Kiwi Carpet Cleaning / Kiwi Services

I waited for someone from the company Kiwi Carpet Cleaning to come to my house and clean the carpet. We agreed that someone would come today between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. I waited and no one showed up or even called about the lateness. I was shocked and called them, but the rep told in calm voice that they were too busy and no one would show up. I don’t recommend this company at all.

Oh how I wish that I had paid attention to all the bad reviews I read before using Kiwi carpet cleaning services. But, I didn't. Instead, I decided to go with the couple of good reviews figuring that more people write bad reviews than good.

Kiwi came to my house, I left and returned in time to pay the gentleman - standing outside in the driveway. When I walked into the house, it smelled okay and that was it. Other than vaccuming and spreading a scent around, I could not tell that the carpets had been cleaned. There was no evidence of spot cleaning or strain treatment.

It does not matter that they offer $4.00 per room recleaning. At this this point, I don't care if they offer free recleaning, I have no intention of ever using them again. Even the worst carpet cleaner I have used in the past was ten times better than Kiwi at cleaning.

Kiwi to clean our carpets & made them look worse than they were. Included in price was for them to vacuum area they were to clean. Since the tech saw me vacuuming an area, he decided not need to vacuum. He skipped step 1 of vacuuming & started to spray their chemicals on floor then run over with the buffer(our floors got dirt pressed into them due to him not vacuuming. Then he went to stairs and used a small buffer and made a huge mess. The dirty water was sprayed all over our base boards and walls. He got me after he was through making the mess to see what I thought of the carpets. I thought he was joking as they were worse than they were before and the mess he had made was horrible. Our carpets still have stains on them which could have been easily removed. I stepped out side to call customer service and saw that the container he was using to spray our floor was labeled "round up". So, does this mean weed killer was in the container before and now it’s used to put carpet cleaners in it? His car also had 2 different license plates on it, one from California and one from Florida.1st customer rep said she would send another person out to clean but I told her we didn’t want anyone else in our house due to the mess created and we didn’t want to pay for service. She said that if I didn’t pay, I would basically be "stealing”. After speaking to 3 reps and then a manager (over 45 minutes) manager said he would just not charge us for problem. The company was very misleading. The man who cleaned our carpet should have vacuumed, he said the sales rep should have told us our stairs would not look clean as Kiwi is known for not being able to clean stairs good, vehicles should be marked in some way. (the man did clean our stairs a 2nd time but they are now soaking wet and should dry with in an hour according to him but are nowhere close to being dried and have stains on them which make them look like they were never cleaned).Kiwi is very misleading and do not live up to what they say they will do and can do. I feel like they are a scam as they !

These are 3rd party guys they send out and I actually saw the guy put his maroon shirt on in the car after he pulled up. They were advertising a special on hardwood floor cleaning specialist to specifically know how to clean my hardwoods. These particular hardwoods are supposed to be left dull and not have any polish on them. Well he applied paste wax which is the one thing you don't do! I called immediately after he finished and his buffer machine left a thick gray wax all over my baseboard trim. This is over 1000 sf of hardwoods, so they said they would send damage control to estimate the cleanup. Damage control came out (another 3rd party) and he was very upset with the job that was done and frankly told me to get my money back and stay away from them. I should have sued them for the $10, 000 of damage but had no time or energy and suffered my lack of researching them before I called. Please don't make this mistake, it is worth it to pay the extra $ and look at their BBB report C+! I complained through them and they got the ball rolling and made Kiwi refund my $500+ bill. And they still send me coupons!

I wish I would've read the reviews prior to having Kiwi come to my house. I had the carpet cleaned, which cost me more than quoted. The fumes were so bad that my husband and I had to leave the house. My dog immediately started having seizures and has never had them before. After I recleaned the carpet myself my dog stopped having seizures, coincidence? Do not use this company, they do not use green chemicals as stated, there are fumes and they state on their website there won't be any. I also had to move the furniture myself, the website says they will do it. Please do not use this company if you have pets or even children!

