I had a terrible experience with a cleaning company. What are my options without breaking the law? legaladvice

Tl;dr; An awful house cleaning company in Pennsylvania missed appointments, broke promises, and then BARELY cleaned the house after making sure I couldn't be there to ensure proper work was done, and I'm stuck with paying. What can I do?

Full story:

I had a line in my lease agreement that when I moved out, I had to pay for a professional cleaning because I negotiated a change in the pet policy. The landlord is fantastic and understanding throughout the ordeal, he's not the issue.

I hired this company based on the price and the reviews on Yelp. They missed my appointment which was made for the day before we left to move out of state, then we called and rescheduled, but they missed that appointment as well so they had to come while we weren't there, because we had already moved out. We rescheduled a third appointment, asked if they did the inside of the fridge (they did), and arranged for before and after photos to be taken since I wouldn't be present. These photos never were taken.

Then they forgot how many work hours I scheduled in the original appointment booking, and texted after they went over the agreed on hours. I am not being charged for the additional hours, fortunately.

Then the owner asked me how I'd like to pay, and I told him I'd mail a check once my landlord reported that the work was done. This was accepted. I sent out this message to the cleaner to complain about my experience, which details issues I glossed over:

So to review my experience with your company:

1. You didn't return my first voicemail.
2. It took 4 days to reach someone by phone.
3. You missed our appointment Monday.
4. You missed the rescheduled Tuesday appointment without a call or text.
5. You forgot how many hours I had requested.
6. You didn't contact me to clear up the hours you forgot until after you had begun work.
7. You didn't take pictures as you had said you would since I wouldn't be there to see your work.
8. You didn't reply to my request for the photos for 2 days, and I had to ask again.

The owner apologized and then asked again for payment.

Then I asked my landlord if the work was done well, and this is our conversation:

Hey [landlord's name]. Wondering if you've been through the place since the cleaning was done?

Yes several times. To be frank they did a pretty bad job. But im not worried about it. U guys were great tenants. As soon as the 1st rolls around and technically the lease is over ill mail out the deposit.

Could I trouble you to give me some specifics about their work that I can report back to them when I complain?

Yup. Baseboard really wasn't hit, there was still pet dander on floor and it looks like there was tracks from salt and shoes, i expected a better cleaning in the bathrooms especially the grout and caulking areas really weren't touched as they tend to be the most dirty, laundry room didn't look like it was hit. I will say the refrigerator was nicely done and the kitchen. Oh and front and back door they didn't hit the glass.

Based on this assessment, they barely cleaned anything. The house was barren of all items, they only really had to clean the floors and bathrooms, and barely did so. They cleaned the fridge that I specifically asked about, and just did a quick wipe and left after tracking in additional salt from the roads.

So now I'm stuck owing payment to a company that was awful to work with, and did the BARE minimum to say they came in and cleaned.

What are my options, besides just paying them full price and being done with it? Needless to say, I'm rather angry that they can get away with this, especially since it was their fault that they were able to do the work while I couldn't supervise or check the work. I'm especially upset because I can't say they didn't do the work at all, because they clearly did show up and make an attempt.

Submitted January 29, 2018 at 12:17AM by tombolger http://ift.tt/2BzKCkL legaladvice