To demand a refund from ‘fantastic’ cleaners?

[Burntoutboobout]

We had to move out of our house, couldn’t delay until after lockdown as new tenant was moving in. Our new house is delayed so we’re currently crammed in a small bedroom with a toddler who doesn’t sleep so not sure if IABU!

We used fantastic services to move our stuff into storage and to do our end of tenancy clean. Initially the price was £320 for the moving and £193 for the clean. For us it was unbelievably expensive but we struggled to find anyone due to lock down and had to be out.

The movers were booked for 5 hours but we were told we would be refunded for any time not used. The move was finished in less than 3 and a half hours. The guys who did the move were great although didn’t speak English so it was at times difficult to communicate with them and was hard to maintain social distancing at points. Really can’t fault them though.

They still charged us for the full five hours, I contacted them and they took ages to get back to me, eventually stating that the movers had put it through as the full five hours but they would credit our account for 1 hour. I requested a refund instead as it’s highly unlikely we will ever use them following the disaster that was the end of tenancy clean.

So the clean was booked in for 9am. Received a call at 10:30am saying ALL of the cleaners (team of 3 I think?) have had a family emergency and can’t do the clean but they can send a alternative team at 1:30. This is fine, albeit super annoying because they let us know an hour and a half after they had been supposed to start. We are currently over an hour away so we’re timing a visit back to check once they had finished.

So the team arrived at 1:30 supposedly (we weren’t attending). Next thing I know, I receive an extra 25% charge of £45 due to the ‘condition of the property. They charged this to my OH card without even checking with us.

I know what you’ll think, the place must have been an absolute shit hole. It completely wasn’t! Zero furniture in there, no curtains, no carpets and it’s barely more than 400sqft. A really tiny 2 bedroom basement apartment with no garden. When I questioned this charge they sent through photos which included hard water marks on the shower door, specks of coffee powder on the kitchen floor, a picture of the bathroom sink which didn’t even look dirty (?) and peeling paint in the bedroom

They said the additional charge was for the extra time and equipment needed to clean, and the photos were proof. I asked them sarcastically if they had repainted the wall, the customer services rep said “no that’s not a part of the service”, so why take a picture and send it through?! How did a small area of peeling paint (that was caused by a flood prior to us even moving in) increase the time needed to clean? All the other stuff imo is regular cleaning stuff? I may be wrong but it felt like they wanted to go into an already sparkling house to clean and earn almost 200£.

So the clean was supposed to be 5 hours, they left in 4 hours according to the tracker on the website. We went and checked it and the house was so dirty. None of the floors had been swept/hoovered/mopped, the coffee specks they had sent through on the photos were still there! The entrance way hadn’t been cleaned, the living room was still covered in dust etc. It was awful. Too late to find anyone else as the new tenant moved in the very next day. We ended up being charged almost £200 out of our deposit for another clean by our ex LL.

Have spoken to fantastic services and they offered us a £15 credit on our account for future bookings and stated the cleaners simply ‘ran out of time’, despite them apparently leaving an hour earlier and charging £45 for extra time?

Honestly with everything going on atm I cannot believe they would take advantage of people like this. The apartment was NOT filthy. Dusty, yes but no where near the meth den they’d have us believe. We have literally 70£ to do us until one of OH invoices are paid (self employed) or we get the rest of our deposit back (who knows how long that will take 😔)

I know there’s much bigger things going on atm I’m just so fed up of not seeing my mum and trapped in a tiny room and this has just added to it. Please please please in future AVOID this company like the plague.

Sorry for how long this is 🙈 wow it was cathartic to get it all out though!

Tweet and Fb them, and share with them the succinct post you will share about them on your local fb group, and any review website you can find.

I had a rubbish cleaning experience too before I rented my flat out. More that they were rubbish rather than your experience. However I complained to them and their resolution was for me to pay them to come and clean again

I politely declined and gave them a shit review online. Within about 1/2 an hour I had an offer of a full refund if I took my review down.

I unfortunately also had a very poor experience with them (including dirty wipes left in my baby's cot) and found them highly reticent to give any kind of refund. I agree with the poster above to use social media. Good luck! X

Did you take pictures when you went back?

To be fair if it wasn't dirty why would you not just have done it yourself?

For whatever reason, she paid someone to do it, and this didn't happen. Doesn't matter why she didn't do it.

Haven’t got twitter but may need to create one just for this!

We did take pictures and sent this to them, they responded of their offer of £15 credit 😅

We paid someone because we don’t drive and elderly MIL would have had to keep ferrying me around which I didn’t want to do, also I thought it was be less stressful to let someone else do it to a professional standard to avoid losing money from our deposit ..oh wait

The cleaning and moving company are the same, no? I’m confused about two lots of 5 hours. If so, is the moving company trying to claw back the money they saved?

I would be contacting your credit card company for the £45 and asking them what to do about the clean? You have photos from them of things they said were rectified and you have photos clearly that they weren’t. Plus a £200 bill from your agent.

I would ask your former agent for a breakdown of the cleaning services to support your claim and make clear the £15 refund is unacceptable as a solution.

Did you just agree to pay the £200 to your former agent?

Cheeky sods.

Social media reviews and then small claims for a refund! Won’t cost much and is really easy.

Does anyone know the laws surrounded taking more payment than they should have?

It’s difficult to ask the card company because they took the payment in one bulk if that makes sense. So they were supposed to take the £193 and took £238 but without any permission from us to increase the price. If they had phoned and said that I would have refused most definitely!