Having cleaned carpets professionally, I am ashamed of my self for not doing my homework on this one. In a nutshell, their method of cleaning carpets is almost funny. They spray a mist of "cleaner" with a squirt bottle on your carpet and then us a buffering pad called a bonnet that spins in circles to "extract" the dirt. That is the same train of thought as squirting cleaner on a soiled shirt and rubbing it in and calling the shirt clean. Thinking your shirt is clean using the method explained previously is akin to believing your carpets are clean after Kiwi Carpet Cleaning gives you the bill. There is very little extraction if any taking place with the bonnet that is used because the friction of the pad will cause the emulsified dirt to burro back into the carpet. If anything you are just pushing the dirt farther into the carpet which will leave the same smell once the perfumes in the cleaner evaporate. If you value your money, please do not walk but run away from this company. It is a SCAM!

Saturday, 9/29 Kiwi came to my home to clean my carpets. I pride myself on keeping an immaculate home. That night and all of the the following week I felt itchy and miserable. I was takling to friend of mine and I mentioned that I had all these itchy bumps on my ankles. She thought that perhaps I had fleas in my home. I discounted that as ridiculous, since I don't have any pets. My friend suggested that I puit on a pair of white socks and walk through my home. If there were fleas in the hous I'd see them on the socks. To my ABSOLUTE HORROR, there they were! I called Kiwi and informed them of what happened and they insist that it could not be their fault and suggested that I call an exterminator. There were NO FLEAS in my home until they brought them in. It cost me $310.00 to have my home infested with fleas. I SUGGEST THAT PEOPLE AVOID KIWI LIKE THE PLAGUE! I am now miserable in my own home and the exterminator will cost me $100.00.

This company is a rip-off! They over charge for their services, they treat workers like ###. You are a independent contrator, you use your truck.gas, insurance and you have to rent their equipment. And their equipment is junk! Their carpet cleaning method does nothing but smear the dirt around in your carpet(stupid). They have a $4 cleaning But first you have to pay an outragous first time cleaning and the tech makes maybe $20 on the job. That's why no one stays their very long. When i started working for them they hired 10 people and didn't have the work for 10 people. They didn't even have enough equipment for everyone! Well needless to say they fired some of them and some quit after realizing the company sucks! They still owe people money for jobs and won't pay for stupid reasons. The manager had no clue how to run a business, equipment broke down and took forever to fix unless you fixed it yourself. They say their tech's make $600 to $1500 a week LoL. You run allover and don't make ###! Don't ever work for them and never hire them to do anything for you!

Looking For a job? stay clear of Kiwi Services. I have worked there for over a year, like most, afraid to leave with hardly any jobs available right now, we are forced to deal with horrible work conditions. They have done away with any janitorial services, leaving the restrooms and break rooms completly unsanitary. We run out of toilett paper and hand towels on a weekly basis. The Break room is discusting; you can smell the spoiled food from the hall, Customer's rugs are thrown behind a half wall in the call center. We constintly have to deal with the odor of the cleanings. We have a pregnet rep, who had to involve the owners of the company to have finally be removed from the room due to the odors making her sick. They terminate people in bulk, and refuse unemployeement regardless. Find anyway possible to rip us and the techs off in pay.

The driver showed up late with the excuse of "I ran out of gas and had to push my truck to the gas station." Brought in a pump up sprayer a grey dingy looking bonnet and a buffer. Made the statement that he would start in the master (the rear most room) sprayed the entire room with his sprayer (he had not vacuumed nor brought a vac. in the house) he said "I can't get these spots out." We repiled then why are you here?" He said "I'll try one spot" He proceeded to smear one spot and proclaimed "see it won't come out" at that time I went to the kitchen and picked up a botte of woolite carpet spray sprayed a similar spot and wiped it with a sponge it lifted spot. He still claimed he could do nothing with the carpet. At that time we asked him to discontinue service he replied "I'll call my foreman" At that time I called Kiwi to express my wish that this gentleman leave my house. The operator tells me that the driver is telling a completely different story (ya think?) The unprofessional service is one thing but if he is going to bold face lie about the series of events then I really did not want him in my house. My wife and I had moved furniture and electronics to accomodate this service where is our motivation to not to tell the events as they happened. I wanted the carpets cleaned that is why I called a service to do it. I ended up going to lowes renting a carpet dr. and doing it myself. I have before and after pics to show results (all spots removed). Offering another crew (one man?) on another day was totally unacceptable what were supposed to do move furinture back and move again for service?

