So this might be a little different than what you would expect from a company. We are actually going to expose a complaint we had from a customer's daughter. Once again we are so confident of our customer service that we are willing to show you what happens when we do get a complaint. Even if it is only one of a handful every year. We're also including audio from the Tom Martino show.

A little background, on average we clean 30 customers carpets per week. Now the law of averages pretty much determine we will get a complaint. In fact we think if we didn't get atleast a couple complaints a year either we're not paying attention to our customers or we're perfect. Since we know we're not perfect and mistakes happen then what we need to do is make sure every complaint is taken care of in a timely fashion, and hopefully to our customers satisfaction.

Now we will get into the story. On 8/2/07 we cleaned carpets for one of our customers who we have cleaned for many times over the last 13 years. Upon arrival she asked our technician if he could also clean a sofa and 2 chairs. Normally this cleaning would have been $264.85 (the price that we list on our price sheet that all technicians carry with them). Our technician gave this customer a small discount to $240.00 (discount of $24.85 which is roughly 10%) since we have cleaned for her before and appreciate her business. Her original ticket was for cleaning 3 rooms and a hall for $129.95 which was discounted from our list price of $204.95 or a discount of $75 (roughly a 35% discount). Upon completing our maintianence inspection our technician suggested since it had been over 3 years since her last carpet cleaning that she treat her carpet with our germicide treatment. Which we list at $39.95 per 200 sq ft application (also on our price list). The treated area was 600 sq ft and the normal list price should have been $119.85 but again since she is one of our valued patrons our technician gave her a discount and the germicide treatment was only $80.00 (roughly a 30% discount). Additionally the soil retardent was also re-applied to 400 sq ft of carpet at $.15 per sq ft the list price of the soil retardent for a $60.00 additional charge (no discount was given for that item). To break it down here is what she paid for the cleaning and what we would normally charge with no discounts.

List Price

• 3 rooms and a hall... $204.95
• Sofa................. $114.95
• 2 Chairs............. $149.90
• Germicide Treatments. $119.85
• Soil Retardent.......  $60.00
• Total................ $649.65

Price She paid

• 3 rooms and a hall... $129.95
• Sofa................. $100.00
• 2 Chairs............. $140.00
• Germicide Treatments.  $80.00
• Soil Retardent.......  $60.00
• Total................ $509.95

Total discounts given $139.70 or roughly 20% of the list price. Click here to see the actual work order ticket in pdf format

The customer we actually cleaned for had absolutely no problem with our price. She did need to have her daughter come over and write a check for the service. The daughter was upset because we provided extra services for her mother. Unfortunately our technician had no idea that the daughter was paying for the service or that anyone other than the mother who scheduled for us to provide the service and requested the additional services needed to be contacted. Rightfully we were paid for the service and our technician went on to his next job. The office was advised of the situation and prepared to help the technician explain any misunderstanding to the daughter in the event she felt we needed to explain any actions our business took during the service. We were not contacted that day and we scheduled one of our quality control employees to make a follow-up call the next day to see if there was anything we could do to help.

The following day before the quality control agent could get a chance to make that phone call the daughter called our office. She was upset that our technician had taken the time to go over any additional services he felt as a professional should be addressed during the cleaning. As a sidebar we would like to point out we take the time with every customer to do a professional audit of there carpet and suggest any additional services we feel are necessary at the time of cleaning. At no time are you required, obligated, or forced to act on those suggestions. As professionals we feel it is our duty to explain every potential problem you may have with your carpets. In contrast it would be like taking your car to a mechanic and having him not tell you about other parts of your car that may not be mechanically sound, or a doctor not telling you about another health issue because it was not on his list of things to fix. If you choose not to take our advice that is fine, your quoted price does not change and we will perform the service as quoted.

Since the mother did take our technicians advise and also asked for additional services (sofa and 2 chairs) the technician is obligated to charge for the additional services he provided. The prices were disclosed to her prior to the service being done. We do not perform a service and then disclose a price, that is unethical no matter who or what service you provide. The daughter felt that since her mother is 85 years old that we took advantage of her and should not have treated her the same as every single other customer we provide service for.

During the phone conversation the daughter did not give our quality control agent a chance to explain our policies, or even offer a chance to find a resolution that was satisfactory. Any time the agent went to speak she just repeated that we were taking advantage of her mother and we should be ashamed. Prior to the end of the phone conversation she expressed the fact that she would file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Our quality control agent asked her if she would like our company profile account number so she could file the complaint easily with the BBB at which time she declined and said she knew how to get the complaint filed.

As many of you out there, we enjoy listening to the radio in the office during working hours, and one of our favorite things to listen to is Tom Martino. Our quality control agent was somewhat surprised to hear the daughter live on Tom Martino less than 10 minutes after speaking with her on the phone. The following is audio of her complaint on the show.


This clip is aproximately 4 minutes long. Please keep in mind at this point they had not spoke with us.

The Tom Martino Show then got ahold of one of their referral companies Steam Pro and spoke with Steve Hursh. At this point we would like to thank Steve for his professionalism in the matter. Yes his prices might be less than ours, and before this we were not familiar with their company, but we feel like they are a very professional company and anyone looking for steam cleaning services we gladly would like you to consider their services.


This clip is approximately 1 minute long. Still at this point we had not made contact with the show.

Of course when it rains it pours and our last big problem came out of the wood work. Just in the honesty of being throrough we are including a clip of a person who messaged the Tom Martino show to complain about us. Make a note too that this was the only other complaint that the show received about us and Ken addresses this in his response at the end.


This clip is approximately 1 minute long. Still we had not made contact with the show.

Finally our response on the show. The owner of the Cleanica himself (Ken), called and spoke with the show. We think the audio speaks for itself and the level of professionalism we maintain.


This clip is approximately 8 minutes long.

We hope everyone understands this is not normal for us to have any problem go to this extreme. It caught us a little off guard but we're happy to share with future customers how we handled this problem. Unfortunately we were never able to even offer the daughter a resolution. She never even gave us the chance to offer a solution. Also we have yet to hear a word from the actual customer who we provided the service too. We have honored the daughter's request to not contact the mother about this matter. Even though the mother was the customer we are honoring the daughters request based on our professionalism. We hate to lose a great customer over something that could have easily been resolved.