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Nokulunga S

1 reviews | Active since Jul 2022

09 Jan 2023, 09:11

Negligent, bordering on malicious damage to property and Sweepsouth DO NOT CARE.

On the 7 Jan 2023, I booked Sweepsouth for my 2 bed, 2 bath home in Kenilworth, duration 5 hours.

I raised a concern to the Sweepstar that there won't be enough time for her to complete the house and that I don't believe that Sweepsouth accurately estimates the duration of the clean. She got disgruntled at me saying this, even though I insisted that she isn't the problem but the Sweepsouth process of estimating the hours is off. I knew that she was upset because I could hear her muttering to herself while I was downstairs.

Not long after that, I hear a loud crash coming from the upstairs bathroom. When I get to her, a big piece of my porcelain toilet bowl is missing. My toilet is completely damaged. When I ask her what happened, she says that toilet seat fell down and the piece fell off. Her demeanour was hostile and she offered NO apologies. From this, I deduced that she was cleaning angrily after our conversation, and she lowered the toilet seat forcefully which resulted in it breaking. She tells me that she has already reported it to Sweepsouth and that I need to do the same. No remorse, no regret, nothing.

At this point, the 5hrs is already up so I ask her to just stop what she's doing and ask her to leave. She refuses and says that since I was complaining that none of my cleaners ever finish the job in time, she will finish the rest of the upstairs room. I tell her again that it's fine and that I want her to leave. I was afraid she would damage more of my property.

Again she refuses, I go downstairs and she moves onto the other bathroom and starts cleaning there. At this point, feeling unsafe in my own house, I ask my husband to go up and ask her to leave again. She tells my husband that "your wife was complaining so I WILL finish". My husband had to ask her 2 more times before she stormed off to pack her things.

When she left, she offered no apologies, just attitude that I still don't understand. I was left upset and shaken in my own home.

The support staff was less than helpful. I was told that the manager would call me back on Saturday and NO ONE called back. I was just advised to log a claim since I took out insurance.

Not one person has called me to address the horrific conduct of their employee and the only correspondence that I receive this morning is that the damage to the toilet is not covered by the insurance. UNACCEPTABLE. None of my emails have been responded to and there is no care AT ALL.

We trust this company enough to open up our homes to them. Our homes are sacred and our safe spaces and when that is not treated with the appropriate care when things go wrong, it really leaves a sour taste in one's mouth.

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Replies (3)
SweepSouth
SweepSouth's reply11 Jan 2023, 13:45
Official
 Good afternoon Nokulunga,

Thank you for your patience while we navigated this incredibly unusual situation. I can assure you this has been treated as a matter of urgency and once again, we would like to apologize for the poor experience that you had. We confirm that our team has been in touch with you via telephone calls as well as via emails.

As mentioned we have reached out to and spoken with your SweepStar and we really do apologise if you felt that her response to your raising past issues with SweepSouth was hostile - when we spoke to her, she had absolutely not intended to come across this way but was rather determined to try and complete all the necessary work within the booked time and indicated that she had suggested that if she needed more time, she would continue but would not charge you for any extra time.

When your SweepStar alerted our team to the damage (via our SweepStar support WhatsApp line), we want to assure you that she was in a terrible state and incredibly worried/scared about what had happened, whilst this is certainly no excuse - we believe that your SweepStar (who has never received a complaint before) reacted in a way that potentially came across as hostile or negative, simply because she was fearful of what had transpired. When we asked her why she didn't leave when your husband requested her to, she explained that she really wanted to at least finish cleaning the two bathrooms as you had asked her to. We believe that your SweepStar did not 'storm out' but rather she was in such a state that she was consumed by fear and as such did not conduct herself correctly. Our SweepStar team has arranged to meet with her in person to address this and to provide her with some guidelines on conduct when a situation like this may arise.

As a platform connecting clients to SweepStars (who work as independent contractors to the platform rather than being employed by SweepSouth) we sit as the middleman between SweepStars and their clients and as such it is important that we consider both sides of the platform, not just a client and not just a SweepStar. It does appear that we have a situation where the accounts of what transpired are differing. We are also concerned about the damage as, in our past experience, when we've had assessors process these sorts of claims, they've advised that this type of damage would only occur/be possible where a hairline crack already exists and that the dropping of a toilet seat/lid would not be able to 'remove a large piece' from a toilet.

As you are aware, per the terms associated with the insurance product, one is not covered for damage or loss to any items fixed to the structure. However, with the above in mind, as a gesture of goodwill, per our email to you - we would like to find a way for your claim to be covered to ensure a fair and positive resolution. We've just received your reply and will assist further from here.

Once again we sincerely apologise for what has happened and want to assure you that this is being addressed as necessary internally.

Regards, 
NS
Nokulunga S's update11 Jan 2023, 15:26
Reviewer Update
Thank you for the detailed response. There are some inconsistencies with the Sweepstar's recollection of things but it will become a she said, she said- so there's no point in further stating what happened, but she knows the truth.

I appreciate the gesture of goodwill with this terrible situation.

Can you please respond to my email with next steps. I would like to get the ball rolling as soon as possible so that I can put this whole ordeal behind us.

Regards,

SweepSouth
SweepSouth's reply12 Jan 2023, 11:56
Official
Thank you for your response, Nokulunga. Our team has reached out to you and we are equally as happy to get this ball rolling. Thank you for your understanding and patience while we proceed with this matter.