On Friday, October 5th, Bonny (my wife) contacted Green Clean (GC) of East Dundee, IL in response to advertisement for carpet cleaning at $5.95 per room. Mike Olivia (GC employee) arrived at our condo between 1:00 and 4:00 PM.
Mike laid out to Bonny the work and charges he intended to do, which included much more than the advertised $5.95 per room. At that rate, plus tax, our three rooms plus the hallway should have been cleaned for $25.47. Additional charges included preconditioning ($80), sanitization ($40), carpet protection ($40) and travel ($10). Bonny declined the carpet protection and the sanitization, but when she tried to decline the preconditioning, Mike?s tone of voice and body language changed such that Bonny (being the only other adult in the home) no longer felt safe. She did not feel that she could say no to the preconditioning, and did not feel that she could turn Mike away. Mike made it sound like she had to pay for the preconditioning. Instead of $25.47, the bill would be $121.12. She allowed him to begin his work.
I arrived home from work before Mike finished. I took charge of our children, and Bonny left for work. I asked Mike about the deviation from the advertised price, and mentioned to the idea that it was hard not to feel like he took advantage of my wife.
Mike became visibly upset in response. He stated that he had heard other say that before, and said ?Do you seriously believe we would come out to a home and do a job that only cost $20??
At this point, not knowing what exactly had transpired between him and my wife, I paid him because I wanted him out of my home.
In retrospect I realized that this had been a case of bait and switch, and that Mike had taken advantage of my wife. On Monday, October 8th, at around 9:00 AM I called GC and spoke to Scott, who identified himself as a manager. I explained to him that I felt his company had performed a ?bait and switch? scam on my wife and me, and that we had been treated very poorly. I described Mike?s behavior and asked for at least a partial refund (wanting only to pay for the basic steam clean that we had originally wanted.
Scott interrupted me twice. The second time was to tell me that he needed to find our contract and would call me back. I asked when I would hear from him, and he said he would get back to me by 10:00 AM.
At 10 AM he had not called, so I called him. He said the person with access to the room the contract was in does not come in until 11:00, and that he had to wait until then. I told him I would like to resolve the issue by noon, and he said that would not be a problem.
Scott called me back before 11:00 AM. He asked me to explain the situation again, and I did. Scott said that the advertisement clearly stated that we would be required to pay for preconditioning as well. I disputed that claim, seeing that the fine print about required preconditioning was not near the $5.95 per room balloon on the ad, and that it also did not explain that such a requirement would be at additional cost beyond the advertised price. Scott pointed out another fine-print area (an ?Also Available? section) that detailed the preconditioning pricing.
I stated that I did not believe that the additional cost was clear. I also told Scott again that Bonny did not feel safe saying no to the preconditioning or turning Mike away. Scott stated that that Because Bonny had declined some treatments and not the preconditioning, that he did not see evidence that Bonny did not feel safe. I also told him about Mike?s comment ?Do you seriously believe we would come out to a home and do a job that only cost $20?? and that Bonny did not feel that she could get back to the $5.95 per room advertised price. Scott stated that GC performs services for the basic steam clean price all the time.
I stated that I thought GC owed us a refund. Scott stated that he does not see the evidence for a necessary refund, and that he would refund no part of the $121.12 payment. I said that I was sorry to hear that and that if that was the case that I would dispute the charge on my credit card. He said that disputing the charge would do nothing for me. We ended the call.
Upon ending the call, I opened a dispute claim with my credit card company. I will not do business with Green Clean again.