Cleaner Damaged My Hardwood

[anarchy]

I recently moved to Toronto and hired a new cleaning company that seemed to have good reviews on Google. Used them 3 times with the cleaning lady and she did a pretty good job.

However, they sent a different cleaning lady yesterday and when I got home, I realized there are a few deep gouges in my hardwood floors. Not to mention the job was extremely poor as there was dirt and dust everywhere - I paid for 3 hours but she seriously spent maybe 30 minutes cleaning.

I took pictures of everything and finally spoke with the owner today. She said she spoke with the cleaner (who of course denied everything) and it's her word against mine. She basically told me to go pound sand.

Any suggestions on next steps I can take? I'll post photos a bit later today.

[2Legit2Quit]

Did you send the pics to the owner? If so then I'd either try to talk to the owner again or start posting negative reviews for them anywhere and everywhere you can.

[gwill]

How much are the damages ?

[RealJimmyJames]

Small claims court?

[A790]

Originally posted by RealJimmyJames
Small claims court?

Without evidence it'd be a waste of time.

Which cleaning company is it? I'd carefully review their policies to see what they say they'll cover.

[revelations]

It would be tough to articulate guilt without pictures from the place before the event occurred. How can you prove the scratches weren't there previous?

Most typical modern "Hardwood" is notorious for being easily damaged and I will never own a home with it, or not remove it if it does have it.

[anarchy]

Sorry I meant to post sooner but the gf was in town visiting.

No, I didn't send pics to the owner because she didn't want to see them. She just straight up said too bad, my cleaner said she didn't do it.

I agree - it's impossible for me to prove the cleaner did it. That's why I'm stuck - I doubt I can reclaim any sort of damages but I'm pissed at the principle of them getting away with it. I trust my cleaners to not do any damage and not steal anything but I guess it's part of dealing with that sort of business. I just trusted the company to uphold their end of the bargain but that doesn't look like they're going to be accountable.

I haven't looked into how much damages are yet, I'll try to post some pictures later today if I can.

I plan on leaving some bad reviews where I can but not sure what else I can do.

[BavarianBeast]

blackmail the cleaning company

[teggypimp95]

I would tell the owner again she has one more chance to make things right ( send the pictures this time). Let her know that if it is not taken care of, they will find negative reviews all over the internet including the story, pictures and the emails corresponding back and forth.

I had to do this with feliks auto body and it hurt the business so bad they tried to sue me. My beyond review is still second hit on google if you type in feliks auto body

It would cost them alot less to have someone touch up your floors vs the amount of business they will lose.

Just my 2 cents.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Get an IP camera or two for anytime people you don't know are in your house when you aren't home. I caught contractors doing all kinds of shit in my place, everything from carelessly damaging my place to pretending to do work they didn't do, verbally discussing their plan in detail and how "I'll never find out" and then billing me for it. Had it not been for the camera I would have literally been out thousands of dollars. Just don't put the cameras in the bathroom lol.

It won't help you this time unless you can prove the scratches weren't there beforehand (pretty hard to do for a floor), but it will probably pay for itself one day. The average person doesn't care about other people's property (just look at how rental equipment and properties are so often treated, for example).

Everyone else pretty much summed up your current options, but if you're going to hire cleaners to be there when you aren't home, I'd get a couple cheap IP cameras.