The Maids Did It.
Mood:
irritated
Topic: Rants
What follows is the love letter I faxed to my cleaning service this morning. Even Matt knows to say "The maids did it" if anything is misplaced in our home, but after today, he's going to have to find a different batch of maids to blame when he can't find Buzz and Woody.To Mega Maid of Huntington Beach:
I write to express what I can only call my dismay at the condition in which my home was left after your employees cleaned it on April 26, 2005 and, to a lesser extent, on April 12, 2005. I chose not to bring the April 12 issues to your attention because they were matters more of inconvenience than of damage, but after yesterday’s cleaning that was no longer the case.
To summarize, I arrived home from work at approximately 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, after your team had cleaned presumably that morning, to find
my house thermostat turned up to its maximum, which is approximately 90 degrees, and my freezer door not fully closed. As a result, the temperature in my home did in fact measure 90 degrees downstairs, where the thermometer/thermostat is located, and I estimate it at 100 degrees upstairs (as you may be aware, heat rises). It took three hours with every window in the house open before the temperature in our home was even bearable, and while I have not yet received the statistics from the Gas Company regarding the expense of heating my home to these temperatures for an entire day, I fully expect that my April gas bill will be doubled as a result. I keep tarantulas and a reptile in my home, and while fortunately they do not appear to have been injured, they cannot be expected to tolerate ambient temperatures such as these. Moreover, several rather expensive cosmetics in my upstairs bedroom vanity area were destroyed by the sustained 100-degree heat.
Furthermore, when we had addressed this problem and began to prepare dinner later in the evening, we went to open the freezer and discovered that the door was already open – it was pushed to and appeared to be closed, but was not. That, in combination with the 90-degree downstairs temperature (and bearing in mind that these conditions had lasted all day until we discovered them), necessitated discarding the majority of the food in our freezer for fear of spoilage. Certainly, all of the ice in the ice trays was completely melted, which indicated to us that nothing in the freezer had been maintained at a safe temperature. I have no idea why your employees would open my freezer, but it was firmly closed at the time we left the house in the morning.
By way of background, at the time of your employees’ last prior visit on April 12, 2005, we arrived home to find our digital cable box unplugged, with the result that the cable box had to be reset and the digital channel guide required several hours to reactivate. Worse, some glass item had apparently been broken on our kitchen floor, and there were several large glass shards remaining on our floor. While we don’t have any valuable glassware stored anywhere in our kitchen, we do have two toddlers and were understandably dismayed to find broken glass where they might walk on it or pick it up. Moreover, there were NO glass items out to be washed that day, so it’s a bit of a mystery to us why there was broken glass in the first place. Certainly, I believe most companies’ policy is for employees to report to the service, and the service to report to the client, when any item in the household is damaged or broken during cleaning. That was not done. Again, these were matters more of inconvenience than of damage, but after yesterday’s disaster, I feel compelled to bring them to your attention.
I suspect that your response would be along the lines that these incidents were accidental, that I can’t prove that any of this was done by your employees or even that it occurred, and so on. However, no one is in my home during the day between the time we leave and the time I arrive home from work. Moreover, I don’t intend to turn this into a civil dispute. I don’t know what change has been made in your staff during April, but these sudden problems are remarkable and disappointing after several years of satisfactory cleaning services.
At this time, I will be seeking the services of another cleaning company and wish to terminate my service effective immediately. I realize that your $75.00 fee for the April 26, 2005 cleaning has not yet been paid, and to be honest, I believe that amount has been more than offset by the perfectly good food and cosmetics we were forced to throw away and by what promises to be a large increase in our Gas Company bill for the expense of heating and maintaining our home at 90-100 degree temperatures for an entire day.
Please return the two keys to my home which are in your possession to me, by mail, within 24 hours of receipt of this letter. Responses, if any, regarding this matter should be made in writing, as no telephone calls will be accepted.
Regretfully,
/s/
Posted by Gretchen
at 9:10 AM PDT