RUN! These guys are running a SHAM OPERATION and taking advantage of their employees who are just trying to make a living and doing the best they can. My experience is with the WOODLAND HILLS, CA location.
CAESAR GUTTIEREZ (co-owner of the Woodland Hills, CA franchise with his relative, Fernando, is the RUDEST and most UNPROFESSIONAL person I have dealt with in a business context (service profession) in many years. He appears to have VERY MODEST QUALITY STANDARDS and NO INTEREST IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. Especially painful is that he sets up the well-meaning crew for failure because of this. I hope that this review serves as fair warning for others who might consider this service.
Here's the scoop/our story:
I arranged a cleaning service with Fernando several days ago to address a mid-renovation dust problem in our residence. We had two rooms that needed special attention (after demo and clean up) and 1/2 our house needed careful dusting/cleaning. I was very clear about what the need was and Fernando assured us that the company deals with "post construction cleaning" services "all the time."
I called back after the three person crew left today and politely explained to CAESAR that I was not happy with aspects of the job. I thought the people who came to clean tried to do a good job, but it was clear they had not received adequate instruction from Fernando about the kind of job this was and what our cleaning needs and priorities were. I certainly did not want to get anyone in trouble but I felt the EXTREMELY HIGH RATES were not reflected in the quality of the work and wanted either for the job to be done with greater quality or I wanted to receive a partial refund, as I need to hire another cleaning service to do what this 'company' is ill-prepared to do.
I specifically called out (1) the insufficient power of the vacuum cleaner that they had equipped their cleaning crew with and (2) the lack of communication between Fernando and the crew about what our priorities were for the cleaning. It is our money and we were very clear that the dust was our main issue.
Rather than expressing concern that things were not completed to our satisfaction or trying to work with me on a way to resolve the problem, CAESAR was HOSTILE and challenged everything I said. He had no interest in feedback or working towards a resolution. Instead, CAESAR was verbally AGGRESSIVE, ACCUSATORY, and DISRESPECTFUL. He put words in my mouth and argued for the fun of it, trying to intimidate me. For the sake of other potential customers and in defense of the cleaning crew who have the misfortune of working for this man, I feel obligated to bring this matter to light.
Again, the cleaning people were hard working. I do not think this is their fault. There appeared to be LITTLE TO NO COMMUNICATION between Fernando (sales) and the cleaning crew, so I spent half the allotted time trying to redirect their efforts away from focusing too much on one thing, e.g., cleaning the cooktop that we plan to replace later this week, towards what we needed to have done. Although Fernando and CAESAR claim they do a lot of post construction cleaning services, they sent a cleaning crew that did not seem physically well-matched for the job and equipped them with a small, basic vacuum cleaner that was no match for the dust. We own two wet vacs and know the difference.
CAESAR challenged my understanding of vacuums and tried to convince me that the machine that one of the cleaning persons carried on his back was suitable for the job.
Of course I was dissatisfied. The job I'd hired them to do was not communicated to them (they seemed focused on more routine house cleaning tasks), the team was not adequately prepared, and I lost 1.5 hrs of valuable work time running after one or another person to ask them to stop doing one thing and to focus on the priorities. And in the end, there was still a lot of dust and incomplete work done throughout.
I have asked 3x for a receipt for this work. I still have not received one. CAESAR complained that it was not a reasonable request and tried to convince me that customers don't often ask for receipts. Suspicions about the legitimacy of business practices aside, CAESAR clearly does not care about customer service or quality. And his lies today in an effort to intimidate me will result in a Better Business Bureau complaint and a communication with Corporate.
There are many other services and individuals in this competitive business who deserve good clients and work and who take pride in the work they do. I made a choke decision to enlist this service without having done my due diligence or gotten a personal referral. Lesson learned. I appreciate that my credit card company will manage the refund from here.
STEER CLEAR! :-) read more
