personal stuff, and that their pace was slower than what I had expected from proffessional cleaners, but I just assumed they would be able to clean the entire house in the quoted time (2 cleaners X 2.5 hrs = 5 hrs cleaning), as it is a small house and all of the furniture was removed.
When the cleaners said their time was up, they explained they weren't able to get to the laundry room becuase the kitchen took longer because there was some stuff in the cupboards. After they left I realized they omitted more than just the laundry room.
In the kitchen, there was a handful of screws, some birthday candles, grains of rice, etc., that the cleaners took out of the cupboards. Other than that the cupboards were bare. So I don't understand their explanation -because of the "stuff" in the cupboards it took longer to clean than expected. They did not clean most of the windows or the window tracks, as promised in the pre-appointment email. They did not clean the two windows, sills, or tracks in the master bedroom, the 2 in the living room, or the window and sill in the kitchen -the only windows they cleaned was the one in the bathroom and the one in the laundry room. They only vacuumed the 2 bedrooms and kitchen floor, they did not mop in the kitchen or the hardwood living room floor, and did not clean the laundry room. I don't know what took them so long because I was not there or outside while they were cleaning, but I do not accept that my tiny kitchen and bathroom was such a mess it took 5 hours to clean.
Both my husband and my landlord, who both saw the condition of the home before the cleaners came, said I did not get my money's worth. When I returned to the house for the final walk through, my landlord pointed out some crumbs in a few of the kitchen drawers (obviously they didn't clean all the drawers), and there was soap residue around the bathtup that my landlord was going to have to charge me for cleaning.
So I emailed this to the owner, Jennifer, and her response was that I was basically being unrealistic about the condition of my home in the cleaning request form. Specifically the cleaner said there was "lots of old food encrusted in the fridge, the stove top and nearly all cabinets and drawers"
First, yes, the fridge needed to be cleaned, but there wasn't food encrusted in the fridge. I had cleaned the fridge about 3 months prior, and there were no sticky spills in the fridge, it just needed to be wiped out. As for the stove top- yes, it needed to be wiped off- we hadn't cleaned it for a few days but again, there was no food encrusted on it, plus I bought 4 new drip (burner) pans so they didn't clean those at all.
Food encrusted in the cabinets and drawers? No, this is simply untrue. Like any normal person, I keep plates, cups, bowls, cans, a bag of rice, cereals, non-perishables, silverware, cooking and bake-ware in my drawers and cupboards. Food was not encrusted in the cabinets. A few grains of rice, sure.
She also said that floors were cleaned, but became muddy as me and my husband walked through the house. She said the cleaners even vacuumed the kitchen twice so that more mud wouldn't be tracked through the house.
My husband and I were only there for the last hour that the cleaners were there, and we were both working outside. During the entire time they were there, I came into the house maybe 4 times, once to show the cleaners around then I used the back entrance to just go into the kitchen. My husband came in only once, and it was a nice day so we weren't tracking in mud (who vacuumes up mud, anyway?) Secondly, shouldn't they just clean the floors last? read more
