HandyGirl

My husband and I hired this company last month. It was the single worst experience I've ever had with a small business in my life. The woman did a good job but gave TERRIBLE customer service. It's a mother/daughter team, and the mother owns the biz and the daughter works for her. The daughter was flaky from the start - late, told me I could get a discount if I bought a package (so I did) and then when she was supposed to come another time for hours we'd paid up front for, she called to say she was sick and could only come for two hours. We told her not to come (as we don't want to make someone work when they're sick, and we didn't want to GET sick.) The second time she was supposed to come she called to say her car was in the shop. So - since I'd blocked off the time in my very busy work schedule, I completed the job without her and asked for a refund. I was then told they don't give refunds, only credits. She promised to speak to "the company" (i.e., her mother) and that she'd likely be able to work something out and would let me know by the end of the week. The end of the week came and went. I left town and came home expecting the refund in the mail. There was no news. I called and left her a message and email and she never bothered to reply. So then I called and emailed Cindy, the mother, and she said, "Let me find out from Heather what happened." I explained that their policies had not been explained to me, that I never agreed to the terms and wouldn't have paid up front if they'd been explained, that I was neven given a work order, that nothing was done in writing, and that the services hadn't been rendered so I wanted my money back. She got back to me the next day to say that Heather claimed we cancelled on her, that all of Heather's dealings had been with my husband - that she'd given him the work order and that he'd paid the check., and again insisted they do not give refunds. My husband DID NOT write her the check, and was issued NO work order. I then said I'd contact Yelp, Angie's List, etc. to let the public know about this, to which Cindy replied that "she could tell all she needed to know about me from my email (i.e. that I'm a bad person!) and that she'd issue a refund but only to protect their reputation. She then went on to list the WRONG amount of the check I'd given them (claiming it was for over $30 less than it was), TOO MANY hours that Heather claimed she'd been here (she'd been here for three hours and was claiming almost five and didn't mention that she'd been over 15 minutes late), and offered a discount far below what we were entitled. I then corrected her incorrect math and asked for the refund to be remitted within a week. It's now been over a week and they not only have not replied, they've kept my money. I feel robbed and treated terribly. The words "the customer is always right" are clearly NOT in their business handbook. I'm hurt and disappointed and would take them to small claims court except it's not worth my time as I've already lost many productive hours just trying to work this out with them. If you must hire them, DO NO prepay, get everything in writing, and watch your back. They owe me over $400.