I’m out. Deliberately Avoiding Your Call.

So last week was all about getting the previous house ready for our move out walkthrough yesterday. I hired a cleaning company to come in on Friday, and a carpet cleaner for Saturday. I felt fairly confident things would be in tip top shape come Monday. Oh how wrong I was.

Friday ended up being a fairly busy day for me at work. I ended up only going to the house long enough to let the cleaning people in, explain what I was most concerned about, pay and leave, asking that they lock the door upon their exit. I was not able to return on Friday night to check their work, but didn’t feel too concerned because the guy assured me they “guaranteed” their work and would come back if necessary to finish anything they missed.

Saturday morning I arrived at the townhouse and walked into a sweltering pit. Turns out they cranked the heat up to 90 degrees and didn’t turn it off again when they left. As I got to walking around, I was mortified at what I saw. Seems like the things I told them I was most concerned with were the ONLY things they did.

They barely wiped the kitchen counters off, did not wash the back boards around the kitchen counters, turned on the stove cleaner, but didn’t wipe it out once the cleaning had finished. They did not wipe off any door frames (a natural dust gathering place), did not wipe down the walls where pictures hung (also a natural dust gathering place), did not wipe the dust off any vents or the ceiling fan or the ceiling around the fan. They did not wash any baseboards or bathtubs. They actually took one vent cover off the ceiling, but did not replace it, leaving it in the bathroom sink. They didn’t even touch the upstairs bedrooms (blinds mostly).

Not only that, the put a HUGE FREAKING HOLE in the wall behind the front door. It was the doorknob for sure, which is a mystery since the door has a stopper on it keeping the knob away from the wall by about two inches. I tested it and you would literally have to take the stopper off and push the door into the wall for it to happen.

After I calmed down a bit, I went into the garage to put the trash out for Monday, and guess what I found? That’s right, the cleaning crew’s CRAP piled up next to the trash can.

It was a pickle for me as the cleaning company does not answer the phones on weekends and my walkthrough was to be Monday. I ended up writing the rental company a long letter about the situation. Mostly because this was the company they told us to use. I gave them a litany of reasons this company sucks and why they should not be a vendor in good standing with the lease company.

I called the cleaning company and they told me they couldn’t get to it yesterday, but they knew the lockbox code for the rental management company and would be in some time this week to finish the job. Not concerned at all with the problems or damage they caused.

I can’t begin to tell you how angry I am. I have moved all over the world and these fine United States. I have had companies clean and I’ve cleaned myself. This is by far the WORST move out clean in history. And here’s the kicker: becuse they guarantee their work, I cannot demand a refund unless the job is not completed within 90 days. WTF is that about?

I’m completely and totally flabbergasted by this whole mess! Lesson learned: Always stick around to check work others are doing for you. Otherwise you end up with a big stinking pile of nothin.