The movers and cleaners are apart of the same company ‘fantastic cleaners’ and ‘fantastic movers’ all come under the company name ‘fantastic services’, sorry confusing I know! Both bookings were for 5 hours, though the movers were pay per hour and the end of tenancy clean comes as a standard 5 hr slot. Another reason we went with them was their 72hr guarantee but by the time they had responded to our email (cannot get through on the phones at all!) the new tenant had moved in and ex LL had alternative cleaners in. No idea of the company he used, I’d be seething if it turned out to be them again!

LL did not reach out to confirm the clean it was only after I contacted him to see if everything was ok as we hadn’t heard a peep from anybody regarding deposit etc. He told me he hasn’t had the checkout report from the agents yet so he had gone ahead and booked it. It’s annoying because we supplied the checkout guy with the cleaners invoice to prove it but obviously our LL didn’t receive the report so didn’t know.

Small claims and check with your credit card company. Did you pay for the cleaning on cc or just deposit? Ring them and explain the service wasn't provided ask for a charge back.

Two issues, first the shit cleaning. My take is they have tried to claw the £45 back and not bothered to do a good job.

Second issue is the additional bill. I’m a landlord. The inventory takes time to be collated. If feedback was needed urgently, the landlord should have been present at the exit checkout or contacted the agent. Not gone rogue and booking cleaners and especially without contacting you.

Basically they spent £200 without you agreeing to pay the bill. They cannot just do this and expect it to be deducted from your deposit. This isn’t the way renting works. There is always a void period between tenancies to allow remedial work and cleaning. It sounds like the landlord didn’t want void days receiving no rent. In this instance, idk if you can be forced to pay. I would never do this.

Do you have a copy of the checkout report? Have you spoken to the agent and are they telling you that they want to deduct £200?

I use them regularly for cleaning, I wouldn’t say they’re amazing they’re okay and charge me £13 an hour for minimum 2 hours.

No idea about the cleaners, but I would think you can easily contest the landlord keeping £200 of your deposit for cleaning when you can prove you have a receipt from a cleaning company, and also the time frame involved and the fact the landlord was not present at check out.

Just talk to the deposit people who hold deposits for landlords, you should have paperwork that tells you which one it is.

I've used Fantastic Services a lot. The quality is a bit hit and miss, I wouldn't use them unsupervised but they are kind of like the Deliveroo of cleaning services, they are available at short notice when you need the convenience.

If you booked an end of tenancy clean, I believe it is guaranteed so if you don't get your deposit back they should refund you (that could be wrong but it used to be correct as I booked them to do that for a friend a few years ago). I would do a charge back and make a separate payment for removal team for 3.5 hours after you have had the refund.

As for your landlord, have they provided receipts for the cost of cleaning to rectify the issues? They can't charge you any more than it cost them, certainly not for a full clean if it had already been cleaned with a just a few issues. Also, he shouldn't have booked it before getting the move out report. If you went to the TDS scheme, they would probably find in your favour as you paid for a guaranteed service, the landlord booked a clean without knowing whether it needed cleaning and the landlord invalidated the guarantee by getting it cleaned by someone else.

I would write to the landlord to say that you paid for a professional end of tenancy clean, provided the receipts to the letting agent when the move out report was done, as required by your contract. If the landlord was unhappy with the service, he should have used the guarantee to have the place cleaned again at no cost to you, he shouldn't have booked a different cleaner without checking the move out report, and he cannot make any deductions for cleaning as you have fulfilled the contract terms.

So nothings been taken out of the deposit yet, as the estate agents haven’t actually released anything/ sent the landlord the check out report even now! He just told me the price so I knew how much would be coming off so that’s interesting that he would have to have cleared it with me first! I will dispute it because we did have the 72hr guarantee so we shouldn’t have to pay twice at least, even though I hate that they’ve gotten away with lazy and shoddy work. I will get OH to speak to the back about doing a charge back, will they do it automatically or do we provide proof?

I was also a bit at LL moving someone in literally the next day as he lives far away and would have defo not had a chance to check the place, plus it was in dire need of fixing up. Dodgy oven, dodgy washing machine, damp everywhere! Just problems that couldn’t be solved with an amazing clean but I had hoped the new tenant would have at least had a clean house she probably thinks we just don’t give a shit and hadn’t bothered to clean properly!

Idk about the credit card. I used it perhaps 20 years ago with damaged furniture And the bank was brilliant at the time. They took me through what I had to do so I would just call. Google credit card chargeback.

The agent had 10 days to return your deposit btw. I take it was in a deposit scheme. Your ll sounds like an amateur at best, probably a charlatan. You’ll definitely need copies of the invoice.

As the ll went rogue with the cleaning, I would contact the citizens advice bureau to get advice on whether you can be charged the full amount. If you refuse, it will go to the deposit scheme service to be reviewed but that should happen relatively fast.

£200 is ludicrous. I say this as a former landlord. Challenge it. Demand an inspection report and invoice/ quote for cleaning services. Also,demand a full refund for the cleaning that was not done. Which? have some free letters to do this (under consumer rights section, goods and services). If they do not refund you, raise a chargeback on your credit/ debit card.

Fantastic services are shit. I used them once to pack up my flat when moving. They stole a money tin with over £200 in it!

I was offered the £15 credit or a food hamper as compensation

Can I ask if you used their team including equipment / products etc? They tend to be their own staff who are very complacent and do as little as possible, I've had the same. If u pick with no equipment / products its farmed out to others who are keen to make a good impression and are tabulous. Less9n learned!

They ripped me off doing my garden, intimidated me and were awful. I would never use them again.