Hi well i can bet every one has some thing to say well i do.
i am a one of the best tech in Houston Texas and i am certified and insured going to say who ever call Kiwi to get your carpet or tile clean the tech dont know how to clean for one two any one that knows how to clean know that they aint cleaning that be said just watch out cause all they do is put oz gal of chemicals in your floors and they dont take none out just think for a sec if you was a carpet and some tech water you down with these chemicals then buff you around 5% of dirt will come on a pad but the rest of the dirt is still in you just spead around thats why they bush the carpet so it can LOOK CLEAN but it really aint. once it has dry you will be sticky and nasty thats why some stain come up after a day or so because it was never clean its just like taking a shower but no water just soap nasty right just the same!
well i know for how real business runs how KIWI dose it its not fair at all working for them or not i only work 5 days and it sucks i Quit that job because they really suck all the way round there Equipment suck they pay suck that the ower suck and i how she reads this i hate peolpe like you i have sue i company just like you and my company is better then yours the peolpe that you have working for you is hard working peolpe how do i know cause i was one of em but you promise i would be make at less 600 a week upto 1, 500 perweek yea right maybe right not even you dont paid for gas nether insurance or miles for our trucks what do you pay for nothing how sweet is that i know you make more then millions i made in those days for her 1, 08.00 and ask how much did i make $220.00 that sucks and i use my truck to take her sh#* in my truck and she charge me for Retal her suff hahahaha i now am laugh she is funny will now i make 500 a day and i am happy then ever be for i have more Contracts then i ever did i promise you something JADENSFLOORS will be number one in Houston because Stanley Steemer is also passing by i do RESIDENTAL AND COMMERCIAL
JADENSFLOORS.COM more then professional Expect! we care carpet care

First of all if you have already read the previous reports that have been written by both customers, and techs that have been wronged by this company I urge you to do so. Do not be fooled by there advertising and marketing strategies.

I was a contractor for Kiwi for three years, and most of what has already been said in previous reports is will give you an idea of what this company is like, and hopefully help you, if your making a decision of whether or not to work for this company or use there services.

There is no contest between bonnet cleaning and steam cleaning. Bonnet cleaning removes a small amount of surface dirt at the top of carpet, while the rest is dispersed, pushed down and blended into the carpet. Viola! carpet looks clean.

There are always going to be a handful of people that don't know any better, or don't really care whether or not their carpet is really getting clean or not, and just want to go by looks, and that clean smell. I don't know about you, but I would rather have clean good smelling carpet, than dirty, clean looking, smell good for a day carpet.

Steam cleaning is the industry standard, and with todays more advanced and powerful machines, along with stronger and safer chemicals, and better educated technicians, all the old arguments about steam cleaning are just that. Old and out of date.

Now to get to my story with Kiwi Services. I always knew that they were not the greatest when it came to a lot of things and I have had my share of ups and downs with them. The last six months that I worked there is what really did it for me, and brings me here.

They asked me to go Houston for them to water damage-disaster, after hurricane Ike hit. The company had not done this kind of work before, and I was kind of leary about going. My manager and the company said I would make a lot of money down there and offered anyone that was willing to go 250 to 300 a day.

I was one of the few that went ahead and stepped up to the plate for them.

The first week I was there I made 250 a day as a helper. Then a lot of jobs went in my name, because another tech was fired for not listening to a manager. To my surprise I was going to have to wait until the insurance company paid the customer, and the customer paid the Kiwi before I got paid.

Talk about disaster! and on top of that I had about six techs helping me, and did not find out until I was neck deep in all this work that they were getting paid 250 a day, but that it was going to come out of my commission! It took about a month to tear out and dry out all the houses that we were working on. After that they decided to get temps to help us.

I stayed down there for another two months trying to make it worth it and did about ten more water damage jobs. I also held on to the idea that any day I would get a big check for all the hard work I had done, and being away from home, and all that. Instead my checks were very small and some times in the negative because I did not have time to do any regular carpet cleaning. Just disaster, and demolition.

Right before Christmas I came back to Dallas and thought things would be better and I would finally get paid, and get out of debt, which was the whole reason I went down there was to make money, and ended up in worse finacial shape than ever.

Sometimes every day, and at least every week for months I spoke to my manager, about the floods that I have done, and that I need to get paid, and if there is anything i can do to help, and gave him lists of all the jobs. In the mean time I did three more floods for them here in dallas and still have not been paid for those. Out of all the flood jobs I did they have only paid me on a few small ones. The rest I am still waiting for.

