TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SPOTLESS, INC

 

 Contact Hours

 

Our Office Hours:

8:30 AM -5 PM

Fridays: 8:30 AM – 12 PM

Voicemail is available 24 hours, 7 days a week (if there is an emergency we will respond as soon as we can, including weekends)

 

Our House Cleaning Hours

: 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

• Saturdays: There is a $50 surcharge and is based on availability
• Sundays: There is a $50 surcharge and is based on availability

 Voicemail will be available whenever we are not available to immediately answer your call. Your call will be returned as soon as possible. If we are needed urgently, and it’s the weekend, email is the best method of contacting us. Phone calls may go to voicemail, so please leave a message and expect to receive a return call the following business day, or sooner depending on the nature of the call. 

1. Services Provided

Our services are published on our website: https://allspotless4u.com. Please look for the tab – SERVICES – for details regarding our services.  The details are customizable. If you would like to make changes, just contact the office before your appointment.   Please note that when you click on a specific area of a home,  a drop down appears, which is the detailed list. To compare services visit : https://allspotless4u.com/comparing-services/

Your price is based on the your square feet of your home and that of a home in need of average cleaning. If the  actual time needed to clean your home differs significantly more than the estimate given to you, an adjustment of the price may be necessary.  We will need to extend our time and charge you at an hourly rate,  or we can clean only agreed upon areas of your home, so that we can finish within the specified time of the booking. We will inform you before any changes are made.

If you receive recurring cleaning service and the conditions of your home change (for example additional pets or people living in your home) a service fee revision may be necessary.

Laundry Service may be provided if requested, and there will be an additional charge.

We will do dishes and stack them on the counter or place them in the dish washer if the the workers are able to do this within their specified time with you.

We expect your home to be de-cluttered before the team or service provider arrives. Be sure to remove all items on counters ( in bathrooms/5 small appliances may remain on the kitchen counters). If the cleaning providers must help you organize and clear areas before your cleaning, you will be charged for the additional time involved, or in certain circumstances, you may be refused service and incur a $100 fee. Our rule: it should take no more than 2 minutes of our providers’time to de clutter, before they begin cleaning. Otherwise, you will be charged an hourly fee.

2. Add-on Services

We will be happy to provide you with additional services (i.e. cleaning the inside of the oven/refrigerator/cupboards, cleaning windows, and etc.) However, requests for additional services should be addressed in advance so that we can provide the time and supplies. All add-on services require additional fees.

We are not tile, grout, carpet, stone, flooring, caulking, sealing, paint, plumbing, metal, electrical, or upholstery experts. Our professionals are trained to clean and sanitize. If you need a specialist, we are happy to recommend one.

3. Service Fees

We charge a flat rate. This is based on the average time a worker would need to clean the square feet of the home. We ask that you pick up toys, or other items, before we arrive to clean so that the time spent in your home will be for cleaning purposes only. Time spent on getting an area ready to be cleaned uses up the time allotted for the cleaning of your home. If the condition of the home is more challenging than expected, we may have to expand the time allotted.  If this happens an adjustment to the Service Fee will also be made.

4. Price Increases

Price increases are inevitable. The price of bread, milk, cleaning solutions, and gasoline do not stay the same. They go up. With that in mind, please know that the service providers are deserving of an increase too. Generally, you should expect an increase every other year and it will be in line with the increase in the cost of living. If your last increase was more than 2 years ago, your increase will probably be a little more than that.

If your service fee is currently grandfathered in, your price is much lower than those of newer clients. Therefore, your increases  We are not raise your service fee  to the level of newer clients. It will always be about within the 10% to 15% range of the newer clients.

5. Payments

To hold your place on our schedule, we must have a valid credit card on file. Credit cards are PLACED ON HOLD (for the price of your service) the DAY BEFORE  your service. Credit cards are CHARGED AFTER service is received by you. A copy of the paid invoice is emailed to you immediately after the card is charged.  

6. Cancellation of Appointments

Spotless emails and texts all clients to remind them of upcoming appointments 2 days before the appointment. You may reschedule, add, skip, or cancel any appointment without a penalty. If Spotless is not notified 48- hours OR 2 days before your appointment,  of your cancellation, you will be charged 50% of the service fee. 

