Having a dispute with a trader, shall I pay in full amount before making complaint?

Chang · 11 Sep 2020

It's a house cleaning service trader. I paid half of the money when they started to clean my new empty house this afternoon, and was to pay the rest when it was finished. I do not live there and had to do some work elsewhere so I left them doing their job. After about two hours they messaged me they had finished. I went to check while they'd left. It turned out the house was not reasonably clean for example the inner side of the front door, toilet, walls were still dirty. I messaged them asking them to put it right but they simply refused and threatened to "take the next step" if I don't pay the rest half by today.
My question is, shall I pay them now and report to trading standard later?
Cheers.

KenGMac · 11 Sep 2020

Chang, good evening.

Can I suggest you ask for a face to face meeting with the "owner" of this firm at your property. Do not go alone??? get witnesses

That way you can point out the areas where you are unhappy with and see what the Contractor has to say.

As an aside, be prepared arm yourself with cleaning fluid and disposable cloths to prove the areas of concern are indeed below standard, do not clean of the areas yourself now, do some small test areas to prove to yourself the areas are not clean.

Ken.

Chang · 11 Sep 2020

KenGMac said:
Chang, good evening.

Can I suggest you ask for a face to face meeting with the "owner" of this firm at your property. Do not go alone??? get witnesses

That way you can point out the areas where you are unhappy with and see what the Contractor has to say.

As an aside, be prepared arm yourself with cleaning fluid and disposable cloths to prove the areas of concern are indeed below standard, do not clean of the areas yourself now, do some small test areas to prove to yourself the areas are not clean.

Ken.

Good evening Ken.
We took pictures and video clips showing the problems and sent to them. in some cases the surface dirt/dust could be removed with finger tip. Still, they refused to come back. Having a face to face meeting seems not an option to these people.

KenGMac · 11 Sep 2020

Can I suggest that you find out if this Company is a member of some accredited body? if so send them the clips you have.

A call to "Trading Standards" seems to be next best move? possibly send then an e mail including the clips and any e mails that you have?

Try the odd ball move?? OK I do not "do Facebook" how about starting a conversation on this Companies Facebook page, if they have one??? and severe adverse comments + Vid clips can at times scare the crap out of the Owner of the Facebook page, they do not like adverse comments, especially if backed up by Vid evidence??

Ken

Lower · 11 Sep 2020

Chang said:
Good evening Ken.
We took pictures and video clips showing the problems and sent to them. in some cases the surface dirt/dust could be removed with finger tip. Still, they refused to come back. Having a face to face meeting seems not an option to these people.

Cut your losses, don’t pay any more, get another company to finish the work.

big-all · 12 Sep 2020

my thoughts
what speck was in your contract ??
cleaning /clearing are two different things now not saying its relevant but could confusion along those line have happened ??
best express what you expected and for him to say what he thought he had to do if no definitive contract was sorted
you may both be very peed off and be annoyed but both be wrong or both be right as you had no meeting off the minds as judge judy would say

Chang · 12 Sep 2020

big-all said:
my thoughts
what speck was in your contract ??
cleaning /clearing are two different things now not saying its relevant but could confusion along those line have happened ??
best express what you expected and for him to say what he thought he had to do if no definitive contract was sorted
you may both be very peed off and be annoyed but both be wrong or both be right as you had no meeting off the minds as judge judy would say

It was so called"end of tenancy cleaning" as agreed.

Chang · 12 Sep 2020

KenGMac said:
Can I suggest that you find out if this Company is a member of some accredited body? if so send them the clips you have.

A call to "Trading Standards" seems to be next best move? possibly send then an e mail including the clips and any e mails that you have?

Try the odd ball move?? OK I do not "do Facebook" how about starting a conversation on this Companies Facebook page, if they have one??? and severe adverse comments + Vid clips can at times scare the crap out of the Owner of the Facebook page, they do not like adverse comments, especially if backed up by Vid evidence??

Ken

Hi Ken,
My wife posted the pictures on a local facebook group and got 200+ replies. The majority including many cleaners commented that it was totally unacceptable as a "end of tenancy cleaning". My wife wrote an formal email last night to the cleaner who's supposed to be the owner of the cleaning company, and she replied this morning saying she'd come to go over the problems on Monday after work. No aplogies, not even a single word of sorry. It's not an option for us to wait until Monday as the house was to be viewed today, more importantly, she refused to rectify the issue and threatened us yesterday so we cannot allow her to enter the house again. No more money will be paid, and we'll report them to the trading standard.

Having a dispute with a trader, shall I pay in full amount before making complaint?

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