To me its ridiculous and unheard of to have to wait so long. And what bothers me, is that I always have to go to them, or ask them, and get the same answers, and never get anywhere.

I know a lot of other technicians that they have not paid that they owe a lot money to. Some have left, or have been let go, and others are still there. I am not the only one.

Two weeks ago I found another company that does steam cleaning and water damage that does things right, takes good care of there technicians, and makes them employees, and gets them certified. Thank God. After working for kiwi all those years I feel like I have died and gone to heaven working for this other company.

I still want to get my money from kiwi that they owe me, but I kind of get the idea that its not going be easy, and there going to try to get away with what they can. So that's my story, and any help or advice will be appreciated.

It all started like this:

Apparently every employee of Kiwi Cleaning Services is payed by commission, as they have overpriced me for my house carpet cleaning, then they offer a 40% miraculous discount that still puts the price to an overpriced amount.

After that, the guy (one person) showed up to clean my house carpet, and mentioned that for $40 more I would get a teflon layer on the carpets. I agreed.

My house has 4000 square feet. The equipment they used was very old, compared to others used by other companies. They had a sort of vacuum clearner to-it-all thing that seemed to come out of the 50s. I could hear its power and it really seed weaker than my own non pro vacuum.

After the service was done (it took him about 3 hours only for 4000 square feet) they presented me the bill, which was calculated $40 per room, not for the whole house, therefore the teflon layer costed me alone about $300 on top of their overpriced fee. In the end, I had to pay them $860 dollars for a quick service that anyone with a non pro carpet washing equipment could have done a lot better... I am using my own experience as a reference, as I have seen in the past companies doing fantastic work with that.

My disappointment goes for the pricing model they have, the whole sale strategy that starts over the phone (making the appointment and quotation) up to the guy who cleans the house, who will also try to push some extras that are unclear on how much they would cost.

My conclusion: I will never more use their service and now I have $860 less dollars than before with a carpet that does not look professionally clean.

The driver showed up late with the excuse of "I ran out of gas and had to push my truck to the gas station." Brought in a pump up sprayer a grey dingy looking bonnet and a buffer. Made the statement that he would start in the master (the rear most room) sprayed the entire room with his sprayer (he had not vacuumed nor brought a vac. in the house) he said "I can't get these spots out." We replied then why are you here?" He said "I'll try one spot" He proceeded to smear one spot and proclaimed "see it won't come out" at that time I went to the kitchen and picked up a bottle of woolite carpet spray sprayed a similar spot and wiped it with a sponge it lifted spot. He still claimed he could do nothing with the carpet. At that time we asked him to discontinue service he replied "I'll call my foreman" At that time I called Kiwi to express my wish that this gentleman leave my house. The operator tells me that the driver is telling a completely different story (ya think?) The unprofessional service is one thing but if he is going to bold face lie about the series of events then I really did not want him in my house. My wife and I had moved furniture and electronics to accommodate this service where is our motivation to not to tell the events as they happened. I wanted the carpets cleaned that is why I called a service to do it. I ended up going to Lowes renting a carpet dr. and doing it myself. I have before and after pics to show results (all spots removed). Offering another crew (one man?) on another day was totally unacceptable what were supposed to do move furniture back and move again for service?

Don't call KIWI to clean your carpets if you live in Houston. They charged me over $350, and told me I could call for a follow-up cleaning at a greatly reduced price. My understanding was that I needed to call within one year to get the reduced price. When I called for a follow-up, a technician arrived with a completely different cleaning system. The first cleaning was done with the spinning white pads, and they did a good job. The follow up was a joke! The technician actually got big black stains on the stairs trying to move his steam cleaning machine. I don't know why they do not have a consistent system. When I called, they could not explain, just notified me that technician no longer works for them. Don't call KIWI. They do not stand behind their services. They don't tell you the facts when you sign up, and MOST IMPORTANT... the contracts do not specify the one year "warranty" they are so proud to sell. They do not stand behind their work, and I predict they will be out of business before very long.