If we are unable to gain entry into your home at the scheduled cleaning time (which is called a lockout), you will also be charged 50% of the service fee.  We will wait for you about 15 minutes.

Once we take a reservation, we hold that time slot open for you and turn away other potential clients. When a housecleaner arrives at your home, she must be compensated for her time and for her gas.

7. Recurring House Cleanings

If you are a weekly client and cancel your service two times in a row, without an explanation  we will speak with you to see if your needs have changed and you prefer biweekly service.  If you are a biweekly client and cancel your service two times in a row, we will follow the same procedure as above. This procedure is followed on a case by case basis. We do this because because an unfilled slot means that a worker must adjust their budget.

 

8. Returned Checks

There will be a $35 fee charged for all returned checks. This is in place for the clients who have been with us prior to our “no checks” policy.

9. Tips

Tipping is your token of appreciation for the good service you feel you have received from the service provider; however, tipping is neither required nor expected. If you choose to leave a tip, clearly mark it as a tip or you may always add the tip to the booking form, or when your booking is over you can enter the client portal and add the tip. Calling the office is also a way to add the tip.

10. Equipment and Supplies

The cleaning provider supplies her own cleaning supplies and equipment; however, we do ask our clients to make their vacuum cleaners available for our use. This will eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination. If that is not possible, we will use our own.  We ask that a toilet brush be available in each bathroom to eliminate the possibility of dripping toilet water as we move to each bathroom. Please have a large plastic bag available so that the Housekeepers can easily dispose of the trash in each room throughout your home.  

All cloths used are clean and fresh when the workers begin to work in your home. If you would prefer that we use your supplies and equipment we will be happy to do that.

11. 100% Guarantee

This guarantee is in place for 24 hours after your service.

We want our clients to be consistently pleased with our service, however, we understand that that is not always possible. Therefore, we have put in place procedures that will please our clients and please our service providers.

With that in mind, 1. We do not give refunds. 2. If you are not pleased with the service notify us within twenty-four hours and we will return and fix the error, or omission, with no charge to you. 3.  A time for the worker, or another worker, to return and address the areas of concern must be established or created within 2days or 48 hours of the original appointment. If a mutually agreeable time to return cannot be arranged, we will discount your next service. 

We do not issue refunds.

12. Service Providers

Our record for matching service providers with clients is excellent. However, there may be times when you may feel that your house cleaning needs are not being met and you would like to try another service provider. That is your prerogative and you can make this request as often as you wish. Please be aware, our workers are independent contractors and they can, also, request a change to the homes that they service.

 

13. Arrival Times

We do not give exact arrival times; however, we do give a 1 or 2-hour time frame for arrival.

14.  Breakage/Damages

Every worker is insured and takes great pride in cleaning your home, however, accidents may happen. Our House cleaners are required to inform you and the office immediately if a breakage/or damage takes place. We request the service provider take a picture of the damage, immediately, for her records and for our records. The office will follow up with you, the client and with the service provider. 

We do not move refrigerators to clean behind them or anything else in the home that might scratch floors. We ask clients to move such items if you want those areas cleaned.

15. Items of extreme value (monetary or sentimental) SHOULD BE DUSTED OR CLEANED BY YOU.  This includes the”Whatnots” often located on bookshelves, counters and on display in various locations throughout your home.   Please note that antiques, irreplaceable one of a kind items, or hard to find items are not covered by our breakage and loss policy. We suggest that all such items be moved to a safe location on the day of our cleaning. We cannot be responsible for items that are unstable, or in an unstable environment. All surfaces are assumed to be sealed and ready to be cleaned without causing harm.

16. Safety

For safety reasons, we do not move anything more than 20lbs. If you wish us to clean behind anything heavy, such as a couch or a refrigerator, please move it prior to your service to allow us access to that area.

We use only a one-step ladder. If windows, furniture, or fans must receive service we will do what we can by using a one-step ladder and/or an extension pole.

For the house cleaners’ safety, we expect all firearms in homes to be stored and locked.

If a staff member feels that her personal safety is endangered due to actions by the you, your guests, or  pets on the premises, we always suggest that the cleaning service provider leave the job site immediately.

