Complaint Review: ALENE WORKMAN INTERIOR DESIGN - HOLLYWOOD Florida

Alene Workman Interior Design (or Alene Workman) hired Soap Suds Cleaning to complete a job in 3 phases.  Phase I and 2 went fine.  On phase 3 Alene Workman began complaining that more cleaning was needed because the owner was unhappy.  (The owner was unhappy with their work, its quality, and the TWO YEARS it had taken Alene Workman to complete the job.)

Instead of taking responsibility for poor workmanship, Alene Workman blamed the cleaners.  The 3-visit cleaning turned into 5 visits (at the original cost), for which Soap Suds Cleaning was not compensated.  The so-called eye witness was another contractor who was calling Alene Workman Interior design throughout the time he, Soap Suds Cleaning, and a number of individuals were working at the site.

Alene Workman NEVER DID A WALKTHROUGH that day, or any other day in our presence, even though a walkthrough was vehemently requested in order to avoid such HE SAID-SHE SAID situations.  Alene Workman did not see the damage that was allegedly caused by Soap Suds until 5 days later.  On the 4th cleaning (the first of two, additional FREE cleanings), they pointed out some barely visible, thin scratches on a desk top and blamed the cleaners for it. 

The desktop had been that way when the cleaning company arrived, and therefore when it left.  Alene Workman saw it 5 days later and blamed Soap Suds Cleaning.  Meanwhile, at least 5 other contractors had been working in the home between the time the scratches were supposedly caused by boxes with metal clips (there were no such boxes) and the time Alene Workman finally made it to the site. But they swore another contractor saw a Soap Suds employee do this.  That is a lie.

So not only did Alene Workman Interior Design not pay for the two additional cleanings, they subtracted $500 from the original contracted amount when they paid the invoice.  The job turned out to cost Soap Suds Cleaning $750 more than the original agreed-upon price.  The loss was written off as the cost of making the customer happy, but then they shorted Soap Suds $500 on the invoice, deepening the loss. To further hoard every penny they could, Alene Workman ALSO CHARGED THE CUSTOMER AN ADDITIONAL $500 FOR THE SAME SCRATCHES. 

The customer contacted Soap Suds Cleaning and advised the company that Alene Workman also charged him for the resurfacing of the desk.  So they made $1000 off a problem that could have been caused by 10 different companies with dozens of employees, by exploiting poor cleaning people and cheating their own customer.

The customer has since filed suit against Alene Workman Interior Design for botching the entire project.

As of this date, Soap Suds Cleaning has still not been paid the outstanding amount, and will continue to tell the truth on every online forum until that payment has been received.

Soap Suds was contracted by my design firm to clean a clients newly furnished apartment.  In the process of cleaning, some inexperienced workers from Soap Suds placed cartons with metal clips on the bottom on top of a newly installed, custom mahogany built-in library desk, and badly scratched the surface  in several places.

Two independant observers witnessed the careless and thoughtless cleaners from Soap Suds do the damage to the client's property with the cartons.  As the design firm owner, I immediately confronted the owner of Soap Suds with the visual damage done by his workers and submitted a repair bill of $500.00, from a  millwork company for the repair.   

The repair entailed removing the custom built- in  desk top, taking it to the millwork shop 1 1/2 hour from the install site, doing a total resurface of the mahagony top  and returning and reinstalling the custom piece. It was a very fair price considering the size of the furniture and the work to get it fixed which was explained to Soap Suds before the repair was done..

Soap Suds refused to pay this repair and my company had to pay for the repair after  advising Soap Suds that they were liable for the work.  We subsequently gave a copy of our check to Soap Suds as proof of payment for the repair

Soap Suds refused to accept responsibility for the damage done by their inexperienced workers.  We deducted the repair amount from their balance and paid the rest of the balance owed Soap Suds.

Soap Suds cleaning crew severely damaged a very expensive custom desk, part of a full library built-in. The owner was personally showed the damage with eye wittnesses confronting the owner that his cleaning crew was responsible in handling client owned boxes and scratching the top of the mahogany top in several places. Immediately afterwards, Alene Workman Interior Design met with the owner of Soap Suds directly and showed him the damage. Although the owner may be experienced, his work crew overall was found to be very young, inexperienced and lacking in knowledge of handling very high end quality merchandise. The Owner of Soap Suds was not present during most of the crew cleaning time. The cost to repair the damage, which consisted to removing the installed desk top, included returniing it to the millwork shop that built the room, totally stripping the top since the sctatches were deep, refinishing it and returning it to the client's premises over 1 hour away from the project. The reasonable cost of the repair to AWI was $500.00 which was paid in full to the millwork shop. Before payment, this bill was presented to Soup Suds who denied any wrong doing. They refused to pay the bill for their negligence and damage. The bill was paid by AWI after Soap Suds refused. Without payment, the millwork shop would not reinstall and Alene Workman Interior Design needed to pay the bill so the client could move into his home and not be held hostage by Soap Suds refusals. The amount was deducted from their final payment and Soap Suds was advised of the payment made on their behalf. The owner of Soap Suds said that he would file an insurance claim since pictures were taken of damage and offered to Soap Suds by AWI. AWI never heard from Soap Suds to retreive the photos.