Having cleaned carpets professionally, I am ashamed of myself for not doing my homework on this one. In a nutshell, their method of cleaning carpets is almost funny. They spray a mist of "cleaner" with a squirt bottle on the carpet and then use a buffering pad called a bonnet that spins in circles to "extract" the dirt. That is the same train of thought as squirting cleaner on a soiled shirt and rubbing it in and calling the shirt clean. Thinking your shirt is clean using the method explained previously is akin to believing your carpets are cleaner after Kiwi Carpet Cleaning gives you the bill. Just looking at the physics, there is very little extraction if any taking place with the bonnet because the friction of the pad will cause the emulsified dirt to burro back into the carpet. If anything you are just pushing the dirt farther into the carpet which will leave the same smell once the perfumes evaporate. If you value your money and sanity at all, please do not walk but run away from this company.

We hired Kiwi Services to complete their Air Duct Cleaning service which includes:

1. (NOT DONE) Cleaning the unit, squirrel cage, fan, and all the accessible air handling components in the furnace.

2. (NOT DONE) Removing and hand washing vent covers, and application of Kiwi's antimicrobial treatment.

3. (COMPLETED) Vacuuming individual ducts to remove dust, ash and other debris.

4. (NOT DONE) Applying antimicrobial throughout the system to disinfect the area.

5. (NOT DONE) Cleaning the surrounding vent areas.

6. (NOT DONE) Cleaning and replacing your filter or (COMPLETED) installing your new filter.

After not completing the majority of the work and causing damage to our house, we sent them the following letter and were only offered a $92.11 refund for our troubles.

December 22, 2007

Dear Kiwi Services:

On, December 7th we paid for a full system air duct cleaning service consisting of (17) vents cleaned for $381.65, (2) return air vents cleaned for $52.64 and (1) unit cleaned for $85.09. This came to a subtotal of $518.38 and with tax, a grand total of $561.14.

Before initiating the service, the technician asked if he can use our kitchen sink to hand wash the vents and Nancy said no because we had recently remodeled our kitchen and there was some caulking around the sink area that is not complete. Nancy told him that he could use the bathtub in the spare bathroom, instead. Once the technician started the service, he informed Nancy that the supply registers were not very dirty and that he would just vacuum them off. Nancy said that was fine because she was going to be painting the ceilings soon anyway and was planning on washing them at that time anyway. At that time, she assumed that it would not be that difficult to get a partial refund for work not completed and planned to ask about it.

The antimicrobial cleaning fluid was not used at all while cleaning the supply registers as the bottle sat in the foyer the entire time. However, the cleaning fluid was spilled on the entry tile (not a problem) and also soaked into a box containing our new very expensive hard wood flooring that was going to be installed the following week. The Kiwi service person never mentioned this; however, Nancy observed the technician cleaning up the spilled fluid near the boxes and then saw that one of the boxes was wet. Since the boxes were stacked six tall, Nancy had to move six very heavy boxes to open the bottom box to see what was potentially damaged. Since she saw the problem and moved quickly, luckily only one piece had been affected by the cleaning fluid. She took some pictures of the damage and planned to mention it to the technician when he was done.

Nancy observed the technician vacuuming out all 17 supply registers to the T's and the two return registers, but did not follow him up into the attic. He was in the attic for maybe 10-15 minutes but she can't recall for sure. She heard his vacuum running but the unit was never run while he was here. The antimicrobial cleaning fluid was not used on the supply or return registers in the house and she was not sure if it was used in the attic.

When the technician was done, he mentioned we really had 18 supplies, but he was not going to charge us for the extra and would do that for free. Nancy informed him that there were only 17 and they re-counted together to confirm that 17 was the correct number. Nancy asked a bout a discount for the hand washing not being done and he said he was unable to do that. She said no problem and that she would call the main number. He then said that if she had wanted them done he would have done them. So, she made a note on the ticket and went ahead and paid, figuring she would immediately follow up by calling the 800 number.

After the technician left, Nancy printed out the detail of service she paid for and called the 800 number and spoke to Mike to discuss a partial refund due to the vents not being hand washed. It was at that time that Nancy was informed that the unit was to be cycled on and the antimicrobial also sprayed into the duct with the unit running. Mike informed Nancy that there policy was to come out and do the work correctly, however, Nancy informed Mike that this option was not possible, because we were clearing out several rooms that weekend to allow for the hardwood floors to be installed and to allow Nancy to paint the ceiling, walls and trim. All of this would take at least two months with the holidays and in the meantime, we would have stuff piled everywhere and it would not be possible to maneuver ladders around to access all the ducts. Mike told us that he would need to escalate the issue to a manger, which he did and later that evening, we received a message from Summer. We called Summer back the following day (the 8th) and the following Monday (the 10th).