17. Health

For the workers and for the safety of all clients, please notify us at least 24 hours before your scheduled service, of any infectious diseases occurring in your household.  SPOTLESS, INC reserves the right to cancel and reschedule in such circumstances.

While our nation functions during the COVID pandemic, Spotless practices social distancing. We ask clients to remain in another room while the service provider(s) work. All service providers are required to use a mask at all times while in your home. They are aware that they are to inform the office if they have been in the presence of someone infected, take the test, stay out for 2 weeks and take the test again, before returning to work. The procedure is evolving daily. As the CDC prescriptions change, Spotless, Inc will change their COVID procedures, too.

We do not clean animal feces, human feces, urine, vomit, or other biohazards. This includes feline litter boxes and dog kennels. 

18. Pets

All workers are pet friendly, however, to ensure that the Housekeepers can work without distractions, we request that pets (ex. dogs) be placed in the yard, crate, or separate room.  This request is not meant to cause a hardship. If this is an issue we will discuss the matter with you and devise a mutually satisfying plan. However, most times our Housekeepers can work around the pets, but you know your pet.

19.  Hiring the House Cleaning Service Providers

Each service provider is an independent contractor. They have signed a contract with us. In this contract they have agreed not to work directly with any Spotless, Inc’s client outside of Spotless, unless they no longer work with Spotless and 365 days has  passed, since their departure.  If you request their service, outside of Spotless, they have agreed to direct you to contact the Spotless office. The office will follow up with you and assign that service provider to your home,  if there is room on their schedule.

Spotless invests a lot of money searching for exemplary House Cleaners. For approximately every 12 candidates, only one successfully completes the onboarding process. Therefore, Spotless charges clients a referral fee of $1500 if they want to hire a house cleaning professional to work directly with them. If we find that one of the service providers is working with you outside of Spotless, that worker will no longer receive clients from us, and SPOTLESS, INC. may pursue all legal remedies to collect the referral fee from the client or the worker.

The contract signed annually by each service provider specifies the above information.

20. Termination

Either party (the client or Spotless, Inc) may end this association at any time by giving to the other party oral or written notice. 

21.  Saturday/Sunday House Cleanings

Availability is limited for Saturday house cleanings and Sunday house cleanings. As an incentive, for the workers, we add an additional $41 for each house cleaning appointment. 

22. Price and Time Adjustments

If the condition of your home is worse than anticipated, we will adjust the price or refuse to perform the service. You will be notified by our cleaning professionals or by our management, if they do not have time to complete the cleaning in the time allotted. If a cleaning will exceed the alotted time, you have the option of extending the cleaning time at our hourly rate, or extra add ons will be added to accommodate us for having to exceed the allotted time – which ever is most appropriate.

23. Right to Refuse Service

If our cleaning professional find your home in an extreme condition (i.e., hoarding, extreme neglect, cleaning up after after a large party, strong odor, infection, rotting , infestation, rodents, urine or feces), the cleaning professionals have the right to leave upon arrival and you will be charged $100. Spotless should be made aware of these conditions before the appointment takes place.

24. Photos and Videos

Our housecleaning service providers, generally, take pictures or videos of their completed work, or work they feel may be challenging. Pictures (with no identifying location) will be taken during:  move in/move out housecleaning service,  deep housecleaning service, and one time housecleaning service. The kitchen and master bath are our main areas of concern. Pictures are taken for the office, only and is evidence that the project was completed.  

25. A Final Word

• The service providers, generally, try not to touch computers or televisions. They usually dust around them, and/ or dust their frames.
• Providers  do no polish wood furniture, they only dust. If you would like your furniture polished, please supply the product and the ladies will take care of the furniture. 
• When the trash is removed from the house, it will, generally,  be placed in the garage beside the door leading to the house unless clients request that they place the bags in their trash cans
• Please have a vacuum available for our use. The workers do not carry vacuums into homes because of cross-contamination. If your vacuum is not in good working order, the cleaners will use their vacuums.
• And lastly,  toilet brushes are not brought into homes. Please have a toilet brush in each bathroom so that toilet water is not dripped throughout your home as they travel from bathroom to bathroom.