OLIVERI'S CLEANING SERVICES

Upon initial contact with Mark Oliveri, the owner of the company, I was told that he and his wife do most of the cleaning and if they do use someone to help, they inspect the work. On day 1 the owner dropped off one worker who had basic cleaning supplies but no ladder, step stool, etc. At this time he told me that he needed 1/2 the agreed upon amount and that I could pay the rest when the work was completed. At the end of day one the carpets were vacuumed, no other progress noted. Day 2, the owner showed up and steamed the carpets (55 minutes for the entire house). At 3PM the worker was sponge mopping the kitchen floor. The bathrooms were cleaned and the counter tops were clean. She told me that she had run out of time today and that she was going to return to finish the stove top but she didn't want the owner to know that she was doing so. She also asked that I not tell the owner that she had been there past 3 PM because he would charge more. She asked if I was satisfied with the bathrooms and I said I was. I gave her the check for the balance and told her not to return, that I would finish the stove top (at that point I assumed that was all that needed finished). She called the next day and said she would be back the following AM to finish the stove. The next day she worked on the stove top for about an hour (including smoke break and talking) and then said she could not get it clean. She told me not to let the owner that she had come back because he would be mad and would want to charge me extra. She then told me that she did not get paid much and that she did many extras that the owner would not approve of. She dropped many hints to get extra money from me. I did not feel that I needed to tip her since I did not ask her to come back to finish and I didn't feel comfortable with the whole "don't let him know" scenario. I told her I would finish the stove myself. While she was there, I showed her that she had overheated her coffee in the microwave when she had worked previously and the mess was still there. After she left I realized that the lower cabinets in the kitchen were dirty and the front of the dishwasher had the same dirt marks as before the cleaning. I was willing to overlook this and cleaned it myself. I then noticed that the 3 globe light fixture in the entry hall still had cob webs on it. Then I started looking closer throughout the house. The underside of the range hood hadn't been touched nor had the underside of the oven handle. None of the closet shelves had been wiped down. The kitchen floor was still dirty - apparently the same dirty water was used for the entire floor. A paint rag laying on the floor in one of the bedrooms had been steam cleaned around. Carpet edges by baseboards were not steamed. None of the light fixtures had been cleaned, except for the blades of the ceiling fans which had been dusted. Outlets and light switches had not been wiped down. I left a message for Mr Oliveri stating that I would like to talk to him. He left me a message the next day that if I had any questions or needed anything to call him. I attempted to call him again and left a message that some of the work wasn't up to what I was sure were his standards and to call me so we could resolve this. No response. 2 more calls over the next 4 days with no response. My daughter then called him 3 times over a one week period and left messages stating that she was sure he would like to make things right. Today he picked up as my daughter was leaving another message. He was rude and defensive. Stated he was tired of her calling and that was why he answered today. He stated that the checks were already cashed and that ended the transaction. When my daughter pressed the issue, he said that I told his worker that I was satisfied (she asked if the bathrooms looked good and I said yes) and that I couldn't change my mind. He then told her that her house was filthy and was one of the filthiest places he had seen. (House was completely empty. Absolutely no trash, etc. Surfaces were dirty from 6 years of neglect by a renter.) She told him that was why we contracted to have the house deep cleaned and also why he said that he was going to charge us more than he usually charged. He had a very unprofessional demeanor during this conversation. At one point he was screaming - not yelling - screaming. He later apologized for this and to his credit, he did not use profanity during the conversation. He also said that I had his worker come back for 3 1/2 hours that he had not charged for. When I initially hired him, nothing was said about the number of hours the job would take. I'm not sure what was going on with the worker insisting on coming back "on her own time" and "don't tell the owner I was here" then the owner saying that I "had her come back." Bait and switch?? He was not interested in the specifics of our dissatisfaction with the work, just kept repeating that I had said I was satisfied and couldn't change my mind. He was not willing to come back to finish the job and not willing to negotiate any refund. I feel that we paid $140 for a steam cleaning that I could have done as well (maybe better because of attention to detail) with a Rug doctor rental unit and $275 to basically have 2 bathrooms cleaned since little else was done. When Mr Oliveri initially told me that he was charging more than his usual due to the house being dirty, I was agreeable because I assumed this meant extra cleaning would be done. That was not the case.