Late Monday evening (actually 2:00 am Tuesday morning), we awoke to the most awful noise imaginable. There was a horrible hissing noise coming from the ducts and after turning on the lights, we noticed that the two registers in our bedroom were completely closed. Eric reached one by standing on the bed and reached the other by standing on a chair and when the noise didn't stop, he ran to the thermostat and changed the set point to something really low so the unit would not come on again for the rest of the night. So, we had our first night without heat.

Having worked in the HVAC industry before and knowing a bit about it, Nancy was extremely concerned that there might have been some damage to the system because it was running with no where for the air to go. On Tuesday, she left another message and then later that day, finally heard back from Summer and Nancy explained the latest ordeal with the registers being closed. Summer offered to get someone out to open all the vents, however, with all our furniture and artwork carefully piled everywhere, Nancy did not feel comfortable with anyone but herself moving things and maneuvering a ladder. Nancy informed Summer that she would take care of the registers and at that point was interested in a discount equivalent of us only paying $200 for the services that were rendered.

Later that day, Nancy maneuvered around everything to open the vents and found that 15 out of 17 were fully closed and that 2 were only half way open. After Nancy opened all the vents, she tried starting the unit, but it still didn't sound right and she wasn't sure if it was safe to run. Eric worked late that night, so there wasn't an opportunity to look into it together, so we once again decided to keep the heat off again, even though it was extremely cold.

After both of us got home late on Wednesday night, we decided to try and turn the heat back on because the temperature was dropping considerably and we really needed the heat. With the blower running and all of the vents open, we could still hear an abnormal sound coming from the unit itself. Eric went into the attic and took the panel off the unit and found a wire that had been knocked loose and was rubbing against the back of the blower fan. The insulation had been worn through and bare wire was now exposed in two places. Eric taped the wire and although we were very cold, we elected to keep the heat off; not knowing what damage might have been sustained.

On, Thursday December 13th Nancy left another message with Summer letting her know there were more problems and that she had an HVAC technician coming out to look at the system later that day.

When the HVAC technician came, Nancy explained the whole ordeal and followed him up to the attic to take a look. He looked at the outside of the unit and said it looked like nothing had been done. He looked at the wire damage and informed Nancy that wrapping it in electrical tape was exactly what he would have done. He took the two panels of the unit and informed Nancy that nothing had been cleaned. He even ran his finger over the inside and showed her all the dust that was in there. He asked how much she paid and embarrassed, she said allot. He guessed $100 and she told him almost $600. The HVAC technician must have felt really bad that she had been taken, because when she tried to pay him the $75 trip charge and the $75 an hour fee, he waived his charges and just asked that she schedule a service call with him in the spring. We got really lucky with the HVAC technician and at least we felt comfortable turning our heat on after three nights without.

On Friday December 14th, Eric called and got a hold of Summer and she informed him that a quality inspection would need to be done before anything else could be. So Nancy called her to set up the inspection, which was done on Thursday, December 20th.

On December 20th, the Kiwi representative confirmed that the wire was damaged and that the unit was not cleaned Nancy added to his report the fact that the registers were not hand washed.

Earlier on, Kiwi wanted to return to re-service our house. We are currently renovating areas of the house and are not in a position to allow your personnel or equipment access to all areas of the house. Further more, we do not want the equipment in areas we have new floors or paint as we are not willing to risk further damage from Kiwi services.

Now, we are requesting a full refund of the total amount paid to Kiwi ($561.14) due to the majority of the services not rendered on the initial service date, damages incurred as a result of the service visit, and all of the inconveniences we have faced since then. This is provided for in Kiwi's satisfaction guarantee and substantiated in the findings of the Quality Service Inspection on December 20th.

We thank you in advance for a quick resolution to this unfortunate endeavor.

Sincerely,

Eric and Nancy

Kiwi is the MOST unprofessional company I know. They have lied and have not taken any responsibility for their errors. I am in the process of filing with the BBB and taking them to small claims court. I just want to save other people from hiring them.